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VIVA BROTHER - Still Here (Official Video) (by BROTHERslough)

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Viva Brother Interview for stylesiren.ie

I met up with ‘Brit Pop’ revivalists Brother before their highly anticipated live Irish debut in The Academy. Their self-proclaimed ‘Grit Pop’ sound has already made them NME darlings but an enemy of Mr. Beady Eye, Liam Gallagher. With a new single ‘Still Here’ releasing on May 8th, I get down to words with Brother, made up of Lee Newell, Josh Ward, Sam ”don’t call me Samuel” Jackson and Frank Colucci.

I counted the dates on your website, you’ve got 44 more live dates until the end of August, is that a daunting prospect? Josh — That would make it around a hundred gigs overall since December and there’s still more to be announced.

How do you balance everything, can you work and play with that schedule? Lee — Mate, it’s really tough at the moment but we do party a lot which can kind of fuck you up after a while. Josh — We burn the candle on both ends but on this tour we’ve tried to strategically pick our nights to go out. Frank — We have a responsibility to put on a great live performance at our gigs and if you’re hungover every night, it might influence it.

The album ‘Famous First Words’ is released on July 4th, will it be a relief to finally have it out in the public domain? Lee — It will feel amazing once it’s released, it’s what we’ve been waiting for.

With the amount of hype surrounding the band, did you feel any pressure while recording? Josh — We stayed away from all that. We were in the countryside so it didn’t even come into it, to be honest. Sam — We were confident that the songs were going to be great, and they are, so why would we feel any pressure?

What’s the recording process like? Frank — We all collectively have a hand in writing the songs, split four ways. Lee — It’s a bit weird but it works for us.

How did you find working with the legend that is Stephen Street? Sam — It was great, he made it so easy and natural. We actually recorded it in half the time we thought it would. It only took us, like, two and half weeks to complete. Lee – He’s a total legend and was a real pleasure to work with.

You obviously have a good synergy as a band, how did you form as ‘Brother’? Lee – We all played in different bands growing up but when we met and played together, we instantly realised that musically, we were on the same page.

You are signed to Geffen, how did that come about? Lee — Zane Lowe came across a couple of our tracks on the web and played them on his show and then they contacted us. Frank — And I think the way we promoted ourselves, like with the introductory YouTube clips and stuff, helped us and showed how serious we were.

You feature prominently…  in most of the ‘One’s to watch for 2011′ list at the start of the year. The only other guitar led band on the list are The Vaccines, what do you make of them? Josh — They’re alright. Lee — Yeah, they’re okay, they’re doing the right thing. Sam — NME tried to start a rivalry between us and them but there’s a world of difference between us. They’re a rock’n'roll band just like us but our sounds are totally different which is fine, I like a couple of their songs. We are unique though and they’re not.

Lyrically what inspires the band? Lee — It’s not one particular thing but mainly it’s about where we live and where we grew up and why we wanted to get out. Josh — That’s shaped our whole album.

Like suburban alienation? Lee — I think that’s a little too cliched, I think we’re a little more than that, more forward thinking. Frank — For me, it’s not about how shit it is where I’m growing up but how determined I am to leave and be successful.

With the hype surrounding the album, it’s probably going to be on pirate bay and other peer to peer sites, does that annoy you? Sam — I rather have people hear the album and come to our show than not hear it at all. Josh — I would just hate for it to be leaked early, that would really piss me off, it would feel tainted in some way. Lee — Nearly all our shows have been sold out and that wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for…  the power of the internet so like everything else, it has its pros and cons.

You definitely…  took advantage of the web with the YouTube videos to introduce yourselves, how did that come about? Lee — We wanted to do something little different and we believed in the band so much that we wanted to make a bit of noise. Sam — We knew we deserved to noticed and the video complemented that fact. It was good to do it our own way.

You were on the cover of NME not so long ago, how did that feel? Lee- It was really cool! We kind of talked our way into that position so that’s why we weren’t that shocked, more chuffed than anything. Sam — I always knew that we would be on the cover – it just came quicker than expected.

And Liam Gallagher made a comment soon after you appeared on the cover, what did he say? Lee — He called us ”Posh c**ts with tattoos”. Ha! Sam — I thought it was fuckin’ great! I remember reading it in the paper and think ‘yes, free publicity from Liam Gallagher, fuckin’ prefect’! Do you like his new project ‘Beady Eye’? Lee — They’re alright…. Josh — It’s produced well, to be fair to them, and he does genuinely love music otherwise he wouldn’t be bothered doing this new thing.

How have people reacted from Slough regarding your new found fame? Has there been a backlash yet? Sam — Yeah, some people have been bad mouthing us, people who we would have considered friends just talkin’ shite. Lee — Most of it is small town mentality, y’know. Sam — It’s been the four of us for so long now that when we do go home and see old friends it can be a bit weird.

After watching Brother live I’ve come to the realisation that they could be exactly what many music fans have been pining for since the fall of Oasis. A British band with swagger and lyrics that defy Slough and its small town mentality. On stage, they seem at ease and look as if they’ve been jamming since the Oasis Vs Blur battle back in the 90′s. They’ve a long road ahead before they can claim to be a great band but with the connections they have, their growing fan base, the media loving them (at the moment) and not to mention the powerhouse of Geffen Records behind them, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were talking about them in same breath as many of their personal heroes in the near future.

