Their J has come

Saving J frontman Sean Redmond isn’t the superstitious sort. But he does believe in fate. And the way he tells it, the Kilkenny band’s formation in 2006 was a result of divine intervention.

“It’s a nice story, actually,” he chuckles. “I was in a band called Candy Storm. I logged onto a site called KilkennyMusic.com, and I saw a band called Garden Of Eden, which the rest of the guys were in. I’d written a song called ‘Garden Of Eden’, so I thought ‘God, that’s uncanny’. I saw a guy in the band called Liam Redmond, and thought ‘That’s unbelievable, I have a brother called Liam’. So, we linked up and lo and behold, we all had similar backgrounds and influences, and that’s when the band started coming out of the crypt.”
While Saving J’s moniker provides pub quiz enthusiasts with some much-needed useless information (they’re named for the fact that the letter ‘J’ was the last to be added to the modern alphabet), Redmond believes it can also be read as a statement of intent. As an independent band, he says, they like to pitch themselves “as the musical underdogs”.
Perhaps he’s being too modest. Having spent much of their early days on the road honing their craft, the pop-rock quartet have already enjoyed moderate success with their clutch of singles – as well as nationwide tours with The Coronas and The Blizzards. Needless to say, the support they receive in their native south-east region provides a huge boost also.
“Y’know, people often say ‘Well, you’re big in the south-east’,” he laughs, “but we get lots of radio play in this region, so we’re well-known. We’ve had a few good outlets – we played to 15,000 people last summer at the JFK Festival in Dunbrody, opening for Mundy. We were lucky to play to that kind of audience at this level of the game. It could have taken us years to play to that number of people, so we can’t complain there.”
I ask him about the thriving Kilkenny scene, from which acts like the fantastic R.S.A.G. have been spawned.
“A lot of good bands have come out of Kilkenny over the years, going back as far as Engine Alley and Kerbdog,” he agrees. “We’re hoping to be ambassadors of Kilkenny at some stage, and really promote the music scene.”
As well as polishing off their debut album, the quartet have made a cracking video for their recently-released ‘Indication Street’ single, which finds Irish actor Emmet Scanlan (The Roaring Twenties, Anton) taking the role of a Simon Cowell-esque music mogul whom Saving J are desperately trying to impress. If nothing else, the accomplished slice of indie-rock is an indication of the band’s ambition.
“It’s hard work being an independent band – it’s all self-financed, you’ve got to gig quite a bit, you’ve got to really work every single angle you can,” he acknowledges. “It’s tricky sometimes, but we’re hoping that we’re not terribly far away from signing, ourselves. It’s a great time to be in a band. People say ‘Recession, recession’, but what better time to be in a band than in a recession? There’s nothing else good going on!”

For tour dates see www.savingj.com