Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Picture This
GOING GLOBAL
They’ve soared to the top of the charts in just a few short years and earlier this month Irish band Picture This launched their brand new album from the top of the Empire State Building in New York. The four lads from Athy, Co Kildare namely Ryan Hennessy, Jimmy Rainsford, Owen Cardiff and Cliff Deane have had a whirlwind few years and now they’re embarking on one of their biggest tours to date including two nights at a brand new festival in Belfast this summer.
Speaking to The Beat, lead vocalist Ryan explains why our city holds a special place in the band’s heart.
“The first gig we ever played in Belfast was incredible, we were only starting out and were so shocked that there were people in Belfast who even knew who we were, that was kind of the first time that we realised we actually have fans up here, it felt amazing.
“Then fast forward a couple of years and that gig at Belsonic last summer was one of our favourite gigs ever, it was just amazing. The atmosphere, the magic of that night, we say it all the time Belsonic was one of our favourite gigs ever.”
The band have recently been revealed as one of the headliners for a brand new festival coming to Botanic Gardens in the city this summer and they can’t wait.
Ryan continued: “We’re so excited to do two nights in Belfast as we haven’t done that before, it’s our favourite thing to get to play two nights at the same venue it’s always amazing it just feels like home. We’ve never done anything like this in Belfast, I think the Marquee in Cork is quite similar to this which we love and we’re really excited, there’s always an amazing atmosphere here.
“We didn’t even announce a Belfast gig we just announced the five 3 Arena dates and thought that would cover us on the island and then when the
3Arena dates sold out so fast we were like ‘right, let’s go and do Belfast as well’.”
Their brand new album MDRN LV has already had instant success after this week being named the Number 1 album in Ireland, outselling Ariana Grande and the lads are excited to finally be able to share
their latest work with their fans.
Ryan said: “It feels amazing beacuse we have lived with the songs for so long, it’s kind of breathed new life into the songs for us and then seeing and hearing all the fans reaction to them. It’s exciting to hear everyone’s favourite songs from the album and why because we’ve been waiting to release it for so long so there’s a great buzz now.
“The songs are all quite fresh apart from the duet which was actually the third song we ever did together. We think this album is a sound we kind of stumbled upon accidentally but it was kind of a natural progession for us as well. Each song is different from the last and the next but they all fit together as a body of work as well so we’re delighted with it.” Ryan recently let fans in on a little secret that he had actually announced the name of the album MDRN LV long before it was released, but no-one realised.
“I decided it would be a good idea to get a lyric of a song that I knew was going to be on the album printed on the back of my jacket I wore during our last tour but then Jimmy said get the name of the album instead so I did. It was kind of our little secret and a way of dropping a little hint to the fans,” he added.
Reflecting on their recent album launch at the top of the Empire State Building in New York, Jimmy said they plan to scale even bigger heights in their career over the next few years.
He said: “It was insane! Our manager said he wanted to do it and we thought it was a great idea if he could pull it off and he did. We love making events of things and doing them in a unique way so this was the most unique way we thought we could launch this album, instead of just doing a party or something private even we wanted to do something that was bold and ambitious and also show exactly our intentions of wanting to be the biggest band we can be.”
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