After fourteen years, seven studio albums, four record labels, and three drummers, Therapy? may finally be ready to make their U.S. breakthrough. Just don't put money on it. The recent High Anxiety is their best CD in more than a decade, but the Irish hard rockers have always managed to avoid becoming the next big thing -- by mistake.
"We went about the whole thing the wrong way," singer/guitarist Andrew Cairns says good-naturedly. "The first time we came over we were like the major-label assholes who left a cool little label, Touch and Go, to make it big like Nirvana. I think a lot of people thought, 'Oh here we go, big European hype. Fuck off, homies.'"
Label problems and a lack of stateside touring didn't help the group here, either, even as they continued to find success in Europe, playing the summer festival circuit and winning coveted opening slots on major tours -- this year, that includes a September gig with the Rolling Stones in Belgium.
That success helped the group weather a late-Nineties alt-rock implosion, as well as several lineup changes. "We're quite belligerent," Cairns says, laughing, "and that helped. I think our longevity is due to the fact that we've never tried to latch on to any trend."
Actually, it's quite the opposite. Over their career, Therapy? have dabbled in new-metal (1991's Nurse), pop-punk (1993's Troublegum), symphonic goth and techno (1995's Infernal Love) and garage rock (2001's Shameless) -- often several years before the genres kicked off. The last one remains a sticking point for the singer.
"We hired Jack Endino to produce it -- he had done records with Mudhoney and Murder City Devils," Cairns says. "We brought it home to England, which was in the Dracula death clutch of new-metal at that point. Everyone there went, 'Oh dear, they're working with an American garage producer. Poor dears.' Then one year later NME says 'Rock & Roll is back!'"
Despite disliking most modern metal, Cairns thinks his band deserves some credit for the likes of Slipknot and Linkin Park. "Listen to our albums from 1991," he says, laughing. "There's like techno drums, big chunky riffs, bits of hip-hop."
High Anxiety, released in May, marks a turn to more melodic, straight-ahead rock. But the band does throw in some Misfits-style punk sing-alongs ("Watch You Go") and a nice piece of thrashy guitar rock ("Hey Satan You Rock"). Armed with the album's accessibility, the band is talking about making a run for the States this fall -- even though they've only played about seven shows total here in the last five years.
"If we could come over and play a club and do a two-hour set, we'd do it," Cairns says. "I'd love to give the States a crack."
KIRK MILLER
(June 19, 2003)