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Kid Karate - HEART (unofficial) (by KidKarateMusic)

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Kid Karate Interview for stylesiren.ie

Once upon a time, two young men from Dublin called Kevin Breen and Steven Gannon… formed a two-piece band and called themselves Kid Karate. With Kevin as the lead singer and guitarist… and Steven on drums they formed a formidable partnership, with their raw energetic sound… bringing to mind early White Stripes, Von Bondies and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Things were looking good. However, one day Steven and Kevin ate a bad apple and the apple’s name was Fade Street. It was constructed with equal parts cringe and awfulness and completely empty under it’s plastic waxy skin. This bad apple didn’t reflect how good their music was at all. Time has moved on, as time does, and now the bad apple, thankfully, has left their system. The likely lads can now concentrate on their music again. With… a new album on its way and numerous festival appearances this summer, they have a busy year ahead.

You must be sick of talking about Fade Street? Kevin Breen — Yeah, pretty much! Steven Gannon — Don’t worry though, you can ask us questions about it if you want, we won’t judge you.

Appreciated. Do you think the show has been more of a help or a hindrance to the band? SG — I honestly don’t think it’s made a difference to the band although more people know who we are now. We did it for a laugh and we thought it was going to be something different than what it turned out to be. I think if you watch the Oxegen episode you can see by our reactions we’re both like “what the fuck is going on here”. We didn’t think it was a big deal until people started coming up to us thinking that we’re the same people that were portrayed in the show and we’re clearly not. KB — I think before the show people would’ve just called us hipsters and now they’re calling us sell-outs. They’re the same people who are not going to like us anyway so nothing has really changed that much. SG — If we had a problem with what people thought then we wouldn’t be in this game anyway. If you don’t like our music then it’s not for you, that’s grand, we don’t mind. KB — To be fair there was one good thing about Fade St, they played purely Irish music and gave artists a chance to be heard. We just happened to be ‘in’ it and not ‘on’ it which was way more cringey.

Did you watch it while it was on? KB — No, it wasn’t my cup of tea! SG — I watched a couple of episodes at the start. The bottom line is that we don’t take ourselves too seriously but we take our music seriously — that’s what matters to us.

You’ve been busy gigging recently, any favourite gig that sticks out? KB — I really loved the Sleigh Bells support gig in Whelan’s, it was deadly. SG — Yeah, I was really nervous before that gig. When you’re playing your own gig, you’re afraid nobody will show up but when you’re supporting someone else’s you’re just afraid no one will give a fuck. The audience were so nice and responsive to our set, both of us were just beaming afterwards. KB — Also, the lead singer (Alexis Krauss) kinda hit on Steve after the show. SG — I got her email, that’s all. Well, she might have ‘rubbed me’ a little bit too!

Rubbed you? SG — It was nothing really but it was enough to make me smile! KB — We also played in Warsaw in January too which was brilliant. Played in this tiny, sweaty, underground basement venue called ‘Saturator’, definitely will have to head back there after the albums done. Hopefully we’ll be playing a festival over there in the summer.

Are you ‘big’ in Poland? SG – I suppose it’s the same when a band comes here from the states or the UK, there’s an automatic sense of wanting to see them live, as it’s a bit more left field and mysterious than it is to watch someone of your own nationality performing.

Where did the name Kid Karate from? SG — We were at the Fake Blood and Diplo gig in Tripod and we got into a random fight outside after. I was completely hammered – during the gig I thought I was dancing but it probably looked more like I was trying to fight a ghost. Anyway, because of the fight that night our manager Dave’s girlfriend suggested the name, and it stuck.

What does the next year have in store for Kid Karate? SG – We are currently recording new songs, some of which will be going on the new album and one of those will be our first single which we think will be ‘This City’. We have around twenty songs but we don’t want to put something on it for the sake of it. We want to make it as cohesive as possible.

What festival are you most looking forward to playing this year? SG — We really want to play Castlepalooza. The Picnic and Oxegen would be epic too! KB — Forbidden Fruit looks really good too, the setting in IMMA will be cool.

Do you have day jobs at the moment? KB — I do, I work very, very, very part time in Zara, eight hours a week. SG — I did have a job but I got fired. I was working in All Saints for three and half years in Powerscourt but my manager decided she didn’t like me, maybe she realised I was a dick! On the plus side I get to concentrate on music and also watch Jeremy Kyle!

What are your thoughts on illegal downloading? SG — If someone is illegally downloading our stuff I say go for it! If that results in them coming to a gig then that’s like a huge compliment, I don’t see it as a bad thing at all. I see it as the same watching a trailer for a movie and then actually going to the cinema to see it. There are ways for albums to survive though, like the Radiohead thing recently. We’re looking into different ways of how to release an album or EP that will make it stand out from the norm. KB -I remember when I was younger I bought all the Nirvana albums in a row and played them to death. I doubt that happens that much now as music is just too disposable.

What artists or bands are you listening to in the last few months? KB — Last band I downloaded was a band called ‘OFF!’, it’s kinda like a cross between The Ramones and Blackflag. The Sleigh Bells too. SG – I’ve been listening to Ghost Poet, the latest Glasser album and a guy called DM Stith, who supported Sufjan Stevens recently.

