Kid Rock

“There’s pictures of us having our lunch going around a lot of first and second year girls’ phones!” 16-year old Nathan O’Regan boasts. “Me and Darragh got a note from a girl who’d learned our timetable off by heart!” Ah, the turmoils of being in the best school-based rock band in the country.

School Of Rock winners The Truffle Shuffles formed in 2007 (and with an average age of 14, just about on the right side of puberty) when a teacher urged them to enter the Irish-language talent competition Scleip. “’We did ‘Highway To Hell’ in Irish,” scruffy front man O’Regan explains. “’Bothar Ifreann’ or something it was called. It didn’t really roll off the tongue.”
So what did the Scleip judges make of this AC/DC gaeilge mash-up? “Oh, we lost! It was a funny first gig. We weren’t even given a sound check, so the levels were all over the place.”
“And I lost my stool!” drummer Darragh Curtin chimes in. “So they put me on a bar stool that was about a foot over the drum kit. Drums were sliding all over the place!”
“It was horrific!” O’Regan laughs.
It was about this time that the boys changed their name from Just Add Water to The Truffle Shuffles, something they still hold against Goonies fan Darragh. “Dave Fanning said we nearly lost marks for our stupid name.” O’Regan jokes.
Stupid name or no stupid name, entering School Of Rock transformed the lives of the Ballincollig foursome. Again, huge thanks are due to a Colaiste Choilm teacher who approached the transition year lads about entering the competition. Self-penned ballad ‘Before You Go’, a rather soulful piece of downbeat rock, won them the title.
I have to ask, detention and pimples aside, what do 16 and 17-year-olds make music about?
“I think the last six months, for me anyway, there’s been lots going on in loads of ways.” O’Regan confesses. “Right after the competition there was all the rush and running around, and then one of our friends passed away so we were kind of influenced that way. I try and make a point of never questioning anything that’s coming and just go with it.” (One more little nugget of maturity like that and I might have to ask to see their passports.)
The Munster heat was in the bag (perhaps I’m making it sound a little easy- ”We were all really tired and really sick and then I stage dived and I got given out to!”), but the finals were not without their problems. “The two of them were at the Young Scientist Of The Year,” O’Regan taunts. “I rang Jake at one stage, asking ‘Where’s Darragh?’ and he said ‘He’s in African drumming. He’s nearly got the high score though, leave him alone a while!’ I was freaking out!”
O’Regan eventually managed to rally Curtin, bassist Eoghan Hassett and rhythm guitarist Jake McAuliffe back to the RTE studios in time for their “alright” set. Surely better than alright, lads?
O’Regan explains; “I actually remember coming off thinking, not that it went badly, but just that we were so different to all the other bands.”
“They were all big mental songs with loads of tricky bits.” McAuliffe adds. “We were the only band without a really big energetic song.”
“He lost his shoe as well!” O’Regan cracks, pointing the finger at Curtin.
Seems the young sticksman can’t keep tabs on his outfit any better than his drum kit. “Yeah, I played in one school shoe and one normal shoe!”
Wayward shoes and the lack of any “tricky bits” aside, something went right for the spirited Corkonians that night. O’Regan remembers the moment Larry Gogan announced the winner; “The suspense was killing everyone. Then he goes; ‘The winners are, from Ballincollig...’ and that was it. We didn’t even hear our name then ‘cause all our people around us were screaming so loud.”
And the four rockers didn’t have the tiniest inkling that they’d won? “Not even kind of. No seriously, if you were at the sound check you would have understood! We were there and we were just like ‘Awh lads, we’re going to be laughed off the stage!’”
Bagging themselves e10,000 worth of musical equipment and five days’ recording time in Pulse Studios in Dublin, The Truffle Shuffles were told about the final part of their prize, a slot at Oxegen, live on The Rick O’Shea Show a few weeks later. O’Regan recalls; “(School of Rock Coordinator) Helen Cullen rang me an hour before and said ‘Try get as many people as you can around for this.’ There was about five people left in my school, so we just got my loudest friend. In fairness, he made loads of noise!”
Before I leave the lovable upstarts, I ask what they’ve got planned for Oxegen. I’m assured; “We’ll just try not to mess up too much.”
When next I see the The Truffle Shuffles, they are christening the Hot Press New Bands Stage in Punchestown with a fiery set that has a small but noisy crowd head-banging and swaying in equal measures. Displaying more professionalism and dedication than any schoolboys should, O’Regan’s voice in particular is truly thrilling the masses on this Friday afternoon. “Mess up” my eye.