Now we want to ask you about the album (to be released in March).

Bruce: When we did the album, it’s a bit different to a live performance. Live, its really energetic, it’s kind of clubby, but on the album, you can listen to it at home during the day. There’s a few songs on there that people might have heard already, there’s also a couple of more clubby ones as well. It just stands out as a good album rather than just boom, boom, boom.

You worked with the famous producer, Jim Abbiss, How did you work with him? What kind of procedure do you take when you work on your music?

Nathan: We knew Jim through an A&R guy at the label, Nathan, he was really good friends with him. Jim had done some other bands, Ultimate Pride, and when it came to choose a producer, Nathan said, “I think it’d be really good idea to work with this guy called Jim”, and obviously we knew who he was.

Bruce: So, Danny and I went for lunch with Jim, and he also came to our gig in London. He just wanted to get on with what he was doing, so we didn’t really try anything out, we just went straight into the studio. It was just a pleasure to work someone like Jim.

Dan: We went into the studio in London and spent the whole time in the studio re-recording all the live drums, the bass and the guitars and polished up some of the keyboard parts here and there.

Did he actually give you advice, like, you should do this and do that?

Dan: There was a lot of that going on. He was very good at pushing us to think outside the box more.

Did you arrange all the tracks with him?

Bruce: It was about 90% we arranged with him. We did one outro, the one end of a song, we added a new ending to it where it went off into this psychedelic mode. It was the most fun thing we did when we recorded because it was all kind of hands on deck, and then we came up with this really exciting bit, it was great. And then, there was one song that he said was a weaker song on the album. This was after we had already recorded it and he said that “You know that one, we could do so much better with it.” So we did a remix of the one song, and it’s much harder and danceable now. That’s the one with the Japanese girl in it.

Do you have any funny story or episode while you were recording?

Nathan: There were so many, it was a really a good laugh. The first day was a little bit awkward, but we kind of broke the ice by taking the mickey out of each other, you know.

Bruce: We started having a bit of a joke with each other and had a good laugh.

Nathan: We started a new band in there, and we started a band called Connections, which is kind of a joke title.

Bruce: It was supposed to be a jazz funk joke. We had 3 songs on the album, we used xylophone, a big old organ, and a piano. And we called that Connections. We used that on 3 songs.

Nathan: It’s not serious band, by the way, it’s a joke. There won’t be a Connections album. The Connections have split up. They split up due to musical similarities I think.

How long did you take to finish the album?

Dan: We started it in September, and finished it last friday.

Nathan: We spent a month recording it, or maybe a bit longer, 6 weeks, on and off recording. It wasn’t solid from September until now, we were gigging in between, going off touring. And we had 3 or 4 week tour in-between that as well.

Bruce: Some days I was in the studio in London, I would have to get a train to the gig, and then go back to London. A lot of traveling around. During the day and then night time we’d do the gig, so it was hard work. Sometimes we worked on the train going back to London. Then we did a small vocal in a dressing room in Norwich. In a toilet in Norwich. Really inspirational! We’ve recorded bits all over the place, at the back of the van, sauna, my kitchen, my bedroom, different houses, all over the place.

Do you have any message for creative young people who are interested in art, culture, music, fashion and other things?

The Whip: Keep going. Don’t give up and don’t stop, don’t let people say that you can’t do it… Fight the machine!!

Many people might associate Manchester with those rock bands from the Factory era such as Happy Mondays. Now that two or three decades have passed since then, we will be able to hear ourselves and how the sound of Manchester has evolved when The Whip’s first album comes out in March.

The Whip – X Marks Destination
Release Date: March 2008
Price : £8.99 (Pre-order price with a single “TRASH”)
Label: Southern Fried Records
https://www.thewhip.net