When you’re planning a national tour in support of an album, playing a gig in Cootehill, Cavan isn’t going to be on the radar of most bands. The Breffni town snuggles on the Cavan/Monaghan border and isn’t known for attracting aspiring bands to its surrounds. Most bands don’t see  the value of going to a town that doesn't contain a recognised prestigious live music venue like Roisin Dubh, Whelan's or The Sprit Store.

Caoilian Sherlock from The Shaker Hymn was quick to spot this interviewer's accent is from the border county region and conversation soon brought up that The Shaker Hymn are doing a gig in Cootehill.

It turns out that Caoilian Sherlock has family from Cootehill and confirmed that “It’s my uncle’s pub (Tir Na Og) and my family have forever been asking me to come up and play. I didn’t want to bring the lads in the band up, you know like when you’re family asking you to do stuff. You feel awkward asking three other lads to come with you. But I wrangled them in this time around.”

Caoilian had just finished rehearsing with his bandmates before the interview and jokingly tells us “that they were just having their first argument of the night”. When asked if it was about who gets to drive the band from Cork to Cootehill, Caoilian laughed “No, no, I don’t drive, so I’m out of that question. I’m the passenger all the time”.

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The aforementioned tour date is in support of their new album ‘Do You Think You’re Clever?'. GoldenPlec premiered one of the singles Sucking It Out a few months ago. It hinted at greater things to come from The Shaker Hymn and new album ‘Do You Think You’re Clever?' is a wholly more accomplished and confident album than their debut 'Rascal’s Antiques'. Caoilian admits that “One or two (songs) were written kind of in that phase where we recording Rascal’s Antiques and we had learned how to use the studio a bit and the first album was done but we had just figured out how to do it ourselves so we were pretty excited.”

Adding that “So the bones of these songs were just demos we were working on in the studio and trying new stuff I guess that we just didn’t know we could do the first time around.”

“Most of it (‘Do You Think You’re Clever?') was written while we were touring the last album.”  For the new album Caoilian says that The Shaker Hymn has a stronger direction this time. "We figured out our musical landscape on the first album. This time around there was more direction and six to eight months driving around the country listening to the same records together in the car.”

When quizzed on their musical influences Caoilian is quick to point to White Demin, Tame Impala and Thundercat. Informing us that."We listened to the that stuff together getting excited by picking up drum sounds and cool organ parts. It definitely had an influence on the sound of this record.”

However the new album is more than just the sum of influences experienced by the bandmates over the last year or two. “The other thing is Brendan Fennessy from O Emperor produced this record. He’s much more adept in the studio than we are and far more willing to try out weird stuff than we would have been.”

Defining The Shaker Hymn’s sound and how they come up with their music is a trickier proposition and Caoilian took a deep intake of breath before answering

“This might be a bit music nerdy, the way me and Robbie write songs together we really worry about melody. The kind of the thing The Beatles had where it was like verse/chorus/verse/chorus/clever bit/chorus is something I think about a lot. Robbie would think about the clever bit of the song then. So by the time we get to the rehearsal, we’re with Shane (Murphy) and Donal (Lenihan) and they’re this amazing rhythm section who add in odd stops and rhythms that we wouldn’t have come up with”

“The relationship of there being two parts to the band is what sums up The Shaker Hymn’s music.”

While the music is a collaboration between the band members, Caoilian is responsible for the majority of the lyrics “One thing I figured out I'm much more confident about is not being too embarrassed by seeming too juvenile or too silly or dumb. I would have worried about that a lot more, but this time around they are kind of enjoyable actually.”

With their increased confidence in their sound, The Shaker Hymn have began to look beyond Ireland and have thus far managed to preview Waters Of Sea Change on respected UK music website Stereogum.

For Caoilian trying to make an impression outside of Ireland is fuelled by an ambition to travel. “We’ve been doing this together since we were sixteen under different band names. You get to the point where you play the same kind of venues a lot and eventually you want to branch out more.”

Caoilian works as a music promoter and booker in Cork for Southern Hospitality and has grown frustrated with the Irish establishment. “The music landscape is unfair in that it’s weighted for bands that have got UK press more than whether they are really good.

It would seem like some of the best acts in the whole world are coming out of Ireland according to the Irish music media. There is an amazing amount of talent from Ireland and people are proud of it and understandably so."

And then you listen to the radio or you turn on the TV and they have a kind of a dichotomy happens where instead of just being proud of that it ends up being 'oh aren’t we great, is the rest of the world watching'”

Then there is Girl Band, who made one of the best albums of last year and there is not enough recognition back home for these people. Even the Hozier thing isn’t about recognition. People are prouder that Hozier is big in America than his album being good. I find that a bit frustrating.”

With the new album about to make a splash Caoilian has had to readjust his expectations based upon on how The Shaker Hymn have progressed. That's natural considering the humble ambitions they started of with.

“If you'd asked me this three years ago, the answer would have been very different, but because now we’ve managed to record an album ourselves, put it out and start a record label (Heavy Noids Records). We’re getting better gigs. Now our only goal is to keep making records and putting them out, move around and meet new people. That’s enough for me.”

Tour Dates

April 7 - Roisin Dubh, Galway
April 8 - Kenny's, Lahinch Co. Clare
April 22 Coughlans', Cork

May 6 - McGing's, Westport
May 7 - Tir Na Nog, Cavan
May 13 - DeBarra’s, Clonakilty
May 21 - Pine Lodge , Myrtleville
May 22 - Levis's, Ballydehob
May 26 - The Bernard Shaw, Dublin

'Do You Think You're Clever?' can be purchased from The Shaker Hymn's bandcamp page