Kodaline Interview

"Hozier's flying in to Dublin to vote; he's found six hours in his schedule, which is amazing. We're gutted that we can't get back ourselves, but we've stuff happening all day in London."
Mark Prendergast's remorse at Kodaline not being able to bolster the Same-Sex Marriage Referendum 'Yes' vote is genuine, but like he says, there's nary a spare minute in their Friday June 22 to-do list. Having gotten up at stupid o'clock to guest on Sara Cox's BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show and then nipped across the corridor to say 'goodbye' to Fearne Cotton who was presenting her last Radio 1 show - a combined audience of around 15 million - Swords' finest are currently speeding towards the postcard pretty Essex village of Earls Colne where they're headlining an end of series party being thrown by E4's poshtastic Made In Chelsea.
"15 million? If we'd known that we'd have been even more nervous than we were," laughs the Kodaline guitarist. "The Sara Cox thing was a bit surreal because we had the Fonejacker guy, Kayvan Novak, sitting next to us while we were playing and being interviewed. He's really funny and I find really funny people intimidating! I'm okay with live radio because I'm with three of my mates who'll jump in if I need rescuing, but I don't know how people like Hozier, Damien Rice and James Vincent McMorrow do it by themselves."
To that list of solo flying Irish singer-songwriters can be added Gavin James who opened for the Kodaline boys on their recently completed seven-week North American tour.
"We've never had a band come with us on the bus because it'd just be a nightmare, but with Gav it's him, a guitar and a suitcase and that's it!" Mark laughs. "He did the entire tour apart from three dates. Gavin goes on, starts singing and within ten seconds the crowd are hooked. He's got this voice that's just insane, and absolutely smashed it every night. He's told us some of the things he's got coming up and, well, it's not a case of if but when he cracks the States. Gavin's become a good friend and we've written some songs together."
As for Mr. Hozier-Byrne, "I checked out the venues he's playing and it's mental. It's incredible that someone from Ireland has exploded that much in America. He's definitely paved the way for the rest of us."
Routinely packing in 4,000 people every night themselves in the States and Canada, Kodaline were on the same Late Late Show With James Corden the other week as Russell Crowe, Eddie Izzard and Parks And Recreation star Kathryn Hanh.
"Being massive Gavin & Stacey fans, the person we were most excited about meeting was James Corden himself," Mark reveals. "We didn't know what to expect, so before going on we asked people in bars what they thought of him and they were all super-positive. He hasn't altered his humour. When we're in America we have to speak a lot slower or otherwise it's, 'What the fuck did he just say?' but James is exactly the same as he was on on A League Of Their Own. He's just a lad and very, very welcoming."
That being just the merest tip of Kodaline's celebrity hobnobbing iceberg. Having stayed with her and her Snow Patrol fiancee Johnny McDaid before Christmas, the chaps renewed acquaintances at the start of May with Courteney Cox who's directed their new video.
"It was pretty surreal to be honest," Mark grins. "Because we'd written a song with Johnny in their incredible Malibu Beach house, Courteney said, possibly after a few glasses of wine, that we should do the video there too. We didn't think she was serious, but three weeks later she was onto us asking, 'When are you guys back over?' Courteney just wanted to film us being ourselves in LA, which was cool. We brought some friends over; it was magic, man."
Has Mark seen the Jimmy Kimmel Live! video of Courteney trying out ome of the Belfast-isms Johnny's taught her? "I've heard them in the flesh, and it's pretty bad! She tried doing our accents as well with even less success. We just smiled politely and said, 'Yeah yeah, that's really good!'"
So inundated are they these days with A-List chums that Kodaline turned down an offer from U2 to watch them rehearse in Vancouver.
"They said, 'Come down to the arena and hang out' but we were only in town for a few hours and had to leave," Mark rues. "They sent us their best wishes in the form of Guinness and champagne for Black Velvet making purposes. On the little card it said, 'Up the Irish!' Maybe they bitch about us behind our backs, but all the Irish acts we know have been supportive. There's just so many of them at the moment. Vinny, our drummer, is friends with James Vincent McMorrow and I got calls the other day from friends who'd seen Villagers in the Olympia saying it was one of the best gigs they'd ever been at."

---

"Courteney just wanted to film us being ourselves in LA, which was cool. We brought some friends over; it was magic, man."

How did those Black Velvets go down?
"Too well. We had them a couple of nights later and ended up in a complete mess, which I imagine was the point of the gift! We're huge U2 fans; growing up they're who we listened to and aspired to be.
"The tour itself was incredible. We did a 15-hour drive through the Rockies which was snow- capped mountains, grizzly bears and all that kind of shit! When you're on UK or European tour, it can take four to eight hours to get to a gig whereas in the States you're driving for three days without playing a show. You definitely learn the art of getting on with each other in confined spaces!"
Needless to say, there are post-gig tales aplenty.
"We were in a bar in Toronto where this guy came in, sat down at the piano and sung these amazing songs," Mark recalls. "We went over and bought him a drink and discovered that when he's not playing he has this crazy, crazy stutter. He couldn't get a sentence out until he started up again. He explained that when the music's flowing through him he's fine, but otherwise he can barely speak. I just thought, 'Wow, the power of music!"
With Little Hours and Hudson Taylor opening for them, Kodaline's Kilmainham headliner promises to be quite the Irish pop 'n' roll party.
"The show's nearly sold-out; it's going to be a full house," Mark concludes. "We've done the 3Arena and that was magic, but the thing with Kilmainham is that everyone's on the ground, so it'll look like a lot more people. The fact that it's a completely Irish bill is the icing on the cake."

---

Kodaline play the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on Friday June 26 with Hudson Taylor & Little Hours