We’ve hit nearly every festival this year and have bumped into many of the great acts, Irish and international along the way. Down at Indiependence 2012, Axis Of stepped in last minute to play and are currently involved in a 32 county Summer Irish tour.
With material inspired by Irish artists and poets and musicians and holding strong to their DIY ethics which have taken them to start this relentless 32 county tour. These lads know that making it requires more than just a decent song or two. Hard work, blood, sweat and tears. Though they’ll probably never openly admit to crying. If you’re a fan, you’ll probably know their debut album ‘Finding Saint Kilda‘ is almost ready for release. We’ll be sure to let you know when it drops.
We pounced on them with a few questions about festivals in the first of a series asking these set question to bands playing the remaining festivals this summer. Expect a host from Indiependence and Electric Picnic on the site in coming days and weeks.
What is your favorite song to play at a festival and why?
We have a song called Mendelssohnstrasse with a section at the end where we encourage a bit of a sing along from the audience. When this works at a festival it can be such an amazing feeling.
If you could duet with any act from this year’s lineup, who would it be?
Bressie, mainly to bring the handsome-ness levels of our band up.
If you could have anything even outrageous, what is the strangest thing you would have on a rider?
I guess just a dressing room with a tennis court and skatepark built in. That would be outrageous for sure
Do you ever camp or do you posh it up?
It depends, this year we’ve done a lot of turning up, playing and getting straight back up the road for the next show. We definitely like to camp at festivals though. See some ace bands and hang out with fun people.
If you could pick 4 headliners for a festival who would they be?
If its 4, it has to be the BIG 4
Have you ever been starstruck backstage at a festival or gig?
Was guitar teching at Oxegen a couple of years ago and saw some famous-as-hell musicians, but none really reduced me to a muttering fan boy until I saw Cedric Bixler-Zavala
Most embarrassing festival moment?
Last year at Glasgowbury, Mainstage my brain was moving ahead of my mouth and as I tried to say “let’s see you clap” all I managed was an unintelligible grunting sound.
How quickly can you pitch a tent?
We have a pop up tent, courtesy of our drummer Ethan, he can pitch camp in 2.5 seconds!
Food wise do you have any must have festival foods?
Collectively our favourite would be Mexican food, if a festival has a burrito van; we’ll want onboard.
If you could never be in a band, what job do you think you would be doing right now?
-Niall : Football pundit
-Ethan : Hyper Successful businessman
-Ewen : Competitive Twitcher