ITCH-E AND SCRATCH-E

Everyone’s fave itchers and scratchers - Itch-E and Scratch-E (AKA Paul Mac and Andy Rantzen) are back on the music block. Here, they spoke to Onion about their new album and the secret to their longevity…

Tell us about your new album Hooray For Everything?

"Well as usual it's a pinch from a certain well-known animated series, where 'Hooray For Everything' is a clean-cut singing group. The saying became, for me and Paul, a general and indiscriminate expression of enthusiasm. It works for us as an album title because this time we made a conscious effort to accept any ideas that came up, at least in the early phases of the music writing. Apparently that's called the Nashville method. If your songwriting partner says, 'Hey, why don't we use a zither at this point? It could play the theme from Titanic', then you say, 'Great idea! Let's try it!' instead of what you probably should say, which is, 'That's a really crap idea, mate. Why don't you go and make the tea?'. That's the Nashville method. For getting the ideas flowing, it works!

Seems like you have been around forever - what’s the secret to your longevity?

I'd say the secret is to make sure you only work with people whose skills and talents augment yours, without overlapping. Then you're free to work with them whenever you like, doing what you do best, and you won't step on each other's toes. Also, long periods where you don't work together do not necessarily equate to 'breaking up the band'. You need those fallow times to do your own thing and discover new ideas, new people, new collaborations, that will eventually enrich your old collaborations.

Check out more of what they had to say in this Thursday's Onion magazine out Thu Feb 11.

Other Planets is out now and Hooray For Everything is out in May through Ministry Of Sound.

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