Their dark materials

How did a couple of archaeologists from Galway in a 'common or garden grunge band' make it all the way to this Texan musical extavaganza? At a cost, Dark Room Notes tell Jim Carroll

FOR Dark Room Notes, it's time for the second chapter to begin. Last year, the band released their debut album, We Love You Dark Matter, which saw them receive a healthy round of reviews, a rise in profile, more gig bookings and a Choice Music Prize nomination. The album's sharp, melodic, sweeping electropop has done its job on home turf and it's time for them to look further afield.

That debut album, though, was a long time coming. The DRN story began, as founder member Ruairi Ferrie recalls, in Galway where he and fellow archaeologist Ronan Gaughan were members of a “common or garden grunge band who were listening to grunge and trying to play the same music and doing covers”.

At the time, “there weren’t many original bands in Galway”, says Ferrie. “We were called Obscure back then, before we threw in a K to make it seem more edgy.”

Things changed when the band started writing their own songs and realised they wanted to gig more. Dublin was proving to be more receptive, so they decided in 2002 to make a go of it in the big smoke. But the bass player and drummer had other ideas and both left, to be replaced initially by a laptop before keyboard player Arran Murphy and drummer Darragh Shanahan joined the fold.

Shanahan describes the band as being “diamonds in the rough” when he first saw them play live. The new line-up then spent a year working on songs, developing the sound and establishing the band’s visual element.

The attention paid to their visual identity is something which photography teacher Shanahan introduced. It’s not an aspect which many Irish bands bother with and, Ferrie admits, he wasn’t so sure about it to begin with.

“I would say I was sceptical at first. I just wasn’t that interested in it and wanted to concentrate on the music. Now, I can see how important it is as to how people view your band. The artwork and the visual identity has to match the band,” says Ferrie.

“People here have been trying, but they haven’t stretched themselves to be more visually aware,” believes Shanahan. “We’re lucky because we’re working with a designer [Peter Reddy] who is interested in the history of fonts and the photography side. You can take risks to try to invent something new, but using something old and fine-tuning it with a little graphic here or there makes it fresh again.”

What’s clear is that the DRN enterprise involves more than just the four people onstage. Again and again, they refer to people who’ve helped with the graphic design, visuals and sound.

“There has been a lot goodwill towards the band,” says Shanahan. “We’ve had a lot of people working with us or doing things for us or loaning equipment as favours.”

“The more we do, the more confidence people have in us,” says Ferrie. “People who’ve invested goodwill in us know it’s going somewhere good, so they’re along for the ride. Every good thing that comes our way endorses their involvement to an extent.”

Like the majority of Irish acts, staying in the game has meant DRN members incurring debts. “Everyone in the band is considerably in debt and those debts are not getting any smaller, they’re getting bigger,” says Ferrie. “We were very good at paying our bills until we ran out of money, and that’s where the goodwill kicks in.”

For now, We Love You Dark Matterremains their calling card. Both Ferrie and Shanahan are happy with how it turned out and how it sounds 18 months on from when it was recorded.

“It’s a good document of where we were as a band,” stresses Shanahan. “You always look back at something retrospectively and go ‘we could have done that’, but it has the energy of the live show. We found a few toys to play with in the studio and experimented with those sounds. We smashed up a piano for a song, but it didn’t make the album. There was a certain amount of design and a lot of serendipity.”

“Some of the songs on the album are a few years old,” adds Ferrie, “and we’ve learned an awful lot since then. Since recording the album, we know a lot more about producing that kind of music and how to make it sound a lot better.

“One of the major things for us now is the sound quality we need for shows and recordings. I’m sure there are electronic music boffins who could listen to the album and say that sound is from there and that sound is from there and they would know exactly what I’ve done in terms of preprogramming. What I’m trying to do now is get away from using any obvious sounds or sounds which you might be able to identify.”

Before they can crack on with a second album, there’s the matter of flogging that debut album to an international audience. It has received a new lease of life abroad thanks to London/Berlin label BBE, who will be distributing it worldwide.

“Before BBE came onboard, we were pretty much set on moving on to the next album and we’d a bit of writing done for it,” explains Shanahan. “But now, there’s more momentum thanks to BBE to take us forward, and it means the album will get out beyond Ireland.

“It has given us a lot more confidence as well. The album had been out six months here by the time they came along. We had reached a ceiling and had done as much as we’re going to do right now in Ireland. BBE brought a new audience via their network, which means a bigger profile for us, which means we can hopefully get an agent to book more gigs and tours abroad.”

As the BBE chapter commences and DRN enter a brave new world of gigging in foreign climes, there will be changes to embrace and new adventures to be had.

For now, at least, the band plan to remain in Dublin. “I like Dublin and the antaganostic belittling which goes on,” smiles Shanhan. “I see it as a reminder that you’re only as good as your last song. It encourages you to take that and turn it into positive energy when you back into the studio. I mean, you might go to Berlin or London and find youself in the same situation.”

Then there’s the financial incentive to stay. “Both me and Ronan were in full-time employment until 18 months ago, when the market for archeologists collapsed,” says Ferrie. “We’re in the perfect country to be in a band without jobs because the welfare system is in such a mess. It’s what’s funding the arts. It’s only a matter of time before they cop on to the fact.

“I don’t feel too bad about it because I did work for years and years, and now, I’m pursuing this goal. And if things work out like I hope they work out, I’ll be giving back again.”

A dark day on the streets of Austin

Dark Room Notes’ lead singer Ronan Gaughan has been keeping a SXSW diary. Here’s a tester:

March 17

Last night, we rocked dude! We played the Irish night in a place called Friends. We got a sound check around 7pm, so that was cool. We went on at 10 and the kids dug it.

Before the gig, we were driving out of town to go back to the ranch to change. Traffic was bad, heavy-stone bad. We spent an hour in the car and had to turn back into the city. We mightn’t have made it back in time.

Imagine going all the way to Austin and missing the gig because of being stuck in traffic.

Sexy-wise, it didn’t look good. I was wearing trainers and I can’t sing in trainers. I need shoes and anyway, I was wearing my afternoon belt, not my sexy night belt. Arran didn’t have much make-up to work with and Ferrie hadn’t brushed his beard. Darragh had shoes, but needed trainers to drum.

We swapped. Darragh would teach my trainers to drum, Ferrie let loose and rocked out Grizzly Adamsschtylee and, like all good dolls, Arran did shine with very little to work with. Did someone say sexy? Oh yeah, I did.

We went for fruit salads before the gig. We might do that again.

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