After years of working with various bands in various genres, Danny Todd and his bandmates in Cashier No 9 are hitting the big time. What does it feel like to finally get some recognition, asks LAUREN MURPHY
ONE DAY, there might be a blue plaque on the wall outside the Belfast coffee shop that Danny Todd used to work in. After all, it was there that the musician came up with the name for what would eventually become one of Ireland’s most lauded new bands, daydreaming of global superstardom whilst ringing up lattes and cappuccinos for flustered office workers.
Of course, Cashier No 9 aren't technically what you'd call "new". What initially began as a solo project for former teenage till monkey Todd has blossomed into an extremely capable quintet who make songs that range from dreamy alternative pop to shoegaze-swathed rock. They spent several years building buzz north of the Border with various singles and EPs before finally releasing full-length debut To the Death of Funlast June, and since then, it's been all systems go.
The amiable Todd, along with moustached drummer Phil Duffy and percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Philip “Wally” Wallace are ensconced in the lobby of a Dublin hotel, sipping pints of Guinness and reflecting on the year they’ve had. Given the album’s long gestation period, was there ever a point where they felt like it wasn’t going to happen?
“Yeah, around 1989,” deadpans the droll Duffy. “No, but really, I think it’s been a bit of a slow-burner for the last two years, ’cos that’s when Danny started working with David Holmes, who produced the album. We’ve been constantly building during that period; it’s never felt like we’ve been down or on the backfoot in any way.”
Holmes proved an integral catalyst for the band's second wind. Having worked casually with the DJ and producer over a couple of years, he selected one of Todd's tracks to use on the soundtrack to 2009 film Cherrybomb.Since then, favours have been paid back (Todd provided vocals to Holmes's album The Holy Pictures)and forward again, and most of To the Death of Funwas recorded between studios in Belfast and Los Angeles. At the latter location, other musicians including Jellyfish's Jason Falkner and Sly Stone's horn section dropped in to "add colour and a West Coast sound" to the songs.
“It’s funny, y’know, he’s a good friend of ours at this point,” explains Todd. “And he’s very generous – he’d always be interested in hearing new tracks or would lend us equipment from his big Aladdin’s cave of equipment. So the demos for the album were taken to David and all the tracks were put on to his computer and then re-recorded . . . in that sense, he brought a lot of ideas to the table. I think we had 14 songs recorded, and I thought ‘That’s it, we’re done’. But two or three months after listening back, he said ‘It’s a good album, but it needs to be fucking brilliant.’
“So we took another four or five months to write another few songs and work on the tracks we had. It was a year and a half, two years in the making, but it’s cool. We’re happy with how it’s gone.”
Duffy agrees. “I remember him saying to us ‘How many times do yis practice a week? Once? Right, you need to practice five nights a week, guys.’ He was really good at cracking the whip in that way. And especially business-wise; he’d warned us of what to stay away from and what sort of deals to look for. The industry’s changed so much from when he was starting off, so it was like, 15 years of his knowledge being passed on to us.”
Yet crediting Holmes with polishing and helping to shape the songs on To the Death of Funis certainly not to detract from Todd's songwriting and the band's musicianship. The finished product was so impressive that respected indie label Bella Union immediately wanted in – co-founder and former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde very publicly espousing the record as one with "truth" and a "deep soul".
“We sent the tracks over and literally the next day Simon got back to us and said ‘This is fucking great,’ ” says Duffy. “It’s great, because you’ve had the belief in the songs for such a long time, and then someone like Simon, whom you hugely respect, gets in touch and gives you a massive nod – it’s a great boost.”
“Yeah, and I mean, we’re not the youngest cubs,” says Todd, laughing. “A lot of labels were like, ‘What age are they? What’s that pot belly about?’ Okay, so I’m only 30, but [record labels] all want teenagers. We’ve all been playing music a long time.”
