Scripture Perfect

It all started with a Gretsch guitar and a vintage 1960s drum kit. Or at least, that’s the short version of how Preachers Son - aka Kíla bassist Brian Hogan and former Engine Alley drummer Emmaline Duffy Fallon came together.

“It’s kind of true,” says Hogan, speaking on the day their compelling debut album, Love Life & Limb, is launched. “I’d bought this great new guitar and I thought, ‘I just have to put a band around this thing."
Duffy-Fallon seems to confirm this unlikely tale: “Well, he’s obsessed with the sound of guitars so it doesn’t surprise me. I’m the same when it comes to drums - I have a Sonar Teardrop kit from 1968 that I bought for $350 in the States”.
The longer version of how this unlikely pairing took place is somewhat different. Hogan was on a sabbatical from Kíla and was working on some songs when Duffy-Fallon, who had recently returned from a long spell in New York, entered the frame.
“I was planning on making a solo album anyway, ” Hogan elaborates. “I’d been demoing stuff for a year or so and I felt it was missing something. My better half said, ‘Why not put together a band?’ I’d never crossed paths with Emmaline until about two years ago through mutual musician friends.”
They hit it off immediately and got down to work.
“We just rehearsed for a bit and recorded the album in two days with friends like Kieran Kennedy, Liam O Maonlai and Gavin Friday,” says Brian. “The strings were done by Rory Coleman who works with U2. We just knocked it out basically. And now we’re out gigging.”
The album - a glorious melange of grungy sonics, glam rock guitar textures and Gothic lyrics is like nothing either of them has ever done before, as Hogan explains: “It’s a nod to everything I grew up listening to, mainly through my older sister’s record collection. Which means there’s everything in there from ABBA and AC/DC to Bowie’s Hunky Dory and Lou Reed’s Transformer. Emmaline is a big Bowie fan too so we had that common ground.”
For Duffy-Fallon, now living in rural isolation in the Wicklow mountains, Preachers Son offered a route back into music following her relocation from the Big Apple.
“I was in the States for ten years playing in different bands and I got really homesick, but I had another career as a dog trainer - a super nanny for dogs (laughs). I worked with a couple of celebs but I can’t name names as they asked me to sign a contract.”
The inspiration for the duo’s moniker should be obvious to anyone who knows that Hogan is the son of Larry Hogan – a popular figure back in the 1970s who scored a huge hit with the Christian folk song ‘Simple Song of Love’.
“My dad literally was a preacher – a lay preacher,” he explains. “I met Neil Hannon recently – whose father is a Bishop – and we were having a laugh over it. It’s a good name to have. It has this dark quasi-religious imagery.”
Recently returned from a well-received indie festival appearance in Italy, Preachers Son take to the road with a vengeance over the coming months in support of the album.
“We didn’t want to replicate the album so we had to relearn some of the songs in a more acoustic fashion,” Duffy-Fallon explains. “But we don’t want to sound folksy or country. I was trying to channel Dave Grohl on Nirvana Unplugged - I love hitting it hard”

Love Life & Limb is out now on Reekus. Preachers Son play Whelan's, Dublin (November 11) and the Forum, Waterford (12). Watch the videos for 'X For Sandra' and '26 Years' on hotpress.com.