Smart Arses

Kissmearse Records was founded in late 2008 by Westmeath natives Robbie McManus, Dave Murphy and Cathal McCormack. Plucky entrepreneur McManus tells me how it all came about: “I was thinking about how bands, young bands especially, never really get a chance with regards to recording and getting gigs. We decided to set up the label with the intention of bringing bands together – young, old, whatever – it didn’t really matter.”

McManus and Murphy are both members of local post-punk outfit Neodrach while McCormack fronts hard rock trio JP13. They make up Kissmearse Records along with teen rockers Cryptic Silence and local favourites Evil Elviss, who recently played support to New Jersey horror punk legends The Misfits in Dublin’s Academy.
So how does this troop of casual rockers come to know so much about the business side of music?
“I’ve been playing in bands for about 10 years now at this stage. It’s the same with the other lads.” McManus explains. “Between the three of us we’ve a lot of recording time under our belts. We have a lot of studio gear and musical equipment, so we can provide everything for a band. We have a friend who does multimedia and can web design and produce videos, and another guy is a professional photographer and willing to help us out on that side.”
Kind of like a punk-rock cottage industry?
“We see it as the inbetween of being on your own and being signed to a major label,” McManus adds. “We really want to get the gigs going. The bands turn up - the gear’s there, everything’s sorted for them, they concentrate on their music. We want to give them the best chance possible, really.”
With plans for a national tour with a rotating headliner and a huge outdoor gig in Athlone, Kissmearse Records certainly aren’t resting easy.
“We also have plans for an EP of two songs per band on the label. It’s not fully released yet. At the moment, we’re selling it at gigs for a couple of euro. I’d like to get it in shops but I want to get a few gigs going before that because there’s no point selling something nobody’s heard of.”
Speaking of things nobody’s heard of, Westmeath doesn’t strike me as somewhere buzzing with musicians, except maybe when Joe Dolan was rocking young ladies’ underpants in the 1970s. Does McManus reckon local boys The Blizzards have put the county back on the map?
“I suppose they did in a way,” he says. “It’s mainly pub bands and cover bands, in Athlone anyway. The bands on our labels would be heavier, more a rock, punk or metal sound.”
In the middle of this rather small-scale scene stands internationally renowned Grouse Lodge studios, an irony not lost on McManus.
“It’s weird that the likes of Muse and Snow Patrol have recorded there,” he laughs. “It’s what – nearly three grand a day? No band here could ever afford something like that. We’re having to do it ourselves in a shed!”
For McManus there’s only one town they really have their sights set on.
“It’s all about breaking Dublin really,” he admits. “We want to try and get ourselves out there and hope for the best, especially with Dublin because it’s kind of closed off, it’s more about who you know, really and not the music sometimes.”