Cork punks and husband and wife couple Carl Antony and Linda Plover have spent an extended time away from music as they raise children, but their return, a fiery and direct punk record entitled ‘Scratchcard Empires’, is as of-the-minute and young-feeling as you could hope for.
Addressing a range of social issues taking in the cult of Andrew Tate and cheap meat, inner-city violence and Donald Trump, the record is all about social exploration, putting across an opinion, and outlet for a mix of visceral anger and carefully constructed social points. Carl brings the punk, while Linda brings a hippier, more traditional edge. I took the change to ask the band all about it…
What is the broader political direction of your music and what are the specific issues you want to highlight?
Although there is a sway towards politics and how society can be exploited through its governance, our music on a whole is social commentary; we write about what we see around us or on the news from the obscenities of wealth, living on the breadline, celebrity obsessed culture to consumerism, social media trolling to inner city violence. It’s about calling out what we consider right and wrong, the injustices, the ugly side of society.
Musically, how do you put together a track and how does the use of the Bodhran and the tin whistle fit in with more conventional punk aesthetics?
It’s good to draw from different genres, not pigeonhole music. I grew up with punk, as well as experimental music in the 80s, Linda’s background is folk and blues. When we create music together, it’s interesting to mix it all up. The bodhrán is a wonderful percussive instrument and I love the growly bottom end which marries well with my drumming parts. The tin whistle can be ethereal as well as creating an unsettling sound, which can work really well on some of the tracks.
There’s an age old argument about punk being alive or otherwise. Does it remain an effective social voice, in your views?
Punk is an attitude. It’s two fingers up at the establishment. I was growing up in the 70s and 80s from a working class background in the UK and punk really spoke to me, it was the voice calling out the crap, an outlet for the oppressed. It made sense to me then and is just as relevant decades later. Just take the current house crisis as an example; the politics are the same – the ordinary person vs people in power – just different players.
Give me a take on some of your main characters, Andrew Tate, Jesus, and Donald Trump…
You could say each one of them hold power, that we as a society have bought into. We have allowed them to wield it. We believe them and follow them, as opposed to thinking it out ourselves, Jesus aside of course, although the church still wields the power.
The track ‘Jesus Isn’t Listening’ pulls on that common thread of ideology, the need to follow someone and believe they have the power to sort out your problems, or perform miracles. The lyric ‘no rockstar, no god’, – it’s about thinking for yourself, your own response to whatever situation presents you, being in control of the choices you make.
As a couple, do you tend to agree on a lot of the social issues you address?
We both like to think we have a sense of right and wrong, good and bad and we’re not afraid to call it out.
Has raising kids changed how you view the world at all?
Having kids certainly puts things in perspective. In terms of being a performer, the ambition is different, it’s about making and playing music purely for the love of doing it and not stressing about whether people like it or not, or trying to forge a music career and take over the world – It doesn’t matter, it’s not life or death. In terms of the themes we write about, these have remained the same since we started writing together, however with having children, it also makes you acutely aware of the messed up world we live in and that worry that comes with having kids and their place in this world.
Carl in particular has quite a hefty selection of previous major live acts he’s shared the stage with. How important are those learning experiences?
I don’t think there is any learning as such, no more than watching an artist you admire live. Getting to play the same stage however can be a real treat. I recall meeting John Cooper Clarke when I opened for him in Cork some years ago. It was a real pleasure,, a top gent and all round nice bloke. You’d like to think some of that genius will rub off on you when you shake their hand..
What is your live show like, and how has it adapted since you’ve played as a couple?
I was very much influenced by John Cooper Clarke and for a number of years, I performed as a spoken-word artist/punk poet around Ireland. I am also a drummer and played drums on a couple of my poems. Since Linda joined me over the last year, we’ve been able to bring a lot more to the show and it’s as much about the music and sound as it is the lyrics. I’m the noisy punk and Linda has a more hippy vibe – having said that, she’s still got that edge whether she’s beating her bodhrán mercilessly or wailing like a banshee (as she puts it). It’s raw, rough around the edges, it’s noisy, it’s energy driven. It also has humour – there’s no getting away that we’re married in music as in life and she’ll keep me in place on stage!
Do you feel Ireland is a good place to play punk in?
We would describe our sound as punk, folk, beats and noise, rather than punk as one genre. We consider ourselves as bringing the punk ethos into our music, it’s the attitude, the DIY approach, a voice for the underdog. There is a kindred spirit amongst those who experience austerity and want to call it out. The Irish community gets that and certainly in our experience, has been very open to what we’ve got to say.
What are your plans for the future?
This autumn, we’ve been doing a few gigs to promote the album and are really looking forward to playing Thomas House in Dublin with Jinx Lennon on Saturday October 12th. We’ve played there before with Jinx and it’s got a real energy, which in fairness we’ve found with all the Irish venues we play; we were at the Spirit Store in Dundalk a few weeks back and that’s always a great night. Coming up, we’ve Debarras in Clonakilty, Levis’ in Ballydehob and finishing of Fred Zeppelins in Cork.
Meantime, over the next few months, we’ll be demoing new tracks for an EP