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 It doesn’t take MICHAEL PINCOTT long to learn that saying ‘exclamation mark’ three times can take a while, what with all those syllables. !!!’s (CHK-CHK-CHK’s) highly flexible frontman NIC OFFER shows him a better way.
The name of the band is an immediate curiosity to those who come across it on paper for the first time. How do you pronounce the name of a band when that name is three exclamation marks? Those familiar with the band will also be familiar with the unique rule of pronunciation: !!! can be said by simply using any three repeated monosyllabic sounds – the most common and official one being Chk-Chk-Chk. Perhaps, given the man I’m talking to I should be using Nic-Nic-Nic, but Offer prefers to keep things simple. He kindly demonstrates the tongue clicking of the Bushmen from The Gods Must Be Crazy, the subtitles of the movie the source of the band’s name.
“Other than that I stick to Chk-Chk-Chk,” Offer says. “Probably the most imaginative ones have come from people who hate us, actually.” He refrains from providing examples – probably for the best.
Myth Takes was released in early 2007 and proved to be the catalyst for !!! moving into the spotlight, receiving huge critical acclaim. The band had previously released a self-titled record in 2001 and its follow up, Louden Up Now in 2004, but it was the intense, hypnotic fusion of genres that was Myth Takes which moved the band from relative unknown to hyped up megaband.
“I feel like we all worked really hard on that record and we were all really satisfied with it, I certainly felt proud of it,” Nic says, and the band have also found their music worming its way into popular culture, a remix of the song Yadnus appearing on the alternative radio station in the immensely popular video game Grand Theft Auto IV.
“We would only ever give our music to games that we all like,” Offer jokes.
Last year !!! made their first foray to Australia, playing festival dates and impressing at sideshows – their Brisbane date stands as one of the most insane gigs of 2007. After touring heavily last year however the band are taking it a bit easier in 2008.
“We’re really just trying to chill out; we just started writing new stuff just recently.”
Oh? And how is that going?
“It’s very much like a journey and you see what you find along the way. We’re always very interested in all things funky and weird and we all like a good hook so it’s in the same sort of direction as our previous stuff – but it’s never exciting to us unless it’s new, it has to sound fresh.”
I try to squeeze out some more specific details, but Offer just insists that they have a long way to go.
“Oh Jesus Christ, so much work left to do. In reality you want to go to the studio with twenty songs and walk out with the ten best ones so it’s never done until you get the test pressing back. But I’m pretty excited. We should be testing some new stuff when we get to Australia, you’ll hear the first taste of it there.”
Australia is certainly lucky to be hearing new material, a good thing made even better by !!!’s reputation as an excellent live band. After all, eight band members means sixteen legs and sixteen arms for dancing, not to mention all the instruments flying around. Fortunately the band is used to the chaos.
“We’ve had these eight people for eleven and a half years so we have a real rhythm in the way we joke around and do everything so we’re pretty used to the whole thing.”
They have a particularly kinetic stage presence, and the aforementioned flexibility of Nic Offer has built up its own reputation. Offer laughs at the suggestion.
“I’m probably a little tightened up now since we haven’t played many shows in a while. It’s really just a result of the music, you just let the music carry you and you can do anything, kinda.”
And it’s the physical aspect of playing live that Offer seems to enjoy the most.
“I really like the whole adrenaline rush of throwing yourself completely into it, you’re never thinking about anything else but the moment, you’re completely immersed in it. It’s hard to immerse yourself in anything else in life so completely as that moment on stage. A big buzz for me always has been Heart Of Hearts, the song means a lot to me and I can always feel the energy for it no matter what.”
Though occasionally, the negative aspects of playing live can interfere with this.
“I hate big barriers between the stage, I hate security guards, I don’t like all that. We don’t want anything to get in the way of translating the energy from us to the audience.”
One of !!!’s most impressive talents is the way they have blurred the line of genre until it becomes indiscernable, causing headaches for anyone trying to pigeonhole the band into a category. Is it dance, is it pop? Is it krautrock? Are they most aptly summed up by my favourite description of the band ‘A less evil Can playing disco’? It doesn’t matter, really.
“I think it’s just the burden of every band for whatever genre that they’re in and you just have to recognize that that’s the nature of the industry, it’s kind of your own job to learn how to rise above being categorised and create something that stays apart from it.”
One element of the band that serves to blur what the kind of music the band makes is the extended instrumental passages, like the intense second half of Heart Of Hearts or in the epic Bend Over Beethoven. The band loses themselves somewhere between complex rhythm and an incredible natural groove, falling into the sort of musical trance that could entice even the most jaded of hipsters into dancing. It’s these moments live in which Offer loses himself, and is something the band have strived to create.
“That’s the thing that connects us with bands like Sonic Youth, all the way to disco bands, we really like when bands like that would lay the cut and just hang on it and trip it out from there, it’s definitely the sort of thing we enjoy doing.”
And in what is in a sense reverse engineering, Offer tells how most of the band’s music is the result of jamming.
“Right now we’re just all writing and working on little things, but most of the time we just jam to see what comes out, and then just put pieces together. Sometimes we have to dole out responsibilities like ‘Hey can you cover this keyboard part?’ and ‘Can you do this thing?’ but anything can happen. We have a sort of ‘just get in there and make the song work’ kind of philosophy, there’s no set pattern ever. We’ll do anything.”
Having that sort of attitude has only broadened !!!’s appeal. They have something for people who like dance music, something for the indie kids, something for those who just like catchy pop songs. !!! brings all of those things into a cohesive, energetic, and very fun whole, which is why we should all be getting very excited that they are returning to our shores once more.
Catch !!! at The Zoo on Tuesday June 3. Tickets available from www.thezoo.com.au and www.oztix.com.au. MYTH TAKES and the re-release of LOUDEN UP NOW are out now through Inertia.
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