“We make our music in a small room in a neglected building behind a difficult corrugated iron gate, near the Guinness brewery in Dublin. We only get to practice together for a few hours a week so we try to get as much done in the time we have there. The room is shared with two other groups so it is full of musical equipment. It is laid out so that all the drum-kits (three) are permanently set up, with amplifiers, synthesizers, assorted percussive instruments, a PA system, microphones and a kettle which is never used (we get our cups of tea from the local shop) finding their places in between. It has to be said this is not a particularly nice room, but maybe that helps us shut down our other senses to focus on playing and listening. It is four x five metres, with one small window and a mirror on the wall, which looks better in low light, smells damp and feels like it has a long history.
There are up to five bands rehearsing in the building at any one time. We have been working as a duo since January 2007 and at the moment our set up consists of a bass guitar, trumpet, maracas, cowbell and assorted effects pedals; drums, v-drums, rototoms and synthesizer. We have been friends and playing music together for just over five years. Working as duo has quickly become a really natural way to create music without any preconceived notions of what it is we are going to do. In the last six months or so we have started playing live shows, which has really encouraged us even more to push this creative process as far as we can. All of our music is created here.
It starts out as improvised jams and we then go back over what we have done and arrange the best bits. This type of creative process is really exciting for us and something that we look forward to doing. We can never know what is going to come out, what sounds or rhythms will just happen. The most important things for us to have in this space are time, energy, dried fruit and nuts, tea and chocolate, our instruments and something to record with while we work. What we like most about our space is leaving it with the sense of having found something new.”
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To date, Thread Pulls have released a mini-album series, Fluorescent 1, 2 and 3, on their label Ninepoint Records. Tracks from Fluorescent 3 were remixed/remade by David Donohoe and released in June as the album-length Moonless and Crowblack. Thread Pulls became the first (and so far, only) Irish band to be invited to play at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. After releasing four eps on Ninepoint Records as a drum-bass-guitar three piece, they’ve stripped down to the duo of Gavin Duffy and Peter Maybury, moving away from their original noise-rock/no wave-inspired beginnings toward a more upbeat post-punk sound. Peter also makes electronic music as Hardsleeper and Gavin is a member of Cap Pas Cap. Thread Pulls play the Conservatory at CHQ Building as part of the Analog Festival on Saturday July 19th at 11pm. For more information, visit www.myspace.com/threadpulls and Ninepoint Records.
Musical Rooms 