spin.com/features/joe-mccarthy

[joseph mccarthy]

The SPIN Interview: Joe McCarthy on his three year absence, dislike of the encore and making up with Cat's Cradle. Welcome back, it's been a while. Has it? It doesn't feel like it. It's been almost three years since Cat's Cradle's last album, you don't consider that a while? Objectively, yes, if you consider that my complete body of work it does look a bit funny that it's been a while since I've created and been on tour. But I've toured with a couple of other bands since, helped Preachers create an album. I've been around, maybe you haven't looked. Fair enough. We heard you and Isaac McAvoy have reconciled, is this hope for new Cat's? There's nothing set in stone. We took a break and I think it's something we all needed. We needed that pause to collect and think about what we want individually, we all got pretty sick of ourselves. By the end of the last tour we all wanted to spit ourselves out, so we needed to find the part of music that's magic and exciting. We'll see how it sounds when we put it back together. Put it back together in your new studio? Haha, yea. I've been working on our own space out in New Mexico for the past year. It's very Rancho De La Luna meets Meghan Draper's Zou Bisou Bisou. Tell me about your time away from the band. I saw you at a show in LA last summer, and you weren't just the guy behind the guitar. We all fit our parts well in Cat's, but in the end we became more like cast mates than band mates. Which might not make a lot of sense if you're not in a band; it felt as though we were assigned to our roles and thus only stayed within our roles, it felt daunting for me to try anything else even if all I had to do was suggest the idea – the guys would have been find, our company not so much. As a kid I played everything because I found learning instruments fascinating. So like, my Wikipedia page might say guitarist but I tried out as a trombonist for my high school band (didn't make it, I wasn't good), the first instrument I learned was piano, I drum, play bass, write lyrics and sing in the shower. Time away from the band really allowed me to stretch out and play. Playing with Preachers was awesome, I have nothing but great things to say about that band. I really missed being relatively unknown and not feeling shy about singing in a shabby bar in Downtown LA. Thanks for the drink, by the way. Does that mean you'll be singing on the next album? Likely not. Maybe some A cappella. What have you been listening to lately? A lot of New Order lately. I saw Peter Hook and the Light a couple months back, and forgot how great New Order is to move to. I was reading an essay about Encores and how expectant they've become – which is true, they've lost their spontaneity completely. Peter Hook compared an encore to having sex and then being forced to have another go after you'd had an orgasm. New Order waited ages after the show for their encore, which'd be something unexpectant like a Sister Ray cover. Near the end though, I think even they succumbed to playing the hits. The essay kind of made me loath encores. So no encores for the next tour then? I think we're going to have to rethink the whole encore thing, yea. At this point in your career, who are you looking at as a model? I don't think it's a secret that I would dry hump the shit out of Josh Homme's leg. We've talked a lot about music. Let's finish up by having you finish this sentence. I am having _____ for dinner? Jesus, I can't really think of anything but pussy. Is that bad PR?