Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Band

There’s something quaint about the early days of a band – young musicians honing their craft, cutting their teeth in the darkened corners of pokey pubs and community halls. When Hot Press asks Ryan McCloskey and John Doherty – collectively known as Little Hours – about the group’s first gig, we’re expecting something along the same lines.

“Electric Picnic was our first official gig.”
Sorry, come again?
The boys break into incredulous laughter. “We didn’t even realise it until we did our first interview and were asked,” shrugs guitarist Ryan. “I guess we’ve both played so many times over the years, it was just another gig.”
The two young men from Donegal may be together as Little Hours less than a year – a steak dinner to mark their first anniversary is fast approaching – but they were active long before their current guise. The not-so-sprawling metropolis of Killybegs had seen the singer-songwriters cross paths on many occasions, and even join forces in the past. It’s fair to say, though, that the success of the past nine months came out of the blue.
Vocalist and pianist John explains: “It was only a few weeks ago when someone started listing things back – ‘You did this, you did that’ – that it hit us. Every day, something new seems to come along.”
Those new things can come in many forms, from the staggering radio support given to the band’s first single, ‘It’s Still Love’, to the music industry’s casual disregard for a lovingly planned night out.
“My girlfriend had bought me tickets to see James Bay,” Ryan smiles. “I was looking forward. Next thing, we get the shout to open for him.”
The boys would watch the hotly-tipped Bay from the side of the stage, basking in the afterglow of one of their most high profile support slots to date. There’s hot competition, mind; 2014 also saw them share stages with the likes of Tom Baxter and Amber Run, as well as another Irish artist making serious waves.
“We’ve supported Gavin James a few times,” says Ryan, who is – like most of the Irish music scene – beside himself at the news of the Dubliner’s Capitol Records deal. “You couldn’t find anyone who’d deserve it more. Gavin is an absolute gent.”
Of course, it’s not long since both Ryan and John were plying their trade as solo performers in their own right.
“We both had our own stuff,” explains Ryan, “so there was plenty of material built up. When we came together and started showing each other some of it, we thought there were similarities. We took the bones of different songs, and started to mesh them together, adding to what was already there.”
Their first visit to the studio in March saw them emerge with a bona fide hit in the aforementioned ‘It’s Still Love’, an infectious, soaring ballad that would sit handsomely alongside our cover stars Kodaline on radio playlists. As it turns out, that’s exactly where it landed, much to the duo’s surprise.
“We obviously didn’t anticipate how well ‘It’s Still Love’ was going to do,” admits Ryan. “It’s sort of running by itself, taken on a life of its own.”
While the single continues to garner attention, the boys are gearing up for a date at The Pepper Canister – incredibly, just their second headline show thus far. Then again, the first was to launch their debut EP in a sold-out Sugar Club, so they’ve set a high bar.
“Before that gig,” John laughs, “we thought all our friends would come down from Donegal. They didn’t! But then we landed, and it was completely sold out. We didn’t know anybody; it’s just people who’ve stumbled across you at gigs along the way.”
It underlined the importance of live performance, something that wasn’t always on the forefront of their minds.
“We didn’t really think about the whole live side of things at the start,” Ryan admits. “We said we’d get recording, push for radio, and try to do things through social media. We thought we were being smart; now, of course, we know how important gigging is. We were under the illusion that you could do it all online, but most of our fanbase has been built through touring.”
Their time off the road is largely spent writing, though sometimes it occurs very much on the road. “I was driving here the other day,” laughs Ryan, “and John was in the passenger seat, writing a song on the mandolin.”
The creative process now being a collaborative effort, it’s one more thing to which they’ve had to adjust. “It’s going surprisingly well,” John reports. “Honesty is key! You have to be straight, or you end up messing about for too long.”
And messing about is the last thing on their minds.
“I’ve already handed in my notice at work,” says Ryan, a soon-to-be-former software engineer. “I’ll be done at the end of the month, and giving this the full whack from then on. I couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t give it everything; otherwise, it’s all been for nothing.”
John continues: “Six months ago we were sitting in our bedrooms, putting a song online to see what might happen. There’s something moving here now, we’ve got to take that opportunity.”
It’s a leap of faith, for sure, but there’s an air of confidence about
the duo.
“There’s definitely nerves,” concedes Ryan, “but we feel good about it. We’ve no reason not to be, everything that’s coming our way is positive. If there’s pressure, it’s because the ball is in our court. It’s down to what we write and produce from here to pave the way.”
Little Hours’ time, you feel, is fast approaching.