If you were a woman for a day, who would you be? SG — I don’t even have to think about mine! Natalie Portman, I’d just be pirouetting in front a mirror, doing bad things to myself for 24 hours. KB — Erm, sorry I’m taking a while about this… maybe Liza Minnelli. SG — What?! Any women and you’re picking Liza Minnelli? KB — Well, like if you were Natalie Portman for a day, wouldn’t you actually be Natalie Portman? So it would be just the norm to be Natalie Portman and nothing new. SG — No, it’s not, it’s the woman you’d be but would still have your own brain hence why it would be great. KB — Well in that case then, definitely not Liza Minnelli! I’ll go for Milla Jovovich from The Fifth Element. SG — Good choice, apart from her accent. KB — Her accent is probably the best part!

Is there any current musician or band that you’ve taken a disliking to recently? SG — Cloud Castle Lake are dicks! Not really, they’re actually our mates but they said in Hot Press that they didn’t like us as a joke but I think we were the only people to ‘get it’. As much as we seem opinionated, we’re not really. But saying that, I was annoyed by a thing I read about the main guy from The Script, he basically said that Jarvis Cocker was using his comeback as a cash cow. KB — The last line of the article said ”who does Jarvis Cocker think he is, does he think anyone cares about him anymore”. SG — And the answer to that is clearly “Yes, he is Jarvis ‘fuckin’ Cocker”. He’s done something special. I just thought what he said [The Script] was a little out of order.

If there was one musician dead or alive that could be in your band who would it be? SG — Just to see what would happen, it would be great to have Elliot Smith in the band cause Kev has this shouty voice and he was real timid. Might’ve been a interesting mix. KB — I don’t know, I’m just trying to think of what would make us sound better or more fucked up. Maybe Meg White on drums! SG — She’d probably do a better job! KB — David Byrne would be great and Brian Eno as producer, I’d gladly take that!

So one last thing about Fade St, if they decided to make a second series and wanted you back what would you say? KB — No way! SG — I’ve already come to the conclusion that my character is dead. I died in a car crash so it’s all over for me.

To all the the Fade Street naysayers I implore you to give Kid Karate another chance, see them live once and you’ll be converted, see them twice and you’ll live happily ever after. I guarantee they won’t disappoint.

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Sarah & Steve - Ep5 (by coffeydavid)

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Emmet Kirwan,Comedy Writer and Actor Interview for stylesiren.ie

I’m meeting Emmet at the studio for our interview and a photo shoot with photographerTrevor Hart. We met recently when he hosted the Irish Festival Awards and I was working the event but I had to admit, I hadn’t seen the RTÉ2 comedy show ‘Sarah & Steve’. Before the interview I decided to get educated and found that after watching one episode on YouTube I was hooked and went through all ten episodes in one sitting. I’m tempted to describe the series of ten minute shorts as a modern day homage to Romeo & Juliet, Tallaght style. Except after watching it something tells me that if I said that to Emmet’s character, Steve, he’d fix me with one of those deadpan – you’re a fuckin’ clown – stares and say ‘Romeo & Juliet? Are you for bleedin’ serious?’

Steve’s character is a mix of someone who clearly loves his life and the people in it but seems desperate to escape at the same time, to get out there and see what life beyond Tallaght has to offer. He’s clever in a ‘well-read as opposed to academic’ way and incredibly articulate. He can go from talking about ‘banging tunes’ to Stanley Kubric films, from ‘wreckin the gaff’ to ‘the broader implications of being late’ via Dutch Gold 6 packs and Street Fighter IV Dhalsim references! A seamless blend of contradictions, so I’m keen to ask Emmet, who also wrote Sarah & Steve, the all important first question…

How much of Steve is based on you, your life?

A lot, the show is based on my life in my late teens, early twenties and whatever was happening to me at the time. It was actually a very personal show to me because I put a lot of my life into it, comedy has to have that, a narrative that people can latch on to. I think because it was real that’s one of the main reasons why it worked and why it was funny. You need to anchor the story to something real that people can identify with, but then have the one liners and the gags too.

Like ‘Turbo minty fresh mad out of it’ maybe?

Haha, kids come up to me all the time saying that, but it actually just came to me on the day, it was an improv thing. We wrote the theory of Turbo into the script and I was saying ‘Turbo this, Turbo that, is he mad out of it? No, he’s ‘Turbo minty fresh mad out of it’”, it’s the smallest things you think nothing of that catch on.

(The Theory of Turbo – there’s no word in the English language that you can’t make better or more Tallaght-tastic by putting the word Turbo in front of it)

How did Sarah & Steve come about?

The guy who created ‘Dan & Becks’, Dave Coffey, had seen me in a play ‘Monged’ and then saw a thing we did online for Rock the Vote in the last election, I did this character Frazier Fraz, we tried to get to politicians to take the piss out of them but we couldn’t get near them, they were wise to it, so we did some sketches with Colin Farrell, and a couple of others and Dave saw that and got in touch.

How did people from Tallaght react to Sarah & Steve?

Really well, which was great ’cause it’s where myself and Charlene (Charlene Gleeson who plays Sarah) grew up. I’ve never had anyone come up to me and say “you’re that bloke from the telly, you’re a fuckin’ eejit”, which can only be a good thing! People from other places in Dublin have said stuff like “you don’t sound scumbag enough” and I say “how would you know, do you have a anthropology degree in people from Tallaght or something? No, didn’t think so”. Those generalisations are ridiculous, most people in Tallaght have normal Dublin accents. If everyone in Tallaght spoke like a fuckin’ Roddy Doyle character on crack society would fall in on itself!

