Where The Wild Things Are

If there’s one thing that stays with you after an encounter with The Brilliant Things, aside from the fear that frontwoman Marie Junior’s ginormous ruffled skirt might eat you alive, it’s the name.

“We went through hundreds,” Junior tells me. “We had lists and lists and lists! A guy that we worked with in the UK had ‘The Brilliant Things’ on his list and we thought, ‘Okay!’ It’s about brightness and positivity, not about ‘Hey, look at us! We’re deadly!’”
Junior is clearly not one to hold back, so it comes as a surprise that the band’s most memorable lyric, the brash “You can buy me drinks, but it won’t get you laid” from single ‘Something To Say’ did not come from her, but from the brain of guitar and keyboards man Greg French.
“It’s strange that he would actually write that, isn’t it?” she muses. “Maybe he was having a feminine day!”
“I think all guys know,” drummer Geoff French smirks. “They still do it, even when they definitely know they’re not gonna get lucky!”
The band’s eponymous debut album went straight into the Irish iTunes pop charts when it was released back in September, but Geoff is quick to point out that their success didn’t come without a few sleepless nights.
“There’s no windows in a studio, or clocks, so you go in and you don’t leave ‘til 11 o’clock at night!”
“And that’s just for a tea break!” Junior laughs.
So, we’re talking 18 hours days here?
“Oh, always.” Geoff nods, “You can get really carried away in the studio, especially when you’re focused on something.”
The Brilliant Things may be their first release, but the band are no strangers to the big time; bassist Mia Fitzgerald has performed with Taio Cruz, Geoff has played with Pixie Lott and as a sound engineer, Greg has worked with everyone from Van Morrison to Brian Eno.
“We all have the same interests and we all love pop rock,” Junior explains. “But we’re all learning different things as well. Put it together and it works.”
In the three years since they formed, the riff-happy rockers have had their fair share of memorable festival moments, like when the 82-strong Artane Boys’ Band joined them on stage at Oxegen, or when they opened the Isle Of Wight festival playing to 6,000 punters. You’d think they’d be pretty confident with their live show by now, but Junior admits she still gets jitters before she goes onstage.
“I started crying when we got to Leeds and Reading! The band before us in Leeds were like, screaming into the microphone, real heavy metal, and I was like, ‘They’re gonna kill me! I’ll get on stage with the big pouffy dress and poppy songs and they’re gonna hate me!’, and they didn’t actually, they were really nice to us! It was scary, but it worked out well… after the tears.”
I hate to break it to her, but the new album isn’t going to tour itself. How does Junior plan to overcome her stage fright when The Brilliant Things hit the road?
“You just have to go and do it,” she smiles. “Don’t think about it! After the first song you start to remember ‘I love this, this is the reason why I do it!’ and you realise, ‘I can do this. It’s okay.’”

The Brilliant Things showcase their eponymous debut album in the Academy 2, Dublin on December 10.