No cutting corners as rocking teachers play Galway show

Date Published: 28-Mar-2012

We Cut Corners are one of the most exciting live acts to emerge in recent years and they play the Róisín Dubh on Thursday, April 12. The band is made up of Conall Ó Breacháin on vocals and drums and John Duignan on guitar and vocals. We Cut Corners’ debut, Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards was nominated for this year’s Choice Music Prize. Although Jape was the eventual winner, the duo really enjoyed their evening in the Olympia.

“We had an amazing night, to be honest,” says John. “We were kind of in our element because we don’t get to hang around with such luminaries of the Irish music scene. Just to play on a stage like the Olympia is something that a band like us isn’t very used to doing. It was just an exceptionally good night.”

The winner of the Choice went home with a cheque for €10,000 and one of the most prestigious honours in the Irish music scene. Did the lads have an acceptance speech prepared in case they won?

“Where you’re up for something like that, it definitely enters your head,” says John. “You’re not going to be able to shut it out that much. But we were very much of the opinion that all of the albums had huge merits, and each one was quite different.

“So we just tried to enjoy the month or so [after] we were nominated,” he adds. “Because it was such a novelty to be able to call yourself a Choice nominee, but at the same time not thinking too much about how it was going to unfold. It’s such a hard thing to call.”

We Cut Corners gave a performance at the ceremony that was among the evening’s highlights. They opened with A Pirate’s Life, with Conall singing over John’s minimal guitar. It drew the crowd in and silenced the talkers, before the band tore into Go Easy. Did they go on stage with a game plan?

“We didn’t put too much thought into whether people would shut up or not,” John says. “You just pick the two songs that you think maybe represent the album best. There wasn’t any great thought put into it, to be honest.”

We Cut Corners make music that is direct and to the point. There are no long solos and rarely more than two verses. Is their name a mission statement?

“It’s not a mission statement,” asserts John. “It’s just a name we settled on after much deliberation. I suppose, in a slightly self-mocking way, it might refer to the length of time it takes us to do anything. Because we’re incredibly slow at getting our act together. The name would probably fall into the ironic column, as opposed to the literal.”

But their album is over in a breathtaking 27 minutes – surely the name plays into that.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.