Frontier Kings

Sanzkrit are a band who know all about the meaning of ‘in it for the long haul’. When they formed at school, little did they know it would be a decade before they’d issue their debut album. Now, on the eve of the release of After The Wedding , frontman Dave Marron is visibly excited about finally getting his music out there.

“I think once we started working on the album last year, there was a lot more focus on the band,” he says from his Carrickmacross home. “Up until last year, we were really just a band working on our own – then we got a PR and marketing person, and we also have a manager, which has been a great help. We were doing everything ourselves up ‘til then, and whilst we were well able to do it, we wanted to focus more on the music. The business side was infringing on the art.”
Taking a more professional stance certainly hasn’t harmed their prospects: with an Electric Picnic 2008 performance (“a huge highlight for us”) under their belts, 2009 is going to be an even bigger year for the band who say that it took them a lot of hard work and “about ten bassists” to reach the point they’re at now.
The quartet are currently in the market for labels to release After The Wedding in the rest of Europe, where they’ve already made an impression on Italian observers: one of their tracks was recently included on a compilation that’s played in fashion outlets throughout the country. They’ve also signed a marketing and PR deal in the US, should they choose to conquer audiences across the pond at any stage. Before that, though, there’ll be a series of singles, and plenty of Irish touring to hone their already-accomplished moody sound.
“We’ll just get as much radio play as possible, and hopefully get to some of the bigger and smaller festivals this summer,” Marron ruminates. “I suppose we’ll learn a lot from the Irish release, so we’ll be able to do it more efficiently elsewhere.”
With fellow-countymen The Flaws already having made huge inroads on the Irish music scene, too, Marron feels that being a non-Dublin based band has its benefits. Even though there’s no notable live music venue in Monaghan, geographically, he says, it’s easy to get to most major Irish towns and cities from their border home.
“I suppose a big thing for us is that we have an identity – the fact that we’re from County Monaghan,” he adds. “A lot of Dublin bands, whether people have heard them or not, can get lumped in with ‘Oh, it’s another Dublin band’. So I think, with the likes of The Flaws, and Ham Sandwich, and The Blizzards, there’s been a lot of bands that have done fairly well from outside Dublin. That’s always encouraging for us. We’re very excited about the future.”

www.myspace.com/sanzkrit