Headline Act: Use Your Delusion

Axl Rose spent 17 years tweaking Chinese Democracy. Portishead kept us waiting a decade for Third. Then there’s the sadly ironic case of Swedish outfit Algarnas Tradgard, whose 1973 album Delayed was left on label shelves for a whopping 28 years.

And then there are bands such as Walter Mitty And The Realists, who knocked out their first album in record time.
“Originally we went in to the studio to record one song and it kicked off from there,” frontman Niall McTeigue says of debut LP Green Light Go, “The album kind of popped out!”
He notes that the ease with which the little bundle of new wave joy dropped into their laps is largely due to Cranberries sticks man/production guru Fergal Lawler.
“We got on so well with Ferg. It was relatively new for him as well. It was his first time producing an album with a full band.”
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. How did this group of merry dreamers meet?
“I started off doing solo gigs as Walter Mitty And The Realists. I don’t know why, actually!” the frontman chuckles. “Colin and Paul were in another band and I borrowed them to record a demo. Then that band split so we were working as a three-piece for a while.”
Conveniently, the trio were next able to recruit guitarist Conor from the McTeigue family. What’s it like working and performing with your brother?
“Ahh...” Niall trails, “hmmm...”
All manly hugs and tandem bike rides, then?
“Most of the time it’s grand,” he smirks, “If any two people were gonna kick off at each other in the band it’d definitely be us! We know how to rub each other up the wrong way!”
It’s fair to say that, on first being released, Green Light Go didn’t exactly take the musical world by storm.
“It was unfindable on iTunes for a while!” McTeigue laughs, “I think the name of the album was on it. But not the name of the band. And then, when you did find it, you got a picture of two Indian dudes with ‘Green Light Go’ in gothic writing.”
Thankfully, the wild and innovative Green Light Go is causing much more of a stir these days and is accompanied by more appropiate artwork. One of the standouts is ‘What Invisible People Talk About’, which contains some amazing human-made beats.
“That’s Benoit!” McTeigue beams, “He’s a Belgian dude living in Limerick for a good few years now. He’s got a really unique beatbox thing going on. I saw him play one night and thought, ‘You know what? That’d work!’”
Other collaborators include Cork filmmaker Brian Deane, best known for winning the Spike Lee award at Cannes for his 2008 movie Without Words.
“He got in touch with Conor and said he’d be on for doing a video for ‘Green Light Go.’ Part of it was recorded driving around Galway in one of those old ‘60s Volkswagens with no heating. We had to leave the windows open because they kept fogging up. It was fucking freezing! We were driving around for about five hours for a few seconds of footage!”
A summer of touring and festivals lies ahead for the Limerick/Leitrim collective. Since the cornerstone of the Walter Mitty experience is McTeigue’s ferocious punk yelp, how’s he planning on keeping his vocal chords in good nick?
“When we’re on tour, I have to not smoke and to drink bottles of honey.”
Bottles of honey?
“Yeah, squeezy honey. Pour a fucking load of that into your mouth – it’s good!”

Walter Mitty & The Realists play Tobergal Lane, Sligo (May 15) and the Hot Press Freezer Sessions in the Sugar Club, Dublin (June 11). Green Light Go is out now on 45 Records.