Young Emf Is On An `Unbelievable' Roll

The EMF band member that was supposed to call from New Orleans for a scheduled interview didn't. The unidentified player had reportedly vanished into the dark and damp of the French Quarter the night before. No caller, no interview.

When EMF keyboard player Derry Brownson was reached two days later in Houston, he shrugged.

"I don't know anything about it," he said nonchalantly, "but I'm not surprised."

It's life on the road for England's hot new baby band, and it's been a veritable maelstrom of activity since this quintet from Forest of Dean was discovered. Formed in late 1989, EMF mixmastered high tension guitar with the clatter and break of a nonstop dance track, and with a scant four gigs under its belt was signed by the recording giant EMI.

"We made 'em sign the papers in the back room of this awful pub," recalled Brownson with relish. "They were really intimidated by it. I think that's what they liked about us. Anyway, we're glad it happened fast. We couldn't stand having to wait around for it."

Five months after signing, the band's first single, "Unbelievable," was in the British Top 5. Two singles followed, then the album "Schubert Dip," all adding fuel to the EMF fire. "Unbelievable" did equally well in the American charts and on MTV. When "Schubert Dip," was released stateside in June, it debuted at No. 20 on Billboard's album charts and kept climbing. A funk mix of "Unbelievable" by New York DJ Afrikaa Bambaataa currently is in high rotation on Seattle's KFOX.

In support of its recordings, EMF, which plays with Pop Will Eat Itself Wednesday at the Moore, has been on the road ever since. The band already has crossed England and Europe, is halfway through America and will then move on to Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

"A small mini world tour never did anyone any harm," said Brownson. "Provided our kidneys don't give out."

The band, most of whom were schoolmates, originally came together in Brownson's clothing store.

"We didn't sell a lot of clothes. It was just a good place to hang out, listen to records and get wrecked. I finally went bankrupt. So I had to do something else. We got the band, and it's been decidedly downhill ever since."

It was guitarist/writer Ian Dench, 26, who became the glue for this twentysomethingish gang of layabouts. Dench had left the band Apple Mosaic and found in Brownson, bassist Zac Foley, singer James Atkin and drummer Mark Decloedt a beat and buzz on which he could lay his insistent guitar, deft words and music. For the band, they found in Dench someone who could actually play.

"Ian is basically older," Brownson said. "He was writing from the start. He's more responsible. He cares. When the rest of us were partying, he was the conductor. But we all contribute."

The combination makes for brash, addictive music. It doesn't just bear repeat listenings, it demands them.

Brownson, young, cocksure, blunt yet somehow curiously civilized, has no doubt about his band's position and place in pop.

"I think a lot of the older bands would have been perfectly happy if we hadn't come along. They were sitting pretty high in the tree. Especially in England.

"But we represent the youth, you know?" he said without flinching. "We are the youth!

"We're basically our own audience."