Otherkin | Interview
Otherkin's David Anthony's frustration is palpable. The cause of said frustration? A 'pizza dawg', no less.
The lads made guitarist Conor Wynne a pizza dawg - made from stacking large pizzas on top of one another, encasing them in puff pastry with mozzarella cementing each layer, and baking accordingly - for his 25th birthday in September. The band shared a photo of it on their Instagram, which saw it picked up by joe.ie, her.ie and The Daily Edge.
"It went over-the-top," he says, "I had someone from a Dublin pop radio station email me like, 'Oh hey, can we put your pizza cake story up?' I was like, 'No, to be honest, at this point I'd rather leave it.' They were like, 'Oh that's ok, it's just we were going to credit your band though.'"
"I didn't reply to them, but I was thinking, 'if you wanna credit our band, maybe listen to one of our songs? We're not selling pizza cakes, we're selling music!'"
Leaving the pizza dawg behind them, (until the next celebration), their new EP 'The 201' sees them very much on the cusp of greatness, with an extensive Irish and UK tour to go along with it.
"It's gonna be a lot of loud rock 'n' roll," he laughs, discussing the tour. "We're playing Community Festival in England - you go from club-to-club for the gigs, a bit like Hard-Working Class Heroes. It'll only be our third time in the UK."
"Our big, big show is this Friday in The Grand Social - it's our homecoming. We haven't played a gig in Dublin in a while, so it's going to be pretty epic. Our first headline show in Galway is the next day, so that should be great."
The summer saw festival slots that included Reading and Leeds, Knockanstockan and Electric Picnic. Admittedly, Reading and Leeds was a different ball game for the band.
"It was interesting to see if anyone would even show up! The crowds were fantastic and really receptive. Irish crowds are very loud - they'll let you know whether they love it or they hate it. English crowds are more reserved, certainly."
Ultimately though, it's one show of their slew of summer gigs at home stands out.
"Longitude was pretty great. We were delighted. We were blown away by the support people showed. Luke led a sing-song of happy birthday for me which ended up including the hundreds of people watching. It was cool."
Radio stations in the UK have been hugely supportive of their tunes, including Phil Taggart and Annie Mac at BBC Radio. Single Ay Ay has featured in ads for Rimmel, and more recently, on Setanta Sports. David is quick to highlight that support has been similar this side of the pond.
"We're just trying to get it out there. It's great to see it being picked up by these taste-makers. We're lucky enough to have people doing the same thing here at home, like Louise McSharry and the guys over at TXFM".
"There is a bit of hype drumming up, but you know what they say, don't believe the hype," he laughs.
'The 201' came about unintentionally - often, unconscious snippets the band took from jamming sessions went on to become the basis for the EP.
"We didn't initially set out to write an EP. We had written Ay Ay for a while and we were trying to figure out what to do. We slowly came across these different songs. We used to rehearse in our basement, and one day I heard Luke [Reilly, singer], restringing his guitar. He banged out this riff, and I just ran down the stairs going, "can you please record that?" I got out my bass, and basically that was the bones of Feel It written".
"Normally, the four of us would sit in a room and work on an idea we already had, or jam something out. We could be there for three and a half hours working on some song. Then you take a break to relieve the frustration, and someone ends up banging out something that becomes the guts of the next song. That happened with Love Is A Liability and 20 to 11."
They're conscious of what people want to hear, but are even more conscious of producing material that they themselves would enjoy listening to.
"We're just trying to write party music that we want to listen to ourselves. I'd like to think that we write as music fans."
Otherkin are now working under the guidance of Rubyworks Records, a transition with David describes as 'seamless'.
"They're such good people, and everyone is so supportive," he says, "They've really afforded us the opportunity to work full time on this. If they hadn't jumped behind us, we wouldn't have been to able to record the way we wanted."
Since graduating from college, the band are investing all their efforts into music. However, despite seemingly having less responsibilities to juggle, the same fears still remain.
"It's amazing to be able to rehearse every day, and we're improving in our song-writing," he admits, "You don't have to be stressing about passing an exam. We now have the freedom to do what we love every day. When you're trying to balance what you love with other things."
"The thing is though, we're all dirt poor now," he laughs. "You still have that worry in the back of your mind, wondering if you can afford to do things, and knowing that you have to do this entirely to survive."
And given it’s their livelihood, Otherkin don’t think they, or anyone else for that matter, should be asked to do it for free.
"Playing for exposure is a load of bollocks,” says Anthony. “Even paying basic expenses only really covers you getting there. Exposure doesn't pay for your rehearsal space or your van rental. You can't get by on that."
"I think it happens a lot more in Ireland than it does in other countries. A lot of people forget that there is a life outside of 'The Pale'. If you're not getting paid and you're coming from somewhere outside of Dublin, that's madness. There's a lot of high quality artists here now that are not being treated right by the system."
He's vocal about the challenges artists in the scene continues to face.
"Over the summer, you'd see all these major papers put out lists of the top ten Irish acts to see at a festival, as well as the top ten international acts. The fact that we even have to differentiate between a band and an Irish band - it's like a two class system."
"We have a strange way of treating musicians in this country, despite out rich heritage in music. It's such a massive part of our culture, and we take for granted the quality - and the quantity - of musicians we have."
The band aren't rushing their debut LP - which they're hoping to release at the latter end of 2016 - but they certainly have a long list of dream producers, including Rob Cavallo and James Murphy.
"James Murphy would be a bit left field for us", he says, "Luke would like to work with Damon Albarn - we're all Blur fans. We all have different tastes in music, but we all fall back around the same people."
2016 looks set to be equally as busy, but David admits they're taking it in there stride, and the desire to just get out there and work hard is obvious.
"We just want to get out there and hone our live show and be the best band we can be. A lot of people would just piss this opportunity away - that's not something we want to do."
"Sorry - I hope I'm not swearing too much!" he laughs.