Band of the Month: The Leatherettes

This unadulterated trio rocks Scotland with shivering soul

By Jessica Blumensheid
Published: August 6th, 2008 | 12:04pm

WHO IT IS
Vocalist-guitarist Becca Bomb (aka Becca Murray), guitarist and backup vocalist Johnny Howl (aka Graeme Ross), and drummer Duncan Destruction (aka Duncan McCurdie)

LOCATION
Dundee, Scotland

FILE UNDER
Sounds like the Raveonettes serenading a hot makeout session between the Clash and the Jesus & Mary Chain.

IN A NUTSHELL
The Leatherettes are very serious about their raw, punk demeanor. With their bold pseudonyms, the trio masks its everyday personas into fanciful divas. “It’s pointless being in a rocknroll band and having a name like Paul,” Murray says. “We like the concept of creating a character and living by it. It’s the way we are. We live in our own little world.”

Born as a collaboration between Murray and Ross, the Leatherettes take every opportunity they can get to feed their hungry stardom. Despite the lack of likeminded artistic minds in Northern Scotland, they have a hunger for creativity. “No matter where we live, we will make art,” Murray says. The Leatherettes made a swift move when adding their third member, drummer McCurdie. “Duncan used to come to our shows and we became good friends, so we asked him to be our drummer,” Murray says. “He had never played drums before, but he went out and bought a kit and learned it for us. That’s dedication!”

The Leatherettes like to take chances, risking anything to ensue rocknroll. Their jitterbug tunes pay dark homage to early ‘90s rockabilly — but think less the HorrorPops and more the Raveonettes, Velvet Underground, and the Stooges. The trio executes rocknroll through layers of static, like watching old silent movies on batches of corroding filmstrips.

“All our songs are like our own little movies we invent,” Murray says. “I have a good imagination and like to create scenes and scenarios in my head, which I base songs on. I’m attracted to the dark and weird side of life.”

Among their lyrical themes of telephones, mental hospitals, ghosts, and guns lies the white rabbit, an iconic nuance that epitomizes the Leatherettes quirky flair. “Follow the white rabbit is our motto to tread into the unknown — grab opportunities and throw ourselves into our art,” Murray says. “Rabbits are symbolic and good omens.”

Their music video for “Rabbit Foot Hop” looks like an old, Vaudeville film. Like most of Leatherettes’ songs, the effect is archaic and edgy, in a punk kind of way. The trio calculates keen rawness in its songs, proving that modest beats can still be addictive. Feel the dangerously simple, but catchy grove take over nerves on “She’s a psycho,” causing your foot to tap in unison to a jerking head-bob. Murray fashions her singing style into a seductive cacophony, possibly the most character sound of the Leatherettes. “I have to be really passionate when I sing and have primitive energy to my voice,” says Murray. “I want to be urgent and strong, but slightly psychopathic too,” she laughs. “I don’t know where the energy comes from — it runs through my veins.”

The Leatherettes really do live and breathe their shrewd rocknroll energy. Onstage, they play dressup in decorative fashions. In their music video for “Shoot To Thrill,” Murray, with her heavy makeup and premium blonde hair, and Ross with slick, bed-head hair and pearly white guitar, are hauntingly akin to the Raveonettes’ Sharin Foo and Sune Rose Wagner.

UPCOMING
While playing the Toronto NXNE music festival in 2007, filmmaker Brian Banks video taped the Leatherettes for inclusion in his upcoming “rockumentary” called My Tour Movie. This is one of many efforts the Leatherettes seize with every performance and camera flash.

GOALS
The Leatherettes are writing a handful of new songs and set to book several shows in Europe in the coming months. In September, they hit the studio to record a four-track EP that will be released on Jet Black Records in October. Additionally, the Leatherettes hope to tour the world and, with their vibrant rock star vigor, “spread the Leatherettes germ to inspire a generation.”

MORE INFO
Leatherette’s Myspace page
Leatherette’s “Rabbit Foot Hop” music video
Leatherette’s “Shoot to Thrill” music video

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