It's the Irish Invasion!

No less than 15, repeat FIFTEEN, Irish bands will be crossing the Atlantic this March to take part in one of the biggest and most widely respected music conventions in the world – South By South West.

The sizeable Irish contingent consists of Marc Carroll, The Connect Four Orchestra, Donnacha Costello, David Donohoe, Estel, The Frames, Daemien Frost, The Jimmy Cake, Joan Of Arse, Iarla O’Lionaird, The Redneck Manifesto, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Roesy, Spree and Woodstar.

SXSW (for short) is an annual convention held in Austin, Texas, featuring festivals, trade shows and conferences in the areas of music, film and internet; attracting major artists, labels, producers, promoters and all manner of industry heads from every corner of the globe. Many major acts make their name at SXSW, including The Polyphonic Spree and Beck, to name but a couplet.

Alpha Relish guru and drummer-type with the aforementioned Daemien Frost, David Hagney (aka Hapi), is involved with MusiColour Management alongside Bernie McGrath. "We made a joint application for a number of bands from Dublin," he says, "out of which The Redneck Manifesto, The Connect 4 Orchestra, The Jimmy Cake, Daemien Frost, Estel and Joan Of Arse were accepted. Of course, we were all over the moon when we heard the news but the feeling's since been replaced by a sobering air of practicality. Collectively, it's going to cost us a small fortune to get all the bands over and we're presently investigating ways to raise the money."

However, the collective are now even more determined to make the trek, having gotten in touch with an indie label run by one of the SXSW application officers.
"I got a call one evening from the guy in the SXSW office who was dealing with our application and he was so impressed with the standard of music we sent over that he started talking about a label he runs over there which is about to release an album by a group many of the members in the accepted bands are familiar with.
"So, what do I think we'll get out of it? Well, we've already made contact with a like-minded label and the guy's trying to get us to play on the same stage as the bands on his label – I think that means he likes us! I expect it to be a lot of fun and if the bands do the goundwork, like getting in touch with labels they'd like to work with and appropriate U.S. press people, something else might come from it. There's a lot of work to be done – getting visas, flights, backline etc. in order – but I'm confident we can all get over there if we put our minds to it. We're all still really excited and optimistic about the whole thing. It's an amazing opportunity for everyone involved."

Hotpress.com will be updating readers on the Irish endeavor over the next few months. Keep those peepers peeled, now!