I had a fun chat with the four Irish lads of Kodaline, Stephen Garrigan-voice, Mark Prendergast-guitar, Vinny May-drums, Jason Boland-bass, at Caribana Festival on June 5. They told me about the reason they changed the band name, their plans for the new album and much more! You can also check out the review about their great gig here. Cheers to the lads for being so friendly and thanks to the Caribana crew for arranging this interview 🙂

 

The Liberation: If I’m not mistaken this is your first time in the French part of Switzerland.

• Kodaline: It is yes.

The Liberation: So, first of all, welcome to the French part of Switzerland! Bienvenus! You had been playing for a long time before actually being Kodaline, why did you decide to come out with an album in 2013? Why did you decide to change your name?

• Steve: It was a very kind of natural process, we were in a band when we were in school, and we kinda played together, we mainly played like covers and stuff, we wrote some songs but we kinda grew out of it and we didn’t like what we were writing so we just kinda went away and wrote loads of songs and then grew up a little and had some experiences. We matured a little bit, we were different, we were older, I’d like to say wiser but probably more stupid.
• Vinny: Much, Much. Yeah we’re definitely more.
• Steve: We figured we were a completely different bad, we were different people, the songs were different, it was only natural to have a different name.
• Mark: The reason we released the album that’s when we were ready to be signed. We never really thought about an album but we had some songs and we thought:“Let’s do an album” and now we’re doing our second album.

The Liberation: So are you actually recording your second album?

• Kodaline: Yes, we just came back from America. We’re kinda doing festivals and recording through the Summer.

The Liberation: What’s your second album going to be like? Is it gonna be very different? (laughs)

• Kodaline: (they laugh) It’s gonna be different to us but to other people it’ll probably just sound like Kodaline.
• Steve: We’re experimenting a little more but the sounds are quite similar.
• Jason: We try to rap. It might not make it to the end!
• Steve: It’s a terrible answer but it’ll be similar but different.
• Jason: The second album will be similar but kind of different.

The Liberation: Which is good so fans will still recognise you and perhaps other people will …

• Kodaline: That’s the idea, that’s what we’re going for! (they laugh)
• Steve: I’ll change the voice, I’ll go like (and mimics a really deep voice), so that’s the different part. It’s like a Crosby and Barry White and Kodaline.

The Liberation: I’m looking forward!

• Kodaline: So are we! (they laugh)

The Liberation: Are you satisfied about your first album In A Perfect World?

• Steve: It’s gotten us to travel all around the world. We sold our tours in America and we are going back again, it gets bigger every time. We toured in Australia, Japan, we kinda toured all around the world. The songs seem to have connected with people. It’s something we never intended, butit’s amazing. It’s been really really good. We’re on a great position to release our second album. It’s been great, so far so good.

The Liberation: When is it going to be released?

• Kodaline: Early next year.
• Steve: It will be 5pm on the 26^th of January. (laughs)

The Liberation: How do you get through the writing and producing process? Do you come up with the lyrics or the music first?

• Steve: It’s different with every song, sometimes you might wanna write a song about a specific thing and that’s how you start a song. Other times you have a melody and then it turns into a song completely different.

• Mark: “There’s a conversation going on over here” “What were you going on about?”

Vinny’s arm is boiling because of the sun coming through, from there we have a nice chat about their pale skin, Swiss weather vs. Irish weather and so on, which lead to the following question:

The Liberation: What about the cover of “In a Perfect World”? Where was the picture taken?

• Kodaline: French Alps.

The Liberation: Wow, French Alps. Cuz when I saw it I was like “This looks like Switzerland”!

• Kodaline: It looks like Switzerland, it does. We should have said it was. Yeah it was.

The Liberation: I’ll just pretend it was.

• Kodaline: Yeah, it was near Grenoble.
• Steve: Switzerland is one of the most beautiful countries we’ve ever been too. It’s like The Lord of the Rings.
• Mark: We played Openair Gampel last year, that was one of my favourites because of the weather and the scenery.
• Steve: We were on stage playing and you look out you see all the mountains and I think I didn’t take my eyes off the mountains once. I think I forgot to sing in a few points. (laughs)

The Liberation: It’s really a beautiful scenery. What are your plans for the Summer?

• Mark: Festivals and recording, and when we’re not doing one we’re doing the other.
• Steve: I think we don’t really have a day off.
• Vinny: We have loads of festival in America and loader in Europe, when we are not at festivals we are busy with the album.
• Steve: We are busy touring, we have a six-weeks tour in Europe and America, we’re gonna go back and forth, we’re slightly jet lagged.

The Liberation: I bet! It’s hard to get over it!

• Jason: You get over jetlag is just a frame of mind. You just don’t sleep.

The Liberation: Thank you guys!

 

 

 

Simona @TakeMe2aConcert