Another fine export from the Mullingar music scene, Waiting To Explode join us here at KKM for the 2006 KilkennyMusic.com Christmas Party on December 16th. Ken got a chance recently to catch up with the band ahead of their visit to the medieval city and dig a little deeper about their music.

KKM: Thanks lads for taking the time for the interview and the chat. To get things started, can you fill in the readers on a little of your background?

WTE: We formed three years ago as a three piece in Mullingar. We started jamming for a few months and then played our first gig in mullingar.we gigged around for a year and then asked Barry to be our second guitar player. Since then we have recorded two demos and an ep, we have been busy promoting the ep for the last few months

KKM: You’re coming out of Mullingar as well which seems to be great for churning out solid bands, some of which we’ve been able to work with in the past. There’s hardly any secret reason for this is there?

WTE: Don’t think so. We have a great venue in mullingar called the stables.it gives new bands a place to play when you are starting out .this was a great incentive for us to start knowing you had a place to play.also we all just want to follow in joes fooytsteps.

KKM: Out of the four of you in the band (Paul, Tommy, Barry, Eoin), who is responsible for the songwriting or is it more of a collaborative effort amongst the band?

WTE: The music usually starts with me. Whether on the bass or guitar.
Then I bring it to the band and we jam it all out until we have explored every avenue. When the music is done Paul puts lyrics and melodies over it. Then we work on the vocal harmony. That is the most tedious part.

KKM: You’ve been described as ‘experimental funk-rock’ – would you say that’s a fair label to put yourselves under?

WTE: Well we have heavy funk influence but our sound is changing and we hope to explore the experimental side a lot more

KKM: I know you managed to record your first demo a few years back but you’ve recently gotten to work with Francesco Cameli over in ‘Sphere (Sphere Studios) in London for your debut EP. How did the whole recording experience go?

WTE: It was brilliant. We are delighted with the finished product. It was a tough two weeks, we all put every ounce of energy into it.frank was great to work with and he rely shaped our sound to where we could only have imagined.it was our fist time in a studio and it was a great learning experience.i think we all came out of there with a whole new view of song writing

KKM: How has the EP been going down on the tour? You’ve had some nice dates of late in Mullingar, Limerick, Cork and Waterford.

WTE: The feedback has been great. The audience have been kind enough to buy them so we must be doing something right.

KKM: Given that you’re on the go for a few years now and have a solid EP behind you, you would have had your fair share of live performances yet. What gigs stand out as favourites since you’ve started?

WTE: The ep launch in Mullingar was amazing.there was so many people there having a great time.we played our longest set ever and they stayed with us all the way to the end.we were never as comfortable on stage as that night. All the years of work payed off that night. It was a night of celebration

KKM: Now that you’ve also got the EP, have you any plans to develop and record a full album in the future?

WTE: We hope to record the album in a year or so.we plan to gig the ep for a year .we don’t plan on recording the album until we have built up a large following.but you can be sure that the alum will be a lot different from the ep.we have many different sides to us that we diddent get to put on the ep.

KKM: Looking over your MySpace page you’ve got a really impressive list of influences from Rodrigo y Gabriela to Tool (who played Dublin on November 22nd). Is there anyone on the Irish music scene who impresses you or you’ve been able to draw influence from?

b absolutely. the redneck manifesto are one of my favorite bands.its just brilliant that they are irish and I get to see them play all the time. also ten past seven are a great band and are a amazing live band

KKM: You’re hooking up with KilkennyMusic.com to join us for our Christmas bash on December 16th. Are you looking forward to it at all?

WTE: Can’t wait for it. I have heard great things about the people in Kilkenny.this will be our first gig in Kilkenny so we hope to rock the joint

KKM: Finally lads, have you any advice that you would offer up to younger bands in Kilkenny going forward?

WTE: If you believe in your music you will succeed. until you have a hundred percent faith in your songs you will be holding you self back.

Don’t forget that December 16th sees Waiting To Explode take to the stage in The Zoo club on Parliament Street at the Christmas party alongside The Happy Medium, Laminate and Saving J. You can also check the lads website out at WaitingToExplode.com or visit http://myspace.com/waitingtoexplode .

- Ken McGuire, interview with Tommy (WTE), December 2006. This article may not be reproduced in any format.

They’ve become one of the biggest bands to break onto the Irish music scene in recent years and they’ve recently played the new Hotel Kilkenny venue and, in between Oxegen earlier this year and the Hotel Kilkenny gig, Sean McTiernan managed to catch up with Republic Of Loose.

From their favourite gigs to date, to Irish acts they like, to a few words on their new album, the band take the time out to answer a few questions for Sean.

Straight off the bat how is this album different to the last one?

The new album’s much more contemporary sounding, it’s got more bounce. Our first album was full of every idea we’d built up since we started playin as kids, so it was a kind of mish mash gushing of our musical lives. This album is far more focused and potent.There’s a greater binding on the album as a piece, filled with a bunch of sounds and grooves we wanted to use, and as many hooks as we could build in.

What was the recording process like?

It took over a year altogether, sometimes working in short bursts on a song or two at a time, and then a couple longer stints. We went down to Grouse Lodge in WestMeath on the 2nd of January for around a week and a half.It’s a residential studio in the middle of the country so there’s not much to do apart from work, and the occassional pheasant shoot. After that we spent till March in Apollo and Sun in town finishin it.It was hellorific at times and great fun other times.Recording’s usually like that.

Isabel’s vocals on the new single rock, what inspired you to work with her gain?

Her voice itself is a hook, she could sing the weather report and you’d be compelled to listen.Mick wanted a female vocal on Break so she was an obvious choice.We’d love to do stuff with her in the future.

Your live shows are legendary, when you’re recording do you try to document the live experience as best you can or do you strive for something slightly different?

Nah the studio and the live setting are different realms, they’re different energies.In the studio you’re making this thing that will never change for eternity, whereas a gig is literally that moment in time which won’t come again. They are different crafts which demand different approaches

What’s been your favourite gig so far? Oxegen must have felt amazing.

Yeah it was great, it pissed rain so the crowd caught their deaths but it looked great from the stage!! We’ve played every type of toilet and sewer over the years, the grimes usually more charming than the nicely upholstered dressing room.We played a biker festival once where a couple of strippers came up on stage and preformed oral sex on eachother while we were
playing.That one was petty memorable.

Compared to most other Irish acts, mere weedy three pieces, ye’re a veritable squad. Do things ever get tense?

Yeah we all hold eachother in complete contempt,the only reason we increased the size of the band was to give everyone greater opportunities to ignore and avoid eachother! We struggle on…

What Irish acts operating today do you like?

I think Humanzi are deadly, saw them live a couple weeks ago and they were deadly, lookin forward to hearin their album. The Mighty Stef is one of the best singers around, and Damien Dempseys obviously a hero.

Are their any bands you despise?
Only the weak give in to brutality