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The Rapture
Just heavenly.
Stuff,
11/6/2003
By Jon Wiederhorn
If there’s one thing we hate, it’s being unfairly labeled by close-minded people. We experimented once in college, and all of a sudden we’re “attempted murderers.” It’s just not fair! That’s why we feel for our friends in the Rapture. (Well, they aren’t exactly our friends…yet.) Sure, they sometimes use crazy electronic beats, but that doesn’t make them an electroclash band. In fact, they’re more like alt-punks with a jones for dirty dancing. (We even heard that “Nobody puts Baby in a corner!” was drummer Vito Roccoforte’s high-school yearbook quote.) The Rapture’s latest album, Echoes, offers a diverse platter of computerized dance tunes, jittery rockers and swooning ballads that taste a little like the Cure. This smorgasbord of musical tastes ranges from melodic saxophone and delicate piano to angry guitar stabs and funky bass lines. We tracked down singer-guitarist Luke Jenner to talk all about it. And he agreed. What a sport!
STUFF: When I tried to learn more about your band on the Internet, all I found was a lot of stuff about God recruiting soldiers for the battle of Armageddon.
LUKE: Be warned, my friend. If you don’t come to the show, we will smite you.
Is God a fan of the Rapture?
Sure, man. He plays in our band when we’re not paying attention. He’s the one who fixes the mistakes in concert. We talk to him, but not in words. Mostly with hand signals.
There’s a Finnish death-metal band called the Rapture. Why don’t you have God smite them?
I don’t want to say anything bad about them. Some of those guys walk around with teeth as necklaces.
Your newer material is more dancey than your early punk songs. How did that happen?
I’ve lived in New York since 1999, and it’s a groovy place. You have to groove, or you end up getting flattened. It’s dance or die.
Like our junior prom. That chaperone was insane! You have a song called “House of Jealous Lovers.” Isn’t one jealous lover enough?
Yeah. At one point, I was in a house of jealous lovers, and it inspired me not to be there anymore. Just having sex can be scary. Being in a relationship with different people without being committed can be kind of weird.
You’re often compared to the Cure’s Robert Smith. Does that bother you?
No, because it’s been said so many times, it’s like having a nickname.
Maybe they wouldn’t say it if you stopped trying to sound like him.
He is one of my heroes.
Who do you think would win in a fight between you two?
I probably would. [But] I’ve never beaten up anybody in my life. When people wanted to fight me in school, I pretended I was sick and stayed home. Then again, Robert’s got big shoes, so he could kick me really hard.
Does the band like to get drunk and go crazy? It is the rock ’n’ roll thing to do.
Sometimes we have long nights, but mostly we just get really drunk and fall down. We’ve all thrown up, but never on anyone famous.
That’s where I’ve got you beat!
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