Jen has a chat with Raglans about their Australian Soundwave Experience.

I had the pleasure of interviewing  Raglans, an Irish band, members being Stephen Kelly, Conn O’ Ruanaidh, Rhos Horan and Dan O’Shaughnessy at a Beer Bar while they were in Melbourne for Soundwave. As they were all answering the questions, I have put names when I knew who answered but sometimes it was hard to know! It took us a few minutes to make sure we all clinked glasses to say cheers.

Can you tell us about your background, how did you all come together to form Raglans?

Stephen : Rhos and I meet at a Music festival in Ireland we were both just like punters and we got chatting after we were playing a few songs at the campsite and we decided to meet up and try out some tunes and he bought Con along we started gigging. Dan has only joined recently in the last six months and since then we’ve been touring our album. We started playing gigs around Dublin and people like what they heard and we have gone from there.

Well I have never heard of you guys and I was there for Patent Pending and wanted to be barrier so I got there early and I certainly liked what I heard. That is not usual because usually the first band on the bill I don’t really like. For example I didn’t really like the band that played before All Time Low last night.

Rhos: We were trying to get us a sidewave, maybe we are just too different from the other bands.

Could be! Maybe next time.

How did you get put on the lineup for SW? It is unusual to have an Indie band on the bill.

Rhos: As far as we know AJ Maddah’ wife was listening to Spotify and saw the name Raglans and they had lived in Raglan in New Zealand and so she listened to the album and loved it and they just personally just got us out to play. It turns out that our booking agent books alot of the bands for Soundwave so it was easy.

That is really good story! Usually I hear that it was just the booking agent or the manager that organised it or I bumped into AJ so that is a refreshing answer!

 Are you having understanding our accents?

Not at all, are you having trouble understanding ours?

No I love your accent!

Rhos: Sometimes I tried too hard because I’m afraid I can’t understand people and sometimes a word would sound weird.

And what about some of the phrases that we say?

No not really, but we’ve noticed that you have nicknames are absolutely everything.

Yeah that’s true.

Which is really cool.

Like if someone has red hair we call them Blue and a someone’s got white hair we call them Snowy

Rhos: so I would be Blue? Yep. (Laughing)

Another thing with neighbours as a McDonalds is actually called Macca’s.

I think that is only in the city. I saw that last night.

Do you have Burger King over here? Only at the international airport, everywhere else is called Hungry Jacks.

Interesting, that is really strange. I knew the menu was exactly the same but was just a different logo. Yeah the burgers are better at Hungry Jack’s (laughing).

You have played two shows now, what are your thoughts on the crowds? I know in Melbourne you drew people in with your unique sound.

Great really, the fact that there are people watching us at half 11 in the morning and a lot of people haven’t heard us at soundwave they might be expecting a heavy band to start playing, so when we start to play they might think what’s going on here? But everyone’s been great and really accepting. I thought that was really good that you were before Patent Pending is using to complement each other. A few people in that crowd were part of the Patent Pending Australia group. Do you have Facebook groups in Ireland where fans get to know each other on Facebook before a gig? We don’t do that in Ireland but we have European versions of that. We have a French Raglans’s group.

How to cope with the heat? It was way too hot, Adelaide was even hotter and that was our first ever experience playing in that heat and we just got off the plane from Ireland. It was really tough.

Did you see the lightning in Melbourne? Yeah we did that was incredible. 

So when you get up to Sydney you need to know that there’s huge rivalry between the Melbourne Sydney Crowd’s. So whatever you do when you’re in Sydney don’t say hello Melbourne. We were watching Lamb of God and he kept saying Sydney Australia and is he said it a good few times. The fans are screaming so I don’t know whether they heard. But we heard it. I think if you’re not sure where you are you should just Australia. Or just learn where you’re going there is only four cities. I mean it is pretty simple. True.

Take us through a day in the life of a Soundwave artist.  

For example after you play did you pack up straight away? They have someone to pack up for us and then we just go around. We got the 7 AM flight to Melbourne on the Sunday with all the bands like that was great being on a charter flight with all the bands. We got to Melbourne at half eight and then there was ho har with their luggage so we didn’t leave the airport until 9.45 so we had to go straight to the site instead of the hotel but that was grand as well so we stayed onsite all day.

Ha so Irish people do say Grand. Yeah we do! (Laughing) I thought that was a myth. Ha ha Myth Busters.

Get up to any mischief? Be truthful! I have been backstage on a Soundwave Tour tour!

