The band that still thrives on teenage friendship
Kodaline’s Mark Prendergast on why the chart-topping Dubliners went back to their roots for their new album One Day At A Time
IT’S hard to believe just a few months ago the world changed so dramatically. And for Mark Prendergast, lead guitarist with Kodaline, the global pandemic was the eye of a personal storm.
Just two months before lockdown his relationship of two years had ended, he was facing into a new chapter in his life then the coronavirus hit him. Happily, he had a mild case and he recovered in a few days but by the time that happened, lockdown was in full swing.
It’s not the easiest time to be suddenly single, nor is it the easiest time to release an album but Prendergast is doing both with the band’s new long player One Day At A Time being released in a week’s time.
‘I needed a haircut before this thing started but down to absolute laziness I just said right just let it grow. There have been a few new haircuts in the house and it’s working somewhat,’ says Prendergast of life in lockdown.
‘I live with three guys — Kodaline’s tour manager Neil, Kodaline’s lighting engineer Dee and then my friend Craig as we share a house. It’s been alright— as good as it can be.’
But with all the emotional turmoil of a love spilt, it’s probably not the best time to be single either?
‘No, it’s awful,’ Prendergast laughs. ‘I was in a long-distance relationship for two years but that ended three months ago. A few of my friends ended up single at the same time and we were saying: “We are heard for each other. We will go for nights out and just have fun and be there for each other.” And then the pandemic happened.
“It has given me a lot of time to reflect on the past which I don’t think is a good thing. It messes with your head a lot — but it could be worse,’ he says, all too aware that he is one of the lucky ones who managed to get the virus and come out the other side relatively unscathed.
‘I had to stop reading the news and following the numbers as it was just making me really sad the whole time. So I took a break from social media and that helped.’
In fact, Kodaline were forced to take a break from almost everything that they normally do — flying around the world to gig and promote the new album.
‘We were gearing up to do some nights at the Olympia which we had to move but we were due to have the whole summer going round the world promoting the album so that’s all stopped. ‘For the first month it was amazing — having a month of nothing — nothing in the calendar and not being allowed to leave your home. It was lovely for the first while sitting on the couch and watching Netflix but in the last few weeks I have been feeling it a little bit. I want to just get on a plane and go anywhere because I am used to doing it so it feels a bit strange not being able.
‘It will be interesting releasing an album for sure as we’ve only been promoting it individually from our houses. It feels strange even talking about albums with the world the way it is but we just have to rally on and keep going.’
But music right now is the thing that has been keeping everyone going — that and the sunshine which seems to have taken a break. So it could be that Kodaline releasing a new album right now is exactly the thing that will get their fans — and the band — through the summer of no gigs.
‘We found a way we can play together online which is totally bizarre but works,’ Prendergast says.
‘And so far the reaction to the singles has been great. Our fans actually helped us make the video for Saving Grace, filming themselves in their homes. It was really nice to look into fans houses and see the way they reacted to the new music. ‘Music is kind of an escape and I like doing the live streams. I rely now on a couple of podcasts that have become the highlight of my week. They are the only things I look forward to and enjoy. I suppose we are doing what we always do, but in a time of need music can help in some regards.’
This is album number four and is very much back to the way the band began. All of it was made in Donabate, Co Dublin with just Prendergast, Steve Garrigan, Jason Boland and Vinny May holed up together.
‘We wrote and recorded the whole thing in a warehouse that we would rehearse in and we never really used it for recording or anything like that. But last January we decided to stop working with other people and try to do our own album with no producers — just the four of us.’
The back to basics approach worked well in terms of what the band could achieve and how the songs developed.
‘It worked from the get go,’ Mark says. ‘We changed our routine to nine to five, took weekends off and it was unbelievable for being able to see what you are actually making. ‘You can be quite snowblind if you are right in the middle of an album. Normally you go away for six weeks to a big residential studio to make an album but those days are kind of behind us. We came up with a routine and stuck to it except when we were away touring so it was two or three week stints. And then at the end of last year we knuckled down and got it finished. It was, dare I say it, an easy album to make.’
‘I was in a longdistance relationship that ended ’
‘We learned how not to push each other’s buttons’
In fact, it was one that found the band reinvigorated from trying new things.
