Debut album from Galway sextet My Fellow Sponges

The Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

Chances are you’ve never heard, or seen, a band like My Fellow Sponges a Galway sextet who launch their debut album, Bonne Nuit in the Róisín Dubh on Monday next, July 8.

My Fellow Sponges are Anna Mullarkey, Donal McConnon, Dave Shaughnessy, Sam Wright, Hazel Collins and Elva Carroll.

First things first – how did they come up with that peculiar name? “We had a gig coming up, and the guy running the venue said we had to come up with a name,” explains Anna, who sings and plays piano, as well as several other instruments. “We wanted to be called Oddsocks, or Bothering Goats, but then we were all hungover one day and my twin calls being hung-over ‘spongy’. So, we were fellow sponges!”

Dave Shaughnessy became a Sponge in March 2012. It’s fair to say he was thrown in at the deep end. “When I joined, it was like ‘we have a gig next week!’,” he laughs. “I had to learn all these crazy songs with time signatures. I’d been playing for years, but I’d only done a few gigs here and there, I never played properly. And then it was just straight into it; it was class. It’s been a good year.”

Speaking of keeping their drummer on his toes, many My Fellow Sponges songs are in peculiar time signatures. Is this deliberate on their part? “It’s always good to try everything once, and keep it as interesting as possible for yourself,” says Donal, the band’s co-vocalist, banjo, clarinet and guitar player. “Otherwise, you won’t be able to come with lyrics quite as well if you’re not pushing yourself with your hands.  When your hands end up going back to old habits, you get very lazy when you’re trying to write something.”

One of the stand-out tracks on Bonne Nuit is This Dream Song. It’s accompanied by a fantastic video, directed by Anna’s sister, Mia Mullarkey.  The video is a colourful, theatrical gem, where all the action is backwards. Basically, it’s like hitting the rewind button on your DVD player for four minutes.

“The idea was mostly Mia’s,” Anna says. “We sat together for a long time. I had a dream about that song, I was in the woods with the lads but. .. Mia had her own vision.  “She loves movement, and we were happy to go along and get dressed up. And learn words backwards! It actually felt like insanity, four full days of insanity. It was crazy.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.