Jonny Rep have only officially been on the scene as a band for the past couple of years, but their relationship as friends and as musicians goes back much further. “We’ve all known each other for a good number of years, and the three of us were in bands together, many many moons ago, and we all got married, had children, got proper jobs and all that, takes up a lot of time. But the last couple years, we just kind of said, it’s stupid to waste such good times: we’ll go back to the music. So we got together and we started dusting off a few tunes, and it worked out. We’re all really good friends, like a big family, we have ten children between the five of us. They don’t come on tour with us, though they would love to go.”
With their reputation in the Cork music scene, they’re touring with some of the greats, but that doesn’t mean their ambitions don’t reach even higher. “We’re playing with The Frank and Walters, they’re good fun, and we’re playing with them on March 11 at this place in Cork called the Yard Bar. You could put in a good word about how we’d love to play the Electric Picnic, but I understand if that’s a tall order.”
As Pat explains, Jonny Rep is hoping to keep in touch with their old school roots. “When we were growing up, the big thing was everyone wanting to be in a band. Now I see at my own shows, all the kids just sit in front of screens. It’s hard, we’re old school, we’re not great at social media. So we’re just trying to get our music to people the traditional way. We’ve been lucky enough to have airtime on the radio, and we love to play gigs as much as possible.”
See: Jonny Rep plays the Yard Bar March 11.
Hear: Their album, Cold Sunbeam, is available now.