David Sue speaks to ultra-earnest alt-rock quartet Oceansize
The first thing to stress about Oceansize is that they have a sense of humour. Which isn't to say they lack sincerity. But more that bloated over-seriousness is better off being left to the likes of, say, Radiohead.
"One thing that we've had trouble with is people really questioning our sincerity," snarls singer/guitarist Mike, "Because we like, happen to smile on stage... and like really enjoy playing on stage. Because we play such dark angsty music people seem to think we shouldn't have so much fun. To be honest, if I actually started thinking about the lyrics I was singing I'd probably start roaring my eyes out or slashing my wrists on stage. That kind of extreme seriousness is better off left to Thom Yorke or something."
But that's the last of mention of Radiohead you'll be hearing in this particular interview. Not that Oceansize lack the humility to accept any such accolades, just that, you'd be hard pressed to find another band more grittily stuck in their morals right now. For a band on the cusp of big things (a major label record deal is waiting in the wings), they're having to learn the rules of the game fast. "We're still unsigned but we're already facing a backlash," grins Mike with the merest trace of indignation. "But that's the nature of the beast isn't it?"
Oceansize formed officially in 1998 in Salford, where they arrived from Leeds to study, soon graduating into the most promising of forces of the Sov Twins' Chairsmissing alt-rock unsigned brigade. Beginning, as Mike calls it 'a ropey power punk trio', they added guitarists Steve and Gambler to the line-up, and, come a fateful rehearsal three years ago, struck a moment which defined their very futures. Recalls Mike: "Our first ever rehearsal was on 19 October 1998. It'll always stick in our minds that. One of those amazing nights when we were exceptionally mashed on mushrooms. We played most of the night 'til about four in the morning, recorded it all and wrote virtually every song that we're playing now."
Since then, it's been a sturdy process of playing their instruments even louder, winning over big-time fans like Elbow and Haven, peppered with a few self-handled single releases. The result, in the 'Amputee' and last year's 'A Very Still Movement' EPs are two of the most seductively split personality releases you're likely to hear; like a heavy metal Mogwai fighting it out with Slint but with a seductive disquiet that is all Oceansize's own. This is the 'quiet-loud-quiet-loud rock' aesthetic as you've never quite heard it before.
"We can be really maximalist but we can be also minimalist as well," says Mike. "If you see us live, we sometimes have all guns blazing, but then at some moments, it'll be so quiet that people are too busy talking in the audience to actually hear what's going on. And 'cos of that, you can't keep tight on stage 'cos of all the people yacking. But it's a primal, aggressive thing more than anything."
And angst-ridden? "Maybe. A lot of it is down to articulation. Largely introspective stuff, quite whingey. I find it hard to play Dungeons and Dragons and conjure up scenarios in my lyrics. Although I wish I had that imagination."
No worry, for a good few years at least, the imagination of Oceansize's muse should speak itself and the rest of Manchester music with it.
A Very Still Movement (Soviet Union Records) is available from Piccadilly Records now. Oceansize play The Castle (Oldham) on March 23.
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