Fish Go Deep are probably considered the fathers of house music in Ireland, producing some of the finest deep house tunes and maintaining one of Ireland’s best dance nights at their monthly residency ‘Go Deep’ in Cork.
In a career spanning twenty-six years to date, featuring on numerous compilations, acquiring number ones and working on high profile collaborations, you may not realise how familiar the Fish Go Deep sound is to you. Their anthemic 2006 hit Cure and the Cause featuring Tracey K is one of the most recognised floor fillers of the late ’00’s. GoldenPlec spoke with Shane Johnson, one half of the Cork duo, ahead of their appearance at the Good Friday Barn Dance.
The lads never seem to stop working. They released ‘So Far So Deep 1997 – 2013’ in January of this year and speaking with Shane this is as good a place as any to start. Why did they choose to release a retrospective now? “It was twenty-five years since our night ‘Sweat’ in Sir Henry’s, so it was a natural time to compile some music. The early stuff wasn’t available digitally. The nicest things are younger kids are all ‘wow, we never knew you had these tracks’.”
Sir Henry’s was the nightclub of yore having taken on mythical status amongst Irish club goers. Fish Go Deep was born out of this club. “We never thought we would make a career out of it.” What was it like starting back then in comparison to now? “We were allowed to learn on the job at Sir Henry’s. We were lucky as we were allowed to make mistakes and not be judged. Nowadays, so many people are doing it there is an expectation of success. Everybody’s an expert. We still get nerves before a gig.”
It is refreshing speaking with Shane as he is honest and clear about the modern scene. What do you get tired of? ” In any type of music, 90% of what I hear is rubbish. More music is being made and some people should not make music. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” Shane is clear he sees a return to a good song being the basis of future music. ” I am always looking for songs with depth. The retro classics from ’92 are making a return. Frankie Knuckle’s songs are the backbone to the sound I am talking about.”
Approaching the topic of digital access to music, how has it affected Fish Go Deep? “We used to go to London or Manchester to search for music, record shop owners would get to know us and our style. They were the filters who would hand us six or seven tracks to go home with every week. This filter is missing. Now you might have one hundred tracks to trawl through.”
So what does the future look like for you both? “We are looking forward to Barn Dance, should be fun. We are also playing Sea Sessions for the first time and we are about to release a new double track called Ain’t Right on May 2nd. We have been testing one of the songs now for the past five weeks, it’s straight up house and it’s getting a good reaction. It is our first new release in just over a year. We are also going to release a second volume of the compilation ‘So Far So Deep’, when compiling volume one we kept finding more tracks we had forgotten about – we want a true collection represented.”
There you have it, the Godfathers of Irish dance will no doubt be making music for another twenty-six years.
Catch Fish Go Deep at Barn Dance this Friday.