THE BATS ARE IN THE BELFRY

David Geraghty’s just-released sophomore solo album is entitled The Victory Dance, but he’s hard-pressed to say why. “I can’t really define the title,” the 33-year-old Kildare musician admits. “I just liked the imagery that it conjures. I like its ambiguity and the fact that it’s open to interpretation. It could be like a sexual thing or something more tribal based. It’s kind of why I liked it – people are going ‘what does that mean?’”

Having said that, he jokes that “finishing the fuckin’ thing in itself might warrant a victory dance of some description.” His follow-up to 2007’s Choice/Meteor-nominated Kill Your Darlings was recorded during gaps in a demanding Bell X1 European and US touring schedule.
“I found it really difficult this time round, to be honest. Because we’ve all become daddies in Bell X1 [his daughter was born in April]. Also, there was a lot of Bell X1 activity going on while I’ve been trying to bring this to a close. I wanted to keep going with the solo schedule so as not to leave too long a gap between albums, because I’ve seen how detrimental that can be, having done so between certain Bell X1 records. You have a certain amount of momentum and then you disappear for years and you don’t do anything, and then you come back and you expect people to be there waiting – but they’re not, they’ve moved on.”
The recording was done in an old barn in West Cork, with band members Marc Aubele, Kevin Brady, Clare Finglass, Tiger Cooke and Dave Redmond involved from the outset. They soon discovered that they weren’t alone in their makeshift studio. “The first night we were there, we started hearing this kind of rustling around in the rafters. We thought it was just birds, but we went out into the night air for a breather and switched a floodlight on, and suddenly we were all ducking and diving as these bats flew around. They were living in the rafters and, Jesus, they stank! The poor drummer was set up right beside their nest, and there were a couple of nights where he had to resort to wearing a scarf around his face to keep out the smell.”
Thankfully, the bat-stench didn’t seep into the music. For the most part, the 10-track Victory Dance is a fairly mellow, melodic affair. “It is a bit mellow - and I always thought the second one was meant to be the more poppy one!”
Not that the subject matter is especially light. Lead single ‘Tuesday’s Feet’ deals with the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. “It’s an old song, it’s from that time. At this stage, it’s almost a jaded topic. It was eight years ago! But the size of that event, the enormity of it, the tragedy of it, just kind of rocked everybody’s world. And it really gave people a kick up the ass and made them realise, ‘stop bitching about your situation while this is going on’. So that’s basically the sentiment of that song.”
Kicking off at the Electric Picnic and ending at the Button Factory on September 16, Geraghty is embarking on a short seven-date Irish tour to promote the album. On September 17 he departs for a month-long American trek with Bell X1. Will he play any of his own songs onstage with the Bellies? “Nah, it’s a very different thing. I don’t play – and people don’t ask for – Bell X1 songs when I’m doing gigs, and vice versa.”
Speaking of Bell X1 gigs, the band recently supported U2 at Croke Park. How was that? “We had a half-hour set and the gig itself was all quick, quick, go, go, go! So it was amazing, but the moment that really got me was when I was pissed later on watching U2 rocking through their hits, getting shivers down my spine, and then Bono pauses and goes, ‘We’d like to thank Bell X1 and The Script for supporting’, and at that moment when Bono pulled us into the context of the gig – that was kind of a magic moment. Even more so than when we were on the stage, because that just felt like a flash in the pan.”