There are loads of drug references in Sarah & Steve, particularly in our favourite episode, the Electric Picnic one, how did RTÉ let you away with that?

I don’t think they were paying enough attention to it, to be honest! It was the first time that I can remember RTÉ having a plot line involving someone taking drugs and something bad not happening to them like an overdose or their lives falling apart. So in that respect it was at least realistic. (You can see Emmet’s recent promo video for this year’s Electric Picnic line uphere – Ed)

What do you think of the current comedy shows on RTÉ?

I actually think the stuff that is on at the moment is quite strong. The likes of The Savage Eye, Hardy Bucks and Republic of Telly are really good most of the time. It looks like RTÉ have kind of changed their strategy a bit, they’re looking to the Internet to see what’s popular. That way they know that something like Hardy Bucks will work ’cause it has an audience already on the web. At the same time though they’re against scripted comedy and don’t think it works for Irish television which is hard to agree with, they didn’t want Sarah & Steve at first, it took us to make a pilot before they finally agreed.

Growing up were you always interested in acting?  Yeah, I went to youth theatre as a teenager and I loved that experience and being around so many different types of people from all over Dublin, not just Tallaght, it opens your eyes and changes you, you break out of that insular home town mentality and start to think differently. Then I went to Trinity to do Acting when I was around eighteen, the course itself was tough, three years of pretty intense studying so it makes you realise really quickly if you’re up for acting or not. After I finished I was writing some stuff but comedy was still in the distance, I got a part in ‘The Big Bow Wow’ on RTÉ, I was about a year out of college and it was my first big part in a TV show so I was happy at the time and was told it would run for a few years, it was hyped as the start of something big. Being new and young I just assumed it would be, but then it came out and I thought “oh no”, it got critically blasted and rightly so. It’s a shame it was good on the page at the start and was written by a good writer. But it tried too hard. It just blew up in everyones face. Lesson learned.

We’ve seen a little of your moves to ‘A town called Malice’ in one Sarah & Steve episode and we’ve heard rumours that you’re a bit of a dancer?

Ha! Who the fuck told you that? I used to do a lot of dancin’ as a young fella, body popping and locking, the whole break dance thing. It was just a bit of craic. I always say that it was just a laugh, but in reality, I took it all very seriously at the time! Weirdly though it’s come in handy in some acting roles I played, a lot of stuff you do on stage is movement based and fluid and I’ve definitely used my dancing in that. Mime is all based in movement and I studied that in college and the play I’m writing at the moment is based on movement and rhyming so it’s all connected.

Do you have a favourite comedian?

Dylan Moran, I think he’s one of the best that’s ever been. The stuff he does is clever and universally funny not like some fella doin’ an Eamon Dunphy impression. True comedy should be as funny to the bloke in Alaska as it is to the bloke in Wexford.

You mentioned characters from Fair City in your stand-up at the Festival Awards, are you a fan?

I find it funny more so than anything, the representation of working class culture on mainstream media here is hilarious and nearly always wrong. The character Zumo Bishop is a prime example of that, he’s a typical stereotype but in a way he’s legend because it goes so far as to be a parody of a parody.

So there’s no chance of you appearing in a Fair City plotline, Mondo’s long lost brother?

I did an ad years ago and people thought that it was Mondo from Fair City in it, not me. Apparently he was going mad at the time because everyone kept saying it to him, so I was at a session in my mates one day and I wasn’t saying much and my friend says ‘You’re very quiet this week Kirwan, I think we’re gonna get Mondo from Fair City in to play you in our next session.’ I used to get a lot of Mondo based slags.

Do you have any opinion of Irish celebrity culture?

I completely take myself out of that scene and I think the term ‘Irish celeb’ is an oxymoron anyway. Some people think that American networking thing works here. It doesn’t. You’re never going to meet someone on a night out and have the person think, “I’m so enamoured by this guy I think I’m going to give him the lead role in my new movie”. It’s better to keep your head down and work hard.

How tough is the industry at the moment in this country?

Well, there’s just not enough work to go around, which I’m sure you can imagine can be a bit problematic! When you do a show here, you think ‘I can build from here’ but in reality you have to start again. So the result of that is I’m movin’ to London, probably in the summer.

Really, anything lined up?

No, not really but I played a couple of English parts recently enough, like in ‘The Take’ on Sky One and ‘The Silence’ on BBC, so I’m hoping that will stand to me.

Style time, I see you’re wearing Fred Perry and you’re a fan of Lyle & Scott also, do you have a defined style?

I’d say I’ve evolved my style over time, I wear a lot of tracksuit tops, vintage and the like, I’ve about 16 Adidas ones because I’m a hoarder and I hang on to them, I’ve a Wimbledon one from 1985, proper retro. And I was given a lot of the wardrobe from Sarah & Steve, which went from bright t-shirts and raving gear to more of a classic Mod style, not totally though, I suppose you could say I’m a restrained Mod.

As it’s Men’s Week on stylesiren, I have to ask, what men’s products do you use?

I use Nivea aftershave balm and Nivea moisturiser and that’s it. Oh and of course the placenta of new born babies mixed in a potent potion of frogs tails, only frog tails from the Amazon though, they’re the best. I also know an aul’ Romanian witch who sells me her tears, makes me look fresh!

As we wrap up our conversation, Emmet makes a comment about music and singing and how he used to be in an Indie band and I wish we had another hour to chat. Suffice to say that singing is another edge to his overloaded talent offerings, and come May he’ll be in the Grand Canal Theatre in a comedy/musical about taxi drivers on the Northside called ‘Blow Up The Liffey Bridges’. Then it’s off to London, streets paved with gold and all that craic.

There’s no doubt that when the good ship Kirwan departs our shores he’ll be missed, but in the words of ‘Steve’, ‘You can’t just stop 10 metres into the race and set up camp’. For someone with his talent and ambition, it’s a natural progression to want to be among quality comedy production that Ireland just doesn’t have to offer.

In the meantime we’ll be hoping that at some point someone somewhere comissions another series of Sarah & Steve, ‘Part II – EuroDisney & Beyond’, because something so well observed and laugh out loud funny deserves another outing… Ch’know what I mean?

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Des Doyle Interviews Nialler9 aka Niall Byrne for stylesiren.ie

Des Doyle Interviews Nialler9, Music Blogger & Editor of State Magazine.

Admittedly, punctuality was never my thing, I arrive fifteen minutes late for my scheduled interview with Ireland’s best known music blogger Niall Byrne aka Nialler9 in the 3fe cafe. Upon my arrival I realise that even though I’m an avid fan of his blog I don’t know what Niall looks like.… Things get a little awkward as I proceed to approach anyone sitting on their own by asking, ‘’Niall?’’ To my relief and slight embarrassment all smile politely and say no. By process of elimination I realise he has yet to arrive, maybe punctuality isn’t his thing either. I sit and wait, five minutes later he arrives. He apologises for his tardiness I say no worries as I feign professionalism.

Were you always interested in music journalism as a career? No, not at all, from a young age I’ve been heavily into music but I never really considered writing about music as a career choice more so as a hobby. The first bit of writing I did was for my blog and because I do it every day I’ve gradually got better at it over time but I’m by no means the finished article. I remember doing my first interview for State Magazine with Adele and while transcribing it overusing thesaurus, trying to make my piece better but in the end it looked a bit ridiculous so I just did naturally instead.

Growing up did you have a favourite artist or band? The Beastie Boys probably! My sister had a tape of Ill Communication, I remember I robbed it from her cause I liked it so much. Everyone was into Oasis and Blur, even though I liked them the Beastie Boys was more ‘my’ thing. I thought it was cool the way they played their own instruments, then sampled them to make the tracks. It was them and the Super Furry Animals too, both I played to death back then.

How hard do you think it is for artists to make money at the moment? Extremely, young people have grown up with the habit of getting music by illegally downloading with the odd purchase on iTunes, it’s going to be very tough to break that habit.…  There are some cases of governments stepping in to try and rectify the situation. In France they gave everyone under the age of 21 download cards with free credit on it to start with and with each top up another -10 free. It’s going to be really hard to defend against file sharing but at least that was some way of addressing the problem. The question is what is going to make people pay for an album when they can easily get it for free on the web? There are new innovative ways to try and get around the current situation like with The Cast of Cheers giving away their first album for nothing, it really worked for them cause it created a bit of a buzz, now they’re well known and are making money at gigs and probably sell out Whelan’s because they built the fan base with the initial free album download on bandcamp.com.…  They used it to their advantage which was cool. The internet is so young it’s difficult to know how the landscape will change for artists in the years to come.

What up and coming Irish artists are going to make it big in the next year? Someone I think who’ll be getting more attention in the near future is a 17 year old from Newbridge called Moths, he’s only produced three tracks so far but they’re quality, I reckon once he finished his leaving cert he’ll have a few offers waiting for him! I know that John from Solar Bears is helping him get off the ground and they do things a little differently.

How does Solar Bears strategy differ to other Irish acts? Well, they understand how to network properly outside of Ireland which is probably the most important thing these days.…  They focus on blogs and websites that exist internationally so that they can create a buzz and it’s not just confined just to this country. It’s working for them as they’re beginning to make waves abroad and have a few high profile gigs coming up in London.…  I’m actually in a very lucky position at the moment because the Irish scene is so strong at the moment.…  I find myself listening to nearly all Irish music at the moment not because I have to but by choice, I could potentially make my blog exclusively for Irish music if I wanted because of the vast amount of quality stuff that’s currently available.

You were voted as the 5th most influential music bog in the world that must have been a pleasant surprise? I think if they did it again it mightn’t work out like that as it was voted by other music bloggers but it was a cool thing to happen!

Do you think your blog would be as popular without twitter and facebook? All I know is that is has grown substantially in the last couple of years with social media coming to the fore so yeah it has had an impact.…  People are more likely to communicate with me on Twitter than on the blog itself, it complements the blog but I’m sure it would still exist if facebook and twitter weren’t there, just slightly differently.

Do you think there’s currently a dot com bubble? I think there is real value in some online companies these days but things are moving so fast it’s hard to call, just look at myspace for example, it was huge a 3 years ago and now they’re tiny compared to Facebook and Twitter.

Most people look to your blog to get new music but where do you get it from?

A number of different places, friend recommendations mostly but then the likes of breaking tunes, pitchfork and other blogs like Gorilla Vs Bear, that I respect and trust too, anywhere really. Breakingtunes.com is really good especially for Irish artists and I’d say it will have an impact for the Irish music scene at this year’s South X South West showcase.

Do you ever feel under pressure from labels or PR agencies to like a band and promote them even though you thought otherwise? No, never! It’s just not the way I work. The important thing is that I have to like it. If I’m not into it, I just won’t put it up on my blog.

On your blog, you once referred to Sigur Ros as ‘humourless Icelandic entities’, why? Ha! That wasn’t a personal experience though, it was because of the interview I saw on youtube, it lasted for around 8 minutes and the lead singer Jonsi just sat there and basically said nothing, it was very awkward but kind of funny in a cringey way I suppose.…  Alan in State.ie interviewed him once and apparently he was a little difficult to say the least.

So dish the dirt, who is the biggest dickhead you’ve met to date then? I seriously haven’t met that many dick heads but you’ve probably jinxed me now. I met a couple of my heroes like Gruff Rhys, he was funny, he had these huge pauses in between each question but…  the reason for that could be because he’s from the Howard Marks school of smoking weed! Okay I have one, I once interview Q-Tip by phone and I could tell that he didn’t really want to speak to me, I think he was walking around new jersey at the time and he spent most of his time talking to other people instead of me and I think he hung up a couple of times. There, that’s all the dirt I have!

In the past artists like Dylan, Bragg and more recently Rage against the Machine have rallied politically through their music, why do you think there is a lack of political music these days even in the situation we find ourselves in? What about Jinx Lennon!? But I know what you mean, it’s never really been something I’ve been interested in to be honest, like Bono and the whole save the world thing. Maybe there’s an aspect of escapism to it too, if you’re on the dole, do you really want to be listening to someone singin’ to you about being on the dole? I doubt it!

What do you do in your spare time? I’ve been watching loads of movies recently, trying to watch the Oscar nominees, saw True Grit at the weekend.

Did you like it? (SPOILER ALERT!) Yeah until the ending, like what was the story with the women with one arm, pointless!

What about The Social Network? If someone was going to make a film about the creation of the Nialler9 blog what would it be like? Probably extremely boring! I seriously doubt it would get nominated for Oscar. Wonder who’d play me though?

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I usually pride myself on my music knowledge but it’s apparent during the interview that whatever I think I know about the music industry is a drop in the ocean compared to Niall Byrne.…  He’s a fitting representative for Irish Music and his presence at showcases like SXSW, Eurosonic and CMJ in New York could potentially have a massive impact on our home grown talent as he’s respected internationally. As for who’d be suitable to play him in a movie,…  I could predictably say somebody like John Cusack because of his role as music obsessed record shop owner…  in High Fidelity or Patrick Fugit who was the budding Music journo in Almost Famous but for some reason I keep thinking ‘young Tom Selleck, young Tom Selleck’.…  I’m not sure of the reasoning behind this but it’s probably a compliment.

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Steve Murray Interview for stylesiren.ie 23rd Feb 2011

Des Doyle Interviews Steve Murray, founder and owner of the experiential marketing agency Modern Green the team behind campaigns for many of Ireland’s top brands including Heineken and O2. Most notably the O2 Angels, that super friendly band of winged helpers on hand at every O2 Event.… He also owns one of Dublin’s trendiest and tastiest hang outs Green Nineteen.

Arriving in the Modern Green office at Friday lunch time, it’s immediately obvious that the word ‘modern’ isn’t in the company name merely for the sake of it. With Art vying for space on the walls, some of which would be more suited to The Tate than a Dublin office, shelves stacked high with books from Klein, Godin, Gladwell and other well known forward thinkers, a Stormtrooper replica suit in the window…  and to my pleasant surprise a bullmastiff named ‘Hope’, who I guess got her name from the famous Obama presidential poster campaign which hangs outside Green Nineteen, it’s what the quintessential 21st century office should be like.

I’m led up to the board room to find Murray watching a video of the company’s latest brainstorming session where he had a live skype feed from San Diego with the founders of uber-cool fashion watches ‘Nixon’, Andy Laats and Chad DiNenna who extolled their business expertise and advice to the Modern Green crew. Before I start the interview he asks me politely not to use his image to accompany my piece.

Why so modest? It’s not modesty, I just think there is a big difference between wanting to be a celebrity and wanting to be successful, personally I respect people that go about their business quietly much more. There is a team creating something cool here and I’d feel false if I was taking the credit for it.

He has the right attitude of course but I know if I were him, founder of a company that boasts some of the countries coolest brands as clients and has close to 150 employees on its payroll, not to mention owner of one of the top restaurants in Dublin, I’d probably spend most of my time drinking Cristal and trying to get snapped with my arm around Georgie Salpa or some other minor Irish pleb, sorry I mean celeb, shouting ‘’look at me everyone, I’m a superstar!!’’ But maybe that’s just me?!

When did you first realise you had an entrepreneurial spirit? I’d say since I was teenager. I suffered badly from dyslexia when I was younger and I think that was the catalyst for me to work extra hard at what I wanted to do. I remember doing my junior cert which I made sure to do well in so I didn’t look like the stupid one in the class and that gave me the self discipline to get things done. I also think that having dyslexia made me more creatively minded cause I used to do things like read comics but only look at the pictures and not the words, you adapt to it. I probably would be doing something totally different if it wasn’t for it so I’m thankful.

What do you look for in a potential employee in Modern Green or Green Nineteen?  Passion! I can usually tell within five minutes of an interview if they have it or not. If people are passionate about what they want to do they’ll always be thinking about it, they’ll take ownership of their job themselves without being prodded every step of the way. An example of this is of DJ (Dunja Lugaric, his PA), she came to me and said’ I really want be involved here, I’ll work for free’, that little sentence made me know immediately she was suitable and within a week she was fulltime and on the payroll. When I was starting out I did the same, I was willing to do anything just to get my foot in the door. If people are doing what they love, they’re going to be good at it and if they’re good at it, they’re going to get paid. I feel really lucky every day as I know I’ll be working with some of the coolest people in Dublin and the fact of it is I’d hang out with all of them even if I didn’t work in the same company as them. One of the only rules I have regarding recruitment is staff coming in are younger than me(34 years old), it’s an easy way to keep new ideas flowing and have things as fresh as possible.

Modern Green represent loads of well known brands, one of them is Heineken with the Green Spheres gigs, how did that come about? Well, we got O2 on board first…  and I really liked the Heineken brand and was focused on working with them, an opportunity came along where they wanted create a live music experience campaign and I remember staying up all night after watching Sin City coming up with pitch for Green Spheres and it totally fitted for them.…  The brands we represent are all brands that we respect and feel passionate about; I don’t think it would work if we felt any other way.

With Modern Green being a success, why did you decide to open a restaurant? I’d bought the building that we’re now in and the ground floor space was vacant. I was getting calls from the agent saying ‘I have two coffee franchises who want your place, it’s on street level, you’ll make a fortune with the space’ but I thought fuck this, if I’m going to do it I’ll do it myself.

You must have felt some vindication when the restaurant won the Santa Rita Peoples Choice Award in 2009? It felt great, I remember hearing the news on the radio in the car with one of my colleagues and we screamed our heads off! I had all these people telling me to rent it out to a third party but at the end of the day it totally worked due to planning and more importantly passion for the concept.

It’s difficult to find anyone that has bad word to say about Green Nineteen, why do you think that is? I think it’s all down to the staff. The friendliness and passion they exude is clear and it makes the place have a certain buzz. I used to go to Cafe Metro all the time for coffee and didn’t understand why I felt so comfortable and then it dawned on me, it’s cause they’re not wearing uniforms and it was relaxed. We just wanted to have a basic principal of treating people as if they were coming to your own house for something to eat; it’s as simple as that.…  It’s homely and affordable. Nearly all the staff live within five minutes of Green Nineteen and they all care about the community, so it really is a neighbour joint and the customers get that and it makes them feel comfortable dropping in for a coffee, juice or a meal. There is a big difference between running a business in your community and running a business for investment targets. Luckily the restaurant is going great and it’s because of the sense of community in the place.

Community is important to you? It is yeah, we’re actually having meetings regularly with the surrounding businesses on how to make the Camden community a better place, the traffic is a bit mental and it would be great to fix that and also how can it become a creative space, not like Temple Bar, but to have its own unique identity.…  We are approaching the council about new ways of reviving the area through constant communication and community based creativity.

If you were to give advice to someone thinking of setting up a new business what would it be? Planning is the key to success. You can’t have fun in a business environment if it’s not initially well thought out.…  Behind it all there’s plenty of planning and risk elimination done and that’s key to both the agency and the Green Nineteen’s success. You have to have a business model that you are happy with and stick to it. Okay you can’t plan for everything especially in the business we’re in but common sense usually prevails especially when you’ve a good plan and you love working with the team around you.

In the future, Can you ever see yourself living anywhere else than Dublin? Never, I genuinely love this city. No matter where I travel to I always look forward to coming home.…  I love Sundays in Dublin walking around with my dog, I don’t even know why, I just love it!…  The architecture, the history, the literature, the creativity, the people, the banks, the recession, the bullshit, there’s just so much goin’ on I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.

Although Steve Murray might not realise it, the name given to his dog is also apt for him.…  The fact that he has two hugely successful businesses in the current economic climate and isn’t willing to rest on his laurels springs hope in the people working for him. It’s apparent that he fully believes in his core team. He has a real ambition to make things creatively better in his community and although he’s currently adverse to the limelight the growing success of his businesses means it’s going to be increasingly difficult to escape from it.

[desmondjdoyle-blog]

IT STARTS HERE (by VoteDylanHaskinsNo1)

[desmondjdoyle-blog]

Dylan Haskins Interview for stylesiren.ie 7th Feb 2011

Des Doyle Interviews Dylan Haskins, Independent Candidate for Dublin South East in February 25th’s General Election.

When I meet Dylan Haskins at 3pm on a wet and windy Friday afternoon at the entrance of The Morgan in Temple Bar, he is intently busy on his iphone, probably tweeting. If it’s possible the 23 year old looks younger in person than he does on his posters. By the end of the interview I realise the old saying of looks can be deceiving rings true.

He orders a regular white coffee and we sit. I notice he is sporting his now trademark brown winkle pickers, I faux scratch my leg to see if he notices that I too am wearing not dissimilar winkle pickers, its goes unnoticed. I’m a little disappointed but my disappointment ends there.

Have you always been interested in politics? Yeah, always but not in the conventional way like joining a youth party, going into student politics and then making the final transition to traditional party politics. I never really thought of being a politician as such, I only decided to run for this election in December, it just felt like the right thing to do.

Why not the conventional way? I’ve always been very independent and had a DIY mentality, I try to speak from the heart about what I think about things and I’ll change my mind according to what makes sense at the time, I’d hate to have my views influenced by a political party manifesto or a chief whip that would try to sway my views. It would it be against what I stand for.

