Saarloos – a vibrant new force on Irish music scene

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@gmail.com

Saarloos may have released just one single so far, but the Dublin-based trio, who combined their talents last November to form the band, have already played to tens of thousands of people. They opened for Gavin James on his European tour, performing to packed arenas. And now, they make their Galway debut in Róisín Dubh on Friday next, September 21.

Saarloos are Brian McGovern (vocals/piano), Craig Gallagher (vocals/guitar) and Andrew Kavanagh (bass).

Brian and Craig first began playing music together when Craig was embarking on a solo tour of Norway and needed someone to accompany him at short notice.

“We hadn’t ever gigged together, but we sat down after the first show and wrote a song,” Brian recalls. “It was called Stay and it got a load of streams on Spotify. We kept at it from there, and then we started writing together more. We released an EP and we ended up on tour with Gavin James.”

How did that opportunity come up?

“Craig and Gav have known each other for years, and Craig has done a couple of tours with him,” Brian explains. “I released an EP, and Gav heard it and asked if I wanted to come and open the shows.”

Unsurprisingly he did!

“We played the 3 Arena and travelled around Europe and it was great craic,” Brian continues. “Craig used to join me on stage, and it was enjoyable playing with him. It just turned into a band.  There was no big idea, it just seemed like a natural progression.”

A saarloos is a type of wolf, and Craig and Brian liked the sound of the word so they decided to adopt it as their name.

Changes is the first song they’ve released under that moniker, and since its release in May, it has clocked up 1.3 million streams on Spotify. How did that song come together?

“It was Craig who had the idea for it,” Brian says. “We’d been out gigging the night before and he rang me quite early. He woke up with chorus in his head and we had it written within an hour. It came together quite quickly.”

Brian sings the verse on that song, with Craig taking the chorus. They mix things up when it comes to their approach, he explains.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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