Introducing…Hockey

Line-up: Benjamin Grubin (front man) Jeremy Reynolds (bass) Anthony Stassi (drums) Brian White (guitar) and touring keyboardist Ryan Dolliver.

Origin: Portland, Oregon, USA.

Vibe: Infectious dance, New-Wave, parties.

Influences: Talking Heads, James Brown, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, LCD Soundsystem, William Blake, Frank O’Hara, M.I.A.

Sounds like: The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, Dance Punk.

Background: After releasing a homemade EP ‘Mind Chaos’ back in 2008 and being signed up to Capitol Records (US) and Virgin Records (UK), it’s been a whirlwind few years for Hockey. Last year they played the legendary John Peel stage at Glastonbury and T in the Park amongst other festivals.

After a sell out tour last year they’re back on the circuit again and despite having a name more associated with scoring goals and pucks this punk-funk band has an army of fans.

Instead of just listening to their singles ‘Too Fake’, ‘Song Away’ and ‘Work’ delve a little deeper and try ‘Learn to Lose’ – a good old fashioned dance floor track that’s bound to get you moving – or slow things down with ‘Curse this City’.

Listen: Get their debut album ‘Mind Chaos’ at zavvi.com

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/hockey

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Hockey – a word more associated with goal scoring and pucks. But this punk-funk band has an army of fans and with comparisons from The Strokes to LCD Soundsystem is it any wonder? They played Manchester Academy 2 after previously selling out Club Academy and I caught up with two of the guys for a quick chat about safety meetings, super fans and Fleetwood Mac…

Last year you played Glastonbury and T in the Park, are you planning on playing any festivals this year?

Jeremy: Isle of Wight we know we’re gonna play this year, other than that? I don’t think so. Unless you become the biggest band in the world it’s hard to play the same festival, and I think it would be hard to beat the John Peel stage so I don’t think we’re gonna play Glastonbury again. There’s always 2011.

Who are your influences?

Jeremy: Talking Heads, James Brown, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, LCD Soundsystem.
Tony: Fleetwood Mac.

Jeremy: That one’s me and Tony. We don’t sound like Fleetwood Mac I know but just wait for the next record! No, wait for two records. The tricky third album, we’ll just be doing ‘Dreams’ over and over and over.

Have you got any plans for a new album yet?
Jeremy: We’ve got a couple of new songs at this point but we’re just touring this record until sometime mid-summer or fall depending on how things go for us. Basically until we can’t do it anymore, then we’ll go back and do a new one.

Do you have any pre-gig rituals?
Jeremy: Nothing amazing. We used to sort of hug each other. A few safety meetings.
Tony: All the guys kiss my moustache. That sort of thing.

You’re called Hockey, but can you play it?
Jeremy: Yeah Hockey, why are we even called that?
Tony: We didn’t think of the consequences.
Jeremy: Oh the consequences of our past actions. What forced us to come up with that? It was many years ago, back before you’d even really thought about the internet. With Hockey it was like “well whatever, just pick something, who cares?” It didn’t occur to us that people would be using Google to try and find us.

What’s on your rider? Do you have any weird requests?

Jeremy: We did get socks yesterday, which we almost never get. We got them.
Tony: Yeah. But we asked for socks.
Jeremy: We always ask for a packet of cigarettes but we never get them. The full rider is quite ridiculous, but each venue is based on ticket sales. Like “Oh, they didn’t sell many. They can have…an orange” or “Ooh, they sold out tonight, they can have their cigarettes or their socks!” but it very rarely happens.

Do you have anything to say to fans?
Tony: Hi Cecile.
Jeremy: Hi Cecilie! We have one fan, her name is Cecile, she’s probably going to read this interview, no matter what. No matter how hard you try to bury it under videos of people scoring goals *mimes playing Hockey* she will find it and then write to us about it.

Tony: And Clementine, hi Clementine.
You know it’s bad when you can remember individual fans.
Jeremy: We don’t know all our fans.
Tony: No, I think that’s them.

Jeremy: Other fans – you can write to us anytime!

Watch the official video for Learn To Lose by Hockey here…