Of course, the release of Gangs was preceded by the unauthorized appearance of the record on the internet in the days leading up to the official release. “Yeah, that was funny! I guess we were surprised we got so far without something leaking. I think it leaked the weekend before it was meant to come out so we just put it up onto our Bandcamp straight away and said, yeah, it’s been leaked but if you really love us, then you can just buy it here.”
He sounds pretty nonchalant about the experience. “With an album leaking these days, as long as it doesn’t leak a couple of months before the release and ruin that kind of buzz you’re trying to create, people aren’t buying enough records these days anyway for it to cripple the whole campaign or anything. We were pretty fucked off though, because you send out promo copies to a handful of interested people and journalists and people you want to hear it first, kind of as a respect thing, so it was a bit of a bummer that someone thought that they should upload it to the internet. It’s no big deal. It was funny, it was kind of flattering in a way! I mean, someone really thought it was worthwhile, going out of their way to upload it to the internet.”
Was the culprit ever apprehended? “No, I think we’ve got an IP address. It’s the same person, or at least the same IP address, as the person who leaked the Adebisi Shank album. So it’s obviously someone who the label is sending promo copies to. They must be very bored or bitter or something.”
The leak didn’t stop the record from charting at number twenty-eight here, something of a rarity for loud, instumental rock bands on independent labels. “Yeah, that was mental! Until we realised you only have to sell about 15 records for a record to chart these days, it was pretty incredible! It was amazing though, it’s one of those things. I mean, being in a band is a weird kind of existence, it’s always hard to really set parents’ and families’ minds at rest that you’re not just fucking around wasting your life! Every now and again something will come up, maybe like the front cover of a magazine or a sold-out show or like that, charting in the Irish and UK charts, little things that don’t mean that much to us but are nice to be able to tell your mum.”
