The Choice-nominated drummer from Kilkenny, RSAG (Rarely Seen Above Ground) talks to JIM CARROLL
It takes Jeremy Hickey the best part of an hour to tell his story. Organic Sampler, one of last year's premier album releases, may have seemingly landed out of the sky one fine day in November, but it didn't just come together overnight. This was an album which was probably in the works when the 11-year-old Hickey dragged his drum-kit into a Kilkenny classroom one day and started the first of many bands.
Indeed, that circle has come full circle as Hickey now teaches drumming in his old school, St Canice’s, two days a week.
“The same teacher I had years ago heard about what I was doing and she asked me to come back in,” he explains. “Yeah, it was strange going back in, but those kids are great. They pick it up really quickly and they’re far more mellow and chilled out than we were at their age.” Those kids are also RSAG fans. “Loads of them got their parents to go into Rollercoaster Records to buy the album. Now, they get me to play the second track on the album and start leaping around.”
They’re not the only ones. Whether it’s those who have caught the one-man extravaganza that is RSAG live or those who’ve fallen for the exotic, energetic excitement of that gloriously unrestrained album, a lot of people are jumping around to Hickey’s beats.
As Hickey talks about how he’s got here, it’s clear that he’s taken something from every stop on the road. At one point, he notes that “every musician is influenced by whatever they’re listening to at any time” and that’s the perfect line for Organic Sampler. This is an album that could only have been made by someone who has taken the same trip as Hickey.
Like most musicians from the Marble City, Hickey’s tale begins in a knockabout pub out the Castlecomer Road. But when he showed up to play his first gig at the now defunct New Park Inn, there was a snag. “I was only 15, way too young to be even in the venue. There was a bit of hassle to get me in – I even had the birth cert with the Tipp-Ex on it – but I got in and I was just this tiny figure behind the kit, flaying away.” Years were spent doing more of that in bands with names such as Headspin and Surfing Dead. Kilkenny has always had a healthy music scene and Hickey was one of those soldiers.
When he wasn’t doing that, he was experimenting. “Remember around 1994 when Beck first came out? Well, my dad had a couple of harmonicas and guitars around the house so I tried all them out and experimented with tape-recorders and four-tracks.” He’d cycle around town in the dead of night with this new music playing in his ears. A year later, it would be DJ Shadow or Daft Punk or Radiohead who would be blowing his mind.
“I realised the only way to get something done to stand out was to do the unexpected. That’s what all those acts who really influenced me, like DJ Shadow and Radiohead, did. At their peak, they produced something new.” One night in the Pumphouse pub, Hickey came across local musician Dave Holland playing onstage and was impressed by what he heard. They hooked up (“our first gig was doing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in St Kieran’s College”) and Blue Ghost was born.
“I didn’t have the confidence then to go on my own so Dave came along at the right time. We wrote songs together, did a demo, went to London, had a few meetings and got a review in Melody Maker. But there was just too much going on with the sound and it became time for me to move on. Dave decided to concentrate more on production and I went back to writing and recording.”
In a house a couple of kilometres outside Kilkenny, Hickey went to work. He recorded one album (that's the bonus disc which comes with Organic Sampler) and then went straight back to work.
“I realised I wanted to do an album which had proper songs and a real sound to it. When I finished the first album, I was humming and hawing about it so I decided to go straight back to writing and recording because I felt I was on a roll. Once I started one song, the riffs came fast.” When Organic Sampler came out, Hickey had no expectations. “To be honest, I just wanted to get the album out, I’d no idea what people would think. I was at a stage that I needed to have an album out to get more gigs and move things on. It had been building for a long time.”
Hickey has noticed more and more people gathering under the RSAG banner since the album came out. “I’ve done the circuit once or twice and I’ve noticed that there are more people at the shows and some people are coming back again or connecting via MySpace after the show. It’s nothing major but you get people coming up and talking to you about music, which is always great.”
Even though he says it's early days, the next album is already playing in his head. "It will be called Be It Right Or Wrongbecause of everything that has happened and how I'm feeling. I'm mad into progressing, but there are times when you're getting a new album together, and I've got seven or so tracks done already, that you're wondering how people will react to that.
“I don’t want to repeat myself musically, even if it’s the easiest thing to do. The opening track, the title track, is a rock’n’roll track, a mixture of the Cramps and Eddie Cochran. I hope people can get their heads around that.”
RSAG’s tour kicks off at NUI Students’ Union, Maynooth, Co Kildare, on Monday. For tour dates and live videos from recent shows, see www.myspace.com/rarelyseenaboveground
