KMLA ARE a band who have no difficulty articulating a vision and a sound that?s at one and the same time intrinsically Irish yet insistent in glancing outward at the shapes and colours of music from all over the globe. Rossa O?Snodaigh, one of Kmla?s main movers and shakers sees roots music?s popularity as an inevitable result of the disillusionment with pop and rock formats.
?I reckon it?s because rock music has played itself out really,? he opines, ?in that it?s still trying to work off attitude rather than music. A lot of people have grown in attitude and can perceive music more precisely than the likes of grunge, which is music that sounds like it?s coming out of an exhaust pipe, screaming at them.
?Festivals like WOMAD are helping to make the music more accessible, and a lot more marketable. It?s got a lot to do with truth really. I think that any music is brilliant as long as it?s sincere. Heavy metal was insincere because they got hung up on hairstyles, etc., and the punk thing was insincere because it was a wasted attitude. People?s hearts have copped on basically, and they?ll suss out the insincerity straight away.?
It?s not all a question of happy ever after, though. O?Snodaigh is distinctly unimpressed by some of the more recent claims, made particularly in relation to dance. ?I think that calling dance music ?tribal? is a load of wank.? he declares, ?and the term ?Celtic? has been abused to the hilt. Things that are Irish are called Celtic, even though they mightn?t touch on anything that?s Welsh, or Scottish, or Breton or Nova Scotian. It?s just that it?s marketable.?