GIVING IT ALL AWAY

Originally published in The Irish Times, January 31st 2011

“YOU HAVE TO speculate to accumulate.” Wise words for a student of business, perhaps, but not exactly a phrase you’d expect a young Irish band to live by. Yet over the past year, several of our musical acts have borne that maxim in mind when unleashing their work on the public. The industry has been in a state of flux since the internet arrived: people consume music differently and physical copies are being increasingly overlooked in favour of downloads. If someone wants an album they can get it for free – whether through legal or illegal channels.

ENEMIES: KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE

An edited version of this feature was originally published in The Irish Times, July 15th 2010

ENEMIES HAVE been discovering the perils of being a touring band. Ruddy-cheeked and flustered, Mark O’Brien and Lewis Jackson of the Wicklow-based post-rockers are fresh off a ferry from France, having made the crossing by the skin of their teeth after their van broke down along a stretch of Normandy motorway. They’re not quite famous enough to pull the ‘Do you know who we are?’ card when it comes to Stena Line just yet – but with the stellar reviews that their excellent, groove-laden debut ‘We’ve Been Talking’ has been pulling in, that day may not be too far down the line.