Neu Ill Murray: ‘We’ve Definitely Matured’

“Who’s chicken is this?” “Maxwell’s.” “How many bits do we get each?” “Two.” I’m currently chatting with ebullient garage-punk upstarts Ill Murray in a Cambridge KFC, and their two most pressing concerns have already been raised and settled.

But it’s easy to see why they’re so abstracted – the band released the video for their incredible, eviscerating debut recording ‘Throats’ just a week ago and it’s already racked up over 1,000 views. For those who haven’t heard it yet, what’s in store is an immense blessing of catchy 90s-aping fuzz-rock, and one of the best debut singles of the year. Written by bassist Will, lyrics penned by main-man Maxwell, it’s the pinnacle of a couple of months which has seen them support the likes of Islet, Advert and Letlive, record debut EP ‘Fugu’ and hone tracks for their debut album proper due next year.

I meet Max and Dan, two members of short-lived punk trio Boring Girls, Jack from the Proles and Will (and Max, again) of Tread Water. They now unite as Ill Murray. But how does this band differ? “We’ve definitely matured,” Max expounds, “When two of us were in Boring Girls, that was basically just me learning guitar. Before that, I played drums in Tread Water. I only got a guitar last Christmas. With this band I wanted to get away from the scrappy and amateurish sound of BG, and to make it neater, but just as heavy.”

And that’s exactly what they’ve done. Spotless production courtesy of buddy Jonjo, the EP is an almost entirely boisterous affair. Our taster ‘Throats’ was apparently “the catchiest song,” but the rest is for the most part “really heavy, punky ones.” “We’ve got a song called ‘New Breed Of Blind’. Whenever we’d play that live, people would sort of go mad. We opened for Letlive, and when we started people were like ‘…what?’ because we’re not like them, really. But then we played this song and all these beefy guys in the crowd coming for a punk gig when they heard me shouting they got well into it. They started taking us seriously, which was nice.”

What influenced this more raucous side? “It changes every couple of weeks. Will will have a different in his car CD and we’ll all be listening to different things anyway.” Today it was Beastie Boys, but one band they say they’ve been digging a lot are hipper-than-hip hardcore Danes Iceage. “You’ve got to be careful not linger on one band for too long as then you can just start to copy them. Iceage – I’ve been listening to them a lot right now, but I don’t want to make it sound like I copy them, although I do want their influence to come through a bit.”

They later tell me their most treasured LPs are Weezer’s ‘The Blue Album’, Blur’s ‘13’ and Death Cab’s ‘Transantlanticism’. Guitarist Jack recites Sonic Youth’s back catalogue, whilst Maxwell lauds Mission Of Burma.

Fast forward a week and we’re at a house party just off Mill Road, and it’s one big, twisted crush of 90s-ness, all beanies, stripy shirts and barre chords. We’re in a front room with twenty or so other uni friends, sixth formers and hipsters. Many more are in the corridor, kitchen, even outside the window. Unbeknownst why, there’s a blood-smeared toy baby hanging from a drooping curtain rail. Suddenly the boys’ distortion sallies forth. Here come the promised hardcore punk 2-minuters. Driven by Dan’s relentless beats and Will’s pummelling bass, tunes like ‘March King’ and ‘Sputnik 2’ give us our dose of Black Flag and early Green Day. But it’s the inimitable grunge-funk (yes, really) of their aforementioned ‘New Breed Of Blind’ which really gets us going: Weezer-recalling in its bopping bass booms, funky high hats and fiddly riffs, Ill Murray are the first band on, but you’d never know.

It’s a world away from how they earlier describe their ever worst gig – a disastrous house show where “[they] were bunged in a marquee at the back.” They say no one really watched, a big muff pedal was broken, their drum kit collapsed and “a human being called Felix” was hurled in their direction.

I later ask them what they think of their notoriously tame hometown. Together they reminisce about the heyday (c. 2008) of the Mavericks Of Love, the Running Mayfairs and We Found The Fox. Will says “[he] used to love the Cambridge scene,” but times have changed. “Musically, it’s the worst place we could be living in. It’s pathetic.” Whilst they do admit promoters like Green Mind, and bands like themselves, Reno Dakota and Dirty Cousins are still doing their bit, they assert that nowadays the majority of Cambridge groups are, quite simply, “wank”.

But they have a fervent desire to change this; to inspire a new generation of rock ‘n’ roll bands from their perennially quaint, highfalutin surroundings. Their own plans? “We’re looking to go away to record an LP.” Then what? “Oh, we’d like to play Latitude next year. I’ve been there like five years in a row. It’s just the best. We’re actually going to try and play as many festivals as possible this year.”

Finally – when asked again about the slick home-made video for ‘Throats’, Jack admits “the copyright-free stuff isn’t actually copyright-free.” But Max, in spite of a weekend spent studiously editing it, chips in, “If we get big enough to the point where we have to take that down, I really won’t mind. It does look pretty, but then we’ll have made it.” DIY says it’s inevitable.