12.05.06
Interview with: New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack
By Stacy Sardelli
Editor in Chief

Rock / Alternative / Punk

NYAAA are: Mik Davis (vocals, guitar, lyrics), Matt Graham (bass) and Tom Bairstow (drums).

Official description: "New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack (NYAAA) are a professional young band playing wholly original material with over a 120 gigs successfully played in the last 18 months. Venues ranged from supports at The Maximillian Park Germany (2,500 capacity, sold out) and Leeds Met (2,000, sold out), through to headline slots at The Cavern Liverpool, The Dublin Castle London and every type of bar, club and rock venue in between. They are considered to be the hardest working unsigned band in the UK and shipped hundreds of copies of their last EP ‘Dismorphia’ all over the world - had they been signed, they would have charted easily.

NME Online: "NYAAA - a cross between The Clash and The Doors - but
  more intense."
The Fly: "NYAAA - beautiful Bradford upstarts."
The Guardian: "NYAAA - Alt-rock Bradford noisemakers."
Bugbear London: "NYAAA - putting the glamour back into rock n’ roll."
Kerrang Radio: "NYAAA have created a beautiful but unforgiving
  landscape that screams with an urgency that is perhaps heard
  only once in a generation. Rock is dead, Long Live NYAAA."
Plan B Magazine: "NYAAA are men on a mission and that mission is of
  the ultimate worth to us now. They are the anti-Coldplay.
  Catch them as they start to ignite."
Half-Cut Online: "The music is original and genuine, and the vocals have
  that kind of intensity that can only come from a lead singer that has lost
  himself in the moment. No emulation here, this is from the heart."

Interview

Babble & Beat - What are five words that come to mind when you think of your band, New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack?

Mik - Feeling, rage, fury, excitement, attack.

Matt - Intense, passionate, driven/focused, original.

Tom - Passion, originality, freedom, intensity, bizarre.

Babble & Beat - Sounds dead right!

How did you come up with that name? What other names did you ponder before deciding on ‘NYAAA’?

Mik - It came from The Who’s ‘Who’s Next’ album - an album that was quite ahead of its time when it was made, which is sometimes what I think that about us, too. I think I liked the phrase because it sounded cool, memorable & it says a lot about people; also, I felt at the time I should make a statement about a post 9-11 world.

Matt - Mik saw the phrase ‘classic New York alcoholic anxiety attack’ in the album sleeve notes of a Who album; he thought it sort of summed up something about the band, something to do with the skewed way we see things maybe.

Tom - I joined after the name of the band had changed from Plateau Skull to New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack – Mik told me it’s something The Who said. I like the name – it’s memorable. You can always just use NYAAA, said the way it sounds, we all do.

Babble & Beat - What is your relationship with New Model Army? I understand your affiliation began after Justin Sullivan and Joolz Denby attended one of your shows?

Mik - Yeah, and they couldn’t have picked a worse show to come to; I think just about everything possible went wrong that night. Still, I think something may have shone through the difficulties that night otherwise we wouldn’t be here today.

Tom - Really Cool. We’re very close and we’re honoured to have people like that supporting us.

Matt - It’s a mentor/friend type of relationship. They offer us good advice and help in a lot of areas we have little no experience in. As well, though, they have become good friends of ours through a number of shared experiences, and the time we’ve spent together.

Babble & Beat - Just how cool is it having Joolz as your manager?!

Mik - It’s cool. I think we owe Joolz a great deal. Without her, this band would never have left the north of England for one thing. Joolz has extensive knowledge in ‘rock & roll’ so obviously having her as a manager is very useful, it means whenever we have a question or are worried about something then we can just ask Joolz.

Matt - It’s cool and quite strange because I met Joolz and NMA as people before I was really aware of their careers so I know them first as people, rather than how I think the public often perceives them. Joolz is a lovely woman, a great strength in our career and actually at gigs, which she always attends – it’s good to have someone around who won’t take shit from anyone, especially on the gig circuit we work currently.

Tom - Cool as fuck. Joolz has had many years in the music industry and has loads of contacts. She’s very professional. If she doesn’t know the answer to something she’ll find someone who does which is how we had Queens Of The Stone Age’s guitar tech go over our kit for us and tell us how to improve our gear, for example. Having someone like Joolz who has so much knowledge supporting you is obviously a bonus.

Babble & Beat - You’re all under 21 years of age. You’ve been together as NYAAA since 2004. You’ve been on the front page of BBC music website more than once, have received countless rave reviews, are becoming radio favorites,…

Did you ever suspect you’d be creating such a stir and loyal fanbase so soon in your career?

