With Castlepalooza happening this weekend and a whole host of Irish acts playing, we caught up with Young Wonder, Cork’s hottest electronic music act
JOE: How did you guys start off and where did your sound come from?
Ian: I met Brendan Canty through a local DJ in Cork, and he introduced me to Rachel, and the Young Wonder thing was a big of an experiment at the time. We were just having fun in the studio and the first EP came along really fast. It wasn’t planned or anything, it just started doing well online and we decided to make a go of it.
JOE: How does the writing process work for electronic music?
Ian: I did piano lessons and all that type of thing when I was younger, so I use that, and a lot of midi stuff. I know a load of people who are amazing pianists and stuff, and sometimes you can get a bit pigeon holed, not wanting to experiment a bit. I think we do that, the number one rule is just have fun with it.
JOE: What’s Cork like in terms of a thriving music scene?
Ian: It’s great, there are a lot of great acts down here with us that are pretty fantastic, we’ve gotten huge support from the radio like Red FM, and we have a great relationship with the people at The Pavilion. They let us rehearse in there a lot and they bring over some really great acts too.
JOE: Did you expect the reception you got online when you started out?
Ian: Not at all, I was thrilled when I saw that ten people had listened to it! The stuff that’s happened to us this year is fantastic, we’ve supported Alt J, we’ve gotten air time on BBC Radio 1, which is something I’d been dreaming about as a kid. I used to listen to it religiously when I was younger on a Saturday night, and said to myself “if I ever get a song played on there, I’m happy, I can retire!”. We’re so appreciative of the support we’ve been getting.
JOE: What’s been your best gig so far this year?
Ian: Longitude was fantastic, we had the UCD Choral Society in with us who played on our set, and it was one of our biggest gigs, there was maybe 3,000 people in the tent. It’s hard to say, we’ve had a lot of good ones, but I like playing at home in The Pavilion in front of friends and family.
JOE: Are you hoping to catch any other acts at Castlepalooza?
Ian: It’s a fantastic festival, they treat you really well there, but unfortunately we’ve got to head off to another gig almost straight away! I really wanted to see Sert One, he played a fantastic set last year. He’s got a new EP coming out soon too.
JOE: Who’s in your CD player/mp3 right now?
Ian: The new Disclosure album is getting a lot of plays for me at the minute. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with what’s available out there when you’re in the studio all the time, but someone that I discovered recently is Jackson Dyer, he’s a fantastic singer-songwriter from Australia. I’ve been obsessed with his stuff for the last few weeks.
If you fancy catching the lads from Young Wonder strutting their stuff at Castelpalooza, tickets are still available starting form just €35 for a day ticket, and a very reasonable €50 for camping in the Moat area, however camping in the castle is already sold out thanks to the popularity of the festival, so you better be quick!
If you need any further info, check out the Castlepalooza app, which will have all the details you need, on the Google Play Store and the App store.
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