Experimental collective 8 Ball might just be the oddest Irish band on the scene. Their recently released album, With All Your Friends, showcases a dizzying array of styles – from classic pop and indie to vintage electronica and even jazz. There’s so much going on, says singer Austin Agnew, that even explaining the band’s sound to newcomers can be a challenge.

“We call it the taxi driver question,” he laughs. “When they hear you’re in a band, they always ask, ‘What sort of stuff do you do?’ or, ‘What do you sound like?’ We can never answer that question properly. We’ve given up trying. One journalist called us ‘electro, sci- fi, indie-pop’, which is one way of describing us. Others have compared us to everyone from LCD Soundsystem to Spiritualized.”
With no less than seven in the band (including five vocalists) they’re bigger, personnel-wise than most other outfits too. According to Austin, it’s a case of safety in numbers and there’s no danger of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Of course, the big question is: how do you keep so many musicians happy?
Says Agnew: “We don’t even try to control it. We’ve such a wide and varied set of influences. When it comes to ideas, everyone contributes and at the end of the day, the best idea always wins.”
There are, says Agnew, no defined roles as far as who plays what.
“Everyone chops and changes instruments. No-one is sat behind something for the whole night. The drummer might play the bass guitar for example. When we play live we usually have electric guitars, bass, an array of old analog synths, and laptops with backing tracks. We can do an acoustic set if required and we can tone the sound down to whatever suits the gig.”
Despite their experimental approach and sonic complexities 8 Ball are anything but a studio bound entity. In fact they thrive on live performance, as Agnew enthuses
“We did the Electric arena at the Electric Picnic. We got a great reaction. We’ve also played with Elbow in Vicar St., which was good too and with The Big Pink in Crawdaddy.”
For With All Your Friends they roped in Ian Caple, a producer/engineer whose CV includes My Bloody Valentine, Kate Bush and Suede among dozens of others over the past few decades
“We were looking for someone with a track record,” Austin explains. “He’d done Tricky but he’d also worked with bands like Tindersticks, which is the complete opposite of the trip-hop sound. Nothing was too much trouble for him and we ended up recording it in an old barn. We’re all audiophiles and he’s very much into old vintage, valve gear.
“We’re very happy with it - it turned out just as we wanted it to. The way the album sounds is exactly the way we sound.”
So, there’s your answer Mr. Cab Driver – listen to the album and you’ll discover what they sound like!