With a European tour and several festival appearances already booked for the Summer, Dublin based guitar band Otherkin are hoping that 2106 will be a big year for them. Their sound is a refreshing, cobweb blasting, no-frill, turned up to 11 sort of noise that is just the kind I like. We caught up with them to find out more…
Many of our readers will be new to Otherkin – what makes you tick?
We’re a bunch of lads from Dublin, Ireland who like to play loud guitar music and have a good time. We released an EP this year called The 201, sonically it’s been described as a mixture of grunge and garage rock, if that sounds like your thing make sure to check it out on Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp etc.
You had a great 2015 – what’s next for you guys?
Our first show of 2016 is in London on Jan 9th, playing This Feelings ‘Big In 2016’ show, after that we’ve some festivals such as Eurosonic, and London Calling in Holland coming up. We’re hoping to get some new music out in the open too, and tour that well into festival season.
Tell us a bit about the scene in Dublin.
The scene in Dublin is amazing, the standard of music in Ireland is insanely high, but unfortunately a lot of these acts don’t manage to gain international success or end up packing it in early. It’s sometimes baffling that some of these great bands don’t manage to get heard outside of our little country, but acts like Hozier, Kodaline, All Tvvins and Girl Band are helping shine the spotlight on new Irish artists.
You’re playing at The Great Escape in May – are you excited?
Yeah! We were extremely pleased to be announced as part of the first 50 acts. None of us have ever been, but we’ve heard nothing but great things, some amazing bands have played in the past and we can’t wait to bring our live show to Brighton.
And what do you like about playing to UK crowds?
It was pretty amazing to play our first tour outside of Ireland during the 201 Tour. UK crowds differ from city to city but the one thing in common they have is that they’re all super passionate about new music. It was equally pleasing and surprising to be drawing in crowds up and down the country, and to hear the various ways people heard about OTHERKIN!
You just released The 201 EP, a furious statement of intent – where do the songs come from?
The songs are just songs we wanted to hear, we’re writing for ourselves and for others who want to hear energetic, feel good guitar music. There hasn’t been many guitar bands in the past ten years who’ve captured the energy of bands like The Vines or The Strokes, so we’re filling the void for ourselves.
What are your own musical predictions for 2016?
Guns’N’Roses are going to reunite and split up within a month, it’s going to be a beautiful disaster xx
Otherkin are David Anthony, Luke Reilly, Rob Summons and Conor Andrew Wynne
The 201 EP by Otherkin is out now.
Listen to ‘Love’s A Liability’ here >
Otherkin play Nambucca (THIS FEELING Clubnight) in London on Sat Jan 9th click here for more info >
(Thanks to Jay Taylor for the help with the interview.. )