Life on the farm with Delorentos frontman Ronan Yourell

Ronan Yourell talks about escaping to the hills, escaping from the band and playing homage to his musical heroes in aid of Barretstown.

Dublin four-piece Delorentos formed in 2005 and since then, aside from a brief hiatus in 2009, they’ve been regulars of the Irish music scene. From the start they’ve received critical acclaim and have built up a loyal live following, both at their own gigs and at festivals here and abroad.

Their latest gig is as part of the line up that also includes Glen Hansard, Mik Pyro from Republic of Loose, Declan O'Rourke and O Emperor for a show at the Olympia in Dublin on 1 April in aid of Barretstown.

It's the third annual Inspirations Gig in aid of Barretstown, which has raised over €85,000 over the past two years, paying for twenty-five children to go to Barretstown for an inspirational, life-changing Summer camp.

Ahead of the gig, JOE left the city and ventured out into the wilds of Wicklow for a chat on a hillside with Delorentos' frontman Ronan Yourell.

By Nick Bradshaw

JOE: Well this is an unusual spot for an interview. Up in the Wicklow Hills on a farm and surrounded by cows goats and the like...

Ronan: Don’t forget the thirty-or-so dogs running around. Lovely, isn’t it?

JOE: It is. So what brings you up here?

Ronan: At the moment we’re in a pre-recording phase. We’ve never done this before, taking ourselves into the hills ahead of a recording session, and it’s proved to be a really good thing to do. We’re hoping that if everything goes to schedule we’ll be in the recording studio around May time.

I suppose we’ve not done it before for fear of killing each other. We spend so much time together if we’re on the road or recording that forcing ourselves to be in such close proximity may not be a good idea, but so far so good.

Is it good to be doing it without the clock ticking in the way that it would be if you were working on songs in an expensive recording studio?

It’s really nice being able to work at our own pace. It’s good to get as much stuff done ahead of the recording session as possible.

JOE: So Ronan, I notice you’ve got two phones. The last famous Irish Ronan to have two phones was Ronan Keating – something to do with having a phone that the missus could see and a phone that she didn’t know about for secret messages. So is it the same for you?

Ronan: Yeah, it’s the same as with Ronan Keating only in my case it’s for the other band that the lads don’t know about.

You’re not touring at the moment, as you’re in the midst of putting together your third album, but you’re doing a charity gig at the Olympia on 1 April. Given the foolish date, is the gig really happening? We wouldn’t want to turn up and find ourselves the victim of an April Fool.

Ronan: Yeah it’s really happening. It’s in aid of Barretstown, the children’s charity, and the theme is inspirations, given that these are young people who are very inspired. So the idea is that all the artists involved will do a song of their own and then pick a song by someone who’s inspired them.

We have picked a Beatles song – Come Together is the one we’re going to do – and it’ll be a great night at the Olympia, which is my favourite venue in Ireland.

JOE: You’re not the first person to say that about the Olympia. What is it that you think makes it so popular with performers?

Ronan: It’s a great size. It’s big enough to give a sense of occasion for a gig but it also feels quite intimate. The way the seating is tiered means that although you can fit a few thousand in there, wherever you are in the audience you’re never far away from the stage.

To be on the stage performing, it feels like everyone is right on top of you and you can almost see the whites of people’s eyes. Plus it’s old, lived in, comfortable and the staff are very easy to work with.

You’re now on your third album. Have you found that you’ve changed over the years you’ve been together? Do you get a sense of musical development?

As musicians our skills were quite rudimentary when we started, so there was plenty of scope for us to develop and grow, and that’s something I think we’ve done so far and which we’ll continue to do.

I think we’re starting to get more comfortable with the idea that making music can be your life. That takes a bit of the pressure off. We’re currently as happy as Larry here in the Wicklow Hills trying out stuff and making noise.

The best way to make great music is to relax, have fun and not try so hard. Usually the weird things that you do turn out to be the wonderful things to do.

JOE: You’ve been getting a bit of a following in places like Spain and Italy. What are the audiences like out there?

Ronan: We did a tour of Spain last November off the back of one man in the music industry out there hearing us and bringing us over. The tour went very well and we ended up doing some Spanish radio and TV, so now we’ve organised to go back.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Spanish audiences. Irish audiences are known for their enthusiasm and for being amazing, I found the Spanish audiences hugely enthusiastic and pretty much the same as here.

The audiences we’ve played to in Italy have been great as have those in Germany. Only in London do you really see a difference. Sometimes the audiences there can be looking at themselves more than at the people on stage.

JOE: Talking of pressure, you left the band in February 2009, causing Delorentos to break up, before going back and reforming with the rest of the lads a couple of months later. Did the hiatus that resulted from that decision to flee for a while give you the chance to clear your head, and has it helped the band to stay together in the long run.

Ronan: It really did and it really has. We’d been at it hammer and tongs for a couple of years, and the six months preceding the split had been pretty heavy for us. It did give everybody a chance to think about themselves for the first time in a long time and to reassess what you’re doing and what you want.

After spending time apart we came to the conclusion that we could achieve what we wanted to achieve musically as part of Delorentos.

Thankfully we all get on great. Sometimes the outside world can get in on what you’re doing, and we had outside issues to sort out. But things are going well for us now.

JOE: Why do you think you were the one to break free and instigate the break up, albeit temporarily?

Ronan: My issue was that we’d always been an independent act but we’d become really restricted by forces outside our control. There was a label wrangling thing that went on for six months and curtailed what we were could do.

For a band who’d always felt that our destiny was in our own hands and kept working away, being in limbo and restricted didn’t suit us. It certainly didn’t suit me and I went a bit AWOL.

Now looking back I’m delighted that everyone else had the foresight and understanding to have me back. I think the feeling between us now is that it could have been any one of us who cracked.

We’ve been careful not to completely cut ourselves off from family and friends and what’s going on outside the band for huge periods of time. Besides, I think that to make music that’s at all relevant you have to live in the real world. You can’t just completely live in a bubble.

Gigging in Ireland has a good reputation, but the radio has a dire reputation. How have you fared?

We’ve been lucky with tracks like SECRET, but I think that’s more of the exception than the rule. There are DJs who have great shows and who have been great to us, such as Alison Curtis and Michelle Doherty, but the daytime playlist is the one that’s the hardest to get onto. It can give you a huge audience but you can’t rely on it.

You’re competing with the likes of Rihanna, it can feel like there are less than a dozen songs on continuous rotation. But people who are really into their music don’t listen to daytime radio in order to hear what new is out there. It’s the sort of thing people will listen to in an office to pass the time.

But of course we’d only be delighted if one or more of the songs on the forthcoming album got daytime radio play.

Tickets for the Inspirations gig are priced at €30, are available from Ticketmaster, with all proceeds being donated to Barretstown.