The Interrobang: We Three and the Death Rattle

Just as your band’s about to explode your singer quits, your life falls apart and it feels like nothing else could possibly go wrong. You’re at your lowest ebb, when, while you’re still trying to piece things back together, you’re booked for a tour with one of your heroes…

In the world of We Three and the Death Rattle it’s never less than a roller coaster ride. We sit down with Amy Cooper and brothers Andy and Jon Bennett to figure out how they got where they are today without losing it completely.

On the strength of their first demo, We Three And The Death Rattle were single of the week on XFM and already being invited in for prestigious live sessions. They were touted as ones to watch in The Guardian and Dazed and Confused and being chased by labels left right and centre, all just a short month after they’d first played together. “We sent out one demo and suddenly everything was happening,” explains guitarist and co-vocalist Jon Bennett. “Then, just as quickly, everything fell apart. Our singer left and there we were, a new band with tons going on but without a singer. It was a really testing time. Do we carry on or do we call it a day? Personally it was a hellish time as well. My relationship had fallen apart along with the band. I wasn’t well and I wasn’t doing any of the right things to get well. It felt like everything was finished”. In the midst of grappling with one of the toughest periods of their musical history, there was a spark of hope when ex-Lift to Experience front man Josh T. Pearson invited them out on tour, culminating in a show at London’s prestigious Barbican venue for 2,000 people. Without even the first idea of how they’d pull it off, they agreed. Enter, Amy Cooper.

“This is the first thing I’ve ever done musically” explains Amy, We Three’s striking front woman. “My first ever show was in Sheffield to about 500 people. It was pretty terrifying, but at the same time a great way to start. I was like woah – riders, dressing rooms and we’re getting fucking paid already? I’ll take it! I know most people’s first shows aren’t like that at all”. She might be new to this game, but she looks every inch the part in a fur coat and ripped denim hot pants, her face half-obscured by her fringe. It turns out she did have one previous foray into the rock and roll lifestyle though. “I mean, when I was like five years old I joined my brother and cousin’s band ‘The Battery Rechargers’, so clearly it’s always been there. We sounded sort of like The Boredoms fronted by Yoko Ono, really tuneful.”

Pushing themselves to be ready and forcing Amy to learn her craft literally on stage over the course of the tour has, in part, made The Death Rattle the band they are today. In fact, they wouldn’t be here now if they hadn’t, as Jon explains: “We became a brand new band. Looking back over the last year it was a really great time musically amongst some fucking awful things happening. It helped me personally and it mended mine and Andy’s relationship, which wasn’t great at that point. I think he thought there was no way this would work out. I remember having to cancel a few shows while we looked for a singer and when I went to cancel them I saw he’d changed the band name on Myspace to ‘WTATDRFUCKED’. If I’m honest that was mainly because of the way I was behaving. But then music did everything music is supposed to do. It was a healing process. Now we are a band in the truest sense of the word.”

They say blood is thicker than water, which is all the more appropriate when your band is two thirds Bennett. Andy (drums) has mixed feelings about it. “It’s hard because you tend not to hold back with family as much as perhaps you would with other people. We’ve cut out drink and drugs completely which helps. There’s much less fighting and arguing at shows or in rehearsal now than there was. On the plus side, once it’s done it’s done and we move on. But these days it doesn’t really happen. Well, it’s been a while at least”. The two brothers are virtually identical in appearance, perhaps most easily separated from each other by their fairly spectacular tattoos. We couldn’t help but ask whether they’re bothered by constantly being mistaken for each other. “You’ll be sitting relaxing on a long train journey then suddenly trying to figure out who the fuck this person is that has sat down, started talking and seems to know you really well. The only problem being that you don’t recognise them and know nothing about them. It’s all a bit like being Guy Pearce in Memento. It’s unsettling” says Andy.

Their new single ‘Hey Detonator’ has just landed on the band’s own Paw//Purr Records, continuing a trend of DIY releases from various corners of the Leicester music scene, a route that is proving to be an increasingly viable way to get your music in to the public domain. “It’s our newborn kitten” says Amy of the label. “Next year it’ll hopefully grow to be a bigger cat. There’s lots of plans for Paw//Purr being discussed right now, not least making a WTATDR full length album. It’s exciting! Who knows, maybe one day we’ll grow enough to be able to put other bands’ records out too, that would be great”. But what of the town that has spawned their existence? “Well we don’t get out that much, but when we do we all enjoy the jumping around, on stage shot downing, sonic filth and shouty antics of Codex Leicester. Dave (Codex Leicester’s guitarist) worked on our first demos and recorded this one song for us, ‘Split Lips’, where everything we’d ever hoped for just clicked. That one demo, after that we knew we had our sound down. David was and is totally our Rick Rubin… Just thinner and less hairy”. Amy continues: “I can only tell you that if what I saw at White Noise Festival represents the best of Leicester’s music scene then it’s great. Don’t flee the scene. It’s bad Karma.”

