- Music
- 16 Oct 09
Border Community
Two years ago Carrickmacross foursome Sanzkrit were on the brink of splitting but now they’re one of the hottest acts on the local scene. Vocalist, guitarist and Monaghan man extraordinaire Dave Marron shares the inspiration behind their drastic turnaround.
Sanzkrit frontman Dave Marron remembers the moment he decided to pack in his job at an architectural firm and devote himself to rock and roll. “MGMT’s ‘Time To Pretend’ came on the radio,” he says. “The lyrics are about being sick of the nine to five commute. In the song he wants to be a rock star shooting heroin in Paris. I was at work and thought, ‘Jesus, I’m not cut out for this!’”
Did anyone tell the Monaghan lad he was crazy to throw it all away for a pipe dream?
“Yeah, everybody!” he exclaims. “But when I left my job the company had 180 people in it and now it’s down to like 16. Your parents always tell you, ‘I know you love the music, but always have your nine to five’. It’s kind of ironic now that it’s the other way round. I’m probably better off trying to live off music.”
Sanzkrit’s sound falls into the category of guitar-driven gloom-rock with occasional touches of the Dandy Warhols.
“We felt that we needed to show a bit of variation,” Marron explains. “It gives us a bit more scope going forward. I would imagine that album number two will be very different.”
Marron met drummer Pauric Duffy at school in their native Carrickmacross where they’re still based.
“We moved to Dublin a couple of years ago and felt a little bit out of place. You lose your own identity. I mean, no criticism of bands who do that but it just didn’t work for us, really.”
In their ten years on the go, Sanzkrit are rumoured to have gone through nearly a dozen bassists. Surely this is an exaggeration?
“Actually, it wouldn’t be a lie!” he laughs. “We went through a lot of bassists. I think what happened was most bass players we had were eager to play covers and make money and we were eager to play our own stuff, it was a conflict of interests.”
Marron isn’t as squeaky clean as you might imagine a softly-spoken boy from the countryside to be. Indeed, even as an architect he had a rebellious streak.
“When I asked for a raise and it wasn’t forthcoming I moved to a different company. But before I did I decided to do a bit of damage. There was a plan for a really important shopping centre in County Monaghan and you know those little figures to show the size of the model? I sabotaged them a bit and put a kid pointing at two dogs fucking. So if someone wants to go into Monaghan County Council and ask for the plans...”
After The Funeral is out now on House Of Strange Vinyl Records. Keep a close eye on myspace.com/sanzkrit for upcoming gigs.
