Irish band du jour The Blizzards have a winning ska sound on their debut album. Just don't let some of those song titles put you off, advises Brian Boyd

T'S ONE of those bizarre coincidences that shows how the music industry really works and how long-term planning, strategic development plans and the like are all subservient to luck and chance. Before forming The Blizzards - the new Irish rock band currently causing a bit of a deserved fuss - lead vocalist Niall Breslin (universally known as Bressie) was displaying huge potential as a professional rugby player.

Deciding to jack it all in and sell his soul to the rock'n'roll devil, Bressie phoned his rugby agent to tell him about his career change. The agent casually mentioned that Bressie should send him over some of his band's demo tapes because he could pass them on to the guy he shared office space with: Marcus Russell, the manager of Oasis.

"Marcus got our demo on the Tuesday," says Bressie. "On the Saturday he was at our gig in Dublin. Nothing official came of it because at the time Oasis were just about to release an album. But he certainly gave us lots of advice about what to do and what not to do - and, indeed, he still does."

So the five-piece band from Mullingar decided to go the self-released route with their first single, First Girl to Leave Town. "The big shock with the very first release was that it went to No 11 in the Irish charts," says lead guitarist Justin Ryan. "Now, that may not sound hugely impressive, but remember, we had no one working with us at the time. All we had was a distribution deal to get the song into the shops."

Ryan was brought up in London but has family in Mullingar and relocated there a few years ago. He is credited with pushing the band in a new ska-based direction, but he says this is a misconception.

"I went to the same school in London as Chas Smash from Madness and I love ska music, but the idea that I introduced ska to The Blizzards is not correct. I might take some credit for introducing a bit more dub-reggae, but really I grew up listening to more rootsy music - soul and blues and jazz."

Bressie has no problems in listing his most important musical influences: "AC/DC," he says firmly. "Not that we sound anything like them. We're a pop group." By "pop" he's attempting to distinguish The Blizzards from the "scene" indie bands currently cluttering up Dublin.

The title of The Blizzards' debut album (out today) is A Public Display of Affection - a pointed choice for the band. "We went for an uplifting, optimistic sound and wanted the title to reflect that," says Bressie. "These aren't songs about Iraq, these aren't sounds influenced by The Libertines. I don't think it's an NME-friendly album. It's pop with rock, with bits of emo and ska and everything."

Signed to Universal Ireland, the band didn't go with a UK label for the simple reason that they would have been sent back to Ireland to go the David Gray route anyway.

One listen to the album proves beyond any doubt that it's not standard angry angsty indie fare. There's a maturity here and a widescreen attitude to differing musical stylings. "I don't think it fits in and that's a good thing," says Bressie. "By fitting in, I mean we're not a skinny jean-wearing, shirt-and-tie- wearing, identikit haircut band."

Their sound certainly fits in with whoever is currently compiling the trailers for upcoming RTÉ programmes. "I hear bits of our songs all the time on the television," says Ryan. "The two main songs that seem to be used are Trouble and Miss Fantasia Preaches, and they've been used on The Premiership, the trailers for different shows and Off the Rails. Sometimes I've heard them used in programmes following each other, which is a strange thing."

The album was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Michael Beinhorn, who has worked with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Soundgarden. It was mixed, much to Bressie's delight, by Mike Shipley, who has also mixed AC/DC records.

"Working with the producer was a strange relationship," says Bressie. "He really tried to understand us and what we were on about. I wouldn't say it was done super-quick, but put it this way: we got 12 vocals down in six days."

With song titles such as Why Do You Fancy Scumbags? and Dangerous Bitches, a casual browser in a record shop might mistake The Blizzards for some form of Irish Oi band. Why such titles?

"Because they perfectly fit the lyrics of the song," says Bressie. "If we had been asked to change them, we wouldn't have. I'm careful about what I put in and what context those words are used in, but they're honestly reflective of what is going on in the songs. I call it social commentary, but it's not colloquial commentary like Arctic Monkeys or Morrissey. We don't write about where we're from.

"A lot of the songs are about the tension between a man and a woman, not the tension between men and women. One of the songs is about how some girls can play what I call the 'feminist card' in the same way that you hear about people playing the race card. I think they're emotional songs, but despite one or two of the titles, they're not sinister songs."

The band have been a bit perplexed by the press emphasis on their Mullingar roots. "It's almost like 'why are a band from there making music like this' or something similar," says Bressie. "It's as if this sort of music is supposed to only come from big urban centres. We're from the Irish midlands; big deal. Arctic Monkeys are from the English midlands and you don't get people going on about that.

"And if I see another mention of 'first there was Joe Dolan, now there's The Blizzards', I don't know what I'll do."

A Public Display of Affection is reviewed on page 14. The Blizzards will be touring nationwide over the next few weeks and play The Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin on November 3rd