Last week, I posted a review about Wounds’ debut album, Die Young, which was released yesterday. To add to that, this is the interview that I did with frontman Aidan Coogan and his brother, James, who is the lead guitarist.

James: Did you catch the festival yesterday?

Yeah it was good, where you here?

J: it was fucking awesome. Yeah we got to watching fucking, like Bring Me The Horizon. The boys of Billy Talent, who are really good friends of ours, so it was nice to see them play again. We did a European tour with them last year and just fucking hands down, the nicest band we’ve ever worked with or met.

Wow, that’s awesome.

J: We also saw Brand New yesterday and that was fucking incredible. Any band that can pull off having two drummers on stage is good in my books. Nevermind the fact that Jesse Lacey is the front man.

Yeah.

J: Did you catch Taking Back Sunday?

No, I didn’t. They were good?

J: Yeah, they were fucking great. We played with them in March in Austin, it was fucking amazing. We did a tour called You Say That We Have A Problem? With The Used of course, and them and The Used were headlining. Fucking hell man, it was on March 16th so of course midnight strikes and we are sitting with Taking Back Sunday on their tour bus and it turns fucking St. Patrick’s Day.

Hahahahaha

J: We break out the whiskey, put The Pogues on the radio, it was hilarious.

That’s awesome.

J: I don’t drink anymore, after my accident, but the boys having fucking shots of whiskey. I just chucked mine down. Figure why the fuck not? Ah there he is. Aidan joins us on the hill

Nice to meet you.

Aidan: Nice to meet you. Sits down

I checked out your set this morning, and it was awesome.

A: Thanks, yeah we’ve never played at noon before or on another continent like this.

J: In the heat.

A: Yeah, fuck. Yeah we are really happy with the show, I guess it was just the nerves of the frist show. It was
great.

So what are you major musical influences?

A: Queens of the Stone Age a lot.

Hence the tattoo?

A: Ah, you noticed? Yeah that’s one of my favourite albums. I love Alkaline Trio as well, um Interpol, The National. Then I like some classic shit like The Rocks. Yeah they would be the main flavours, Nine Inch Nails would be up there as well.

I guess you’ve been touring around Ireland quite a bit, so have there been any weird things that have happened on tour?

A: Shit yeah lots. Before our first tour, I chopped my finger off, so I had to wear this big thing. It’s there now, you can see all that shit there, shows hand tried to open a bottle of red wine with a pair of scissors. I had to wear this claw that was specifically molded to my hand, and now anytime I would leave it in somebody’s house, I’d have to go back and knock on the door asking for my claw back. We nearly died a bunch of times just driving, Lots of weird, weird things.

Yeah, James was explaining about the accident and afterwards.

A: yeah, for our first show we drove eight hours to Wales, which is a shithole.

J: Off the record

A: Nah, leave that on. No wait, where’s nice in Wales?

J: Newport is cool.

A: pause no, that’s shite. Nope Wales is a shithole.

J: We were drove and the car cut out so we had to call a truck.

A: We still played our show and stuff.

I know you guys are coming back to Toronto in a bit. How big is the tour in North America that you are doing?

A: It’s pretty extensive, we are out with a couple of bands. Our last show is December 21st, and going across North America. I think it’s about 50 or 60 dates. Can’t wait.

J: It’s gonna be fucking amazing.

For sure. I don’t know if it’s really a term in Ireland, indie? What do you guys think about that as a term or a genre?

A: Genre, it’s ballsy. It used to be like little pricks in cardigans playing like that kinda shite. That’s what indie was, and that’s kinda still what it is now. We’re fairly independent, what we do.

J: yeah, with indie, calling a band indie is as general as calling a band a rock band, or a pop band or whatever. It could literally be fucking anything so. When people ask us what genre we are, I have no fucking idea what to say to them. I really don’t, I mean we all listen to different stuff, we all have different influences and stuff like that. We do have some similar ones as well, but mostly different. Like when we were younger, he got me into heavier music and that’s where the whole “me playing music” thing came from. Even with that, I branched off in my own way. He used to listen to really fucking heavy stuff and I don’t even know what the fuck I listened to. So yeah indie I just think it’s like, I suppose it’s the whole shoe-gazey thing that was like fucking band like Foals and stuff like that. We are all fans of Foals and like Best Coast would fall into that genre. Like again, they are all very different bands so it would be as general as calling them bands.

A: And it can be a dirty word where we come from. Cause it’s like, “Oh you’re indie, but you’re not really; you live in a mansion, get the fuck out. ” Usually indie is a term that the rich kids choose like organic and that’s what it means to me. I guess cause it was a stuck up requirement, a clique-y college-y thing or some of the art students would have a few hours off so their parents gave them money to play with their instruments.

Cool, and that’s pretty much it.

A: Bevvy. Want some whiskey?

Sure, thanks.

A: Having a good day?

Yeah, it’s awesome

A: Same. Die Antwoord told me to fuck off.

Really? Oh my god.

A: Oh yeah. I asked for a picture, they’re like fuck off. I was like fuck you too.

J: I still fucking love them.

A: Oh, they’re fucking awesome.

J: Still went and watched their set and it was fucking unbelieveable.

A: But they’re pricks.

J: The best kinda pricks.

A: Anymore interviews you have to do?

Nope, just you guys. I interviewed Say Yes and PUP earlier.

J: oh, nice.

A: Tell the PUP guys that we were asking for them, if you see them again. Tell them that we really like what they’re doing and we’d love to play some shows with them.

Yeah they’re awesome.

A: yeah they are in it for the right reasons. They’re one of the bands I guess who are on our level that we can identify with right now definitely.

J: Definitely.