An Interview With Pompeii Wellness Concept

Graphic Design By Faye Dolan

I was sitting in the garden of a D2 basement apartment post-interview with Pompeii Wellness Concept, desperately trying to figure out if this was an elaborate bit. Their first EP Low Frequency Pins and Needles was a lockdown favourite of mine. It was something that you would find in the annals of Bandcamp and would become an inside joke amongst your friend group — while revelling in the band’s genuinely impressive technical ability. Oscillating between frenetic new wave pastiches and cuts that sound like they’re ripped from the Steve Albini playbook, it motivated me to figure out even further if the band’s work is a labour of love or a semi-elaborate shitpost. Their second EP released in May of this year, Techno Sex Party, is a cataclasm of sleaze refined by studio production. Produced by Oran Fitzpatrick along with the band, never has a favour between mates sounded this fun. 

A portrait of Thomas Sankara that stared at you while you pissed, being offered a bottle of wine with at least 70 dead flies in it, and a three-legged cat called Jag. Guitarist Gorilla Killer Purser’s apartment was a visual cacophony that paralleled the greasy noise that the band came to fruition with. It reminded me of what the DALL-E generator would churn out if you typed in “squat”. After a period of not knowing where to begin to look or move, I sat down with guitarist Purser along with bassist TK Red Lemonsterade Lester, drummer Marsbar, as well as frontman and synthster Freaky Joe for a quick chat before their Whelan’s debut with Julia Louise Knifefist. 

Photo by Tristan Spellman

HANNAH: Just as a very generic starting-off question, how did you all get to know each other? Did you have any previous projects before PWC? 

TK Red Lemonsterade Lester: It started in school. Me, Purser, and Nikolai [Freaky Joe] all went to the same school, and I was first playing with Nikolai. I first performed on stage with him when I was twelve, at Irish college *laughs*. 

Gorilla Killer Purser: And just like. Over the years — years and years and years of playing randomly. 

TKRLL: And then, we started playing when we got into college we stuck together by playing *gestures to shed* in there. And I didn’t have a bass amp originally, it was very mad music. Then we met Rob [Marsbar] on a night out. And then we were looking for any drummer, and he said yeah. 

Marsbar: It was actually a TFM night out! It was a pub quiz and then we went to Workmans. They had a show called Punk’s Not Dead? And I was like, “Oh really?” And they were like, “Yeah, we also have a band, we’re looking for a drummer.” And I was like, “I play drums”. *laughs* 

HANNAH: That’s great! I always find that this is always the case, there are no drummers when you need them. 

TKRLL: They started coming out of the woodwork when we got him! Everyone we met was a drummer *laughs*. We had a year of looking and then we found him [Marsbar], and then we couldn’t stop finding drummers. He was the one.

HANNAH: I remember you came out with Low Frequency Pins and Needles just around the beginning of lockdown. I feel like with a lot of noise rock bands in Dublin, there’s a very commercial and derivative sound. The first EP was just a really fun hodgepodge of noise. Was this a process of trial and error for the band? 

GKP: We were just trying to be funny, I think. With a lot of the music at the beginning. 

TKRLL: I don’t think we were trying to be funny. I was thinking about this recently actually. I think it was just stuff that came out of us. We just played, basically. A lot of the stuff just kinda came out. 

FJ: We’re not so much noise as much as we are shit. Making it noisy was our only way that something sounded the least shit. We’re not really that skilled to be like “Oh, we wanna do this genre”. 

HANNAH: I think that’s really interesting because a lot of people who do that categorise themselves into a slacker-rock thing *laughs*. 

FJ: Maybe we should look into that. Maybe that should be our next direction

HANNAH: Absolutely. 

FJ: We were thinking Simpsonwave. 

GKP: Yeah, we were thinking of doing Simpsonwave for a while. 

FJ: The problem with Simpsonwave is that it’s very visual— 

TKRLL: Yeah. It’s hard to capture that. We’re not ready for that. 

HANNAH: I mean, how do you guys find your sound? What was that process like? 

M: Really, I think we were just playing. It was the only thing we really could have done. We weren’t trying to make too much, I don’t think. 

GKP: It just takes years. Literally years and years playing and sometimes having shit practices— 

TKRLL: Oh we had some really shit practices. Shit fights, like. 

HANNAH: It’s always the worst thing when it happens! The minute someone slams the door and leaves.

TKRLL: It all came together when Marsbar was here— 

M: Yeah like, I haven’t seen a fight in the history of playing. 

TKRLL: It’s all been a clean slate since he was here! 

HANNAH: It’s all Marsbar. 

FJ: Well we had this awful one with Lester. There was this riff that Purser was playing and he got this idea that was like. “What if I play this riff, but backwards? Over your riff?” It was like a sinusoidal wave that was cancelling out the silence. But it was complete shit. And we were trying to go over this for like, four hours. 

M: I think that was our only ever Russian language song as well. 

HANNAH: From my imagination, the band seems like a very elaborate thing. Like, the names and the references. I was wondering if this was a, well, concept. 

FJ: Amazingly flattering. Thank you. 

TKRLL: A good few of the songs come from jams and a good few just come from Nikolai writing them. 

HANNAH: So would you guys call this improv? 

ALL: It’s just jamming. 

TKRLL: We usually just jam for a half an hour. That sort of thing. Unless we’re practising for a gig. It’s just all jam. Or if we’re working on a particular song and just fucking around. 

HANNAH: That’s cool! I felt that on Techno Sex Machine things really came together, it was very cohesive. Did this lend itself to your experience in Windmill Lane? 

TKRLL: We did the recording all in one night. He [Oran Fitzpatrick, producer] was like “I need to pitch a project, can I record a song with you guys?” And we asked to record a few songs, and the whole EP was done. 

M: He did us a massive favour. He only needed one song but then he had us from 8pm to 6am. Just banged out four songs. 

GKP: We just wanted to actually make something. But we were not that pushed on like, crazy production. Just chucked it out.

HANNAH: I kinda gathered that! Everything sounded very organic. Is there anything from Dublin that you’re listening to that you want others to enjoy? 

GWP: Oh amazing, Tribal Dance! 

TKRLL: Yeah, Tribal Dance are unreal man. So good. 

GWP: They’ve definitely inspired this band. They definitely inspired most of my guitar playing from then on. 

TKRLL: They haven’t done anything in ages! 

HANNAH: Any last words? 

TKRLL: I should say, we do put a lot of effort in. We do put a lot of time into it. 

GWP: We do really enjoy it, yeah

TKRLL: We do just have a lot of fun. 

GWP: That’s the main thing.