Ice Cream Hands: If It Ain’t Broke…

Ice Cream Hands launch Broken UFO at The Zoo on Friday

Ice Cream Hands’ new album Broken UFO is the band’s most assured collection of songs yet. Singer/guitarist /songwriter Charles Jenkins explains his motivation behind creating the record.

“My favourite records have a beginning, a middle and an end and you hope that when they get played, the random button on the CD player has been disengaged,” Charles explains. “You hope that the listener can sit and listen from start to finish. It’s not one of the great cerebral masterpieces or anything like that, but we try to give it a flow.”

He’s also got a bunch of nice things to say about co-producer Shane O’Mara, with whom the band recorded at Yikesville Studios (“The most enjoyable recording experience we’ve ever had”).

The band also worked with the enigmatic East Van Parks for this album. One is tempted to ask, what’s his story? Is he merely a pseudonym? Or is he a genuine guru-style figure? Charles is happy to maintain an element of mystique about Mr Parks. By the way, he’s no relation to fellow eccentric and famed Brian Wilson collaborator Van Dyke Parks

“No. Don’t tell him that, he’ll take a pop at you!” Charles warns “He’ll tell you all the bands he’s worked with, from the Stones to the Beatles, from Queen to ELO, to Sly & The Family Stone. But he’s a bullshit artist! He has stories where he’ll go into great description about him and Mick and Keith and him and Sly, but there’s such detail, that you’re enthralled and you go along with the ride! The point of it all is that he wants to inspire and excite you about what you’re doing. And on that level it works. So it doesn’t matter if it’s fact or fiction. He achieves his aim, which is to get the best out of you in the studio.”

Reading through the accompanying press release, which features Charles doing a track-by-track description of the album, one sees a lot of diverse names mentioned in terms of inspiration: Badfinger, Morphine, Joni Mitchell, Phil Spector…

“I try to steal from everybody all the time. I’m not just a thief from just one person’s house. It’s best to stake out the whole neighbourhood and then decide which fence to jump in the dead of the night,” says Charles wryly.

But ultimately, Ice Cream Hands are simply about heartfelt, gently humorous and hook-laden pop ‘n’ roll. And they’re famously good live. Go see them.