Report: Eurosonic 2014

Not only that, we managed to blag a ticket to the European Border Breaker Awards (EBBA) on the first night!
For four days the quaint city of Groningen is taken over by gigs, showcases, parties and conferences. It has an understated air of cool. This is the place where John Peel strolled into an independent record store and found The White Stripes’ first EP, thus catapulting them to international superstardom. Everywhere you walk you hear bands: from the shops, cafes, bars, theatres, even the streets and squares. 
Hot Press was fairly welling with pride at witnessing the stellar representation of Irish artists this year, in the form of Kodaline and The Strypes. The day after the awards, we meet Kodaline’s Steve Garrigan and Jason Boland. They’re in a great mood, and why wouldn’t they be? Not only did they win an EBBA, they also won the Public Choice Award.
A beaming Jason tells Hot Press: “Last year we couldn’t even get in to the awards, so it was fantastic to be invited back to Eurosonic. To win the public choice award makes it that bit more special.” Twinkly-eyed Steve adds: “Holland was the start of it all for us. It was the first country we came to and Eurosonic is incredible for bands because the booking agents from all the festivals are here and you never know who’s watching you. We got booked for 30 festivals in Europe last year off the back of playing here.”
It’s a double celebration for the lads as it’s also bandmate Mark Prendergast’s birthday. How are they going to mark it?
“Tonight we’re going bowling,” Steve answers. Eh?! Apparently it’s their Eurosonic tradition. Jason explains: “Last year we went to this bowling alley with Bastille. There was a band playing in one corner, a silent disco going on, and… people going around with drinks.” Steve grins. “We know where the party’s at!”
Hot Press leaves the boys to their press commitments and nips to the artist’s canteen for a coffee with Andrew Davie, one part of trio Bear’s Den and very much One To Watch. If you like Mumford and Sons or Daughter, two bands they have toured with extensively, you will love these guys.
In fact, Mumford’s Ben Lovett and the band’s own Kevin Jones along with producer Ian Grimble founded the super-cool Communion, an artist-led organisation that combines live promotion, publishing, records and production. So, posits Hot Press, you kind of signed yourselves? Davie laughs. “Kind of. I guess there is a nepotistic factor in there. It’s amazing what Communion’s become. It started as a club night in Notting Hill. We’re really excited to be part of it.”  
Watch this space as Bear’s Den are finalising tour dates and Ireland is sure to be on the agenda. After catching the first half of their beautiful set in the stunning Stads-Schouwburg, Hot Press bolted over to the Cathedral to support Cavan lads The Strypes for the second part of their performance.
Having sat with the four chaps earlier in the day at the artist’s village we couldn’t quite get our head round the trajectory of their career; at 16 it was their parents’ suggestion to quit school to pursue music. They have since garnered support from Dave Grohl and Noel Gallagher and toured with the Arctic Monkeys while their pending UK tour is close to sold-out.
Hot Press reveals that it’s not just the press and industry that is buzzing about them. Other artists are too. Kodaline doff their hats to the boys, I tell them, to which The Strypes return the gesture later on stage. The band seem to be taking it all in their stride; they conclude they don’t see any other way. 
“Losing your head isn’t an option with us” bassist and harmonica Pete O’Hanlon muses. “We’re just getting on with it and enjoying the party” adds frontman Ross Farrelly.
Not the only one to enjoy the party, it’s day three of the festival and a bleary eyed and bed-headed Hot Press is back in the artists’ canteen to meet George Ezra. It’s far too early for us but the 19-year-old singer-songwriter with pouty lips and floppy blond hair is daisy-fresh and excited to be playing his first official Continental gig. Just two days earlier he wrapped recording for his debut album, although he can’t give much away yet.
“I can’t tell you what to expect because we’ve recorded 19 songs. Now I’ve got to go through the selection process, which is hard! I’ve sat down now about five different times and always come out with a different list.”
George is grateful to the BBC for their support: “Someone suggested I upload a song onto their ‘Introducing’ page, which I did. Later, I got a play and a telling off all in one night. I’d forgotten to include details so they announced, ‘whoever this chump is can you tell us who you are please!’”
Hot Press had another EBBA winner to hang out with, Icelandic phenomenon Asgeir whose English language version of his second studio album In the Silence is out at the end of January. From a musical family, composing is in his DNA. He acquired his first record (Nirvana’s Nevermind) age six, around the time he started learning classical guitar.
“I had a toy guitar that I slept with from the age of three” he says. His father is a teacher and poet and once Asgeir has composed the music his father will write the lyrics. He says of the process “When I compose most of the dummy lyrics sound English and are English word, in some made up language. If anyone listens it sounds ridiculous!”
Asgeir visited Ireland in December and thinks the scenery is similar to that of his native Iceland.
“I played in Dingle last month for the TV show Other Voices, which hasn’t aired yet. It took about five hours to drive to the location and, looking at the countryside, I could connect so many places to places in Ireland. It was really beautiful.”
Hot Press rounds off Eurosonic with a blast of I Am Legion, the side project of Dutch record producers Noisa and British rappers Metropolis and Orifice Vulgatron of Foreign Beggars. Their self-titled album, released late in 2013, was recorded in Groningen and they tell the 90 per cent male crowd they’re psyched to be playing their first gig of the year in the place they assembled the music.