A little later than usual, time to get down and dirty under the bonnet of another great Northern Irish band - in this case Belfast five piece Moscow Times. The lads have a new EP to be very proud of - 'Marco Polo' a scuzzy, thoughtful collection of six songs you can listen to here.
Moscow Times
Over to singer and spokesperson Hooley...
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The first record I bought was "Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. At the same time I also bought Aqua's debut album in all of its "Barbie Girl" glory - I'm still a sucker for a little bit of "Dr Jones".
The last record I bought was the remastered edition of U2's 'Joshua Tree', the opening three tracks of that album are arguably some of the best openers to any record.
I saw a Scandinavian band called The Blue Van play the Wolverhampton Civic when I was about 15. They were wild, raw, and the organ player trashed his organ at the end of the set. That kind of passion coupled with that kind of destruction really appealed to the testosterone-fuelled mini-me. But if I had to single out one musician that inspired me to start performing it would have to be Otis Redding. I remember hearing him sing on an old cassette in the back of the car when I was very young and thinking 'Wow, that guy really means what he's singing.' I still get the same buzz listening to his voice now, I hang off of every word.
The last gig we saw was Howl and The Dead Presidents at Radar this very evening! It was the first time we have seen Howl and we were blown away.
We're an eclectic bunch us Moscow Times lads, everybody has a different taste in music but the last album that we all bonded over was probably Alt-J's "An Awesome Wave"; we all got into that record at different times but everyone's now into their sound. Red Hot Chili Peppers and Incubus would be the two that we all consistently go back to.
The local act I'd happily share a stage with every night would probably be Rams' Pocket Radio, I just can't get bored of that sound!
If we could add a sixth member to Moscow Times I think it would have to be Prince. There's a multitude of reasons Prince could bring something to our band, the three main ones would be: 1) He is arguably one of the world's finest multi-instrumentalist; 2) His fine selection of shiny cat-suits; 3) His ability to do the splits in one of those cat-suits.
The first cover we went for was "Electric Feel" by MGMT. It's on the YouTube - have a nosey! The last cover our band tried was a heavier version of Alex Clare's "Too Close" for our video The Warehouse Sessions. It's also on YouTube.
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The Marco Polo EP is out now on all the usual digital outlets. Moscow Times play The Empire, Belfast on March 21st.
