For a band just about to release their debut album, Hybrasil have been through a lot. The Wicklow five-piece have been plugging away since 2004, when a group of childhood friends returned from various overseas sojourns in the UK and America, built a recording studio in their mate’s house and decided to form a band. Although the five members had all played in a variety of garage punk groups as teenagers, this early incarnation of Hybrasil was like nothing they had done before or since.

“At the start we were more like an Americana or country band,” says lead singer Spud Murphy, grateful for the excuse that a phonecall from hotpress gives him to take a break from lugging the band’s equipment into The Village. “We used accordions and lap steel guitars – it was a more organic and acoustic sound.” Shortly after the band played the Hard Working Class Heroes festival in 2005, an unfortunate accident had unforeseen consequences. “I broke my arm and I wasn’t really able to play guitar for a while,” recalls Spud, “so I started messing about with drum machines and synthesisers and our first single (‘We Got Music’) basically came out of that.”
Things gathered momentum nicely after that – the We Got Music EP was released in the UK, Germany and Japan and the band toured Ireland and the UK with names like Republic Of Loose, Idlewild and The Chalets. After completing another Irish and UK tour with The Frank and Walters in 2006 and releasing a second EP, the band capped off their year with an appearance on Ryan Tubridy’s RTÉ show. But despite the seemingly relentless upward progression, all was not well behind the scenes. “What we expected from our record label and what they were doing for us were two different things – we got fed up of it,” says Spud. Although they had had a completed album on their hands for almost a year, by November of 2006 the label seemed no closer to deciding on a release date, so the mutual decision was made to part ways, leaving the band in a determined mood. “We did learn a lot from being with the label, but we figured that we could do just as good a job ourselves,” declares Spud.
Having set up their own Manazo Records imprint to handle the release of their debut, the band has embraced the digital revolution, with their latest single ‘San Fran’ being a download-only release. “Personally, I love to have a hard copy of something,” says Spud, “but I think these days you just have to move with the times, especially with the kids and their iPods – in five year’s time kids won’t even know what a CD is!” And will they still know who Hybrasil are by then? “I’d be happy if we’re still making records by then,” says Spud. “We make music for ourselves that we’re happy with and if other people like it, all the better. It’s brilliant, especially when it comes to gigs and we get people singing our songs back to us. It’s strange, but it’s great!”
Hardened veterans of the Irish music scene that they are, Hybrasil have made some friends along the way. The sleeve notes of The Monkey Pole tip the hat to fellow Irish bands Kill City Defectors and Warlords of Pez. “We’re good friends with one of the lads out of Warlords and we’ve played with the Kill Citys a few times,” explains Spud, “We’re also good mates with the boys from Ilya K – I met up with a few of them at Electric Picnic there and had a few beers.”
One of the most interesting anecdotes of Hybrasil’s career to date must be their place on the support bill of the first concert in a decade by the near-mythical Liverpudlians The La’s. What was it like meeting the supposed reclusive genius Lee Mavers in person? “I thought he was a real decent bloke,” remembers Spud. “I could see he was definitely a bit ‘out there’ and had his own ideals, but as regards sitting down having a conversation with the chap, he was dead sound, just like a regular bloke. He was as nervous about the gig as we were, so that made us feel a lot better!”
The band was also hand-picked by Mike Scott of the Waterboys in February of this year to join the Hiberno-Scots on tour (he contacted them over MySpace). While this meant Hybrasil could play to their biggest crowds to date at venues like Dublin’s Point, Belfast’s Waterfront Hall and Cork’s Opera House, the boys were a little disappointed at the backstage antics (or lack thereof) that they encountered on the tour.
“There was plenty of drinking sessions going on there, but we were expecting them to be a bit more rock’n’roll,” says Spud. “I think they’ve hung up their rock ‘n’ roll boots as such. We expected to be on the beer with them and hanging out, but I think they like to go back and hang out in their hotel rooms after the gigs. We just like to keep going!”b

The Monkey Pole is out now. Lead single ‘San Fran’ is out September 21 on download only.