JUST GETTING STARTED
STARING DOWN COMETS TALK TO JESSICA FARRY ABOUT THEIR NEW SINGLE, SONG-WRITING, AND GETTING GIGS AS AN UNKNOWN BAND.
LIKE pretty much everyone working in the arts industry, local band Staring Down Comets have had to miss out on a lot of potential events this year due to Covid-19 and the restrictions that come with the pandemic. The restrictions may have halted their plans somewhat, but they haven’t given up on their plan to release some music before the year is out.
This Friday, December 11 th, their single ‘Hanging On By A Thread’ will be released on all streaming platforms and will be available for download, with the pre-sale taking place yesterday (Monday).
It is the band’s very first single and was mixed by Leo Logan of Vibes Studios in Drumshanbo.
Staring Down Comets are an original alternative indie folk rock band consisting of Sean Wynne, Gavin McGuire, Mark McGovern and Ryan Hennessy, all of whom hail from county Sligo.
All members of the band were involved in the music scene in county Sligo with different bands before eventually coming together.
The song was written around 18 months ago, when band members Gavin and Sean began writing music again following a short hiatus.
“It was the song that brought us out of ourselves. I think that song brought out a lot of new skills in working together,” Sean explained.
Gavin added: “I had a bit of the chorus and Sean had a bit of the verse so we played it a few times and enjoyed it but when Sean and Mark came on board it became a big song where it was an acoustic ballad whereas now it’s more of a folk band, and there’s a lot going on in it.
“It was always my favourite song and it’s my favourite that we’ve written together as a band so far.”
‘Hanging On By A Thread’ is just one of the songs on the band’s debut album that they are hoping to release at some stage in early 2021. The emergence of Covid 19 meant that not only was the album completion delayed, but there was also no chance of a launch event.
It was decided to release one single first, before potentially more and eventually the album as a whole.
Ryan told The Sligo Champion: “We probably would have had our album out by now if it wasn’t for Covid.
“We missed a good few months of recording, but it’s 95% done now but it will probably be ready for early next year all going good.
“We were hoping to release that and do a few
gigs and go out and promote the album. That was put on hold for a few months.”
The band are optimistic, and hope that there will be opportunities for a live physical launch of their album in the new year.
It all started around 2017 when Gavin and Sean, who had previously worked together, started playing at open mic nights in The Harp Tavern. They felt it wasn’t the same without a full band.
“Mark was a familiar name from his work with Rackhouse Pilfer, and they all attended Colaiste Muire in Ballymote. Ryan had previously played with Sean and Gavin, so they all came together as a band. Peter Hannon was part of the original line-up, and although he is no longer involved the lads say they are grateful for his contribution to the band.
While the original duo worked well together, they felt the newer additions really helped.
“We all wanted to do original music. Myself and Sean had nine or ten songs written at that stage.
“With Mark and Ryan they were more than happy to come on board and try out our music, it was a natural transition and they joined and took us to another level,” said Gavin.
Mark admits that it was hard at first to get the band’s name out there to be considered for gigs locally, but thanks to the faith of The Swagman Bar, they managed just that.
“It just started with us kind of jamming out
and typing things up until we felt like we had a good set list for whenever we did starting gigging.
“It was close to six or nine months until we played our first gig.
“Once we had one song written we’d move on to another and before we knew it we had two albums worth of material really ready to play live.
“In the mean-time we kept writing. I think it’s the first time that all of us can say we’re in a band where we’ve felt like the whole writing process was seamless and organic.
“You do have to throw a lot of crap at the wall and see how much of it sticks. You will get a lot of rejections from places, if you’re too unknown they might be like ‘ok these guys haven’t proven themselves anywhere else’ which is kind of like a weird catch 22 when you’re starting off because you do need to build a profile when you’re starting off so you have to take any gig that you can.
“Fortunately we managed to get a good few gigs in The Swagman which allowed us to build up a local following, people were aware of us locally. Then after that we managed to get playing at the Sligo Summer Festival and then we got to support The Vibes in Whelan’s as well which was a nice gig for us considering that was the third other venue we had played.”
The band have always been all about original music, and although it’s hard at first to convince people to listen to a relatively unknown group’s music, they managed to organise gigs locally with other artists who also write their own music.
Gavin said: “What we tried to do was, we’re unknown and no-one wants to listen to two hours of an unknown band as good as we might think the songs are, we tried to get other local acts to play two half hours and we might play an hour as a way of promoting local music and make it an event.
“We had a few other artists like Anthony Wall and Wayne O’Connor and others. We always
asked them if they would do originals too. They were good nights. We tried to push the original music.”
Of the song-writing process, Sean said it’s something that they spend hours upon hours on, and inspiration can come from anywhere.
“For me a lot of the time, the easiest way if Gavin throws down a bit of a song that he has started, and he might come to me and I will see what I can contribute lyrically just going by how the song feels to me or if Gavin already has something in mind I try to construct the words as best I can to tell that story of the song. We can go back and forth for ages.
“Other songs, we might talk about it for ages and you say ‘ this is it’ and then an hour later you get home and you look at the phone and you think ‘why did I say that, now he’s seen it and probably thinks less of me!’.
“Another way we do it is sometimes the lads will be jamming and they will have music and then it’s just a matter going with the energy of the song, I know that sounds cheesy.
“Sometimes you might write really dark lyrics in a really happy song and it can work but usually it’s a process that takes a long time.”
As it’s been so long in the making, the lads are relieved to finally have something to show for their months and months of work.
“We were dying to get it released sooner. There is a sense of relief, achievement and excitement to finally be able to put it out there in the world after talking about it for so long like so many people know that this was in the pipeline so now we can make good on our word,” Mark said.
The lads thanked their families, partners, Swagman Bar, Peter Hannon and Anthony Wall for all their support.
With an album hopefully on the way in the new year, the release of their new single is only the start for Staring Down Comets.
YOU WILL GET A FEW REJECTIONS AT FIRST. FORTUNATELY WE MANAGED TO GET GIGS IN THE SWAGMAN BAR.