A very big house in the country

There are two dogs buried down at the end of that field,” Barra Heavey, guitarist and keyboard player with The Immediate informs me. We're looking out from their rehearsal room onto the Malahide farmhouse that half the band, along with a few other artists, and one or two girlfriends, get to call “home”.
“They’re not buried one on top of the other or anything,” he continues, “they’re side by side. Pet symmetry.”

Boom and indeed boom! The Immediate’s rehearsal space is not rented on an hourly or daily basis. Nor is it decked out with superior-quality equipment – or heating for that matter.
It’s in a loft above some stables dating from the ‘50s. This was the setting last year for their eye-grabbing 'Never Seen' video, and currently houses two extremely unfriendly ex-racehorses (the name of one, Bob, is known; the other remains aloof to the point of rudeness). Not fans of indie rock we presume.
“We’re getting quite polarised reactions to our album, everyone either loves it or hates it,” Conor O’Brien (vocals and guitar) announces.
Fear not – Dave Hedderman (vocals, guitar, bass) is adamant that this sort of divided response is a good thing.
“I’d be really worried if they didn’t give a shit at all. Some of the reactions we’ve had show that, if nothing else, the music can really get under people’s skin.”
He’s right – those with a taste for the mediocre or the predictable won’t like The Immediate one bit. Then again, I could have told you that the first time I saw them frantically swapping instruments at one of their live shows this time last year (the instrument swapping is a trademark: Conor plays drums and guitar; Dave alternates between guitar and bass).
Listening to their debut album, In Towers & Clouds, the word 'organic' springs to mind. The current single ‘Stop And Remember’ is a good example of the energy, imagination and originality that runs through the record. Here, in fact, is the thinking man’s indie rock LP (provided you aren't averse to some iffy vocals here and there).
In person and on stage, The Immediate are intense and forthright. As musicians, they are incredibly tight – the connection between them seeming almost psychic. This is not exactly surprising. The core of the group have been playing together since they were 12 (Barra Heavey, who joined 18 months ago, is the exception).
In school, the band would play shows at lunchtime. Initially, they performed cover versions. Before long, though, they were working on their own material.
Looking back, the four say they owe their musical education to, of all people, a school caretaker, who introduced the youngsters to such maverick talents as The Velvet Underground, Love and Serge Gainsbourg (the caretaker is still in touch and even popped into one of their recent Dublin gigs).
Working with producer Chris Shaw (whose credits include Super Furry Animals, Wilco and – oh yes – Bob Dylan), The Immediate recorded In Towers & Clouds in Surrey. Most of the songs on the record were stitched together from fragments of lyrics written by all of the band.
"Even though they're written by different people, they're all coming from the same place," explains Dave. What place might that be, we wonder?
"There's definitely a perspective of looking at something. There are no slushy romance songs," he asserts.
Kicking back in their rural retreat – all of 20 minutes from central Dublin – The Immediate are charming company: equal parts jokey and philosophical.
Their music is in much the same vein. A sense of danger runs through their songbook – this, clearly, is a band not afraid of going out on a limb.
At the same time, they're prone to the odd bout of soul-gazing. If amateur philosophy is your bag you've come to the right place. The Immediate, it seems, have an opinion on everything. Take, for instance, the internet. The Immediate don’t like it very much. Not even Google. Doesn't everybody like Google?
“With the internet everyone has become a five-minute expert, they need information so they Google it and then forget about it," rues Dave. "And it’s like that with music. Before you used to go out and get an album and keep it. Now you press a button and download the single.”
Worse still, they believe, the internet is encouraging people to live a hermetic existence.
“When we were young and bought records and stuff, we got to know the guy in the record store," Conor explains. "But if you’re a kid today, and you’re staying in your room downloading, you're disconnected. You don’t have the opportunity to interact with people who can teach you things about that music and life in general.”
Surely, though, they have a soft spot for MySpace? Doesn't everybody adore MySpace? Apparently not.
“Kids come home from school, go on MySpace and on their profile they have, ‘Emotion: Sad’, and, ‘Listening to: such-and-such a band’. It’s all bullet points,” complains Barra. “They're all walking around feeling really weird. The internet is making them feel disconnected."
Far from allowing us to express our individuality, MySpace, they say, drives people into pigeonholes.
“You go to MySpace – for ‘status’ it has four options: ‘in a relationship’, ‘gay’, ‘straight’ or ‘bi’. And you’re like, ‘Wow! Six million people in the world and we’ve got four options!’ "
It's the MySpace generation that The Immediate want to win over to their cause. Their goal is to connect with the disconnected. A tad hippy-dippy? Maybe, but they don't care.
“I listened to the album recently from a distance and I was like, ‘Fuck! It’s about love!’” Conor exclaims, while also laughing at the idea. “And I felt like a bit of a hippy when I thought of it like that – but it’s true. It’s about connection.”
Music isn’t the only form of artistic expression going on in the house. Dave and Pete (Toomey, vocals, drums, bass) know how to wield a paintbrush – the former is responsible for all the artwork on the album, and the singles.
“The paintings weren’t done with the music in mind at all," he volunteers. "The challenge I gave myself was to put down on canvas something that happened to me everyday. But they definitely work with the songs. When you’re really creative those magic things happen.”
While it may sound as though The Immediate have their heads screwed on and know what they want from their career, they weren't always so focused.
“Early on, we didn’t really know what we were doing," admits Dave. "Now that we’ve got the first album under our belt we know who we are.”
Today, we find them fighting fit and with their eyes on the prize. That, however, doesn't mean they spend every hour of the day plotting the next stage of their career.
“We’re not taking it so seriously that we don’t think you should just fucking dance and let go as well,” Conor assures us. “That’s the whole point.”
One highlight of the band's career to date was a visit to the South By South West festival in Austin, Texas, in March. What stays with them isn't their own shows, but an Elvis Costello performance they caught while dashing between venues.
“It was one of the best gigs I've ever seen," slobbers Conor. "He was amazing!"
Exhaustion rather took away from the fun, though.
“I couldn't stay awake for it. We were trying to watch it, but we hadn't slept.”