Kodaline, the most popular Irish act on Spotify in Ireland this year, are back in Dublin to kick off their sell out gigs at the Olympia this weekend. The lads started their celebrations at the launch of Vodafone’s exclusive Christmas offer giving three month’s Spotify Premium for free with every new smartphone purchased between now and Christmas.
We caught up with Dublin drummer Vinny May from Kodaline to discuss the band’s continuing conquest of the entire world as we know it, Irish mammies, the joys of meeting denim-clad late night talk show hosts and, most importantly, chicken nuggets that just happen to look like Ireland…
That’s right folks, all of the big issues.
Oh, and we talked about the brand new deluxe edition of Kodaline’s re-released album In A Perfect World (Deluxe), which features brand new bonus tracks including live session recordings from a Today FM triple-whammy of The KC Show, The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show and The Ray D’Arcy Show.
JOE joins Vinny as he’s making his way into the first of the three sell-out Kodaline gigs at the Olympia…
JOE: Hi Vinny, what’s the craic?
Vinny: All good thanks, I’m just leaving the house and getting into a taxi into the Olympia.
JOE: Ah, we see, so you’re being chauffeured in, yeah? What an incredibly glamorous life you lead…
V: (Laughs) Oh yeah, I’m tellin’ you, what a life! No, I was going to take the car but I think I’ll have a pint or two later on after the gig tonight instead…
JOE: Good idea, you’ll have earned a couple of drinks after all the playing I’m sure. Congratulations on what’s been a pretty manic year for yourself and the rest of the band. Everything’s really taken off for Kodaline, especially in the last couple of months…
V: Yeah, it’s kind of been a bit crazy. We’ve been doing a huge amount of travelling and it’s only when you come back home and your friends, your girlfriend and your family start asking you “how was this place?” and “how was that place?” and you suddenly think to yourself, “oh Jesus, yeah, we were there as well!”
You almost forget everywhere that you’ve been because we’ve just been in our own little world travelling around the place. Sometimes we don’t really take stock of where we’ve been because a lot of the time, when you’re on tour, you’re only in a certain place for a day or two, or maybe even a few hours, and then you’re off again.
JOE: So you can describe to everyone what the Duty Free section looks like in lots of airports, but you can’t say “we went to see the Eiffel Tower”…
V: Yeah! I know Dublin Airport and Heathrow like the back of my hand now…
JOE: Maybe that could be your specialist subject on Mastermind, “can you recognise which airport this Duty Free bag comes from?”
V: (Laughs) Yeah! Easy, no bother, I know that one, absolutely no bother to me man!
JOE: You and the other lads must be wrecked at this stage with all of the travelling you’ve been doing recently?
V: Yeah, it’s not too bad, we were gigging in the Limelight in Belfast and got back to Dublin at about half two after it. We got to stay in our own beds for the first time in a few weeks and relax and chill out.
JOE: Some welcome home comforts…
V: Oh yeah, exactly, Mammy waking you up with a cup of tea and what have you, it’s perfect.
JOE: How have the gigs been going on the tour so far then?
V: Brilliant yeah. Belfast was the first time we’ve played in Ireland since during the Summer when we were doing festivals. Plus it was our first gig in Belfast since we played there since last December, so it was nice to go back and play to a slightly bigger audience and it’s good craic too, y’know.
JOE: How does it work when you do come home and are still in the middle of gigging though? Obviously the label have sent around their fanciest Hummer limo to pick you up now, but you and the other lads don’t have to meet up to practise today do you? Especially as you must have everything nailed at this stage?
V: (Laughs) Yeah, when we’re on the road you arrive at the venue either the night before or that morning and we’ll sound check. Once that’s done you kind of have a little bit of free time to do what you want or you may have some press and interviews. Sometimes we get to explore whatever town we’re playing in and check out the local sights and historic places.
When we’re home though, and we’re doing gigs or festivals in Ireland, we can kind of take it handy, go for a pint and see friends you haven’t seen in a while. It’s a lot more relaxed when you’re at home.
JOE: Plus I’m sure your Mammy is on the case telling you “now that you’re home you have to go and visit your aunty” and “you need to sign an album for so and so.” You must have your family sorted for Christmas presents; your Mam can just give Kodaline albums to everyone…
V: (Laughs) Yeah! “You have to go and see this person, and this aunty and that cousin” and all of that kind of stuff. You’re spot on, that’s exactly how it is. Typical Irish mammies, before they give you a hug or a kiss they hand you a handful of things to sign!
JOE: When you’re on the road, which the lads would have the most ridiculous dressing room rider? Or do you keep things pretty simple like a bunch of well-behaved Irish boys?
V: We keep it pretty simple y’know.
We always ask for stuff to make sandwiches with, water and a few bottles of beer, that’s about it. Some of the lads might drink whiskey every now and then, maybe a bottle of Jameson or a bottle of wine. There’s nothing really extravagant.
