Motorcycle Display Team ready to rev up for Galway gig

Date Published: 20-Mar-2013

London based pop/rock trio Motorcycle Display Team play Galway City on Saturday, April 6 when the venue is the The Bentley in Eyre Square. The band took shape after bass player Matthew Eyre saw drummer Morgan Condon and singer Steven Hinds playing as a duo in The Dublin Castle, a pub in Camden.

“I couldn’t believe they didn’t have a bass player,” Matthew recalls. “So I approached them immediately and said ‘would you like to jam?’. We had our first gig about two months after that.”

Like their adopted home city, Motorcycle Display Team is a melting pot of nationalities.

“Steve, I suppose, is the least exotic of us,” says Matthew. “He comes from Milton Keynes originally but he’s been a London lad since 1997-98. I came to London in 1999 from New Zealand, originally from Wellington. And Morgan is from Dublin.”

When Matthew thinks back to that night in Camden, what was it that drew him to Steve and Morgan? “The first thing that hit me was the power and clarity of Steve’s voice,” he says. “He’s a very talented guy and I can only say I’m jealous of his ability. Morgan is a very powerful drummer, he’s got some sort of supernatural strength! When he hits the drums, you know all about it.”

Every member of the band is a songwriter, and Matthew feels this helps to give Motorcycle Display Team their own sound.

“Steve is the main songwriter, which I suppose you’d expect from the lead guitarist and singer,” he says. “He’s just got a natural ability to write songs that stick in your head. Morgan is more of a rock songwriter. He comes up with great riffs and grooves. And the material I write, I never come up with complete songs – I always rely on Steve to polish them. I come out with wistful, poppy stuff.”

Motorcycle Display Team’s debut album, Capatatio Benevolentiae was produced by Cesar Gimeno Lavin, whose CV includes indie megastars like Modest Mouse and White Lies. He wasn’t top of their list originally, but they were ultimately delighted with his work.

“We were looking for a producer, and we were banging our heads together about who our ultimate one would be,” recalls Matthew. “We came up with the name Hugh Padgham, he was a producer for Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Sting and Split Ends, a band from New Zealand who I love.

“We got in touch with Hugh, and he was very happy to work with us, but in the end it didn’t work out. But he let us use his studio to cut some demos, and that’s where we met Cesar, who was Hugh’s engineer at the time. We developed a great relationship, we’re very lucky to have him. He’s a major element in the album’s sound.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.