Jay Butler (vocals)
Chris McCormack (guitar)
Ralph Jezzard (bass/keyboards)
Ritch Battersby (drums)
"We didn't want to make an album that makes people say
'Oh, that's alright,'" says Grand Theft Audio frontman Jay
Butler. "We wanted to make a record that either
completely inspires people, or makes them never want to
hear it again. We wanted to make a record that's gonna
bug the shit out of people, but in the best possible way."
On its London-Sire debut album Blame Everyone, Grand
Theft Audio emerges as one of the freshest, most exciting
new rock acts in recent memory, taking its place as
world-class purveyor of big, maddeningly catchy
widescreen rock. On such infectious numbers as "As Good
As It Gets," "We Luv U," "Stoopid Ass" and "Wake Up In
Your Own Mind," the London-based quartet merges
aggressively anthemic rock choruses and sly lyrics of
tongue-in-cheek grandiosity with sonic and rhythmic
elements derived from electronica and hip-hop, to produce
music that's as adventurous as it is accessible. No wonder
the foursome has been described as sounding like the
bastard offspring of some unholy union between the Sex
Pistols, AC/DC and the Prodigy.
"In England at the moment, there's a big divide between
rock bands, metal bands and electronica bands," Butler
notes. "It's like you can't have a song that's catchy if
you're a rock band, and you're not supposed to rock if
you're an electronica band. But we don't look at music that
way, so we took all the little bits that we liked and
bastardized them to build the kind of band we wanted to
be in. We wanted to create a band that was like all of your
favorite bands at the same time."
Grand Theft Audio (who were originally known as "The
Infidels", before the band learned of the existence of
several other combos with the same moniker) came
together out of the friendship and musical rapport that had
developed while its four members were in separate bands.
Vocalist Jay Butler had been involved in a variety of musical
projects, while guitarist Chris McCormack had been a
member of 3 Colors Red, and bassist/keyboardist Ralph
Jezzard and drummer Ritch Battersby worked together in
The Wildhearts. Jezzard had previously gotten his first
taste of musical notoriety as producer and co-writer of
EMF's worldwide smash "Unbelievable."
"We'd all been around doing different things, and we finally
just said 'Let's do something that we really believe in,"
Butler recalls. "There's such a big divide in England, there's
either music for dinner parties or music to do sacrificial
killings to. We got bored with that whole thing, and we
wanted to be in a band that we could feel excited to be a
part of.
We wanted something with lots of hooks, but also with a
bit of rock backbone to it, something that was so
annoyingly singalong that you either had to love it or hate
it. Our bottom line is: does it rock, does it sound good and
does it make you want to go out and do something? We
don't have any interest in being this week's flavor of the
month; we don't want to be a band that's just recognized
by journalists and other musicians."
Towards that end, Grand Theft Audio is now setting its
sights on bringing Blame Everyone's bigger-than-life
anthems to the live stage. "I think the live show will be
very intense and exciting visually," Butler predicts. "We
want to give people a show, rather than just playing the
album.
"This record is like the charming drunk at the party," the
singer concludes. "The funny, intelligent one. We are more
like the obnoxious one who's going to try and steal your
CDs."
