Snow patrol

Certain questions loom like icebergs when one is shooting the breeze with Niall Breslin, frontman of rising indie-punk heroes The Blizzards. How does it feel being Mullingar’s hottest musical export since Joe Dolan? Did Breslin really sacrifice a professional rugby career to ply his frazzled anthems around the Irish toilet circuit? What flashes through his mind as adoring girlies surge to the front of the mosh-pit, eyes shiny with something between hero worship and desire? In your own time, Niall.

“Joe Dolan – it always comes up doesn’t it?” sputters Breslin, wincing as if he’s just pulled a groin muscle. “The thing is, we don’t know Joe Dolan. Never met him. Hopefully, one day we’ll be able to put that behind us. Michael O’Leary is from Mullingar too. He’s someone we’d rather be compared to. He’s a bit of a ball-breaker.“
Breslin is happier discussing rugby. Yes, he gave up a Leinster contract to devote himself to The Blizzards. Walking away from the team wasn’t, he confesses, much of a wrench. He took to rugby like a natural but, having come to the game late (he played GAA in Mullingar) it was never going to be the most important thing in his life.
“What was most difficult about giving up a professional contract, if I’m to be honest, was the drop in income,” he says. “Of course, there’s also a status thing attached to playing rugby for a living. My dad loves the game. It was difficult telling him I was packing it in to play in a band. At Leinster the guys were totally supportive. They knew I was into music, that my heart really lay there.”
Catch a Blizzards show and you may wonder why so many tall blokes are blocking your view. Possibly, you are standing behind Gordon D’Arcy or Dennis Hickey – both Ireland internationals are good friends of Breslin’s and Blizzards gig veterans.
More likely to have grabbed your attention, however, are the prodigious quantities of female hormones wafting about. By the admittedly modest standards of Irish indie rock, Breslin, over six foot tall and brawnier than a a lumber-jack, has all the qualities of a pin-up.
“It wrecks my head to be honest. I try not to think about it,” he says of The Blizzards' screaming female following. “Still, if people are coming to the gigs, well, happy days. Besides, my mum is often at the shows. Whenever we’re in Whelan’s she’s up in the balcony, so I’m on my best behavior.”
Several hours before our conversation, Breslin and the rest of The Blizzards were applying the final touches to their debut album, recorded in Dublin under the seasoned gaze of American producer Michael Beinhorn – best known for his work with Soundgarden and Soul Asylum (he oversaw the former’s Superunknown LP and the latter’s 1991 hit ‘Runaway Train’).
“Michael was fantastic and not at all what we expected,” Breslin reflects. “Apparently he has a reputation for being a bit of a ball-breaker. But I think that comes from American bands just being too soft. Without a doubt, he can be quite demanding. He absolutely expects you to give your everything to your performance. The point is, he’s not looking for technical perfection. He wants the emotions you bring to a song to be real.”
While grateful to their Irish fan-base for bringing them this far, The Blizzards make no secret of the fact that it's overseas where their ambitions lie. Already, they’ve been on several jaunts to the UK, mingling backstage at the V Festival with Franz Ferdinand, The Zutons and Oasis. Laughing, Breslin describes a photograph he took of the Blizzards tiny, battered van, parked alongside endless gleaming rows of tour buses.
“The thing about festivals is that, once you’re there, there’s not much of a hierarchy,” he says. “Backstage, you’re all mucking about together. We’ve played football with The Zutons and I’ve met Noel and Liam. They were really great. I asked Liam would he mind having his picture taken with me and he rushed off to get someone to help. He was an absolute gent.”