‘It’s our fourth album and there is still an element of not really knowing what you are going to do and that’s where the excitement comes from and the new songs - that kind of sense of discovery.
‘And it never stopped — every day there was inspiration and songs just kept coming. So we are probably going to make the next album in the exact same way.
‘It was nice to have lots of other writers and producers on the third album just to experiment. But I think the truest version of our band is when it is just the four of us making music — that’s when we are at our best.’
Nine to five makes it sound almost like heading off to an office job, not the kind of rock and roll lifestyle you would expect Kodaline to lead. But Prendergast is quick to dispel this idea as making One Day At A Time was far from dull.
‘When we are in each other’s pockets as much as we are we needed to have a normal life to run parallel with studio life. Two of the guys are married and we have lives outside of Kodaline that we want to continue living too. I think if it does feel like work then something exciting is just not happening. And there are days — and even weeks in the studio where nothing does happen and you will be bored with the fact that there’s not a good idea around. And if that’s the case, you just take a break and go home. You can’t force this. And the next week you might do three or four songs. As soon as there’s a song or something to work on that’s good, it’s not boring at all. And you can go from being bored to being excited by an idea in the space of ten minutes.
‘In Donabate having all four of us in the room, there was always something happening. And to be honest it was more like eleven or twelve to five,’ Prendergast says, laughing. ‘The studio just became a thing we were doing during the day.’
Signed to independent label BUnique in 2012, this is the first record Kodaline have done without being licensed to major label Sony.
Prendergast says they split amicably but you do get the sense the Dublin band wanted to do more on their own terms. This way it seems a lot less complicated.
‘Not having this huge machine to rely on, our team has got way smaller,’ Prendergast says.
‘We have a new manager and he is incredible. He changed our mindset and approach, telling us “You go to the studio and I will deal with all the other stuff.” Sometimes there can be a lot of noisWe just make music and we are a lot happier.’
Of course many of us remember the fresh-faced Kodaline as 21 Demands on Your A Star and those teen friendships are at the core of keeping this band going.
‘I have been in a band with Steve and Vinny longer than I haven’t been,’ Prendergast says. ‘We started the band when we were 15 and there are certainly times where you need your … social distancing, I suppose. But we genuinely enjoy each other’s company. When you think on it there’s four people — even more than that if you take into account our crew, I mean the family is about 13 people. So you are bound to have arguments and disagreements.
‘But in the first two or three years of touring we learned how not to push each other’s buttons. The process is a whole lot easier if everyone takes care of each other and is nice to each other. We have definitely had our ups and downs but this whole last album to make was great. We are stronger than ever, we get on really well and we are happy.
‘From as soon as I started playing guitar I knew this was without a doubt what I wanted to do. At that age it didn’t seem possible. There are rare times when you get tired from travelling but I would kill for that now.’
The single Wherever You Are sets the tone for the new album, stories of love and indeed separation and just making it through every day. It’s something that is unintentionally hitting the nail on the head when it comes to the general global psyche of the moment, where we’ve realised that it’s not money or possessions but the people we love who are the most important things in our lives.
‘My favourite is Wherever You Are, the first single and there is another called Spend It With You that I really love,’ Prendergast says. ‘We wanted to eliminate modern production sound and do an old school song in the way we are now as a band. It’s not a single but it’s the song I find myself listening to the most and playing in the house on the guitar because I enjoy it.’
The dynamic between the band members hasn’t changed since those days when they were holed up in their bedrooms writing songs and Prendergast says this album has stripped away all the outside factors to become the most like their first.
‘It’s more emotional this time round I think,’ he says. ‘Our approach to songwriting has never really changed but I think we just work a lot smarter now. We push each other to our limits in the studio and we know what each other wants to get out of this I think.
‘But when the four of us get together it feels the same as it did years ago. The only time it does feel a bit surreal when we are on stage. We did one festival in the tail end of last year. We went to India for the first time to headline this big festival and there were 20,000 people there in the audience.
We looked out before we went on and there were posters with our name on them, people had lyrics tattooed on their arms. The noise was incredible when we went on stage and we have this private thing where we just look at each other going “Is this really happening?.”
That’s probably the biggest thing that has changed — the gigs are a lot bigger and we get to do that in joke where we just look at each other and go “This is bonkers!” That’s still there.’
Kodaline’s new album One Day At A Time is released on B-Unique records on June 12.