The only thing we really like to have abroad is Barry’s Tea. That’s because English tea isn’t the best and European tea is bizarre, it’s mental, so a box of Barry’s Tea and that’s about it really.
We’re kind of simple lads, there’s nothing mad or weird or wonderful on our rider. Pretty boring…
JOE: You know there’s something wrong whenever you ask for a cup of tea and they say “what flavour?” And you have to say “well, just tea flavour please…”
V: Exactly yeah! Or they bring you out a box and there are fifty different types of tea in it and you’re like “ah here, I just want tea.”
JOE: I want to talk about some of the recent highlights for the band. It’s great to see an Irish group doing so well, both here at home and abroad, and here at JOE HQ we were discussing some of our own Kodaline highlights. I wonder would they match up with your own?
We cover a huge amount of sports here on the site so we particularly enjoyed the Sky Sports end-of-season Premier League montage featuring Kodaline’s High Hopes. That must give you a great buzz when you hear your tracks being used in that way…
V: It’s great when the songs are used and people use them in different contexts, be it for sports or in TV shows and stuff like that.
It’s kind of like when we do a gig and we hear people’s different stories and they tell us how various songs affect them, what they mean to them and then that puts a whole new spin on the songs for us.
I mean, we wrote the song, we have them and we’ve been playing them for years at various gigs and festivals so they all mean something to us, but when someone comes along like Sky Sports or the Heineken Cup, that’s kind of great to see and hear too.
JOE: I presume you get free Sky Sports and Sky Movies for life then after that, yeah?
V: Man, I wish! I’d love that but unfortunately no!
JOE: And of course, one of the other highlights of the year, which was probably completely surreal, is the moment you got the phone call to say “would Kodaline like to appear on Jay Leno’s show?” Did you think someone was taking the pi*s when you first heard that?
V: Well it was our first date of the US tour and we had been in the States for four or five days before we started the tour properly. We got a phone call from one of the people at the label saying that there was a possibility that this might come through and, if it does, we might have to move a show around. We said that’d be amazing if that happens and then, within the space of an hour, we got the phone call saying “yeah, it’s happening, you’re going to be on Jay Leno’s show.”
It’s mental because it’s one of those shows that you’ve always watched…
JOE: Of course, you’d grow up watching American TV and having seen hosts like Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and David Letterman…
V: Yeah, appearing on that show is one of those key milestones for a lot of people so, for a young band from Dublin to be able to go on and play Jay Leno it’s fuckin’ mental. It was unreal, one of those surreal moments.
Well that’s pretty cool @jayleno #TonightShow pic.twitter.com/sGQUb9UiUy
— Kodaline (@Kodaline) October 29, 2013
Me and Jay Leno, having the craic.. pic.twitter.com/YPeBaMLGHU
— Mark Prendergast (@markkodaline) October 30, 2013
We got to meet him and he was a lovely man, wearing all denim which was great, because we heard that he wears a denim shirt and denim jacket and denim jeans and then you arrive and you meet him (laughs) and he walks out wearing exactly that and it’s hilarious.
JOE: I can relate to Jay because I’ve tried that double and even triple denim look and I can’t pull it off at all…
V: Yeah our tour manager tries to do it once in a while and he calls it a ‘Canadian tuxedo’ or something like that.
JOE: I suppose Jay Leno is one of those guys who just does what he wants, so triple denim is no obstacle for a man like that…
V: Yeah I think so. I think he’s apparently retiring at Episode 5000 or something and the episode that we were on was Episode 4698 or something like that, so it’s crazy that we were there and it’s crazy to see the size of the operation that they have for just one show, it’s pretty mental.
JOE: Meeting a denim-clad Jay Leno is quite a moment in anyone’s career, but have you been starstruck by any other people you’ve met along the way? Or maybe bands or musicians that you’ve been impressed by?
V: Well Jay Leno is definitely up there but the whole band, and me in particular , are massive fans of Queens Of The Stone Age and Josh Homme, the frontman.
We were playing a festival in Holland and our dressing room was beside The Script’s dressing room, and then beside them were Queens Of The Stone Age. Before we left the festival, I knew I had to go and say hello to this man, I had to meet him. I had idolised him since I was a young kid, always playing their songs and so I went up and chatted to him for about ten minutes and he was lovely, a really, really nice man. That was probably one of the best moments for me.
JOE: You didn’t fall over on your way up to talk to him thankfully…
V: (Laughs) No, I didn’t. I was biting my lip and thinking “don’t say that I love him” or do anything stupid but no, he was just so nice and took time out to talk to us, so that was great.
JOE: The other highlight that we picked up on here in JOE, was the incredibly momentous night that you found that chicken nugget that looked like Ireland, that must have been huge event for yourselves…
We gone and Found a chicken tender in the shape of Ireland.. Epic #homesick pic.twitter.com/5jjquBpOkK
— Kodaline (@Kodaline) October 22, 2013
V: (Laughs) Yeah! We’re massive fans of JOE.ie and we have it on our iPhones and Facebook and Twitter and we’re always on the site. We posted the picture of the nugget when we were leaving Canada I think and we stopped at a petrol station and, just as Mark was about to eat it he goes, “Jesus, this looks just like Ireland!” I think he’d a had a few beers at the time so we were like “I’m sure it does” but then we saw it and we were like “holy shit!” It was unreal.
