Amazing Apples to branch out in new creative direction

The Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell

Bringing a lively take to Irish and American roots music, Amazing Apples play Monroe’s Live on Friday next, May 31. The Galway based five-piece have gone from strength to strength since winning the hotly contested Battle of the Band’s competition in The Townhouse last year.

“It gave us a bit more faith in ourselves, made us push on a bit more,” says Cian, who plays guitar and sing in the band.

Amazing Apples are currently recording their debut single, which they plan to release in July.

“It wouldn’t be a dance-y kind of tune, but it’s not slow,” says Cian about the song. “It’d be upbeat enough – I don’t how you’d say that. We’re going to have a brass section as well. It’s the first time we’ve done that, looking forward to it.”

The band members have mostly been doing some home-recording, but went to a city-centre venue to get their drum sound right.

“We’re recording out in Ed Kenehan’s [sound engineer with Monroe’s Live] house, but we’ve put some of the drum tracks down in Monroe’s,” says Cian. “There’s a room in there that Ed thought would suit, it had the right ambience, good reverb.”

Last year, Amazing Apples made the transition from being a covers band to performing their own compositions. Cian has found the transition relatively smooth.

“It’s been about eight months now,” he says. “We don’t really do covers anymore. If we do, they’re our own take. They’re never straight covers, we’d always change it as much as possible. Just for the live show.”

“It’s going pretty well, to be honest,” he adds. “We thought it’d be harder. People seem to respond well to it. A lot of the stuff is upbeat, it catches people’s attention. I suppose our main thing when we’re playing live is to create the best show that we can. It’s all about the live show, you have to make sure that people stay into it.  It’s about making an impression; that’s the main priority.”

The full line up of the Amazing Apples is Eanna Fahy (fiddle/mandolin/vocals), Cian Crehan (rhythm guitar/vocals) Anthony Ryan (lead guitar/bass/vocals), Brian Grace (drums/guitar/piano), Darragh Crehan (bass/keyboards/mandolin/bouzouki/vocals.) They formed almost accidentally, says Cian, explaining that the band was originally “just a bit of craic really, something to do”.

“Myself and Dara are brothers,” says Cian. “We were in a band with the drummer, Brian, years ago. Myself and the brother used to work in a car-wash with the guitarist, Anthony. Then, the fiddle player is just a friend of a friend.”

Amazing Apples formed over three years ago. Did Cian have a good feeling about the group from the get-go?

“No!” he laughs. “We didn’t think we’d be taking this direction, but it kept going from strength to strength. We just kept working on the live show, and it was going well. When we started writing our own stuff, that’s what we were trying to do. People were coming to our gigs that we’d recognise. We were happy with it so we decided to keep going.”

Having three people swapping lead vocals means Amazing Apples are never dull to watch.

“It gives the other person a break as well!” says Cian of this practice.

Perhaps the most arresting part of an Amazing Apples live show is their singing fiddler, Eanna. Cian admits that Eanna’s onstage antics helped to get the band noticed at an early stage.

“It was definitely different,” he says. “It opened a lot of doors and we could do more things that we wouldn’t be able to do if he wasn’t in the band. It brought an Irish flavour to it. We wouldn’t be traditional Irish at all, but it definitely has an Irish feel to it because of the way he plays.

“It drives them a bit mad!” Cian adds about Eanna’s effect on a crowd. “If you’ve a song rocked up with a bit of fiddle in it, people tend to go a bit nuts.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.