Amble on Dermot Kennedy and their other celebrity fans

In a recent interview with Hot Press, Amble discusses Dermot Kennedy and other celebrity fans, including Jordie Barrett, Robbie Henshaw and John O’Shea.

On St. Patrick’s Day Eve, Amble was invited by Kennedy to open for him at his inaugural Misneach festival, along with The Frames, Matt Corby, KNEECAP, Meg Mac, Sorcha Richardson, The Scratch, Susan O’Neill, Fynch and Cliffords.

“It was an amazing day with 20,000 people in a venue overlooking Sydney Harbour,” said Robbie Cunningham.

The band reflected on the moment Kennedy first interacted with them.

“Before the festival, Dermot had followed us on Instagram and liked a story of ours, which totally freaked us out – in a good way!” said Ross McNerney. “I remember going to see him early on in Whelan’s, the Olympia and Vicar Street and being blown away by his voice. When somebody who's taken over the world is writing to you, it genuinely takes you aback. And then to find that he’s such a nice, down to Earth, approachable guy. You see some musicians going completely off the rails but stardom really seems to suit him.”

“We’re all texting each other going, ‘Did you see your man’s just followed us?!’” he continued. “My whole life before Amble was sport, so finding out that rugby guys like Jordie Barrett, Robbie Henshaw and James Lowe are fans is massive. We’ve got a lot of big GAA players like Brian Fenton and soccer players like John O’Shea, who followed us the other day, Damien Duff who was at our Olympia gig and Andy Reid, who we’ve had some great nights out with in Nottingham. He’s there one minute telling you these funny stories about playing in the Premier League, and the next he’s singing ‘Mary’s Pub.’ It was gas! There are loads of cool people who I grew up watching in there.”

At the festival, Amble got the opportunity to meet the members of KNEECAP, who Oisín McCaffrey called “really lovely and chilled out.” In the backstage toilets, Cunningham also ran into Glen Hansard.

“The two of us were doing our thing at the urinal and I said, ‘How are you, Glen?’ He was like, ‘Howaya, who are you here with?’ I told him and he went, ‘I don’t know you, but I heard you’re fucking class!’ I said, ‘You’re such an inspiration, you’re part of the reason we’re all doing what we do.’”

Read the full interview in the latest issue of Hot Press: