Delorentos – The big interview

Posted on 30th May 06 by Contributor | 0

Artist: Delorentos
Author: Mark

Delorentos hail from Dublin and are very hot right now. An appearance on RTE programme Other Voices and winners of The National Student Music Awards last year as well as winning the UK event has cemented their place in Irish Music right now" but determination and ambition are key to the success of this band. Drop"d met up with Kieran before their recent gig in An Br"g for a chat about themselves and their new single "The Rules" and plans for the future.

Mark: The band formed about two years ago""..

Kieran:The band formed a little over two years ago. Myself and Ross and N"al have been playing around for a while and I think we played more football and drank more tea" not really worked as hard as we should have but it was great fun. Then we realised that the songs were sounding really good and then we decided to take it really seriously and we had crossed paths with Ro before and knew he was really good" he knew stuff we"d done so we decided to get together and decided that this is what we were going to do. We had always dreamed of being in a band but being in a successful band and getting singles on the radio we may as well planned to go to the moon. All of a sudden things have just happened so we kept it going. So it was just a case of putting things aside and deciding that this is our 100" thing we"re doing now and we"ve just worked on it since there.

Mark:So how did you get yourselves out there and getting gigs in Dublin"

Kieran:There"s a scene where a lot of bands go for gigs in Dublin so we started off in places like the Clifton Court and little venues in Dublin and we played as many gigs as we could and wrote as many songs as we could. Then when things started to move forward and we started to be better live the gigs started being offered as opposed to us chasing them and the more gigs we got offered the more we could choose which ones we were doing. Then we got a recording down and started getting demos done to hand out. We started recording and moving ahead with the live thing. There are loads of places on the Internet such as the FMC which is connected to the peoples Republic of Cork. If you go on those website there are tips there and if you leave a question on a forum then someone will reply" message boards are good for that kind of thing. For young bands it"s good" but then the question is where do you go after this after you"ve done all these things.

Mark:Where does the creativity in the band come from and how do the songs come together"

Kieran:Well basically we decided when we started the band we decided that there"s no one person doing everything. We decided that everyone who wanted to sing could sing" everyone who wanted to write could write. With the set tonight we"re playing 4 new songs and one is a debut we never played before. Of all the songs we"ve all wrote our own and our own parts to each song" be it a guitar riff or a drum beat. We all write our own parts obviously. We share everything and everyone is involved. Sometimes it takes a bit longer and it can be a bit stressful" but we"d like to think that it makes it more our sound and the results are better. So when it comes to creativity every song you hear is from all of us having 5" inspiration and working at it. It"s good and it"s actually a lot of fun. Generally that moment when you play a song and you know you have it" that"s good you know.

Mark:You won the National Student Music Awards last year and went on the win the UK final also" how did you get involved in it and what did you think of the standard of the bands in the UK as opposed to home"

Kieran:We entered it because it was a way of playing around all the colleges we hadn"t really done the college circuit as much. There were a lot of really good bands" Angels Of Mons and a few more bands. There were lots of bands in Ireland that were really good and we were delighted that we won it. We went over to England with no expectations and there was a big crowd for those bands and not so much for us. They were a lot younger than us. We play a lot of gigs so we had our live "act" and stage craft down where a lot of other bands…there was one bands and it was only their fourth gig. It was good and they"re all talented. We"re in touch with one of the London bands still and they"ve got a club night going and they are doing well. It was cool and the standard was very high.

Mark:You were over there again lately" at the Camden Crawl how did that go"

Kieran:We weren"t in the Camden Crawl but we did a gig in Camden. It was great to have that gig because we"ve got more gigs out of it. We got a gig with Tapes And Tapes who have just been signed and there was a big rush about them over at south by southwest. Were lucky to be offered it and we"re delighted to play it. The more we get known outside the country is better. We decided from a very early stage that we weren"t just going to play in Dublin. We wanted to play around the country as much as possible" this year alone we"ve played Cork" this is our fifth or sixth time this year we"ve played Cork. We"ve been lucky you know we"ve played around the country loads and there"re only a few big towns around the country that we having played yet and we"re getting around to ticking those boxes as well.

Mark:Your fairly hard working" you"ve played Cork more times this year than Dublin" do you think that some bands can get stuck in a rut playing in their own town too much"

Kieran:This is the thing" you have to get out to audiences that don"t know who you are. We played the tour with Nada Surf and we played to a whole new audience in Cork in Cruiscin Lan. The crowd were really receptive and it was great. We played in Galway again and a different crowd saw us and as a result a lot of people went onto our websites and said hello and we gave our all our badges so people know our name and people we asking about the new single and there"s been a few looking for the new single already.

Mark:Ya when is that out"

Kieran:It"s out on the 19th of May. We"re doing a big tour and playing pretty much every day. We"re just playing around the country as much as possible to support it. We"re just getting out there to get as many people have a listen to our music as possible.

Mark:You played other voices as well" how fid you get involved in that"

Kieran:We got an offer and it was great. There wasn"t so many bands and we went down thinking there"s so many established bands playing. The same night we were playing there was Dave Couse who obviously was in A House and Teenage Fanclub who are one of the biggest bands to come out of Britain and we played on the same night and it we all held out own.We got good feedback from the show" fantastic you know and we were really happy. It was a very good gig to play and it taught us a little bit as well and we had a great weekend. There"s only a couple of times or occasions when your in a band when you get looked after because a lot of the time it"s a slog" today we stopped at a service station and bought a batch loaf and a couple of slices of ham and cheese and that was our lunch" But every now and again there"s night where you get looked after very well and we got looked after very well down there.

Mark:Do you ever have any disagreements on the road"

Kieran:The thing is we"re all really good mates and we know each other so well so we just hang out as mates. If you had to sit with 3 or 4 of your mates and drive around the country there will be disagreements" not really no more than anyone else. It"s good and everyone has to opportunity "for time to themselves" because if I was tired today I can feck off for an hour and go for a walk or whatever. You can have as much as much space as you want to. I think sometimes that"s needed.

Mark:Just getting back to Cork" what"s your opinion on the music scene here"

Kieran:It"s great there are a lot of really good bands. Tonight Painting By Numbers are really good" Kilterr are really good" Fred are a good band" Lotus Lullaby they won the National Student music Awards this year. There are great bands in Cork and we"ve been very lucky to play with all those bands and they"re really nice fellas as well. We needed to stay over and we asked Lotus Lullaby and they looked after us. We ended up getting a hostel through to a mix up but they"re very accommodating and it"s a good scene down here. Bands like monitor and more send us e"mails and we"re very happy to play with the guys. There are some really good venues around" this is a great pub" the brog" Cyprus Avenue is a great venue" the Cruiscin Lan we hadn"t played there before we just played there.

Mark:You played in Cyprus Avenue on The Strange Brew Tour".

Kieran:Yeah it was weird because it was one of our first gigs of the year and from other voices we took off to that gig and we went off to write after so that was our kind of" the way we play we play three or four gigs a weeks so to take two months off was really strange for us. It went well but we were a bit tired I think" since then we played a few stormers. Gugai in Galway is a really good venue manager" he"s one of the venue managers you really want to have" he really looked after us and there"s a few of those around the country" he"s one of them

Mark:Is there much of a difference in your full gig compared to playing on a bill with other bands"

Kieran:Tonight now we"re headlining so we"ll get fourteen songs instead" whereas on another day like that we might get eight. Doing support with o many people playing with you you"ve got to work out what kind of way you want the stage set up" whereas wit this gig we set it up the way we want it. Most times it"s fairly accommodating" running your own gig is always easier because you set up your own way. That was a nice tour" we wanted to play the whole thing but it didn"t work out that way.

Mark:Any plans to play any festivals in the summer"

Kieran:Yeah we"re trying to play as many as we can get our names on" we"ve got a few already. The first one is the Trinity Ball" and a few more. We"re playing a few big ones but I can"t really say. The festival season is great" we didn"t really get much of a chance the last few years because we took holidays. We"re taking two weeks off this year and then back into the festival season again. Playing outdoor festivals in big towns is brilliant.

Mark:Your getting a lot of industry interest can you elaborate on it a bit more"

Kieran:We invite everyone to our gigs anyone can come along. We look after ourselves and we have a kind of manager working with us now and he"s helping us out a good bit. We"re trying to see how far we can get on our own. We released our self financed EP" the Leave It On EP" last year and it did great for a self financed EP is did fantastic. It sold out. This time releasing a single we kept the price down so more people can get it. We"re trying to get 25 songs together for an album. As I said anyone can come to our gigs or e"mail us.

Mark:Tell me a bit more about The Rules"

Kieran:It"s about racism in Ireland" I was inspired to write it by meeting someone who had a lot of drink who was going on about this and that and those people doing this. It was kind of hard but I put it down as an experience. A lot of the lines in are about that" the chorus "What a waste of time" I"ve been going about my mind" is about that.

Mark:Any big plans for the future"

Kieran:Were just trying to get out there as much as possible and get a few tracks done for an album. We want to get the album out there and get distribution and play a lot places we haven"t played before. We want to play more places whether it be in Ireland or in Europe or whatever. We want to get the album done as soon as possible because in another six months a lot could change and we might do things differently. We want to get it done as soon as we can.

Mark:Any favourite venues"

Kieran:We love playing Cork. I"m from Cork originally and it"s great to come walk around Patrick Street and play a gig in the evening. Other venues we like are Rois"n Dubh in Galway is great" The Spirit Store in Dundalk is good" Club Head Bang Band in Tralee is good venue. A few venues in Belfast and Waterford and around the country have always been great.

Mark:Any advice new bands starting up"

Kieran:There"s lot of places you can go" check out a few message boards. There"s always someone who will help you. Secondly talk to people like the FMC. Thirdly learn to play your instrument as best you can and practice your head off" You"ve got everything you need there and if you"ve a good connection to the scene it always helps.

A fine performance from Delorentos went down a treat with the Cork faithful. Painting By Numbers played an impressive set and have changed and improved massively since their Drop"d Showcase gig. Stand out tracks on the night courtesy of Delorentos were new single "The Rules"" "Leave It On" and the fantastic "The Basis Of Everything" which is an amazing track to say the least. The new tracks performed on the night show there is plenty potential flowing through the bands and the future remains bright.

You can check out Delorentos set on other voices at
http://www.rte.ie/tv/othervoices/delorentos.html where the single "The Rules" is the first song of their set. You will need real player to play it.

Also check out:

www.myspace.com/delorentos
www.delorentos.net