It’s Camden Crawl 2006. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a GHD-users convention, what with all the ubercool haircuts swarming the streets of the London indie Mecca.
In fact, it’s the night when hotly-tipped bands and those reaching for the next level congregate in Camden’s legendary venues to showcase just why they’re causing such a buzz.
Last year, relative ‘nobodies’ such as Mystery Jets and Maximo Park were part of the 40-odd bands, with The Chalets squeezed in as sole representative of Ireland. This time around, both The Marshals and Humanzi have been invited across the Irish Sea, and plenty of people are wondering why the hell Director, The Flaws, The Blizzards and Channel One, among others, weren’t given the Crawl’s seal of approval.
For Dublin 2006 is white hot with bands reaching a standard not seen for years. In an era where the industry is increasingly reluctant to invest in new blood, a disproportionately high number of acts within the island’s capital are poised to release debut albums on majors labels. It seems that conquering Ireland is not enough for these bands, not when there’s worldwide domination to consider.
“London’s such a difficult place to play because they’ve heard everything before,” explains Michael John, frontman of The Marshals. “Every band passes through here, so it takes that little bit more to impress.”
The band have just finished soundchecking at The Purple Turtle, where they’re playing alongside Morning Runner, Switches and the new mutation of the Beta Band, The Aliens.
Is it more important to them to break in the UK than in Ireland?
“Yes,” he answers without hesitation, before laughing at the curtness of his response. “Ideally we want to make it in both places, but the UK is more of a jungle. It’s much bigger and more competitive. You have to go all the way from Aberdeen to Exeter, trying to play to as many heads as possible along the way. If you can make it over here, it’s a testament to how good you are – that’s the way to look at it.”
While the trio released debut single ‘Make Her Cry’ in the UK that week, garnering radio play from XFM and Radio 1, it was unleashed in Ireland all the way back in February. Essentially, it kicked off a whirlwind year for them that includes another tour with Welsh wonders The Automatic, festival appearances at Oxegen, T In The Park, Reading and Leeds, and the release of their debut album, produced by John Cornfield of Muse and Radiohead fame.
“It seems to have happened really quickly,” he muses. “I remember when we first started out. It seemed as if we got a manager in three weeks, and in the next we were brought over to London to sign a deal with Vertigo. We were sat there going: ‘What the fuck just happened?’ But we did our fair share of legwork up until then. We would have played in anybody’s back garden for peanuts happily, but we mainly gigged in Dublin and Cork where we knew people would lend us drum kits and amps.“
Venturing out of one’s hometown is a philosophy shared by Kieran McGuinness of Delorentos.
“Very early on we decided we didn’t particularly want to be seen as a Dublin band. Stuffing Whelan’s and going somewhere down the country to play to no audience isn’t any good, so we’ve made a determined effort to play around the country – in fact we’ve played Cork more times this year than the capital,” he notes.
Also hailing from north Dublin, they flew to London a year ago and came home winners of the UK and Ireland National Student Music Awards.
Since then, much industry interest has followed, with the angular rock four-piece enjoying high profile support slots, a sold-out limited edition EP and an invite to appear on RTE’s Other Voices.
“We like to think we would have got where we are now regardless of the NSMA,” he says. “We’re not afraid of hard work. We’re always looking to move to the next step, playing wherever we can, just getting in the van and getting out there. It doesn’t matter where we’re from or where our audience is from, to get something from the music.”
Their north Dublin neighbours Director also received their biggest break to date in winning a battle of the bands.
“We’d just started playing with Shea (Lawlor, drummer) when we entered a competition at Trinity College, with the prize being to play the Trinity Ball,” recalls guitarist Eoin Aherne. “From winning that, one of the judges of the competition, who also organises the Hard Working Class Heroes festival, invited us onto that bill. That’s where we met our manager, who got us signed by Atlantic in the UK.”
Currently in the throes of promoting their debut single, ‘Reconnect’, the four-piece embark on a lengthy UK tour this month before an ‘emotional’ return appearance at the Trinity Ball on May 12.
Plaudits for the band have been far-ranging with the single chosen as Ian Dempsey’s single of the week.
His choice is indicative of the overall response – it’s one of the most played Irish tunes on the radio since ‘Comeback Girl’ by Republic Of Loose and is set to crash into the top 10 at the time of writing.
Admirably, however, all this means little to a band that are well aware of their place within the grand scheme of things.
“We could easily be as lucky or unlucky as any other band, anywhere,” notes Shea.
“If you look at London, there are a number of bands there in the exact same position as ourselves,” interjects bassist Rowan Averill. “How many of them are actually going to push through in the end? I’d say probably very few.”
“As a band, all we can do is write good songs and play good shows,” continues frontman Michael Moloney. “I don’t think that as a band we’d ever be too concerned about radio play or chart positions. People don't care about those things either. They just want to see good songs performed well.”
One band to agree are fellow Dubliners Royseven, formerly known as Jove, who have got their just desserts after playing a string of highly acclaimed shows around the capital. Their place of residence didn’t stop them attracting interest from as far east as Universal in Germany.
“Basically, someone tipped off Universal Germany, they came to see us one night in Crawdaddy, put their money where their mouth was, and that was that,” explains frontman Paul Walsh. My, he makes it sound so easy.
“It’s cool because there’s a great history of Irish bands who sign their deal outside of Ireland and then come back, or who have made it somewhere else first. Ourselves, we signed a worldwide deal, so we’re not focussing on one country.”