Then we saw that you guys had posted it up on the site the following day and we were like “that’s fucking gas!” One of the other lads was up before all of us the next day and said “lads, JOE posted and retweeted the picture that you put up yesterday!”
JOE: That’s great to hear and it’s brilliant that your’re fans of the site, thank you very much.
V: Oh we definitely are. I’m a massive rugby fan too so I was following the site when you had Kearney doing his Lions updates and everything…
JOE: How do you think Ireland will fare against New Zealand this weekend then?
V: Well, we were lucky enough that we managed to get tickets for the game. We saw that Simon Zebo followed us on Twitter, so we went on and followed the whole Irish team and we said “lads do you want to come down to any of the gigs? Come on along.”
Maybe Zebo can make an appearance as he’s off injured? You’ve got to chance your arm!
JOE: That’s a class way to get tickets. How do you think the match is going to go on Sunday? It was pretty grim to watch against the Aussies last week…
V: Yeah it was pretty grim. We were streaming it in the dressing room, us and Hudson Taylor (another band from Dublin) watching the game. It certainly wasn’t our best performance but hopefully the lads can learn from their mistakes and at least put on a good show against New Zealand on Sunday, please God.
JOE: You don’t see a victory on the cards for us?
V: Stranger things have happened and nobody saw us getting that win against Australia in the World Cup so you just never know…
JOE: Well at least somebody’s optimistic anyway. Tell us a little bit about the re-release of the album itself.
V: We wanted to call this re-release the ‘Irish edition of the album’ but we couldn’t go with that but, for us, it was great to release something that would just come out in Ireland and would have some sort of exclusivity.
JOE: And you’re in the Olympia Theatre for your Dublin dates, have Kodaline played there before?
V: No, this is actually our first time playing here.
JOE: You must have been to countless gigs there yourself over the years, it’s such an iconic Irish venue…
V: Yeah, it’s one of the places that we’ve always wanted to play. When we were growing up we went to gigs there and so, to be able to come home and play there is amazing. On the first day of ticket sales we thought “wouldn’t it be great if it sold out,” and then we had the first night sell out and we put on a second night. Then that sold out and then we put on the third one. That was one of those kind of pinch yourself moments, we couldn’t really believe it.
JOE: Do you think you’ll be a little bit more nervous then this time around, especially as it is a hometown gig?
V: This is the only one where I’m feeling kind of slightly nervous about it because it’s Ireland, because it’s Dublin and we haven’t played here before. The last time we played in Dublin was feckin’ December 2012 so for this to be our first gig back in Dublin, and to have it in the Olympia Theatre, it’s pretty crazy.
JOE: At least you know you’re going to get an incredible reaction from the home crowd…
V: Yeah, I hope we are. We are really looking forward to it. These three gigs in the Olympia have been the ones that we’ve been looking forward to and, although there will be punters there too, I’d say 90% of it is going to be family and friends.
JOE: All those favours your Mammy asked you to call in again…
V: (Laughs) Yeah, I’m tellin’ you, I’ve a guest list the size of my arm for it!
JOE: And finally, Kodaline are also on board for the new team-up between Vodafone and Spotify…
V: Yeah, Vodafone are launching this new project where they’ll be giving three months Spotify for free to every user that signs up for a pay as you go smartphone. We use Spotify loads and it’s a great music-listening app, especially for us when we’re on the tour bus it’s so handy for making mad and wonderful playlists which keep us entertained on the road, simply because you’ve got access to so many tunes.
JOE: The playlists are great but do you still find the time to go to gigs and hear other bands?
V: Oh yeah. First and foremost we’re fans and to be able to do what we do is an added bonus. We get to play music and we get to write music but we’re still fans. Listening to new music and going to gigs is still top of our list of priorites of what we do.
There are loads of new bands we love; we had Hudson Taylor supporting us on the UK leg of the tour and they’re a really great band. You’ve also got Hozier with ‘Take Me To The Church’, a brilliant song, plus you’ve got Little Green Cars and Gavin James as well. It’s great to see them all, they’re fantastic.
Every opportunity that we have we’ll go and see a show, that’s what we love to do.
JOE: Vinny thanks for chatting to us today. Best of luck to yourself and the rest of Kodaline for the Olympia gigs and others coming up in the future. Hopefully you’re quest for world domination will continue on just as successfully as it’s been going so far…
V: (Laughs) Brilliant, thank you very much and same to you with the site. I heard you’re taking on a whole load of new staff so best of luck with that…
JOE: Thanks Vinny, if you break a string or the whole Kodaline thing doesn’t work out for you, you can come in here, work for JOE.ie and cover the music and rugby sections for us.
V: (Laughs) Yeah , yeah, definitely! Cheers man! All the best!
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