Breaking the music mould
The Dublin rockers on the shyness that lurks beneath their on-stage persona
Girl Band’s uncompromising music, and approach to the music industry, has informed the attitude of a host of Irish bands such as Fontaines DC and Pillow Queens. It’s fun to imagine that they meet to plot to change the system from within the building in which they all rehearse.
Girl Band’s taut, visceral sound is certainly an acquired taste. The welldocumented anguish from which singer Dara Kiely suffers is clear and present in the music but that is also partly why it is so compelling. Their second album and segments of tours have been cancelled or postponed as Dara fought mental health battles in the past three years. That second album, The Talkies, begins with the sound of Kiely attempting to control his breathing during an anxiety attack.
For interview purposes, his management politely requested that I didn’t ask about his mental health issues, but I tell him that when I listened to The Talkies it made me feel unsettled, queasy, uplifted... and I’m a fan.
There is a silence. I then tell him that listening to the album, sometimes I found myself looking at my speakers to see if some tormented creature was going to physically manifest in the mesh itself like a scene from the film The Ring.
‘Okay mmm,’ he says. ‘I thought we were writing love songs!’ Then laughs in a pleasingly relaxed way.
‘I guess what happens when I write stuff is that I document a certain time in my life but someone even very close to me wouldn’t get 80 per cent of what I am singing about.
‘Leonard Cohen did that really well... his feelings around death. I don’t document what is going on in society... I am not a storyteller.’
The band that he, guitarist Alan Duggan, bassist Daniel Fox and drummer Adam Faulkner formed in 2011 quickly gained a reputation for memorable live shows.
They are one of the best live bands – a compliment Kiely takes with a pinch of salt and a giggle.
‘When we play live, we go into our own little worlds. I am quite a shy guy really,’ he says.
‘To be on stage is a strange counterintuitive thing for me. I can have fun with it though.’
He is humbled that Fontaines DC point to them as an influence.
‘We got to know Fontaines DC really well... so it was a bit surreal to see them say that we influenced them. When you start out it’s fun to hate other bands, to have that competitive streak, to drive each other on. When you get a bit older you just want to make great music.’
Girl Band play Vicar Street on November 22 and 23.
‘I found myself looking at my speakers to see if a tormented creature was going to manifest’