Mik - I think it’s quite hard to say. I personally try not to think about it too much - until I realize that there are over 500 names & addresses on my computer from people all over the world wanting our music. Then I have to think about it. I noticed at a gig recently too that some of our following have started making their own NYAAA t-shirts, I thought that was pretty cool.

Tom - I think we all have high expectations and we work hard to achieve them, but you can never predict if people will like your sound/style. It’s great that we have loyal fans, it’s a relief from all the hard stuff to know you must be doing something right.

Matt - I never really knew how quickly to expect things to happen for us so it’s hard to gauge it sensibly. Although our impatience makes our progress seem slow to us sometimes, logically, we do know things are progressing pretty fast. Also, I find all the media stuff we get quite difficult to fully appreciate because it never shows the reality of what we have to deal with – all the frustrating, fiddly, repetitive stuff that goes into creating music, or gigs. I do think it’s great we have more and more fans who come to every show, though, it makes all the mundane stuff completely worthwhile.

Babble & Beat - By the end of the year you will have played over 120 gigs in just 18 months. We haven’t seen you live yet but the overwhelming consensus is that you give your live performances your all… every single time.

How would you describe your live shows?

Matt - Intense, chaotic and massively enjoyable experiences. For me there’s nothing I love more than gigging – no two gigs are quite the same so because you never know quite what to expect it keeps you on the edge. There’s nothing more fulfilling than playing our songs and not only being able to put everything we have into them, but also to see people reacting to them as they do.

Tom - Yeah, intense.

Mik - Our live shows are mad - full of feelings & emotions. I think we try to make our gigs more of a celebration of music, a kind of ritual, rather than just another show. I mean we’ve done around 128 gigs or something in the last two years & each one always feels emotionally like our first. I think there’s a great sense of togetherness & comradeship when we’re on stage. We’re a unit up there, and the audience are in that unit with us, we’re all one.

Babble & Beat - Has it been a grueling ¾ of a year? Or, would you have it no other way?

Mik - I think overall it’s been a good year for NYAAA. We’ve had great responses from people from our music both live & recorded, we’ve had some strange but enjoyable gigs & we finally got to play in Europe too. Sure, it’s hard going sometimes, we get tired, broke, all that, but so what? It’s completely worth it, no question.

Matt - It has been pretty tiring at times, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ve learnt so much from it all both as musicians and as people. I wouldn’t be the person I am now without all we’ve done together. The hard part for me is fitting in the other aspects of our lives – I’m studying English at Leeds University and I have a full time job as well, Tom’s studying graphic art at Leeds too, and Mik has a full time job in our hometown, Bradford (which is about six miles from Leeds). But we always manage to juggle everything around somehow and we probably appreciate what we do get better because we have to struggle for it, rather than having it handed to us on a plate.

Tom - It’s been great – we’ve been able to play more and more gigs to increasing amounts of familiar faces. It may be hard sometimes but it’s well worth it.

Babble & Beat - What are your favourite venues / cities you’ve played so far?

Mik - I think The Maxi-Park gig in Hamm, Germany is right up there, along with The Dublin Castle in London, The Cavern Club in Liverpool & The Witchwood, Ashton-Under--Lyne. I think both Tom & I shared a dream of playing at CBGB’S in New York until recently, when I heard it had been shut down or moved – I hope it’s just moved because then we’d still have the chance of playing it one day - even if it’s not totally the original venue it would still be something.

Matt - Hamm, Germany would be the obvious one for me – supporting New Model Army in a massive hall totally packed out with people, it was very cool... But the whole trip was good – the weather, the food, the sights, the people, it was all great. I’d seriously consider living in Germany one day. In the UK, I really like The Witchwood in Ashton–Under-Lyne – a strange venue but a really good crowd and we’ve also had some excellent gigs in Carpe Diem in Leeds. The Vic in Derby is good, as is The Dublin Castle in London. I don’t think any of us will ever forget the mission/experience that was our trip to Plymouth, either...

Tom - Germany was great, but my favourite was The Bronte Burlesque which was a mad gig we played in Bradford, in a 19th century woollen mill converted to a club which was decorated to look like a whore’s boudoir, filmed by Ken Russell, with absinthe and champagne flowing like water, three floors of music and insanity, all the audience in fantastic costumes, proper burlesque dancers and us, Mik with poetry scrawled on his chest and all of us covered in sweat and glitter going hell for leather – it was incredible, I loved it.

Babble & Beat - The Bronte Burlesque sounds especially interesting!

You’ve released the following: The ‘City Of God’ single, ‘Dismorphia’ EP (produced by Justin Sullivan), and the ‘Jeanne’ / ‘ All We Have Is Our Faith’ single.

Is a full album currently in the works?

