UNDERNEATH WHAT

Rip It Up, Issue 153, 1 April 1990, Page 20

UNDERNEATH WHAT

"We're staying in a mother-fuckin' hotel" snarls Andy Berenyi as he stands against the wall posing

expertly for the RlUcamera. He pushes his waist length mane of brunette hair off his face, tilts back his head and pouts dramatically. This twenty-six year old beanpole of a man is lead singer and guitarist for "futurist" guitar band Underneath What.

Having just released theirfirst LP they've been brought all the way down here fairly early in their career. Back home in London they're just moving up from filling the Marquee to the Astoria. : "I think it's a really healthy , ’ . . situation," says bassist Tim Ashton between bites of pizza and sips of Corona in the seventh floor boardroom of WEA, "forone of the most major record labels to do that rather than just taking the easy way out and getting the perfect pop formula together that all the kids rush out and buy straight away. They look at us as a very long term sort of . thing.". What sort of thing is this band with the up-in-the-air name, the siren-like

lead singerfrom New York, the drummerfrom Quebec (Mikal C) and the saarf-London bass player? On stage at the Gluepot they let rip in frontof a flickering screen of 35mm pop art images which gave a sixties psychedelic edge to their loud, fast and agitated guitar assault. But despite the long hair, cowboy boots and talismanic jewellery, they do not bill themselves as a metal band. "Metal's a really touchy subject," continues Tim, "we're nothing like Iron Maiden. Our guitar is more blues based than metal based. All that metal stuff is just how fast your fingers can go up and down the fretboard. Our guitar work is very bluesy and the rhythm section is quite laid back." Which isn't how they sound on

record or stage, especially with Andy reeling around like a whirling dirvish in a leotard top. Tell me about the dominant emotions in the music, Andy. "I guess it's a whole bunch of'em wound up together, you know. It

could be frustrations,it could be serious homiess." I can't imagine this son of a wealthy industrialist suffering any sort of frustrations but he assures me he does before continuing: "I guess we're trying to play rock n'roll that's not cheap and stupid, that

actually can turn you on, make you feel like something instead of .... (shakes bracelet encased wrists and imitates telephone). It's very disconcerting talking to a man whose more beautiful than most women. Would he feel as sexually and musically potent without all that hair?" Andy says he's never thought about it like that, except all the girls he comes into contact with say they like skinny guys with long hair. Well, they would wouldn'tthey. Until it was demolished, the trio lived and played in a "legendary", Brixton squat, where they had a little studio set up. Watching the '• > Underneath What video we catch a fleeting glimpse of the building which starts Tim hollering. After all, this is where the ideas that are going to lead them to fame and fortune were founded. 'We don't actually write songs as such," he explains, dragging on a B&H, "but just some sort of riff or rough idea while we're jamming, to use a sixties term. Something will come and I'll just remember one little riff. It'll just be something that lasts ten seconds or whatever but the next time we play we'll mess around with it again and it'll go a bit further and two months later it will turn into a song and then we'll have to hassle Andy to write the lyrics because I think it's always better that the person singing has actually written the lyrics." • So what inspires you creatively Andy? "Drugs, sex, breathing,

food, hotel rooms, Hank Williams, stuff like that. War, Hitler, ghosts, - ' spray paint, hippies, Jimi Hendrix." I've read the saga about your infamous 'Firebomb Telecom' song. You must have been conscious that a xj title like that was bound to get you « great publicity. § "At the time no," replies Tim, "it was 2 just a natural reaction through a 5 hatred ofthe company because they « cut our phone off. We'd actually paid q the bill and people were trying to • O contact us: we found out later we J missed out on a couple of gigs that would have been really good for us to do at the time. The graffiti campaign started up about a year after we wrote the song because quite a few fans also hated the telephone company. British Telecom has a really bad name. They make extortionate amounts of money and they charge ridiculous fees and everybody dislikes them. They're always getting slated in the papers and everything so people just really picked up on the song and started graffitirig buildings and telephone boxes." After Auckland you're going on to tour Canada and the USA. What is the band working up to?

Tim replies: "Justto play to more and more people, to play to bigger and bigger venues. We're much more a live thing than a studio situation. That's always what it's been about from the word go. Just playing gigs all the time. I'm just really looking forward to playing to 3,000 people instead of 300." And finally, Andy, what do your wealthy, patrician parents think of your rock n'roll career? "My mom says 'lt's a hard life isn't it Andrew.' No mother likes to see black circles under her sons eyes."

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