Let It Lead

Something serious has been stirring in south Dublin. A bewitching sonic stall has been set out by a group with an air of The Last Gang In Town about them. With a name plundered from Joy Division, they take the Mancunians’ dark teutonic schtick and splash it with some home grown passion.

Think The Blades’ knack for capturing social frustration in song, or the desperate intensity of The Walkmen in their early days. Guitars erupting and vocals like volcanic ash. The musicians rolling their eyes upwards and simultaneously catching a little bit of heaven. The Leaders of Men are on a mission. What’s more they are on a roll...
It was as recently as March, when five mainstays of Tallaght’s music scene all stood on stage together for the first time. That sold-out Workman’s Club show announced Leaders Of Men to their hometown. The Debut Collection EP followed, bottling their sound on record and serving notice that this band are open for business. In earnest.

Contrarily, Leaders Of Men are not happy. With the country, with the music scene, often with each other. But, in a strange way, they’re revelling in that friction. Let’s look at their online mission statement: “These are demoralised times. The old leaders have failed us and everyone seems to have given up to shuffle home, shoulders sagging in the rain. Leaders Of Men do not accept this.”
Surrounded by his bandmates, lead singer Brian Ashe explains their moody modus operandi. “I can sum it up, because I’ve thought about this before!” he laughs. “When we first started talking about getting the group together, [guitarist] Ed Porter texted me the lads’ names and said, ‘Imagine that as a line-up, think how angry that band would be!’ Well, he was right. We just love giving out!”
This is evidenced by the good-natured intra-band squabbling that goes on for the duration of our interview. They may have lofty ambitions and a serious sound, but they’re also straight-talking and up for a laugh. Peter Hook would like these lads. At one point, Brian questions Ed’s early grunge credentials. Porter is having none of it. “He came from more of a stage school background – Billie Barry,” he retorts. Later on, bassist Darren Lindsay will finally pitch up to talk about their victory in the Play On The Day regional final and is immediately drowned out with a shout of: “I’d forgotten you were here man!”
As it happens, Lindsay works in a bank. “We’re trying to wean him off, we nearly have him,” Brian laughs.

Banter aside, it’s clear that there is a truly tight bond between the members of the band. They are an old-fashioned rock’n’roll gang. As guitarist Gav Glynn puts it, “When we formed, it was clear that we were all looking in the same direction.” Ed agrees. “We just fell in love straight away,” he says. “The last band I was in, I was just going though the motions. Writing songs and going, ‘I don’t want this’. Not now.”
Brian Ashe: “We’re all from the same area, we’ve been going around the circuit together, been in bands together. But Leaders Of Men has more depth. The lads’ last group would have been more downstroke and indie, mine would have been poppy, a ‘get on the radio and give us a dollar’ sort of thing.”
This venture is altogether different, encompassing a visceral venting of social frustration. As drummer Dean Byrne says, “People are always looking for that outlet. There’s this void that we’re filling. The sky’s the limit for this band. We’re not small-time. I know that sounds pretentious but that was one of the things from the outset. We asked: is everybody on board to be as big as possible? The answer was yes. Now people are really responding to us.”
People, as it happens, from all walks of life. Brian Ashe: “At our Whelan’s show, a woman came up to me and said, ‘I’m 45 years old and I just want to say, you were fecking fantastic!’” So they’re enjoying the classic attention from groupies, then? An eruption of laughter. “Our ma-s all love it as well,” Brian says. “Mine listens to us in the car.”

It’s been a shared experience amongst the band. “You might say we’ve done our apprenticeship from the age of 14 in various garage bands. Now when I play Leaders Of Men to my mother, she goes, ‘You know how I used to say you were good? This is actually very good!’”
They’re also proving a big hit with... tattoo enthusiasts. Dublin Ink are apparently massive fans, a situation which has led to Leaders Of Men playing two gigs in their parlour. Dean: “Those are the kind of quirky gigs that no one else is doing. I mean, come on: no-one else is playing shows in a tattoo parlour!”
“We gave the guys in Dublin Ink a copy of the EP and they loved it,” Brian explains. “They play it in there the whole time. Then they asked if we wanted to go in and gig. They have 45,000 Facebook friends, so it was good exposure...
“I didn’t think we’d be trendy enough for those heads though,” he adds. “I’ve noticed that the people that turn up to our gigs are really cool looking feckers and I’m going, ‘Jesus I can’t believe you’re into our music!’”
Fast forward to the day after the victorious night before. Leaders Of Men have stormed Galway’s Roisin Dubh and left with the spoils, including that elusive Main Stage slot on Arthur’s Day. Time to catch up with a huskier-than-usual Mr. Ashe.

How is he feeling?
“I’m tired to tell you the truth,” he says. They’re not eternal miserablists: Mr. Ashe is merely feeling the effects of the inevitable celebrations. What’s more, the good times will continue when they return to the capital.
“It still hasn’t sunk in yet,” admits Brian. “It’s such a huge prize, so we’ve been prolonging the celebrations. I reckon it will hit us properly tomorrow. That’s when we’ll sit back and go ‘jaysus lads, we did alright outta this thing didn’t we?!’”
Indeed they did. Their genuine shock was best summed up in their hilariously understated Facebook update moments after their name was announced as winners. Lost-for-words, it read simply: “We won. Thanks.”
Brian laughs. “That was it. We were standing by the side of the stage, before we went on to do our ‘victory’ encore. Myself and Gav were looking at each other – what the feck are we going to write?! That summed it up I suppose.”
The reaction stems from the high regard in which they hold their fellow finalists. “It was anyone’s game. Any of the four could have won it,” offers Brian. “We got an album off Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters and we’ve been listening to that, the whole drive home. That gives you an idea of the way we felt about the competition. We’re flabbergasted.”

However, when the subject of the Main Stage at St. James’s Gate is raised, that old swagger returns to Leaders Of Men’s talismanic frontman. “It’s going to be epic,” he says. “We’re going to melt a few faces.”
For Brian, sharing a stage with music’s elite, on the biggest stage they’ve played to date, is all about representing the underground well and giving the more established acts a run for their money. “We were looking at the line-up,” says Brian of a bill that includes Welsh rockers Stereophonics and Paolo Nutini, “and we reckon we could get our teeth into a few of those! Y’know – standing alone alongside all the lads making the millions. We’re dying for it, we’re absolutely dying for it.”
As they should be. Leaders Of Men: we’ll be hearing more from them...