The single itself is a slice of visceral blues guitars and surprisingly soulful vocals over thunderous drums. It reaches out to you on a physical level and demands you pay attention, but the inspiration for it comes from areas you might not expect. “I was watching the way metal and hip hop bands are” explains Jon, “There’s an energy in those two genres, a completely different level of passion and engagement with their audience that alternative guitar music is perhaps a little afraid of, or too cool to commit to for fear of looking stupid”. Want a recipe for a Death Rattle song? Andy can help. “Take one Wu-Tang drum beat, one Dead Moon riff, one Vera Hall vocal. Mix well with a sprinkling of Rolling Stones, then spray liberally with an EHX Metal Muff. Haha!”. Amy on the other hand is more cryptic when it comes to her inspirations. “My rabbits, my red boots, learning to program a drum machine, playing theremin… They were all up there. I approached learning to sing and play music in quite a scientific way, totally opposite to the other guys but it worked for me and made things really interesting.”

We already know they’re a band born through troubled times, and it seems the camaraderie and closeness they’ve earned is continuing to mould them. “The boys inspire me, they have an experience and passion for music that you cannot help but catch”. Amy’s affection for the two brothers is palpable. “It’s infectious. They make me want to make every performance better than the last. You cannot help but be inspired when you are creating something with two people who throw all of themselves into the music. They have been hugely influential in me finding my way and growing in confidence in the last year”. It’s not just their friendship that’s made them the band they are today though, it’s the decisions they had to make to stay together that have had a huge impact. Jon explains his reservations about cutting the drink and drugs out of The Death Rattle lifestyle: “I was worried it would make doing music harder, if not impossible. Especially playing live because you’re conditioned to think that’s what you’re supposed do in this country to try and deal with your problems. In reality, once you give it a long term chance, sobriety focuses every part of you, especially artistically.”

It’s those decisions and religion, of sorts, that are why Death Rattle are still able to exist beyond their troubled past. It’s rare to hear someone talk as candidly about it as Jon does. “Being finally able to find a God of my own understanding. Not necessarily one you pop in to visit from time to time in a church, but one you carry with you. To an atheist that probably sounds beyond comprehension, but to me that influences everything I do now. When you feel it you feel it. Without God I’m not sure what the ending would have been. Probably not a happy one. Different things start to make you happy, things you never even noticed. You stop trying to plug holes that were springing up everywhere all the time. You learn to accept yourself, even the parts you really hate. There’s suddenly no need to compete for anything, which is such a fucking relief.”

When we ask the band what their biggest achievement to date has been, it’s immediately apparent that simply being here, together, is the result of such hard work and commitment that it should be considered as much of an achievement as any show, recording or record deal could be. Once you scratch below the surface, there’s plenty in their recent history to be proud of. We tease some thoughts out of Jon. “The ATP show at The Barbican was just amazing and we were thrilled to be asked. It was supposed to be ‘An evening with Josh T. Pearson and guests’, so he’s supposed to be like Bruce Forsyth or something and come on and introduce all the guests and say a little thing about each band, tell some jokes or whatever. At the last minute he decides he’s not going to do it. In the end the dude from the Barbican had to go out and introduce everyone. Josh’s killer opening line when he came out to 2,000 people in this beautiful auditorium was “Man, it’s just one shit hole after another”. When Nick Cave came and watched our show with The Kills that was a pretty surreal meeting. He was like an irritable Sid James. The thing we did with two drummers with Misterlee was great fun too. Playing shows totally sober was a big personal achievement and changed everything for the better once I realised I could still get into that place without any psychic protection, if you like.”

Wrapping everything up in the most concise way possible, Andy knows what it feels like to be in a band that is seemingly bullet proof. “We’ve not as yet had to approach anyone to play a single show. We’ve just taken the things we’ve been offered that we thought looked like fun to play. I think that’s a good indication we’re doing something right as a band”. It definitely is.