Donegal folk-pop duo Little Hours aren’t the type to hang around. John Doherty and Ryan McCloskey played their first ever gig at Electric Picnic; mere months later, their debut single ‘Is This Love’ was jostling with Hozier and The Script for Choice Music Prize Song Of The Year honours. They’ve just been selected to join Kodaline, Walking On Cars and Canadian blues-rockers July Talk on an extraordinary Jameson Bow St. Sessions show line-up set for The Academy on March 16.
Oh, and there’s the small matter of a debut album to think about too.

“Yeah, we’ve been working away up here in Donegal,” Doherty explains. “Some of the ideas we’ve had for months, and we’re sifting through them now. And then there’s other stuff we’ve literally just come up with over the past week. It’s a process of surveying everything we have and picking the best material to go on the album. We’re trying to nail the direction we want to go in – and how we want to sound.”

It is a vital moment in any band’s career – but these guys have shown an ability beyond their years.

“In terms of standout material, we’ve got a track called ‘Wires’ – I love doing it live,” John says. “There’s another one, ‘Call Somebody’, which has also gone down very well at gigs. I mean, you might never hear of them again – but they’re two I’m excited about right now (laughs). Hopefully we’ll head into the studio over the next two or three months – it’ll definitely be before summer.”

But first there’s the Bow St. Sessions gig. Little Hours have previously crossed paths with the Kodaline boys, joining Steve Garrigan and co. on their UK and Ireland tour last year.

“We got very lucky with supports in 2015,” reflects John. “As well as Kodaline, we also played with Hudson Taylor, and Walking On Cars too. One brilliant aspect of the Kodaline tour was that we played 3Arena before Christmas. That was unbelievable! And then we played 3Arena again on New Year’s Eve! It was a really eclectic lineup, with ourselves, Kila, The Coronas and Fatboy Slim. I didn’t know what to think beforehand, but Fatboy Slim actually blew my mind.”

So can we expect a dance element to Little Hours’ debut? It is a question asked at least half in jest!

“After that show, we’ll definitely work with Fatboy Slim,” chuckles John. “In fact, he’s up here with us in Donegal at the moment (Laughs)!”

The Jameson family motto is Sine Metu, which is Latin for ‘Fear Less’. Was there a moment when Little Hours decided to go for broke and pursue their musical dream?
“Yeah, there was,” nods John. “When we started the band, I was going to college at BIMM in Dublin, and Ryan was working as a software engineer. At the beginning of last year, we started to get a bit of radio-play and we got some support gigs. But Ryan was having a hard time getting off work, so there was a moment where we said, ‘Look, we’ve got to do this full time now’. Luckily enough, my college was very supportive, which was great. Anyway, Ryan left his job – and shortly after that, we did a headline show in the Pepper Canister. Sony got interested as a result of that – and then we signed a deal. Since then, it’s been a crazy year.”

Little Hours became friendly with Walking On Cars when they supported them.
“We were huge fans of theirs beforehand,” he recalls, “so it was brilliant to get the invite. To meet them and see how sound they were, it was great. That tour was actually the first run of bigger gigs that we did. It was a new environment, but afterwards, we knew we wanted to go on to that level.

“They’re gas lads. We actually did a bit of writing with Pa – we went down to his house in Dingle and worked on some stuff. We wanted to see how he writes and vice versa. I’m not sure if any of that material will ever see the light of day, but there was one track in particular that was very cool, so you never know.”

John is clearly excited about returning to live performance – starting with the Bow St.
Sessions gig.

“It’s going to be a great night,” he enthuses. “We can’t wait to do it and we feel very privileged to be playing with the other acts. It’s going to be really special.”

Little Hours play Bow St. Sessions @ The Academy on 16 March with Kodaline, Walking On Cars and July Talk. For your chance to be there, apply for complimentary tickets at hotpress.com/bowstreetsessions