Buckshot Amber launch debut album at Academy
IT’S BEEN A WHIRLWIND 18 MONTHS – AND A LOT OF HARD WORK FOR THE BRAY-BASED FIVE-PIECE, WHO HAVE JUST LAUNCHED ‘WHEN I GET HOME’
BUCKSHOT AMBER all hail from Bray and County Wicklow, except for Killiney man Martin.
It was Dan who got inspired to start the band, around 18 months ago – at a Foo Fighters gig, no less.
The five piece consists of Kevin Quinn on vocals, Niall O’Leary on lead guitar, Dan Phelan on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Martin Killeen on drums, and Ambrose ‘Bambi’ Bourke on bass.
‘At the start of the summer myself, Kev and Niall were thinking we wanted to get something going,’ said Dan. ‘I had just gone to a Foo Fighters gig a few days before that. They did this big speech at the end of it. They were explaining how they started and said “look, if we can pass something on, even to one person in the crowd - just go home, make a band and get cracking on it”.’
Say no more, thought Dan. ‘I messaged Niall straight away and said we have to meet up with Kev and get him to try playing bass.’
They met in Kevin’s Fairfield Park home in Greystones and had a long night of playing music.
Kevin was singing, and that role, rather than bass, went to him.
Ambrose got a message when he was on holiday in France. ‘I said ok, I’ll jam with you when I get back.’
Two weeks later Martin came down, he didn’t even learn the song but just hopped on the drum kit, played the whole song through, and it worked.
Last month, Buckshot Amber launched their debut album ‘When I Get Home’ at The Academy in Dublin.
Niall and drummer Martin had been doing music together for years, others in the band knew each other for eight or nine years.
‘Even when we knew each other in primary school we knew we wanted to start a band some day,’ said Dan.
They spend a lot of time together, and have an understanding of how important it is to get along well together.
They are generally happy and in good form, but if one of them is in a bad mood, the others generally know how to deal with it. Whether to let it out, or back off and give each other space.
‘We all avoid conflict at all times and always sort out a situation,’ said Kevin. ‘We lasted a month in one house all day, every day so after that it’s all good. You don’t know someone until you live with them and everyone was sound.’
This month spent in close quarter was during the recording of their album at Lough Dan. A friend moved out of her house and let the band take it over for a month, to record in the picturesque setting just outside Roundwood.
They worked night and day, recording and producing their own material.
They agreed that as well as saving money, self-producing gave them the creative freedom to achieve the finished sound they were looking for.
‘When we did the EP last year we had three days to do it. It was a bit stressful. With a month to work it was a bit less frantic.’
‘We’re mainly a live band,’ said Bambi. ‘If you want to enjoy our band, you’ve got to see us live. I never really thought we’d get that sound in the album. Because we did it ourselves we got the album we really wanted.’
In 18 months, they’ve done an album, an EP, and umpteen gigs. It’s been a lot of work, and a lot of writing. Their first summer, most of the members were off college and had the time to get together and compose.
‘When Niall and Dan came down to where I live in Greystones the first day, Niall had two instrumental songs written in 10 minutes,’ said Kevin.
There has been a flow to their collaborations ever since. They describe those magic moments, when a song emerges from a lengthy jam, someone having started the riff at the core of the piece.
‘It’s a really weird almost telepathic thing. Everyone knows what’s going to happen next without saying anything.’
Usually an understanding like this comes about when musicians work together for decades.
‘It’s just a chemistry between most of us,’ said Niall. ‘If you took one person away it wouldn’t be the same, it wouldn’t work at all.’
There’s a lot of togetherness about the album, which isn’t just influenced by one person.
They can’t quite place their work in terms of genre. It’s rock, punk, and other styles, informed by the different tastes of everyone in the band. They’ve toyed with a few creative descriptors - ‘dynamic rock’, ‘classical punk’, but have yet to reach a conclusion on that matter.
‘ The album flows together well even though the songs are different styles,’ said Martin.
‘If you narrow it down it’s just rock music,’ said Kevin. ‘But realistically it’s everything - it’s rock with a little bit of Martin!’
The album is available online and in Everest Music in Bray.