By Claire Corrigan
“A really talented group of musicians who are on a mission to bring something fresh and different to the table” – That is how Megacone were described by rock authority PlanetMosh who recently interviewed them in Holyhead during their UK tour.
The five piece instrumental band, which features two Westmeath members, have enjoyed much success since they started out as music students in Ballyfermot College of Further Education. After signing a record deal with Dimestore Records in late 2015, the band promptly released ‘Absolute Magnitude’ to a sell out crowd in Whelan’s, Dublin. The EP was critically acclaimed and landed the band a full page spread in Prog Magazine.
This was followed up by a headline tour of Ireland and appearances at major festivals including Electric Picnic, Vantastival, Barn Dance, Bare in the Woods and a headline slot at Knockanstockan.
“We got together about four years ago,” Mullingar guitarist Ross Kelly told Topic. “Out of the five of us in the band, two of us are from Westmeath, Pauric Murray is from Coralstown and I’m from Mullingar. We studied music in Ballyfermot and it was in that course that we met the other boys in the band.”
He said that by the time they had started second year, they had decided to start up their own band. “None of us were really into singing so we decided to just set do instrumental songs. The sort of stuff that I like doesn’t necessarily need vocals over it.”
Ross said that while originally, many of his influences came from the Metal genre, he developed a range of different styles at college. “I started to listen to other stuff like Queen who I’m a big fan of. Through sheer love of the instrument I suppose, I ventured into other genres of music like Jazz and learned about all these different techniques and chord voicing that were on the other end of the scale.”
He said that he would place Megacone’s sound somewhere in the middle of the genres of Metal and Jazz. “The bass player and drummer would be more into Funk Metal and Experimental Rock so they are a bit more groove based. I think that has attributed to why we are doing well. It’s not just metal tunes and I think it makes it a bit more appealing to everyone rather than if we just made completely Metal. Actually, a lot of the stuff I write at the moment is Folk-inspired.”
The boys have now set their sights on making a name for themselves further afield and have just returned from a 13-day tour of the UK during which they played 12 gigs from Holyhead to London. “Nathan Stewart of Syrca Tours saw us play in Siné in Dublin about 18 months ago and a friend of mine who worked there told me he had been impressed by us. I contacted him on Facebook and he agreed to book us straight away.”
The talented musicians have big plans for 2017, and will return to the UK in October for another tour. “A lot of the places that we play our college spots like Brighton, Plymouth, Nottingham, Manchester and we’re hoping to do a weekend just in London on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”
The band also have plans to play in Holland and are also busy working on new material. “The way it works is that everyone in the band writes music constantly and one person might have a cool riff with a nice melody or a chord progression that might be only 30 seconds long. Then we’ll all jam and will all gradually add to it. Sometimes it can take months to write a song.”
The band also have a very busy summer ahead- they will be playing Electric Picnic for a third time as well as Body & Soul at Ballinlough Castle and will also be taking to the stage at a number of independent festivals. “We will be putting on a big gig in Dublin in June with another instrumental band, Yoen, from Dublin, who we previously played with at the Spirt Store in Dundalk.”
