Land Of The Rising Son

“When I was five or six I started listening to The Beach Boys. I heard ‘Surfin’ USA’ and I was like, ‘Holy shit, what is that sound?’ and then I heard Guns N’ Roses and I just wanted to make music. That’s all I wanted to do. The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Cure… they’ve all played a part.”

It’s a sobering experience to sit opposite someone nearly half your age and realise that they have such a fine appreciation of the history of rock ’n’ roll. And yet, where old-school Wicklow rockers Children Of The Son’s Jack Matthews is concerned, his unflinching passion for all things music is like a shot of adrenaline.
Decked out in a stone-washed denim jacket and sporting curls that would make Brian May envious, Matthews certainly looks the part of a classic rock frontman. It helps that he sounds it too, with the 14-year-old (yep) in possession of the kind of pipes that led Bono’s coach to declare him the most “young and raw” vocal talent she had come across in 30 years. Not that he’s letting any accolades go to his head.
“I just always set the target higher,” he shrugs in a vaguely American drawl. “I know I’m going to continue to improve.”
As it is, Children Of The Son are already making extraordinary strides. They paid a visit to The Music Show last month, brought their guitars and ended up playing live on air at the RTÉ 2fm stand.
“We knew what opportunities were there, if you wanted to take them,” says Jack’s older brother Max, the band’s guitarist and songwriter-in-chief. “The Music Show is such a big thing, so we just turned up with our instruments – and we went for it.”
Since that extraordinary weekend, Eddie Rowley has been raving about them in the Sunday World. They did a barnstorming gig in The Mezz a week after The Music Show that led to a monthly slot there. Dave Allen wanted them for The Mercantile. Niall Morris of MCD subsequently booked them for The Academy. Even better, UK record companies have started to form an orderly queue. They are on the cusp of something big. At 18, Max is the band’s resident sage.
“We know where we want to get to, and we’re ready,” he confirms. And you can tell that he means it.
Infused as it is with the spirit of heroes such as Philip Lynott and Jim Morrison, Children Of The Son’s sound is defiantly retro. But there’s a wise-beyond-his-years thing at play here too, as the softly-spoken guitarist cheerfully brushes off any preconceptions people may have of his band.
“I firmly believe that rock songs are pop songs with distortion,” he states. “That’s really all a rock band is. I’ve always felt that. When you’re in a band you have to understand the mechanics of a good pop song. When you listen to a Rihanna song, sure, you can dance to it in a club – but you can strip those songs back to just an acoustic guitar and they sound really great once you have a good singer. That’s the principle of a good pop song – if you can do it justice on an acoustic guitar.”
The elder Matthews says that he discovered his identity – and a fresh and enduring sense of liberty – when he took up playing the guitar at an early age. Was he looking to escape something?
“Yeah, definitely,” he says with a knowing nod. “I wasn’t really that interested in school. I’d usually just retreat to my room and play guitar for hours. There weren’t many people my age who were as into it as I was, so I would spend hours playing along to backing tracks, listening to Guns N’ Roses and Led Zeppelin, just taking it all in.”
Max’s Leaving Cert exams are fast approaching, which will be another watershed moment for the band. In the meantime, Jack has left school in favour of home education.
“After he took a certain amount of time off to jam, they got a bit pissed off!” notes Max. No matter: Children Of The Son are putting their artistic endeavours firmly to the fore. And why not? Jack is as single-minded as Max in his sense of purpose.
“I don’t really try to emulate anyone, I just try to be me,” he says. “When I look at a band live, if they have a really good frontman, great – but I don’t want to be like any of them. I want to be Jack Matthews, I want to be myself. If you look at the best frontmen, the really great ones have done something nobody else has done. They created their own thing. That’s what I want to do.”
And you know what? There is every reason to believe that he will. After we’ve said our goodbyes, I’m momentarily stopped in my tracks by that now-familiar voice.
“See you at Wembley!” cries Jack, with a cheery wave.
I’m booking my ticket now.

Children Of The Son play Dublin shows in The Mercantile (March 29); The Mezz (April 7); and The Academy 2 (27). For a full list of dates and information on their forthcoming debut EP, check out childrenoftheson.com