Rubberbandits on winning a Men of the Year award and Willie O’Dea’s day job

Rubberbandits have been around for the last decade, satirising Limerick life, making prank phonecalls, spouting filth and ribbing Willie O’Dea and An Garda Síochána.

But last year they went stratospheric thanks to regular appearances on RTÉ’s Republic of Telly and the subsequent release of their hit single ‘Horse Outside’.

Their meteoric rise was enough to see them voted Rising Stars of the Year in the inaugural JOE.ie Men of the Year Awards.

We caught up with Blindboy Boat Club and Mr Chrome after they stormed it at a gig in Galway to give them their award and to have a quick chat with Blindboy about cuddles for Willie O’Dea and singing as Gaeilge and in Mandarin.

By Nick Bradshaw

JOE: How’s it going Blindboy?

Blindboy Boat Club: It’s grand. We just did a nice gig tonight at the Black Box in Galway: a place that does exactly what it says on the tin – it’s a big f*cking black box. A big black hole, with corners.

JOE: Did you vote in the general election?

Blindboy: No, I didn’t. Voting’s for gowlers.

JOE: Don’t you think you should have shown your support for Willie O’Dea? He gave you his support when you released Horse Outside last year, even squaring up to Joe Duffy’s Liveline audience on RTÉ Radio 1 last year to defend ye?

Blindboy: Never mind all that politics shit that Willie does. That’s just joke acting, that’s just showboating. He’s trying to get his hole. Willy O’DJ is a DJ for us. That’s his real job. All that politics stuff is him just looking for attention because he wasn’t cuddled enough by his mother when he was small.

JOE: Well done on winning the JOE.ie Rising Star award.

Blindboy: Thank you very much. That’s a nice looking award you’ve given me. Who did we beat?

JOE: You outpolled a number of acts such as The Hardy Bucks and Villagers.

Blindboy: That Villagers fella should’ve gotten it. Conor O’Brien, man, he’s a legend. What’s that song of his? [Starts singing and dancing] Agadoo, doo, doo, push pineapple, shake a tree... That’s a f*ckin rapid song. He’s also got some song about a Jackal or something, but Agadoo is his best song. Without a doubt.

JOE: So what’s next?

Blindboy: Well tonight I’m going to watch Willie O’DJ drop a bag of yokes and play dubstep down the Roísin Dubh. So if anyone reading this owns a time machine, Willie O’DJ is performing tonight in the Roísin Dubh. Go along, it’ll be savage.

JOE: You’ve gone and brought out your new single ‘I Wanna Fight Your Father’ in two languages – English and as Gaeilge...

Blindboy: We’ve got an Irish version coming out because songs in English are finished. We’re over English. We’re bringing out a song in Mandarin next – we just need to learn how to speak it first, but that shouldn’t be too hard. Mandarin should be interesting. The language has something to do with oranges and the Chinese, I think.

The song will be called “Back of the Net: F*ck You, Shay Given”.

We’re going to try and break Venus after that. The Venusuvians are a tough market to crack but we’re working on a new song “Hey you! Venus lady!” So I think we’ll have a good stab at it.

JOE: But do people around the world (and beyond) understand your lyrics?

Blindboy: Things have had to be done for people in places like America who wouldn’t understand the Limerick accent. But that’s fine – I know a guy in Sligo who doesn’t understand the Limerick accent. [Shouts into the microphone] Alright there, Benolyn! Muppet!

Rubberbandits’ second single ‘I Wanna Fight Your Father’ is out now.