CODES formed in 2007 releasing their début album ‘Trees Dream in Algebra’ under EMI Ireland, earning themselves some pretty big support slots with the likes of Keane at The O2. Since their 2010 Choice Prize nomination and numerous live shows played around Ireland, CODES have packed up and moved over the London, had a change of drummer, finished up their contractual obligations to EMI and are now in the midst of demoing for their new album.
We spoke to Daragh Anderson from CODES about what they’re currently up to and how London is treating them before they return to Dublin tomorrow night for a special one off (not so) secret show at the Workman’s Club where they plan to play a host of new songs. With the new record comes a new drummer, Niall (pronounced ‘Neil’) Woods – following the departure of their original drummer Paul Reilly due to personal reasons – has been demoing with the band since July. When we chatted with Daragh he told us that CODES are “locked up in the studio in London, pretty much demoing away and hammering out the second record”.
Their new sound is apparently “quite a big departure” from that of Trees Dream In Algebra, which is why Daragh said “It’s taken us so long to realise what we really wanted to do, what we really wanted to get out of it and what made us happy, so it didn’t feel like we were just trying to please anybody who was a fan of the old stuff, not to say that it will alienate people but it is quite different.”
With no set date for a release the band hope to test out their new songs on their home audience tomorrow night. After uprooting themselves to the UK, the band found immersing themselves in the music scene in London has been very inspiring, “With such a wide berth of music available over here, there’s a lot more shows and a lot more gigs and a lot more festivals that you can go to.”
Of course jumping ship for a country where your fan base would not be as developed is always scary, with the band questioning “are we making the right decision?” However they sound confident, suggesting the band were locked in their “own little bubble and getting on with stuff”. How have they found their audience in London compared to that back home, Daragh drew his own analogy.
“You have to win over an Irish crowd, where you have to try not offend or piss off an English crowd. If you play a gig in Ireland and you’re starting out, you have a lot of people at the back of the room and if they really like you they might move forward. In London if you play a show, everybody seems to gravitate towards the very front of the stage to scrutinize you under their microscope and if they really hate you, they’ll let you know.”
Writing this record as a live album, the band have been testing out all their new material on their audiences, “where the live thing is working” for them and they plan to bring this mindset to their Irish show tomorrow, where they’ll be plan on “playing about 80 per cent new material which is probably going to be a little bit scary, we’re going to put on a really good show and we’re massively looking forward to playing our first gig in Ireland in almost a year.”
CODES will play a one-off performance at The Workmans Club, Dublin on Thursday the 30th of August. They will be joined on the evening by fellow Irish Londoners Maud In Cahoots. Tickets are €8 (including booking fee) from Ticketmaster.ie
Do drop down. It’s a lovely Electric Picnic warm-up.