Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Bringing the Grit and Grime to Splendour

When the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club fired up out such bands as Brian Jonestown Massacre in 1998, a trembling quality sound came rumbling down the tracks. Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been have been with the band since its formation, welcoming drummer Leah Shapiro in 2008 who previously hit skins for The Ravonettes.

Currently touring Europe, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Leah Shapiro talks about Splendour in the Grass, their new record Beat the Devil’s Tattoo, and being a relatively new member of a well respected rock and roll band.

In July, the band will be gracing our shores, playing at Splendour in the Grass in Woodford as well as shows across the country. Leah ensures that the rockers “will bring sweat, dirt, loud rock n roll and chaos” to the line-up. If you catch their preparations backstage before their performance you may see that they live and breathe grit and grime with the band usually “just slapping each other around a bit, that usually works”.

Beat the Devil’s Tattoo is the band’s most recent album, released in March 2010 on the band’s Abstract Dragon label in cooperation with Vagrant records and the Cooperative Music Group. This follows their instrumental album The Effect of 333 in 2008, which was released online at 3.33am. Last year the BRMC brought out a live DVD/CD derived from sold out shows in Berlin, Glasgow and Dublin. Beat the Devil’s Tattoo is Leah’s first album with the band, and she explains the process of its construction. “The writing of the album started out in the basement of our friend’s house outside of Philadelphia, and all of us I guess were secretly panicking a little bit because we didn’t quite know how it was going to work out having me in the mix as far as writing goes. There was definitely nervous energy and tension going. We rehearsed for about three or four months and then flew to L.A to record the drums which we had like a full week booked but we ended up nailing it in four days. So we had a lot of extra time to experiment with little jams and weird stuff.”

The boys then recorded their parts back in Philadelphia and returned to L.A to mix the whole thing together which took longer than expected and had the band thinking they may not get it done in time. “There was a lot of back and forth going on in the mixing process. We finished it like an hour before it had to be delivered to the label. We’re very last minute type of people. I think it probably shaved at least a few days off a couple of people’s lives because of the fear that we might not actually be done in time. We managed to do it just on the finish line.”

In terms of influences on this album, the band went back to the master of rock and roll in his heyday. “We were listening to a lot of Elvis, earlier Elvis stuff, and watching a lot of Elvis movies. He kind of has a big influence on this album especially on the drums. D.J Fontana who plays drums for him in the early days, was absolutely incredible, I really like his style.”

Personally for Leah, if she wants to relax she listens “to a few French impressionist composers. If I’m not in the mood for something pretty and nice like that I guess Tom Waits is another one that’s always with me just for his rawness. He’s quite nasty but somehow he manages to make it sound appealing.”

Nick Jargo and Peter Salisbury have both previously drummed for the BRMC, with Jargo on and off until 2008 when Leah Shapiro took over the reigns. At the time the band was about to begin a tour and there was no time for Leah to think things through, as she explains, “I had very little time to learn a very large amount of songs. We went onto tour, and after the tour we went straight into preparations and recording for the new album. So now two years down the line I haven’t really had time to sit down, breath, decompress and think about everything that has gone on. Now that I have to start to talk about it, I have to think about it. It’s a lot of pressure; it would be awful to let people down; the boys, everyone who works for the band and the audience. Luckily I didn’t have time to think about it, so I didn’t have the chance to psyche myself out by over thinking things, I just had to go do it. There was really no other option.”

This right here, right now attitude carries on to how she feels about the future of the band. “This year there is going to be a lot of touring if people still want to see us, and hopefully after that another record. It’s very easy to get caught up in thinking ahead; I’m trying to get into the mindset of really enjoying where we are right now. We started touring in late February and it’s been really positive both in the U.S and in Europe so I’m just trying to be in the moment and really enjoy this because it’s really magical.”

For anyone wanting to become a makeshift tour guide for the band, Shapiro asks for a little Aussie hospitality. “I really look forward to coming down. I’ve never been so please show me a good time. Somebody come take me out and show me around.”

I’m sure she won’t have any problem finding somebody.

Black Rebel Motorcyle Club are touring for Splendour with Sideshows in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth

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