With one really good album under their belt (1998 s Pure) and a growing reputation as one of the best up-and-coming bands on the London live circuit, things should have been rosy for Dublin/London collective Wired To The Moon. Instead, their world went belly-up. The day their debut album was released, their then-manager relocated to Ecuador for six weeks, and Pure never got the marketing push it undoubtedly deserved.
Wired To The Moon are made up of native Dubliner Roisin Malone on vocals, multi-instrumentalist Lee Enefer, and non-playing member Brian Coyle, Roisin s husband, who writes all the band s lyrics ( It s great to have someone on the outside who can tell us when something is shite, says Roisin).
Formed in February 1993 in West London when Lee spotted Roisin busking, they started playing as a duo, with two acoustic guitars, playing in pubs. We did our first gig in a wine bar in Kensington, recalls Roisin with a smile. We only did it because we got a free burger, which wasn t even nice we were sick afterwards.
They soon became stalwarts of the London-Irish pub scene: They were really supposed to be covers gigs but we started putting in our own stuff. It was the only way we could get gigs and get paid for them, Roisin explains.
Their regular concerts attracted a large following, and soon the duo were playing all their own material, and came to the attention of a number of record companies. They eventually signed on the dotted line, whereupon the company in question then recommended they record with a well-known producer, who they found to be a few chips short of a happy meal.
We were stuck in his house, where he had a studio out the back, remembers Roisin. We stayed for about a week, recorded three songs and ended up ringing our driver in the middle of the night and asking him to come and pick us up. We told the producer we were leaving. As we were leaving, there was a big window facing out to the road, and he was up there, playing a grand piano with his long hair flying, singing Let them go. Let them go. It was really scary.
It was like trying to make an album with Boris Karloff, smiles Lee.
Wired To The Moon eventually hooked up with producer John Ravenhall, who handled knob-twiddling duties with aplomb on what was to become their debut album, Pure. The subsequent business difficulties, though, meant that the band spent most of last summer extricating themselves from their record deal.
However, some good did come out of the whole sage, with Ravenhall anxious to work with the band again. Both Ravenhall and the band are currently in negotiations with a number of interested parties. The album will be done, notes Roisin. It s just a matter of when.
Having heard early demos of the new songs, which display Roisin s beautifully sweet voice and Lee s catchy arrangements to great effect, this listener feels that Wired To The Moon should be back on the books of a label sooner rather than later. If anything, they sound more focused than on their debut, with songs like Let Me Know displaying a stronger pop sensibility.
Rather than focusing on the negatives of their past experiences, both Roisin and Lee are extremely optimistic about the future, with relentless gigging and recording their second album top of the agenda. As Roisin puts it, We feel that it s a fresh start now. We re really excited about it. n
Wired to the Moon play at Dublin s Virgin Megastore on February 18th at 6pm and Eamonn Doran s on February 24th.