Perhaps it’s that wide-ranging experience across multiple genres that makes Cashier No 9’s sound so expansive. Todd played with members of Northern rockers LaFaro in a band called Alloy Metal in the 1990s; Duffy drummed with dream-pop duo Joy Zipper in New York for a time; Wallace was once a member of Derry band Red Organ Serpent Sound; while almost all Cashier No 9 personnel served their time in Belfast band Corrigan.
Given their collective history in Northern Ireland-based bands that never really broke through to the South, they claim that their success in the Republic is the result of the good old-fashioned hard slog.
“Up until a year ago, we hadn’t really done much work in Dublin at all. But at the start of this year, we just bombarded Dublin for about two months, doing free shows on Sunday afternoons, and that really helped to generate a bit of word of mouth about us,” says Duffy.
“I think any band, provided you’re prepared to get off your arse and put a bit of graft in, has a better chance. In our case, we got off our arses, started driving down here every week, and got the ball rolling. Two years before that, we did nothing, and nothing happened. And So I Watch You From Afar are doing the same and it’s worked really well for them, too.”
As the curtains open on 2012, the band are already looking to capitalise on that momentum by recording album number two – with Holmes at the helm once more – although that might prove more difficult now that the producer is based in LA full-time, rather than a “five-minute walk” from Todd’s house.
They anticipate a lot of to-ing and fro-ing of MP3s as the 20-odd songs that he has already written are shaped and moulded into viable album tracks. “It’d be nice to go in and really focus for two weeks, and do it all live this time,” the singer says. “This first one was really done by putting my demos into a computer and playing along with them, so we want to do something very different next time.”
Before that, they’ll play the closing night of First Fortnight on January 14th, a cause which Todd says they’re eager to support. “Having had experience of mental health issues within my family, I think it’s an extremely worthwhile cause,” he says. “We’re looking forward to the gig and to meeting the people involved with putting First Fortnight together.”
There’s also the small matter of balancing rock’n’roll stardom with new-found family duties; several of the band are relatively new or impending fathers, while Todd is the newest addition to the club, his first child born just last month. Duffy allays any fears: “We’ll be like Wings – just one big happy travelling family,” much to his bandmates’ amusement.
As for what the future might hold, critically and commercially? Todd remains equally zen about their prospects.
"I think Q[magazine] slated the album and a few other people were saying it's really good. It's good to have mixed opinions, I think, it's something to talk about," he shrugs, a relaxed smile on his lips. "It makes things more interesting, doesn't it? It's only fuckin' music."
Cashier No 9 play the First Fortnight gig at Dublin’s Button Factory on January 14
Founded in 2010, First Fortnight was originally a two-day, mostly music-based event established with the aim of reducing the stigma, prejudice and discrimination attached to mental health issues.
Named after the first two weeks of the year, which is a difficult time for many, the First Fortnight festival for 2012 has expanded into a 10-day multimedia event, incorporating music, film, visual art, theatre and talks.
The musical programme includes three gigs dubbed The Therapy Sessions, which take place in The Workman's Club. The first took place on Wednesday night last, the second tonight and the final one takes place on Wednesday, January 11th .
Performers include Mark Geary, VerseChorusVerse, Tieranniesaur, Thomas Walsh and Ben Carrigan. There will also be a closing gig on Saturday, January 14th at The Button Factory featuring Royseven, Cashier No 9 and Le Galaxie.
Other music-related highlights include a screening of The Devil and Daniel Johnston, while Johnston has also granted permission for his artwork to be used on fundraising T-shirts for the festival.
"This is a genuinely high-quality programme of arts events," said co-founder JP Swaine. "We want people to come because the events are produced to a really high standard. We don't want to be seen as a 'worthy' festival that people should feel guilt-tripped into turning up to.
"On the contrary: we want people to be really excited about everything that's on offer, to be fascinated, engaged and motivated to attend."
- The Ticketis the media partner for First Fortnight. See firstfortnight.com for the full programme