Being signed by a label as far afield as Germany, is it difficult to attract a similar buzz in Dublin?
“I don’t think it’s that difficult,” he answers. “The cream will always rise. If you’re good, you’re good. People will acknowledge that. In Ireland as a whole though, it’s much more marketing and TV-led. If you’re from down the country and you do The Late Late Show, then you’re famous, no two ways about it!”
What will be their first step as signed artists?
“The best thing about the deal is that we had the album written and ready to go, so it’s out in July. We knew what we wanted and they essentially gave us the money and left us to it.”
Epic and grandstanding in the vein of Muse, Royseven’s debut The Art of Insincerity is released in mainland Europe first to coincide with a festival appearance at Rock am Ring in Germany.
An Irish release will follow in September which, Walsh says, “is perhaps a good thing because it’s much more of an autumnal album”.
Royseven aren’t the only Dublin-based band attracting international interest.
“We’re huge in Finland,” half-jokes Phil Redmond, songwriter and singer with Clondalkin-based Doris. The band scored impressive chart and radio success with their independently released single ‘Will I Ever Learn’ earlier this year. But Finland?
“Seriously, the single’s available as a ringtone over there,” says Redmond, astonished. “We’ve no idea how it happened. We just Googled the name and found this Finnish site. We thought there might be another band called Doris who had the same song, but you can play it, and it’s definitely ours. It’s unbelievable how it came about. We still don’t know."
Ringtone accolades aside, the four-piece acoustic rock act have recently headlined The Village and recently completed recording their follow up single.
Like Director, they too had initial difficulty recruiting a drummer, and this held them back.
“For ages we couldn’t do the bigger gigs and were mainly playing acoustic because we were a three-piece,” says Redmond. “Once we got together we pushed forward and things have been moving nicely since. Within the city, Phantom FM has been good to us. Even when we started out as a three-piece, they let us come in and do an acoustic session and they played a few tracks.
“Getting to number 22 in the charts was also brilliant for us. It’s just a start and as a band we feel like we’re getting better all the time.”
A band with similar promise are The Flaws. The passionate songs from the four-piece earned them a deal with Sound Foundation, a label that are snapping up the creamiest of talent on these shores.
It’s run by The Thrills manager Alan Cullivan, and benefits from Polydor backing. One quick look at their current roster – which includes The Verve/Oasis-like rock of Humanzi, and the electronic/rock rumblings of Channel One – and you know The Flaws are hot property.
“There are some solid bands around, it’s a really good time to be part of the music scene,” agrees drummer Stephen Finnegan, currently ensconced in Grouse Lodge studios in Co. Westmeath, where the band are busy recording their debut album with Republic Of Loose producer Gareth Mannix.
While it’s not their first time in Grouse Lodge – they recorded their forthcoming epic of a single ‘Out Tonight’ there - they’ve yet to get over the full plushness of the residential studios.
Says vocalist Paul Finn: “We go to the sauna and then dip in the swimming pool before we start our takes, but in fact it holds up the whole recording process. I couldn’t start recording vocals yesterday until I vomited up all the water I swallowed.” Nice.
Though they formed in Dublin, the band all originate from Co. Monaghan, a good two hours away and they’re damn proud of that. Stephen excitedly claims it’s “the best thing ever” that they don’t come from Dublin.
Paul: “It’s a reason for people to look elsewhere for decent music. The capital’s traditionally had the best guitar bands whereas the countryside has the singer/songwriters and more traditional Irish music. It’s a breath of fresh air for people to come to Carrickmacross and see a good rock band.”
Yet MoCrac – masterminded by Dubliner Maurice Ferriter – have set out to prove that the re-emergence of the music scene isn’t, and shouldn’t be, solely based around rock music.
“That’s the record companies trying to follow the whole Strokes/Arctic Monkeys trend – looking for five lads with their guitars,” he believes. “Our sound is much more subtle than that.”
Those who’ve heard ‘Happy’ – the lead track from Irish flick Tara Road – will be familiar with their laid-back style of music, akin to that of Portishead. Of the experience, Maurice cuts right to the chase.
“It was great to be able to get some publicity off the back of it. Plus that’s where the money is. You can wait for 10,000 people to buy your album to recuperate the costs, or you can let them use 55 seconds of it.”
However, the film itself wasn’t popular enough to make MoCrac a household name.
“Tara Road kind of died a death,” he sighs. “Have you seen it? I saw it just to see my name in lights.”
This looks set to happen again when their debut album Cash Is King, is released in August, with a single in July serving as a tempting taster. The releases, though, came after an intense, sans-epidural, labour of love.
“Sitting around waiting for majors to take you up can be totally disheartening, so I decided to put the record out myself,” he explains. After writing, financing and releasing it without backing, he came to the attention of Reekus Records, an on-the-ball independent Dublin label.
“I’d formed the band by that point and we’d earned a reputation live, so they suggested we go back into the studio to make the album more representative of the live experience, which has worked out brilliantly. I actually just got back the finished copy yesterday; I listened to it twice then and twice this morning, and it sounds amazing.”
While Dublin’s treated him well, helping him build a relationship with Reekus for instance, he finds it has its downsides too, particularly when it comes to playing live.
“The problem is that Irish bands are less of a priority. A place might book you in, but it’s not guaranteed because a band might come in from England that day. You have to put up with that until you get yourself to a point where you’re their number one, and no matter who they get offered they won’t knock you.”
Yet with such a host of bands making waves both nationally and internationally, it looks like the tables are turning. Finally.