In the latest Issue of Hot Press: Kin You Dig It?

It’s got to be every musician’s greatest fear. You’re standing on stage, giving it everything you’ve got, rolling out the big hitters, to be faced with stony silence. Add in the fact that it’s a celebration as big as New Year’s Eve in your home city, and you’re talking the ultimate nightmare scenario.

For Otherkin, it was very nearly a reality.
“It was absolutely jam packed, but people seemed to be having a hard time getting into it,” laughs the band’s bassist, David Anthony. “We thought ‘there’s a big enough crowd, why aren’t they making more noise?’ It wasn’t until we’d done our first few songs that we realised it was actually too cold to clap. That was fair, too; when we were rehearsing, we were wrapped in scarfs to the point of looking like a paramilitary organisation. But by the end of our set, we realised that people dancing was going to be our reaction – and they seemed to be enjoying it!”
Indeed, the response from the crowd at the Stephen’s Green shindig was overwhelmingly positive – as most responses to the Dublin quartet have been over the last 12 months – even if some attendees were risking hypothermia. But even if they had succumbed, they’d have been in good hands; both David and frontman Luke Reilly graduated with degrees in Medicine from the Royal College of Surgeons last May. One can only presume, then, that there were two sets of massively disillusioned parents, watching their sons abandon their training for rock’n’roll dreams?
“Our parents have been incredibly supportive,” David reports. “They know how much it means to us, and they also realise that the degree will still be there in five years, but these opportunities we have right now won’t be. Conor (Wynne, the group’s guitarist) had to graduate from his Masters the day of our EP launch, which was the day after we got back from a show in London. The three of us napped through the day; he had his parents ferrying him from the airport, to graduation, to soundcheck. That’s supportive.”
It should be pointed out that the group, completed by drummer Rob Summons, aren’t solely reliant on support from their nearest and dearest. Since the band released single ‘Ay Ay’ last April – and, later, its parent EP The 201 – a queue of fans has been building; radio DJs both here and abroad, bookers from all over Europe, and more than a few listeners eager for a piece of their sound, which might best be characterised as grungy indie with a pop sensibility.
“The EP just sort of came together, if we’re honest. We had the single ready to go, and we figured we’d record a few demos too. But we started thinking, ‘is it just us, or do these not quite sound demo quality anymore?’ When we thought of it as an EP, it felt right.”
By now, the aforementioned assembly of admirers includes BBC heavyweights Annie Mac and Huw Stephens. For a band whose 2015 ambitions originally centred around a single summer festival slot, it’s fair to say the goalposts have moved a little.
“We didn’t see it coming, that’s for sure. To hear your single played by Annie Mac, or any of the major stations here at home, you can’t help but be delighted.”
But for a group who’ve made no secret of their love of a good six-month plan, is it not a bit of a spanner in the works?
“To be fair, we do sit down and set our goals,” he admits. “But it’s not about making things concrete, and that certainly helped last year. You never know what’s coming; we had targets to work towards, but to have everything else happen was a bit ‘holy shit...’”
And ‘holy shit’ distractions aside, what’s on the agenda for the coming year?
“By the end of 2016, we want to have the material for our first album. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to rush things. Writing on tour, for instance, was very difficult for us, and perhaps that’s something we’ll need to become accustomed to.”
You feel that might well be the case. The year began with a trip to Eurosonic, and a reacquaintance with fellow up-and-comers The Academic – “We had a bit too much fun together at Electric Picnic. There may have an incident involving eight young men and a missing bottle of gin,” he whispers – and Dublin Airport may well reach back-of-hand levels of familiarity once their foreign commitments are taken care of.
“It’s not a matter of just playing a show and bang, it’s done, or releasing a single and then that’s it, it’s out there. We’ve seen what can happen if you use those things as the beginning of something. We want to ride that wave, and build some momentum.”
The way things are lining up for Otherkin, you feel it’ll be just what the (almost) doctor ordered.