So are you saying, at 23 years old that you can say right here that you’ll never join a political party? I’ll never join any of the established political parties but maybe if a new wave party came along with modern policies and views then perhaps. But I don’t think you have to give every movement a name, I just see that as retrospective branding.

Your mission statement is ‘to restore faith in our political system’, what do you mean? Restoring faith relates to reforming politics, it’s about going to the root of the problem and to try and find the simplest way of changing for the better. Good communication and transparency conquers most problems and over time it seems our politicians and government organisations have lost their way in this regard. You can apply creative thinking to the economics of the country and the way our society works. Creativity is crucial to Ireland’s recovery.

Transparency is very important to you? Huge! Transparency should go through every aspect of decision making. Decisions should be made as close to the people they effect as possible and without transparency that cannot be done. I think that by moving towards being completely open and seeing what the options are at your disposal, that’s the best starting point for reform.

You have a tough competition in your constituency for the elections in the form of Creighton (Fine Gail) , Quinn (Labour) , Andrews (Fine Fail) and Gormley (Greens), is there any you see a specific threat from? I don’t care who I beat as long as I get a seat! Gormley and Andrews have been in government and I feel they’ve had their chance and we’ve seen the consequences….

As Haskins delivers this my mind drifts. I can’t help feel a little envious of this man who is five years my junior. He has already a CV to die for. Setting up gigs in Greystones as a teenager, founding ‘The Hideway’ which was a creative hot bed for underground music in Dublin, directing the documentary ‘Roll Up Your Sleeves’ which garnered International attention, not to mention his broadcasting career with RTE where he interviewed high profile artists such as Marina & the Diamonds, Jools Holland and Richard Hawley amongst others. When I was his age I was sitting on my couch in my student flat in Rathmines getting stoned playing Football Manager, while simultaneously watching repeats of Jeremy Kyle, which believe it or not doesn’t take a huge amount of effort, it’s hard not to feel a bit inadequate.

Last year he was assistant director for the acclaimed ‘Heroin’ which was part of the Dublin Fringe Festival last summer. This leads me to my next question.

Another thing you disagreed with was the legislation on head shops last year, what would you’ve done differently? First of all, the legislation against head shops didn’t happen because some TD’s thought it was an important issue, it was because it was on Joe Duffy! Successive Irish governments have stayed away from having any in-depth debate about the drugs policy. It takes courage to step back from the populous stance and say ‘let’s talk about the about the bigger picture here’. It was said that these head shops were corrupting the youth of the country but markets supply demand and if these shops were springing all over the country the question should have been, what can we do to stop the youth from feeling the need to take this stuff instead of let’s try and get rid of this problem by closing these shops.

Have you ever tried any illegal drugs? To be honest, no I haven’t. I’ve just never been attracted to it and most of my energy was in organising things like gigs or whatever so maybe I was just too busy! I think its boredom that maybe makes people ‘use’ and I’ve always been busy and happy but saying that, maybe I need to try it to know for sure (he laughs).

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Haskins is wearing a blue pinstripe shirt buttoned to the top which is complemented by skinny grey trousers and ‘those’ dark brown winkle pickers….

Regarding your style, it’s unique, especially in the land of Irish politics, what’s it influenced by? You look very like the lead singer of ‘Hurts’ Theo Hutchcraft! I’ve been getting that loads recently! I’m actually a bit of an aul’ fella at heart and I like etiquette (he laughs). But I do like new stuff too.

Where do you clothes shop in Dublin? It depends on how much money I have which at the moment is not a lot! I don’t really have any significant loyalty to certain shops. Like this shirt is from Zara, trousers from Uniqlo and the shoes are Ted Baker, I need a new pair, I’ve had them for a year.

Are you listening to any specific band or artist at the moment? I’m listening to Anna Calvi on repeat, I saw her play in Dingle at ‘Other Voices’. That girl can shred a guitar! Other than that I listen to stuff that relaxes me like The XX, Warpaint or Kanye’s new album, I actually contemplated plagiarising some of his lyrics as a campaign slogan. His lyrics are ‘First things first, I’ll fix your brains’, I was going to change it to ‘first things first, I’ll fix your drains’!

Most politicians have the difficulty of convincing young people to vote, paradoxically you have the opposite challenge of convincing the older voter. How are you going to do that? You do that by going to where they’re listening, like the radio and more importantly on their doorsteps, speaking to them about what I believe is good for the city. I want them to listen to what I’m saying not how young I look.

Did you ever think of making yourself look older in you campaign posters? I told them to definitely keep the few wrinkles I have below my eyes, so I was anti-airbrushing!

And finally, if you were an animal what animal would you be? A fox! (he answers without any hesitation) I have a weird affinity with them, I see them at stages in my life and I think sometimes it might be a sign. But now that you bring it up I haven’t seen one in a while, maybe I should be worried!

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Personally I don’t think Haskins has any need to fret. He genuinely wants to work hard to make our society a better place while using himself in an unselfish way as a political template for other young people to follow and to shun the decades old civil war politics mentality, one of his moto’s is ‘if I can do it, you can do it too’, it’s inspiring. His star has been quietly rising for years and one suspects his star will see its biggest and loudest spike to date on the 25th. His odds in Paddy Power have been slashed from 50-1 to 12-1. I know who my money is on…