Fearless live in Laois

RICHARD Fearless was fed up being asked about Iggy Pop. “In interviews people always wanted to know about the people we brought in to sing,” says Death In Vegas’ multi-instrumentalist frontman. “I didn’t want the guests to overshadow what we were doing. It started to bother me.”

In his studio in Shoreditch, London, Fearless is explaining why Death In Vegas’ new album, Trans-Love Energies, doesn’t contain any headline-grabbing collaborations. On previous records he’s worked with such luminaries as Liam Gallagher, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval, Paul Weller and Iggy Pop. On this occasion, lead vocals are handled mainly by Fearless (real name Richard Maguire), with two appearances by Katy Stelmanis of Canadian newcomers Austra.

Why change a winning formula? He realised he was probably taking the collaboration ethos to extremes when he travelled to India to work with Dr Subranamian, a Hindi arranger who oversaw the strings for the 2002 album Scorpio Rising. “Going to all the different continents, working with such a huge cast of people....the whole thing was brilliant. But it was time to move on.