School’s out as music rules for Featuring X

The young and upcoming Featuring X play The Victoria Hotel on Wednesday, July 23 as part of this year’s Galway Fringe Festival.

The Drogheda based outfit, whose influences include the Arctic Monkeys and the Black Keys, are on the road to celebrate the release of their new video and single, Wild Love. They also have another reason to celebrate – the five members of Featuring X did their Leaving Cert this summer, having formed while they were in Transition Year.

“We entered a competition that year, and then gig after gig followed. We met our manager and did an EP and single,” says lead singer Niamh Sharkey. “We were doing underage gigs and things like that. As we grew older, we started doing more pub gigs and late night gigs. Now we’re 18, the sky’s the limit!”

Niamh is joined in Featuring X by Dara Farrelly on lead guitar, Eleanor Rogers on rhythm guitar, Sarah McLaughlin on bass and Jenny McKeown on drums. Their recent video for Wild Love is a witty reprise of the clip for Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love. This time, the models in the iconic 1980s video who couldn’t play their instruments are replaced by the members of Featuring X, who can. The video was directed by Gavin Kilduff.

“He had the idea and he wanted to do it for so long but he just couldn’t find the right band,” says Niamh. “Then he found out we had this song, and it all fitted in. We did it all in one day. That morning we got up, got our hair and make-up done. We spent about six hours shooting.  We played along to the track and it came out that way.”

Standing in front of a camera for six hours could have been quite an intimidating prospect, especially for such a young bad.

“At first, we were a bit weary of it,” Niamh admits. “But we videoed it in a warehouse, it was empty, it was us playing our music, our videographer and our manager, and that was it. It was just like normal band practice, there was nothing to be uncomfortable about in that sense.”

Wild Love was written by Rea Garvey and Andrew Chatterly, but Featuring X also pen their own tunes, as they did for their debut EP last year.

“For our EP, Eleanor and Dara came to the table with these lyrics and riffs,” Niamh says. “From that we all built on top of it – Jenny got a beat for the drums, Sarah figured out a bass line and it all came together. This summer, we’re starting to write again. We’re hoping to incorporate more originals into our set, especially after the release of Wild Love.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.