Words from The Whip

The Whip release their debut album early in 2008 on Southern Fried records. The label belongs to Fatboy Slim, who – by reputation – knows a thing or two about dance music. He obviously saw the same potential as we do in The Whip, although he also signed dreadful electro-nudists Trabant to the same label so we don't have a huge amount in common.

We spoke to The Whip recently and they talked us through a few of the songs that will be on the album. Here's what they had to say for themselves...

'Blackout'
Bruce: 'Blackout' is a club favourite and it's one that Jim Abbiss really pushed us towards making more exciting in the studio. It was just a simple pop song with a really nice beat to it but it's turned into a real beast.
Danny: It begins with a verse/chorus set-up but turns into something different altogether at the end. We lose 'Frustration' from the set when we're playing a nightclub gig, mainly because it works better at 1am in the morning after people have been taking God knows what, they've got better things to do than listen to a real song.

'Trash'
Danny: When me and Bruce started off, 'Trash' was very much a standard song. One day Bruce suggested that we just annihilated the whole thing, rip it apart and just keep a couple of lines. That was one of the first things we did back when we were rehearsing in the cellar in a pub. It's a really good crowd song.
Bruce: It was a really dark gothic pop song that was full of lyrics about disappointing people and wanting to be what you are, not giving a fuck about what anyone else thinks. It ended up all coming down to just one lyric.

'Muzzle No1'
Nathan: This one is all about Bruce's bondage fetish. Think about things here, The Whip, Muzzles, Trash, Blackout, Frustration, Dub Sex – this is all from his dirty little mind. Everyone knows that it's about Bruce and his dirty little bondage sessions.
Fee: He's a filthy bastard.
Bruce: The first song I ever wrote was called 'The Bondage Song'. It was a comedy song. It was the first thing I've ever done, and it was meant to be a secret. I've never mentioned it amongst humans before now.

'Divebomb'
Danny: It's a straight dance song. No lyrics and lots of dirty synths.
Bruce: We were going to write another one like that and call it 'Beef'. That will probably be on the second album.
Fee: There were plans to put vocals on Divebomb but as soon as I heard that I was against it.
Bruce: With 'Trash' we eliminated a load of the vocals and made it better. With 'Divebomb' it had no vocals and it was already really good. We wrote the vocal but never used it.
Danny: The vocal was just going to be the word 'divebomb'. But we just thought fuck it, lets leave it as an instrumental if it's already working. We rehearsed 'Divebomb' for the first time in the car on the way to a gig once, then once at the soundcheck and from then it was in the set.
Bruce: We don't really rehearse. We only ever rehearse in soundchecks.
Fee: We gig so much there's no point in rehearsing.
Bruce: We see our tour schedule getting towards the end and we've got less and less to play and then suddenly we'll have a load more booked and we're back where we started.
Danny: You start thinking you might go away for a weekend, and that never happens…
Fee: I'd booked to go to Spain but then we had a gig with Justice booked in Amsterdam and then one with Soulwax so I thought obviously I wasn't going to be going to Spain that weekend.

'Save My Soul'
Danny: That's one that we've only just started playing live. It was a bit too long but it got condensed.
Fee: Now it just totally draws you in. When you're listening to it you can't get distracted.
Bruce: It's quite epic – epic but condensed.
Fee: Yeah, but not in a self indulgent way. You could play that song, in it' current form to my gran and also to a club crowd at 1am in the morning. People are loving it live.

Thank you very much The Whip.

Listen to The Whip at MySpace.