It’s been an exciting few years for Red Empire. Their first EP ‘Strange Philosophy’ gathered critical acclaim from all quarters including GoldenPlec with our team heralding it for its “infectious pop choruses that wouldn’t sound out of place on commercial radio…stuck in your head after the first listen.”
We caught up with frontman Craig Cahill ahead of the release of their second EP ‘Small Mercies’ out February 28th and a series of acoustic shows.
Despite their obvious rock leaning Cahill lays out a much wider sphere of influences than one would expect. “When we get together and we’re listening to music on our down time the kind of bands that we end up listening to at the end of the night are bands like White Cherry, Chic and KC and The Sunshine Band because of the pure joy and talent that’s in those songs. I think in no small way ‘Small Mercies’ is a reflection of that. Don’t get me wrong, we are all into our rock music in a serious way, but we want to incorporate all of the things that we love into our sound.”
Cahill believes that the band’s strange philosophy on making music stems from the unusual way Red Empire came into existence thanks to the help and foresight of Aslan lead guitarist Joe Jewell. “Our dynamic is a bit strange. Myself and Gar McCarthy have played together since we were kids and Joe Jewell kind of championed us. He did that for the rest of Red Empire and it was just a pure fluke that both camps were looking for something new at the same time.”
The steady experienced hand of Joe Jewel as a producer and friend seems to have opened many doors for Red Empire and Craig Cahill has nothing but praise and respect for Aslan. Indeed, Aslan frontman Christy Dignam plays the lead in the video for Red Empire’s latest single Small Mercies. “Christy is in good health” Cahill says ”he’s in recovery he’s had a really tough time of it the last year or two and gone through some dark days. We’re just delighted for him that he’s come out the other side. It’s just great to see him back at it again.”
Red Empire reteamed with director Daz Murphy for the Small Mercies video having previously worked with the director on the video for Strange Philosophy. “That is kind of our style” Craig Cahill says referring to the off-kilter atmosphere that runs through their videos to date.“Daz Murphy is a very talented bloke and we love chatting with him about visuals. He’s a big fan of Christopher Nolan and in a certain way there are surrealist elements in the video that really do it for me. Essentially it’s like you are being trapped in someone else’s head. It’s that tension within the song itself mirrored in the video that I’m most happy about.”
Red Empire were booked to support Aslan in Tallaght Stadium and that show getting cancelled was one of the low points of Red Empire’s career but Cahill is quick to embrace the positive elements of the situation. “It was a bit of a shit buzz alright, it was a tough one to take but we ended up doing The Olympia instead. The Aslan crowd are great to play for they really go for it. We’d play for them anytime.” And while Craig Cahill is obviously keen to play with Aslan again he refuses to confirm that they’ll be doing so any time soon. “I don’t know what they’ve prepared for this year. They’re gonna try and get themselves back together again and get the live show going and we’re trying to get all systems go ourselves.”
Craig Cahill believes that Red Empire have made vast strides in their songwriting and musicianship since their debut EP. “That was us dipping our toes in the water” Cahill says referring to the group’s first release ‘Strange Philosophy’ “I thought the response was great. Their was a lot of positivity from critics. People who came to see us live went away raving about us and that’s the thing that most pleased me, because whatever way we reflect ourselves on record you really need to come to a show to fully get it.”
“Between the first EP and the second EP there’s been a lot of progression” he continues, “and we have a serious stockpile of songs there. Essentially it was about honing the craft. We don’t pick the material willy nilly, it has to be cohesive,” emphasizing the fact that “’Small Mercies’ has a theme going through it.”
“We love doing full band gigs, that’s what we’re about. But we love to set ourselves a challenge,” Cahill announces when we enquire why they decided to do an acoustic tour. “The whole MTV Unplugged tradition where you strip back songs to their bare elements and everybody on stage is actually playing their instruments is dead” he continues. “And it’s a crying shame because you can’t tell the pretenders from the non-pretenders. So we take great heart in the fact that we are able to take our songs apart and put them back together again. That ethic has died away and we want to bring it back.”
With two EPs under their belt Red Empire are thinking beyond their acoustic commitments with their sights firmly set on releasing their debut album later this year. “The album is nearly finished. It’s all there, it just needs to be tweaked.” There’s no release date at present but Cahill “hopes that we’ll have it out by the end of the year.” However he’s not closed the door on releasing those sessions as a series of EPs just yet. “The formats in the industry these days is really interesting. I love albums. I buy albums every week, but EPs have become more popular. Whatever way people want music we’ll give it to them.”
Small Mercies is released on the 28th of February for more information, live dates etc on the band click here.