Panda-ing to the Masses

Having signed to In/Outdoor Management in America, Limerick four-piece Seneca released their debut album Sweeter Than Bourbon there last month. With tracks now picking up serious radio play across the pond, the quartet are being quietly tipped in their native city as the band most likely to follow in The Cranberries’ giant footsteps.

Comprised of Rob Hope (guitar and vocals), Yvonne Conaty (bass and vocals), Brendan O’Gorman (guitar) and Daragh O’Loughlin (drums), Seneca blend the naked and heartfelt sincerity of Damien Rice’s lyrics with Snow Patrol’s sweeping and propulsive arrangements to create a warm and luscious folk/rock hybrid.
The band embark this month on an extensive three-month tour, which will take them from California to New York, gigging six nights a week solid. This pattern will be repeated in 2009 with two more three-month sprints round the US before embarking on a European tour next summer.
“We’re both excited and daunted about going to America,” frontman Rob admits. “For some reason they’ve gone for our sound over there and people are really enthusiastic about the album. We’ve been getting lots of radio play and the reaction so far has been very positive.”
Sweeter Than Bourbon is a polished and tuneful gem that brims with graceful realism and wistful melodies. Songs such as ‘Clarity’, ‘Playing Fair’, ‘Sentimental Freak’ and ‘So Beautiful’ are earthy and complex affairs, which find the band displaying such eclectic influences as Arcade Fire, Jeff Buckley, Smashing Pumpkins and Kila.
“Our music has been labeled in America as ‘AAA’, which I think means adult album alternative,” Rob resumes. “We consciously decided that each song on our album would be very different in style and this seems to have paid off for us over there. They like the fact that our stuff doesn’t all sound the same and that we’re definitely not one-trick-ponies.
“I spoke to Noel Hogan from The Cranberries recently and he told me that they toured the States for nine months solid before anything happened, so we’re expecting a hard slog. I’m looking forward to the experience and delighted to be getting the opportunity. The band have worked hard in Ireland for the last few years, so we're really going to go for it in America.”
Do they feel a litle out of sync with current musical trends here?
“We love Irish bands like Fred and Fight Like Apes, but I suppose we don’t really fit into what’s happening in Ireland musically at the moment - all that new wave stuff,” Rob acknowledges. “Ireland has been really good to us and we’ve had a very positive response to our music, but America is the place where it’s building for us. Our expectations for America in the next year are simply to work hard and gig our asses off. In the long-term, yeah, it would be great to sell some records.”