Some bands are proud to ignore how they look. The Chalets, on the other hand, were getting together to think about their image before they'd even written a song. Which is hardly surprising, given their backgrounds. Anna Carey reports.
Some bands are attacked by deranged fans. Some are tormented by music-industry bosses. Others are assaulted by paparazzi. The Chalets, on the other hand, are currently being menaced by a wig on a stick. The Dublin band are in a large white room, shooting their first video, to promote Feel the Machine, their forthcoming single. It will show the band performing on a computer screen while a mouse's arrow skims across the display, clicking on the unfortunate performers and causing all sorts of high jinks. The arrow (and some of the high jinks) will be added to the video later. Today, for filming purposes, the more primitive wig device is standing in for it, so the band know where to look. Which basically means that the video's director, Mike Ahern, is wildly swinging a big stick over their heads as they duck down in all-too-convincing fear. It's all in a day's work for The Chalets.
Ever since they emerged, three years ago, the band have attracted as much attention for their distinctive style as for their music. Everything from their gig flyers to the girls' outfits has been imaginatively and wittily produced. This devotion to visual detail is unsurprising, considering the band's backgrounds. Dylan Roche, their drummer, has worked in printing. Enda Loughman, their guitarist, Chris Judge, their bassist, and Caoimhe Derwin, one of their singers and keyboard players, all went to Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology. Loughman and Judge went on to found Daddy, an acclaimed design and animation team, with Ahern, although Judge is now focusing on his freelance illustration work (including his comic drawings accompanying Irishology, on page 8 of this magazine). In fact, when you add the clothes-making skills of Derwin and Paula Cullen, her fellow keyboard-player-cum- vocalist, they've covered all the bases. "All we need is a chef," says Judge.
This pool of talent allows the band an unusual degree of control over their image. "One of my favourite parts of the band is being able to do our own posters and videos and covers," says Judge. "We had a website before we'd written a song, just so we could use some cool images." Roche's printing knowledge ensures that the band can realise their design ideas. "I'm quite nerdy about papers and packaging," he says. "A lot of designers have a problem with printers, because they break their necks producing this masterpiece without understanding the printing process, and then they're not happy with the printed results. But when we sit down and design stuff I know whether it'll work or not."
It all helps to make The Chalets the antithesis of image-free bands such as Coldplay, which can only be a good thing. It may be very worthy to disregard the idea of packaging - like boring old Trent Reznor, who is releasing the new Nine Inch Nails album without a cover, as he believes such things are pointless - but it's not much fun. "I think a bad cover can let the music down," says Judge, who says he admires the idiosyncratic style of Super Furry Animals. "They're really into the visual side, and I think that's vital. It's brilliant there's something to look at as well as to hear."
The band aren't obsessed with doing everything themselves, however, and there's an element of economic practicality in their DIY habit. "I don't really mind if we don't do it ourselves," says Loughman. "If we had loads and loads of money to make a video, I'd love it if Spike Jonze or someone like that did it. But this saves us a lot of money."
Today is the first time The Chalets have made a full video, although they used projections during some of their early gigs. "We had a specific visual thing for every single song," says Loughman. "Doing that took up a lot of time, because every song had its own timed segment. But I think we'll get back to doing that again."
The Feel the Machine video entails a lot of costume changes for Cullen and Derwin, whose onscreen outfits will be transformed at the click of a mouse. To house their ensembles, the upper landing of Project arts centre has been turned into a temporary wardrobe; a bench that runs along a window is covered in a dazzling array of frocks, hats and shoes. Two suitcases on the floor - one for each lady - are spilling over with everything from hot-pink rollerskates to pillbox hats. "We made the hats out of cornflake boxes," says Derwin. "It's very Blue Peter."
Although for much of this video she and Cullen are wearing matching Lipsy dresses, Derwin makes most of their costumes. Fashion runs in the family. "My grandmother was a dressmaker, and my mother used to make clothes, too," she says. Her mother taught her the basics of following a pattern, but she wanted to learn how to start from scratch. Since honing her pattern-making skills on a Fás course, she has created everything from leopard-print dresses with halter-necks of coloured ribbon - pink for her, blue for Cullen - to Star Trek uniforms.
Now Cullen has started making clothes, too. "I've been making everything out of stretch fabric, because I don't have a clue how to put in a zip or anything like that," she says. "If you make something out of stretch you can just crawl into it!"
Derwin says: "From the very beginning we knew we wanted to have matching looks on stage. It's fun putting stuff together - in fact the band's just an excuse for dressing up. We've got these cabaret outfits with little dicky bows and really short black shorts. I've had people coming up to me when I've gone out after a gig and say: 'Why are you dressed like that?' "
Some people seem to take the lighter-hearted outfits as personal insults. "This girl came up to Caoimhe after a gig in Liverpool, when she was wearing a sailor suit, and said, 'Do you think it's okay to dress like that?' in a really offended way," says Cullen. "I think she wanted to kill me," says Derwin.
The band's artwork has made use of Derwin's needlework skills, notably on the cover of the Nightrocker EP, which featured an embroidered Chalets logo on what looked like an old-school sew-on patch. And the embroidered effect isn't courtesy of Photoshop: it's all real.
"I designed the logo and then Caoimhe did it up on the sewing machine," says Judge. "We actually got the patches made up, but we only got 10, and we each kept one, so they went fast. But we're getting some different patches made for the new album."
Visually, the band are inspired by everything from 1950s flight attendants to the art of the ground-breaking comic-book artist and writer Jaime Hernandez - "If I had my way I'd just get Jaime Hernandez to do everything," says Judge - but the result is a style that's all their own.
Roche acknowledges that The Chalets have been accused of elevating style over content, but he doesn't care. "We always wanted to write fun songs," he says. "You've got to inject a bit of fun and humour into it. And we treat our image in the exact same way. Anything that might look cool from the outside is totally ridiculous when you open it up."
Feel the Machine is out on June 3rd. The Chalets are at Club One, in Cork, on May 27th and at Vicar Street, Dublin, on June 3rd as part of the BudRising festival