Our guitar tech got bitten by a dog of the beach yesterday, really really badly. Really?  No Way!

We were walking along the beach and he is a dog lover, he has a German Shepherd and loves them. The dog was coming up to him and he was so happy to see it any put his hand out for the dog to sniff it and he just jumped up and bit him run under the arm. And he was bleeding and everything.

Wow I go to the beach all the time and never heard of anyone being bitten.

So does that count as funny? No! We think he will be okay.

 Were you in the competition for Beer Pong for Blunt Magazine? Oh we don’t want to talk about that! It was so close! Me and Bobby, the lad they got beaten by the dog we came second. We didn’t even know who we were against. We need a Patent Pending didn’t make it very far, they were gone in the first round. We were told the competition was between 12 and 2 and we didn’t get there until 3 and it still hadn’t started.

That is pretty much the Australian way.

It is certainly the Irish way as well.

 You have supported The Fray, a band I really like, when was that?

Brilliant.

They are the nicest lads doing the music thing. They don’t seem like they have been ruined by their popularity at all. They just constantly talk about how good everything is and how lucky they are. It’s really cool. They are not lame. We always hear bands complaining about the two buses and stuff. But The Fray are like our tour bus is so good, they are so happy to show us around the bus and tell us how good it is. They shared everything with us, their beer their food and it was our first European tour so was great. We did 14 cities with them and they were all big massive venues and it was a great opportunity for us. It was one of the best things we’ve done. We got a lot of deals and stuff out of the labels.. The whole crew were awesome. They were great lads.

 Who else have you supported?  

Haim, three sisters from America. The Libertines, who are great, they are huge English band and played in Hyde Park like a reunion show last summer in London, it was a big festival a lot of bands played.

 Have you ever had criticism on social media? How have you coped with it?

Stephen: Con is good at patrolling that. Generally it’s 99% positive every now and then you catch people, I love it. We are looking for a band to have a beef with, so we can get a proper beef going. Cons write to them on twitter and takes the high road. Any time I find someone slagging us off I just ask them why you so mad homey then I usually apologise and delete the comment.

Well everything on your Facebook page seems really positive. You know on your Facebook page you don’t have any information about you guys at all. Usually when I have an interview I go to the Facebook page and click on the about page and I learn something. Your page was just like twitter and first names only.

Rhos: A lot of bands have those bios on their page, that were written by the band themselves,it’s just like bands come on, ike the irrepressible. (Laughing ) writing bios is hard. If you get one written for you it seems it seems a bit naff. Ha naff is not a word I’ve heard since I lived in Hong Kong with all the English people! (laughing) here is where they try out some Australian terms and try and talk and Australian accent. (very funny)

So what’s next to you after Soundwave?’ We have a UK tour three weeks after we get back. But we have an RV rented and we’re going down the Gold Coast after soundwave. We have a week to drive from Brisbane to Sydney. So if there’s any suggestions of what we can do let us know. Byron Bay, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour. Are you surfers? Oh silly question as you are Irish. Well we went to the beach yesterday and I body boarded and that is really really really hard, you have to keep paddling and stuff. And now my stomach is really sore and I am weak. I’d love to be able to surf but I’d like to skip the total learning process, like take a surf tablet, we could call them the Ability Tablets. That would be really good! I’ll have to take the swimming tablet first. (Laughing)

Dan, you played some different instruments what were they? Dan The Mandolin.

That’s what I thought was when I told somebody an Irish band played a different instrument they said it would be the Mandolin. And I used cowbells.

Stephen: But the way he plays them he makes a more Bull bells. (laughing) he plays them so fast you can’t see them.

Any news that we can promote for you? Our album has just been released in Australia last week through The Planet Company. It will be in shops and on line. You can buy it here.     

Also want to say Australia rules! It really is a paradise.

We spent another half an hour chatting about Ireland, our history as I am Irish as well. We had a few beers, some chips then headed off for the photoshoot. The guys are great. We had an enjoyable afternoon with them. They told Nick my assistant lots of information for his trip that he is going on soon. We also talked about Home and Away, Neighbours and how we say different things for example they say half 11 when we say 11.30.

I really enjoyed this interview, they are a laid back band that can tell a good story and have a laugh at themselves. Watch put for them as I predict they have a great future!

Picture taken at the Blunt Magazine Beer Pong at Eureka Rebellion Trading.

Thanks to Emma Rees Photography for taking all the images. Thanks to Eamonn Conway for setting up the interview. Thanks to Nick for assisting and of course the band themselves.