Interview: Kodaline

Words by Scenewave Oz - Published on April 15, 2013

There’s an abundance of acts across the musicsphere in this modern age. Kodaline are one of them, and for me they taking a leaf out of the book “on how to make it”. Their formula is quite simple. Deliver tracks to the masses that are articulate, well constructed, and are the stuck in your head kind. Their debut album, In a Perfect World is dropping in June and we were lucky enough to chat to them amongst their hectic schedule to find out some answer to our insightful questions.

Topics ranging from their biggest influences, their rock out tunes, thoughts on Australia, to a big one being what we can expect from their new album…

QuickFire

SCENEWAVE: What artists are you really digging at the moment?
KODALINE: We’re really digging Peace, Haim and Jake Bugg, hopefully we get to see them live at some festivals this summer.

SW: Prediction for the artists to explode in 2013?
K: I think it’s gonna be a great year for Haim. Really excited to hear their album. Also Bastille, they’ve had amazing chart success lately and they’re really cool lads too.

SW: What musical influences do you lads draw from?
K: We’re into a lot of music, people like LCD Soundsystem, Talking Heads, Sam Cooke, Bruce Springsteen, Feist and the Beatles all influence us.

SW: Are you constantly listening to new music to seek inspiration, and develop new sounds within yourself or once you’ve got your sound do you want to stick with it?
K: We don’t want to limit ourselves to any one sound. Any new instrument or sound that excites us could potentially make it into a song. The more random it is for us the better. And we’re always listening to new bands on the road.

SW: Any pre gig routine that you swear by?
K: Nothing really, we usually just stick on a few tunes that get us going and have a beer or two.

SW: Your go to album to rock out to and crank as loud as you can before you party?
K: The Strokes – Is This It
Amazing album, the gift that keeps on giving.

SW: Lager or cider?
K: Jesus lager, always lager.

SW: Most famous persons number you’ve got in your mobiles?
K: We don’t really hang with famous people, not there yet.

SW: Who’s the biggest pest in the band?
K: There’s not a pest in sight in this band :)

SW: I know you lads are Irish, so who’s the biggest piss head?
K: We’re equally all as bad as each other. The drummer Vinny is prob the best behaved.

SW: What’s the best gig that you’ve attended?
K: Daft Punk at Oxegen Festival, incredible.

SW: The craziest thing a fan has done to you?
K: Made us jewellery, that was pretty cool though.

SW: Crazy tour story from your sell out shows of NYC?
K: That was just a crazy show, people singing every word back to us, was mental.

Australia related

SW: Favourite Australian band?
K: ACDC, saw them live a few years back and it was a cock-rock extravaganza. Epic show.

SW: Now you may have already been to Australia, but answer this question as if you haven’t. Give us your best description of Australians…..
K: Possibly one of the friendliest and funniest accents in the world, bass player Jay spent a few months down there and said it was epic. We haven’t been yet as a band but we’d love to.

More informative questions:

SW: We here at scenewave are absolutely gobsmacked (that’s a good thing) with your music videos (and obviously the music behind them) How do you go about creating the concept for each track?
K: Ah thank you,  Every song on the album is a life experience that we’ve been through, be that a positive one or a negative one so anything can influence us really. Some songs are inspired by break-ups while others just about life in general.

SW: We missed your NME Award Show (as I was crook), but from reports, it was absolutely amazing. How was the whole experience?
K: That gig was amazing, London’s always a great show and the place was packed. Some family flew over from Dublin so it was pretty special.

SW: Obviously having a track played on Grey’s Anatomy is insane, how did you find (feelings, emotions) watching the episode and having your own material playing to the millions?
K: I don’t think any of us actually watch Grey’s Anatomy, I think a friend showed me the clip online, it was pretty surreal to be honest, and quite overwhelming. We were blown away by it, that’s a big ass show.

SW: Who are your favourite Irish Band?
K: We love Villagers they’re cool, and Delorentos too.

SW: We absolutely froth off LCD Soundsystem here at Scenewave. You guys did one of the best covers of “All My Friends” which to us is something sensational, as that track is pretty much close to perfect. Why that track for one and two are you able to give us a quick synopsis of what you guys see the film clip you’ve created depict?
K: Yeah we just Love LCD Soundsystem too, they’re probably our favourite band and we agree “All My Friends” is pretty damn perfect as a song. A friend showed us that song back home years ago and we just lost it. The lyrics are amazing. The videos got a cool vibe too, it plays off the lyrics so that’s why we went with it.

SW: The lads from Everything Everything remixed your track “All I Want”. Wow, what can’t they do, but what is your thoughts on their interpretation and recreation of the already sensational track?
K: We didn’t know what to expect when we found out they were doing a remix. But they changed the song so much and put they’re own unique twist on it, totally flipped it on it’s head and we loved the remix so much we put it on our new EP, The High Hopes EP.

SW: I showed my flatmate “All I Want” via the official video clip and she teared up (I told her to harden up!). The track creates a huge amount of emotion, with a massive feel good ending, what do you see as the writers of the track?

K: Although the song is quite melancholy,  it’s quite an uplifting and positive song at the same time. The lyric ‘I’ll Find Somebody’ gives it a sense of hope. We still love this track because every time we play it live the reaction we get is insane.

SW: Finally, In a Perfect World is set to be released in June. What are we to expect? Clearly, it’s going to be sonic viagra, but more so as an album as a whole?

K: Haha sonic viagra, Nice. The album is basically our favourite songs that we’ve written over the past 2/3 years. For people who have listened to us before, I think there’ll be a few surprises on there sonically. We put everything I to this album and we hope people dig it.

If you haven’t had a chance to see or listen to Kodaline, make sure you get along to one of their shows or grab this new LP, a guaranteed listening pleasure.