OMAGH, CO. TYRONE

2003 -

OVERVIEW At the start of 2003, The Basement launched to a whole heap of praise from the UK’s leading music press. In fact the whole country was getting a bit giddy for the Irish four–piece. Then The Basement disappeared. Little did we know that they were working night and day on ‘Bring Out Your Dead’, a debut album that is set to bring The Basement back to forefront of the British Music scene. Several years ago, before they were called The Basement, John Mullin, (singer, guitarist and song-writer), Mark McCausland (lead guitar) and Declan McManus (drums) got together in their hometown of Omagh, knowing they wanted to do something with music. "We decided to decamp to Liverpool the first chance we got," says Mullin. "There was no real mystical reason for Liverpool. It was the first place we hit land after Ireland." It was a fortuitous place to settle. Within a few months, they met bassist Graeme Hassall and began to rehearse day and night. Living in "a proper shit-hole" (their flat, not the city), they started to make a name on Liverpool’s rich, rising scene. They were soon discovered by Alan Wills who signed them to his Deltasonic label. The Basement name came as a nod to Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ because, as Mullin says, "the place we were living and rehearsing in was like a basement and Mark used to take the piss out of me because of the line in the song that says ‘Johnny’s in The Basement’. So it stuck." In mid 2003, the band released ‘Medicine Day’, the first real sign of their vast potential. A furious, jangly, pre-Beatles piece of melodic pop, topped with Mullin’s throaty, distinctive voice it was a brilliant calling card. It piqued interest and left many baying for more. So The Basement went away to work on the album. On recording the album Mullin explains - "I was never comfortable with the idea of walking into the studio with some guy you’ve never met and the clocks on and you’ve got to make magic”. "It was more about finding a situation that was comfortable for us. So last October, we went into this little studio in Liverpool, and it went on from there.” Producing the album was fellow Irish-man Mike Crossey, who the band liked working with so much that they struck up a novel deal for the recording process. From Monday to Friday The Basement would write and arrange, but on weekends the studio belonged to them. "It took six months to record, but really we only spent 40 days in there," says Mullin. "It worked out for the best, because I never stopped writing. It helped us get this club-house mentality. It’s more about the people you work with and the atmosphere you create. There was no pressure. You could sit down and make music and if it didn’t work, you could try something else. It suited The Basement." You can hear a band at the height of their powers on ‘Bring Out Your Dead’. Like the Flying Burrito Brothers with hips, like Van Morrison letting loose with some back-street white-boy soul shouting in his early, essential Them years, ‘Bring Out Your Dead’ is a crafted debut that already sounds like a living and breathing classic. Built around the core band, with extra Hammond flourishes, groaning horns and some delicate strings, Mullin builds simple, captivating songs about the people you meet and the things you read and see. This is not a break-up album, but it’s certainly an album that feels as though it’s lived and been battered a bit. "But it’s never in the me’s and you’s and I’s," says Mullin simply. Mullin is a front-man other bands would kill for. With hooded eyes and furrowed brow, he has a possessed Irish air that suggests much more going on than he’ll EVER tell you. And he’s talking himself down. His lyrics are not just some cut-and-paste job, some smart observations on life. He has Shane MacGowan’s ability to turn the mundane into high, pointed art. This is just the start of The Basement. This is a record with rare depth, with a wonderful melancholic air and an urgent bounce – a record that demanded to be written. In a few months you’ll wonder how you ever got along without The Basement. It’s taken some time, but in 2005, they will be a very big deal indeed. 2003 - Band formed - Release of 'Medicine Day' single [17 February] - Release of 'Slain The Truth (At The Roadhouse) [19 May] 2004 - Release of 'Do You Think You're Moving On' single [22 November] 2006 - Release of 'I Just Caught A Face' single [03 July] - Release of 'Illicit Hugs And Playground Thugs' album [17 July]