We’re so ambitious... ...but don’t tell anyone
Wild Youth
YOU may not recognise the name, but you’ve likely heard Wild Youth – their track Can’t Move On was the most played Irish song on radio in this country last year. And you probably know what they look like too as they appeared in Eir’s Christmas TV campaign where an apparently irate neighbour just wants to blag his way in to a house party at which Wild Youth are playing.
The Dublin band have had some illustrious helping hands. They freely admit that Picture This’s manager Brian Whitehead has been a great help in their two-year existence and that The Script have become close friends and mentors. And another thing; they’re not a rock band, they’re a pop band and unashamedly so. Keyboard player and vocalist Conor O’Donoghue tells me: ‘It feels natural for us to write pop songs like Can’t Move On and Making Me Dance; those are just the type of songs we like to write. To be the most played Irish song on radio here is an amazing thing but we couldn’t set out to do that.’
I met Conor, singer Dave Whelan, guitarist Ed Porter and drummer Callum McAdam last week in advance of their release of their debut EP The Last Goodbye. As well as the title track, it features the aforementioned Can’t Move On and (the Prince-like) Making Me Dance, and two other tracks Close and Drinking About You. It shows a band who might comfortably fit into the pop bracket but are not inane lyrically.
‘We write sad songs you can dance to,’ Conor says.
‘There’s a lot of heartbreak in there,’ Dave continues. ‘Sometimes, from the stage, we see people dancing and laughing, singing along and we’re thinking: “Do you know that we are singing about total heartbreak?”’
Conor and Dave have been playing together since their early teens. Ed and Callum had played, respectively, in the bands Leaders Of Men and Bipolar Empire, bands which didn’t get the commercial success that their talents deserved. All four have known and admired each other’s work for years.
‘We were fans. I had Bipolar Empire and Leaders Of Men Tshirts,’ says Conor.
‘We dragged them into our thing, kicking and screaming.’
Callum adds: ‘I thought oh no, not pop music. No! I’m in an indie band. I’m going to have to buy new clothes.’
‘But you didn’t!’ Conor jibes and they all break up laughing.
As well as the release of their EP that day, they were greatly anticipating their performance on The Late Late Show that night. Diners in the Gibson Hotel look at them a little curiously as they break into a rendition of the show’s theme. They confirm that they’re not too cool to admit that the date with Tubs was exciting them. ‘Sure everybody wants to get on it,’ Dave laughs.
They can’t put their finger on a highlight of their short career thus far, but they mention last year’s Electric Picnic show, opening for Kodaline and The Script and obviously the news about Can’t Move On’s runaway radio success. A show announced for the Olympia Theatre in March and other dates on that mini-tour are almost sold out. ‘It seems like we’re hitting a little milestone almost every week,’ Conor says.
‘Getting to work with The Script and then becoming mates with them has been really cool. When we did our first show in Whelan’s, they flew over to see us. Callum talks to Glen about drums and Mark and Danny are just encyclopaedias of knowledge.’
They agree that though the band are like ‘sponges’ in terms of what The Script impart, Wild Youth are on their own path.
‘We are so ambitious, but sometimes we have to keep it to ourselves,’ Dave says.
‘The sky is the limit to us,’ Conor adds. ‘We want to be one of the big Irish bands of our time. But we know we have to keep that to ourselves or people would just go, “ye wha?”’
Their secret is well and truly out.
The Last Goodbye EP is out on Warner Music Ireland. See their Facebook page @bandwildyouth for upcoming tour dates.
‘I thought, oh no, not pop music. I’m in an indie band. I’m going to have to buy new clothes!’