Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
January 17, 2009
DR SARAH KENNEDY looks every inch the sexy sixties pop kitten as she lounges back on her faux-leopardskin chaise longue.
But the serious side to this NHS psychiatrist, from Gorebridge, Midlothian, leaps to the surface at mention of her newly-acquired nickname, Dr Blonde.
"No-one's ever called me that," she points out firmly. "I think one of the papers just made it up cause it sounded good."
Judging by the critical response to her band Modus, she will have to get used to such pitfalls of fame.
Singled out as one of the names to watch for 2009, big things are expected of the debut album, Sounds from the Kitten Casino, which is about to be released worldwide by their US label Hammondbeat.
It all seems a far cry from her job as a senior psychiatrist with the Borders Mental Health Service.
But Dr Blonde - sorry, Dr Kennedy - has no trouble mixing the two. While her work is clearly a vocation, music is her passion.
Her band Modus - a funky mod-revival outfit featuring her brother Scott, from Loanhead, on drums, studio manager and Hammond-organ whizz Rod Spark, from Roslin, on keyboards, Broxburn-based computer project manager Mel Johnson on guitar and Bruce Wagener, a landscape gardener from Gorebridge, on bass - have been making their name on the Edinburgh music scene for three years.
Sarah is preparing for rehearsals in her home in Gorebridge - remodelled from an old nursing home into a labyrinthian pop lair fitted out with the aforementioned leopard-skin furniture, retro lime-green print wallpaper and funky teardrop-shaped Phoenician vases.
Her colourful sixties clothes are all vintage, sourced from various stores and specialist dealers, but her attitude
to life and music is entirely 21st century. The 31-year-old former Lasswade High pupil trained in medicine at Dundee University's medical school, before moving to Middlesbrough to gain her General Medical Council accreditation.
Following a spell at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, where she trained to be a psychiatrist, she decided to stay in the hands-on side of medicine rather than become a consultant and took a job with the Borders Mental Health Service. The job allows her flexibility to pursue her real ambition.
"I messed about in bands throughout university in the late 90s, while Scott and his friends had their thing down here, but we never really managed to get it together with me moving around a lot," she says. "We had a funk and disco covers band called Instant Replay, playing Diana Ross and Commodores songs at gigs and parties, but it sort of fell apart when I moved to Middlesbrough.
"When I finally settled in Gorebridge things started to come together. Scott managed to get the other guys involved and the band grew out of that."
The band wisely rejected a raft of names - most notably Mauve which was at first thought suitably sixties, but then dropped for representing "the colour of nothing" - before settling on Modus.
"Scott is a mod through and through," says Sarah by way of explanation of their final choice. "We have our roots in mod music, plus I like the way it looks when you write it down. It sort of flows."
Sarah sets off for The Groove Tunnel, the band's own recording studio in the heart of Loanhead's Eldin Industrial Estate, and tries desperately to avoid splashing her immaculate fur-lined vintage coat in the muddy machinery tracks.
If her Gorebridge home is an extension of herself, the studio is an incarnation of the band in bricks and mortar. An iconic black Rickenbacker guitar hangs above an oversized sofa decked out with modish target pillows and flanked by prints of Michael Caine, Twiggy and The Who.
Studio manager Rod Spark points to a gold disc of The Doors' People Are Strange - "a present from someone having a sly dig", he says - and photos of him grinning with Stones' guitarist Ronnie Wood, soul singer PP Arnold, and Ocean Colour Scene guitarist Steve Craddock.
"Steve and I are mates from the days when I used to play on the same bill as his old band The Boys at mod-revival nights in the late 80s," says Rod. "I used to joke that they were a poor-man's Jam."
Back on the sofa, Rod, Mel, Bruce and Scott continue the stories of the band's early days, most of which involve questionable incidents of nudity. Rod picks out an early demo of Modus songs entitled The Genesis Project, with a cover featuring a naked blonde in heels hugging a Dalek, and points out the resemblance to their lead singer.
"It's not me!" she cries. "I'm far more reserved than that. I remember during our first gig I was absolutely terrified. We were playing all this upbeat music but I was rooted to the spot with fear. The guy that was doing the lights got kicked out because he didn't have any trousers on. It was a bit surreal."
It was around this time Dr Kennedy evolved into her on-stage alter ego, as a psychic defence against her own stage fright. If Dr Kennedy is reserved, Miss Modus is groovy, sassy and outgoing, and the transformation saw the band take off.
They were given a regular slot at Whistle Binkies on South Bridge, a venue they still return to on a monthly basis to try out new tracks, as well as being offered slots in clubs throughout the country and at several prestigious European festivals.
"Oor Scott's a little bit of a celebrity in Italy," says Sarah, keen to get one back on the boys for the Dalek-phile jibe. "We found him in a cafe at 9am sprawled across a table naked. Bruce asked why he didn't have any clothes on and Scott said he thought he was in bed. We found all of his clothes neatly folded in the cafe toilets."
Scott's psychiatrist sister describes him as "a Rubik's Cube with all of the stickers removed", before going on to psychoanalyse the rest of her bandmates. "No matter how many times you try to figure Scott out you eventually find that there is no solution," she says. "Rod is a hungry ego in very large pants, while Bruce is like a dark chocolate caramel cup - tough tinfoil on the outside but with a core of sweetness. Mel is the stable spirit level of the band."
And how would the rest of the band describe Miss Modus? "Spoilt rotten," they cry in unison, and a round of shoving ensues.
If the band makes it out of their latest round of rehearsals alive, Modus will mark the official launch of their debut album Sounds From the Kitten Casino with a free gig at the Voodoo Rooms on February 6.
For more information visit www.myspace.com/themodus.net
ROCK 'N ROLL REBELS
Dr Sarah Kennedy casts her heavily eyelined psycho-analytical eye over some of pop's most eccentric and rebellious stars:
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD
"Self-aspiring, but self-loathing. She spent hours preparing for everything she did, and gave the impression of being a prima-donna, but it was all because she was afraid of being an enormous disappointment to herself."
DAVID BOWIE
"Ziggy Stardust gave Bowie away. He could wear a costume to the ball as Ziggy, while using it as an artistic defence to divert any criticisms of his own personality."
MORRISSEY (THE SMITHS)
"I think all that depression in his music was a bit manufactured, and didn't reveal much about his inner self. I think he put one tier forward and kept a lot back, but he seems to be a lot more comfortable with himself these days."
KYLIE
"She's difficult because she's very self-controlled. What other person has that kind of success without some kind of bad press? Even the whole Michael Hutchence phase was glossed over as she was seen to be under the influence of a stronger personality."
THE GALLAGHER BROTHERS (OASIS)
"They're encouraged to be the naughty twins. They're like Romulus and Remus - one is the stable guiding force while the other careers towards tragedy."
ALISON GOLDFRAPP
"She shuns all interviews and when she's cornered she just stares out into space. She probably finds it hard to describe her art in words. A true artistic expressionist."
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