Interview: Steve Wall (The Walls)

Summer’s here again (honest, don’t believe the weather) and that means festival fever is upon us. Up and down the country tents are being dusted off, wellies are selling out and people are spending small fortunes on smokes, crisps and enough pallets of Tesco’s finest to get the Asian continent drunk. In that spirit, Goldenplec decided to have a talk with one of the bands that’ll you’ll no doubt be seeing somewhere this month; the great, Steve Wall, lead singer of The Walls and one of Ireland’s most loved musical troubadours.

This summer The Walls are heading out to tour the country; visiting an impressive list of festivals with their highly acclaimed two man live show and a brand new E.P. of material for the hungry masses. Steve was kind enough to share details about the band’s forthcoming third album, the current state of the full band, their plans for the rest of the year and his views on the emergence of new independent festivals all over the country.

The Walls are hitting the festival circuit this summer, are you looking forward to playing live again?

Absolutely. We haven’t done enough live shows over the past couple of years so we’re really looking forward to getting stuck in. We’ve got like three versions of shows on the road: The Walls with the full band, The Walls two-man audio/visual show and we’re also doing a few shows with The Stunning. So that’s how we’re dealing with the recession – we’re expanding!

How do festivals compare to playing your own shows, do you find them harder at all?

Not really harder, just different. Mostly there’s no soundcheck so you have to go with what’s thrown at you and there’s always surprises and challenges to contend with. Basically, you’ve got less control and sometimes that works out better. I like the festival vibe, especially when we don’t have to rush off after the show and we get to hang around afterwards with the punters.

For the last couple of years you and your brother Joe have been using a special two man show for live gigs. Will fans see a return of the full band on the live circuit soon?

We’re doing the Sea Sessions in Bundoran with the full band and when the album comes out (in the autumn hopefully) we’ll be doing more full band shows.

Have you had to make many changes to the show along the way due to problems, technical or otherwise?

Well, the audio/visual show started out with just our drummer Rory on the screen and then we decided to add the full band and then the brass section and a flock of birds and a tree and then some windmills and a bit of footage of the Arann Islands etc…….to answer your question – we never stop fiddling with it, it’s a work in progress.

The last few years has seen a massive increase to the number of festivals around the country, not to mention festivals willing to strongly bill Irish talent. Do you think we might be on a path back to days when Irish bands dominated our live scene?

I certainly hope so. The lack of new Irish music on daytime radio is killing the industry here. Venues are struggling and so are the bands as people just aren’t getting to hear enough new Irish music. The radio stations say they are fulfilling their quota but they’re playing new Irish stuff at 5am in the morning and playing the likes of Kylie Minogue as she qualifies due to some of her album being done in Grouse Lodge.

You’re booked in for a headlining show at the Grand Social later this month; do you have any plans to tour the rest of the country later this summer?

We’re doing a number of nationwide gigs over the summer. The dates are on www.thewalls.ie

The last time we talked, you discussed using an EP of material from the album to help push yourselves in America. Now that the Bird In A Cage EP is out, do you still intend on heading over?

Some dates for the East Coast of America are being planned right now for the latter half of October.

You’re currently recording the follow up to your last album, New Dawn Breaking. How are you getting on?

It’s all done, but I feel we need one more song………aaaaaaaghhh! I’m gonna have to lock myself away somewhere as I’m getting no time to write at the moment. Joe and I are multi-tasking to the extreme. And it’s true what they say about men multi-tasking.

Are you still hopeful the album will be released this year?

It’s really important to us that it is released this year. I don’t want to enter 2012 with it still on a hard drive

Your original band, The Stunning are also pencilled in for a few dates later this year; will their dates be expanded or will they be remaining low key this year?

As soon as we get the time we want to record a couple of new Stunning songs and we’re looking at re-issuing “Once around the World” or else maybe a new compilation with songs from the first two albums, a couple of new ones and a DVD. We haven’t finalized it but we’ll definitely be doing something next year.

You heard it here first!

The ‘Bird In A Cage E.P.’ is out now. Catch The Walls live this year at the following dates,  (For more details, please visit www.thewalls.ie)