Busy Strypes get ready to rock city’s Docks

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

Rock The Docks, which takes place on Friday and Saturday, June 24 and 25,  is a new addition to the live music calendar and is being presented by Monroe’s Live.

The Riptide Movement come to town on Friday, while the second night will see the welcome return of The Strypes.

Since bursting out of the blocks in 2013, the young Cavan quartet have been keeping busy. Last August they released their second studio album, Little Victories. They then followed up a few months later with Live in Tokyo, recorded on their third trip to Japan.

“It just came about pretty unintentionally, really,” says drummer Evan Walsh. “The record company in Japan had the notion of recording the gig, and said ‘would ye be up for putting this out in Japan?’ It came out there first, now it’s been released here.”

Evan will turn 20 in October and, as a member of a band which has toured widely, is becoming attuned to life on the road.

“There are pretty distinct differences between audiences in different countries,” he says. “If we were to play in Ireland, you do get the familiarity of a home crowd. People are brilliant here for going crazy at gigs, enjoying themselves. In Japan, it’s much more reserved. People are going crazy, but their whole society is based on politeness. There’s a different vibe altogether.”

At an age when many of their friends will be halfway through degrees or entering the workplace, The Strypes appear to be living the dream. The reality of a being in a band full-time, however, is another story.

“A full-time musician’s life is nothing really like what people imagine,” Evan says. “In the sense that people think that it’s much more laidback and easy-going than it actually is. Nobody’s falling about drunk out of their head, or doing whatever. People think you have much more of a chance to go mad than you actually do. But we try it as ‘no, this is what we want to do’, so we treat it as a job. People expect a certain standard, coming to gigs. They expect a certain level, and you’d like to be able to deliver to that.”

The Strypes 2013 debut showed a distinct early 1960s influence, with a clear nod musically and stylistically to band like the Stones, The Animals and The Who. Little Victories saw them flesh out their sound a bit more, a record with hints of Arctic Monkeys and Elvis Costello.

“I suppose that was an unintentional move,” Evan says. “When we went into the studio and started writing songs, it was affected by our working relationships with the producers. Bradley Spence and Charlie Russell. They were two young fellas who were making their names, really, like us.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.