Minsky Rock.
Notes From The Underground.
The first time many of us heard the name Minsky Rock was last June, while we were waiting for the debut album from the young guitars-and-synths four-piece from Yorkshire, Working Men’s Club. Following a string of electrifying gigs and a standout first single, expectations were high. But, like so much else in 2020, events didn’t go to plan, and when the album was delayed, we were treated instead to a continuous 21-minute techno ‘Minsky Rock Megamix’ of its tracks. This was put together by Working Men’s Club’s founder and frontman, Syd Minsky-Sargeant, and the band’s producer, Ross ‘Rock’ Orton, who during the first lockdown had started collaborating on remixes over Zoom. Which is how they interface with Perfect for this interview during lockdown number three, Ross from his studio in Sheffield and Syd from his home in Todmorden (‘You look like you just got up, Syd,’ says Ross cheerily. It is two in the afternoon.)
So far Minsky Rock’s output has consisted of remixes of tracks by friends – Jarvis Cocker, Heavy Salad – but they’ve been creating original material from day one. ‘We’re doing it purely for the love of making music,’ says Syd. When restrictions were eased in the summer, he joined Ross in the studio and they started mucking about with synths. ‘It just seemed like a natural thing to do,’ says Ross. ‘Obviously there was the commitment to the album, so this was like a step aside from work, sitting in the studio and playing, and not having to worry about deadlines and record labels and commitments to contracts and all that.’ So far, he notes, Minsky Rock’s direction is ‘more purist electronic’ than WMC’s output might lead you to expect, and the step away from guitars is deliberate. ‘Because I work with guitar bands a lot’ – over the years Ross has produced Drenge, Arctic Monkeys, The Fall – ‘and Working Men’s Club’s roots are firmly in that post-punk guitar thing. That,’ he says to Syd, ‘is mainly what you were doing at first, weren’t it, mate?’
Ross first met Syd in 2019 when Working Men’s Club were playing their regular, the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge, just before they signed to Heavenly Recordings. ‘I thought, yeah, it’s good to see young kids now listening to The Fall and Joy Division and giving it back in their way,’ remembers Ross. ‘But when I finally got to sit down with Syd and listen to tunes, he’s into all this techno shit, music I know very well. So that was a pleasant surprise.’ When Ross started work on WMC’s first single with Heavenly, ‘Teeth’, he encouraged the band to take a more synth-driven direction. ‘He was firm that it could be an electronic record,’ says Syd. ‘It gave me more confidence in the electronic music I was making.’ So when he’s writing now, is it difficult for Syd to separate Minsky Rock from Working Men’s Club? ‘When I’m in a room on my own it’s Working Men’s Club, and when I’m in a room with Ross it’s Minsky Rock,’ he deadpans.
They chose to play ‘It’s Amazing’ for the Perfect flexi, Syd explains, because ‘it stands for what we’re trying to do – it’s more rooted in electronica and symbolises the first stage of this project’. They created it in a single day: ‘Everything moves really quickly when we’re working together.’ For the accompanying shoot, Syd chose a Gucci tracksuit – maybe no surprise to anyone who’s seen him on stage with Working Men’s Club: ‘We’re quite a tracksuity band, aren’t we?’ Ross wore his own clothes. ‘I like me Chile ’62 stuff,’ he says. ‘There was no way I was gonna look good in a big pink Gucci shirt and black flares and socks up to me knees.’
They’re keen to take Minsky Rock on the road, ‘playing festivals and clubs’, says Ross, once lockdown ends: ‘That feels exciting, like there’s something to look forward to.’ There are also plans to bring in collaborators: they sent an early composition to Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire (‘Heroes,’ nods Syd) and they’re thinking of getting him involved. ‘He’s definitely up for it,’ says Ross. They are setting no limits on what Minsky Rock might be. ‘It’s a long-term thing that we wanna focus on and eventually release bigger pieces of art and music,’ says Syd. ‘It’s something we both really care about and want to commit to and focus on and push in all aspects as creatively and intuitively as possible.’