Mik - There has been talk of it, of course. I think the most recent idea was to put out a live album, rather like what the MC5 did with their debut, but it’s on hold mostly because of lack of funding as we are still currently un-signed. As to serious talk of a studio album, then if the right producer came along or the right record label then naturally, well, we’d be happy to oblige.

Matt - Never say never – but right now we’re working on building our recording experience through a series of different recording methods – each time we try a different way it helps build our knowledge of where and how we want to do the album. I think the EPs that result from this method help give fans regular updates on where we’re going musically and means they can travel with us creatively.

Tom - Eventually. Like Matt says, we want to learn more about how it’s done first, really get into it.

Babble & Beat - What else is hoped for in the near future? Any videos? A tour of the U.S.?

Mik - I think a video would be great to do, possibly our next release may be accompanied with a small video, probably a live thing. A tour of the U.S. would be a dream come true, of course. I’ve never visited the States, but hope to someday whether with the band or just for a vacation. As for the future, then I think we’ll just keep on keeping on, doing great gigs, making the music we love. We do have a very focused, very clear vision for the future.

Matt - There’s talk of a number of things but nothing is set in stone as yet. We’ll continue gigging through 2007 doing new cities, new venues and playing with other interesting bands while hopefully continuing to build up our fanbase. We’re definitely going to be concentrating on writing new material – this year due to our heavy gigging schedule we haven’t had as much time as we’d have liked to do that.

Tom - Touring in the US would be incredible – videos, hmm, bit wary of that but it would probably be fun. We’ll have to see what happens.

Babble & Beat - You guys offer some interesting swag! Examples: the “legendary and very collectible random-bead NYAAA Happy-Luck-Joy bracelet” and NYAAA mini-mirrors.

Do you make a real effort to be as completely original as possible in every aspect of the band?

Mik - I think it just comes naturally. I think originality isn’t something you can learn, copy or make, you either have it or you don’t.

Matt - Well, every band does the same old merchandise – we like to offer people something a bit different and refreshing! Also though, it does help people who’d like to buy something but can’t afford to commit £10 for a t-shirt from a band they may only just have heard for the first time. The small items we sell allow them to show their support in a more subtle and individual way. And of course, a cheaper way...

Tom - Being original isn’t an effort, it’s just thinking for yourself in a creative way rather than copying everything everyone else in the crowd does.

Juicy Tidbits Section

This is where we ask personal questions for the fans. Yeah, they're often stupid questions. We like reading the answers though!

Babble & Beat - Say you were a musician, or any other public figure, in a past life. Who would you suspect you were?

Mik - I would like to think I’d been someone who made a difference, like Martin Luther King, but I’m sure the rest of the band & Joolz would agree that sadly, I’m probably channeling Jim Morrison more than the great MLK.

Tom - I don’t know – I’ve never thought about it – someone musical though I think, definitely. Or maybe an artist.

Matt - Er – I used to want to be The Fonz for a while when I was a kid, but then, I also wanted to be Michelangelo from Mutant Ninja Turtles, too so I don’t know what that all means... I’d like to say James Brown, but fortunately for music he’s not dead yet so I’ll have to pass this one.

Babble & Beat - What are some guilty pleasures you have?

Mik - Sex; vintage snip-toe Cuban-heeled engineer boots; dark chocolate.

Matt - CD shopping, BASS PEDALS!!!, Burger King Double Whoppers, sweets, ice-cream, smoking – the list just goes on and on.

Tom - Beer and cheap, greasy take-away food. Of course.

Babble & Beat - What’s in your cd players at home, in car?

Mik - Patti Smith, Neil Young, Chris Isaak, The Clash, Leonard Cohen, lots of Dancehall reggae & Northern Soul compilations.

Matt - In no particular order: Oceansize, Amplifier, Tool, Mars Volta, Mogwai, Greenland, these Monsters, Wu-Tang, Saul Williams, Mastodon, Dillinger Escape Plan, The Two Gallants, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, H-Zig, and a lot of Dub and James Brown. I don’t drive, so no car play-list I’m afraid.

Tom - Tool, Oceansize, Deftones. In the car - BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and Classic FM radio.

Babble & Beat - Thanks so much Mik, Matt, Tom, and Joolz!

NYAAA - Our pleasure. Happy Holidays.

In Closing

New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack is offering a free CD to you! How very generous! I'd snag one up immediately if I were you.

Please note: "Sadly, we have to charge £3.00 ($ 5? Depending on the exchange rate) postage & packaging on orders from outside the UK as the demand for the EP has been so much more than we ever expected and we’re broke. People can just put a $5 bill wrapped in paper or a sock or something and mail their request – making sure they include their address."
Send to:

NYAAA
P.O Box 162
Bradford BD3 8YH
West Yorkshire
UK

Links:
Official site
Official MySpace - music clips!
NYAAA on iSound