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The first record that I bought was Tasmin Archer’s – ‘Sleepless Satellite’. I was only 9 and it was played in the local disco. I thought it was cool at the time and got my parents to take me to the record shop. Don't judge me. The last record I bought was Grizzly Bear - Shields (Vinyl). My girlfriend got me a record player for Christmas and I've went on a vinyl buzz. I think I bought 'Feist - Reminder' on the same day. Both very different but great albums.
Although I was already in a band, the show that really stands out for me was Fleet Foxes at Open House Festival. I was right at the front of the stage and was taken aback. I think I wrote 'The Few and Far Between' a couple of days later. It really gave me a push as a songwriter.
Apart from the first record I bought, I had decent taste in music. My parents had a wonderful collection of records that I used to go through. It had the likes of Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and Ahem... Dr Hook. But there was one musician that inspired me to perform and that was Kurt Cobain, it's a bit typical, but growing up I used to watch performances of Nirvana and I really wanted to be part of that great energy.
The last gig we watched together as a band was Fionn Regan when we played at the Camden Crawl Dublin. We are all fans of his first album and it was great to see him live. He played a great show, and we had a chat with him afterwards. He's a really nice guy.
We have been driving up and down to Dublin a lot recently and I have a few albums on my phone. I've been meaning to update it, so we've been listening to the same albums on repeat. That includes, Wilco's discography, Bombay Bicycle Club - I had the blues..., Local Natives - Gorilla Manor, Heather Woods Broderick, Husky - Forever so, Cass McCombs - Wit's End, Bon Iver, Tom Waits.
Recently, when we played Other Voices in London we had the privilege of getting into the show the night before we played. We were instantly blown away by John Grant. His performance and quality of his band really made a huge impact on us.
If we could have anyone join the band it would be local celebrity Dickie Rock... We could change the name of the band to 'Little Dickie' or in case that offends someone 'Little Richard'. I think we'd be done for plagiarism then though.
We had been asked to do a session for a radio station down south. We had to do one original and one cover. We thought long and hard over a cover, we'd all had our fair share of experiences in cover bands over the years, and how they could destroy ones soul. We decided to keep it Northern Irish and cover SOAK's - Explosion. I think it's a great track. SOAK is a good friend of ours and she was happy to let us do it.
