Still roaring after 30 years in the business

IT’S hard to imagine that hard-working Irish band Aslan are almost heading into their third decade.

The band say that they still love what they’re doing and are not considering hanging up their instruments anytime soon. This weekend sees Aslan play a free concert at the Scariff Harbour Festival, on Saturday night on the Fair Green.
Guitarist with the band, Billy McGuinness, acknowledges the importance of doing concerts at local festivals, similar to the Scariff Harbour Festival.
“We love to bring our music down to this real grassroots level. It’s great to do free gigs, like Scariff. During these recessionary times, everyone is conscious about spending and people are cutting back on things like entertainment, so having a free concert means people can come with their kids and hear us play live. We really feel that our music caters for a very wide age group, from nine to 90, so a free concert reinforces that,” he said.
Aslan emerged from the working-class areas of Finglas and Ballymun in Dublin’s Northside, in the early 1980s. Led by frontman Christy Dignam, the band continue to tour nationally and internationally, as well as regular songwriting and recording.
“We’re still very busy and happy to be very busy. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been together since 1982 but the thing is that we still have as many fans as we did 20 years ago. Our albums are still being bought and our concerts still sell almost 30 years so, which tells us that the audience still like what we do. We literally have some fans who have been coming to us for as long as we’re together, as well as many more we’ve picked up along the way. Some people come to a couple of our gigs every single year, so we must be doing something right,” Billy said.
He says that the band still get such a buzz from the crowd singing along with their songs.
“It means that our songs are in their head, so we’re connecting with them through our music. We are a hard-working band and always have been. We have to work hard to keep what we offer fresh. Our typical week for us still is to gig from Thursday to Saturday, take Sunday and Monday off and then we’re in studio writing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We are writing new material all the time,” he said.
Aslan last played in Clare just before Christmas in the West County Hotel in Ennis and two years ago in Glór. Their performance in Scariff this weekend comes after a well-earned break.
“We’re all totally fresh after a break for a few weeks. The next few weeks from now until September we’ll be going from festival to festival around the country. We’ll have a quick break to catch our breathes again then and we’ll head off to Australia on September 20.
“We were due to do our Australian tour at the end of April and early May but we had to cancel because of the ash cloud. Luckily, the concerts over there had sold really well so we could reschedule. People were told to hang on to their tickets for September. We’ll have nine gigs in all over three weeks,” he explained.
The full line-up play almost all of the gigs and this Saturday in Scariff will be no exception. Aslan comprises Christy Dignam (lead vocals), Alan Downey (drums), Joe Jewell (lead guitar), Rodney O’Brien (bass) and Billy McGuinness (guitar). Former member, Tony McGuinness, emigrated to Australia two years ago but the band is hoping to link up with him over there in September and persuade him to play a few of the concerts with him.
Aslan currently have a new album in preparation, with six songs already down. The album is due for release in September 2011.
“The release will coincide with a documentary called The Story of Aslan – 30 years. Billy McGrath is making the programme to mark our 30th anniversary, which is 2012. We’ll be marking it from the end of 2011, with our biggest ever concert in the O2 just after Christmas,” Billy adds.
He explains that the plan for the 30-year concert is to ask artists they’ve worked with over the years, such as Sinead O’Connor Alabama 3, Damien Rice, Damien Dempsey, and many more to special guest at the concert.
“When we formed, we said we’d give Aslan a year because you honestly don’t know when you start off with a band how it will go. Lots of bands didn’t last, so we’re extremely lucky that we’re doing something that we love and it’s still going so well. There is always an element of luck for a band – playing the right gig at the right time in the right venue, recording the right song at precisely the right time, having a song on the market at the right time. You can plan some things but not everything.”
His advice to young up-and-coming bands is to write their own songs.
“There’s too many bands doing covers now. I know we did one last year but we literally asked our fans to suggest songs they’d like to us to record.
“We got hundreds of suggestions and narrowed it down to the very best ones. We are not a cover band and did it as a one-off and it worked. But my point is that people these days want to hear new songs that they can relate to. For radio or download, in particular, it’s crucial to write your own material. If you can write a chorus that gets into people’s heads, like we managed to do with Crazy World, it works wonders. Songs like that can bring a band anywhere, especially if there are Irish people there”.
Already this year, Aslan have been to Dubai, the United Kingdom and France, and are heading to Germany in November, after Australia,
“While we love playing in Ireland, we aren’t reliant on it, which is helping us to survive the recession. We haven’t been hit the way other bands have been. People tell us that our passion for music and performing still shows and the audience get that. The other big part of our appeal is our singer, Christy Dignam. I’m not just saying, because others in the music industry have also said it, he is one of the greatest live frontmen this country has ever produced,” Billy said.
Over their years in the business, Billy has noticed some major changes in the music industry but none more profound than the changes the introduction of reality TV shows searching for popstars have brought.
“There is a place for the likes of X-Factor, Pop Idol, You’re a Star but the problem with them is that they have created an expectation of instant success from potential artists, producers and even record labels.
“When we were starting out, and the same would apply to U2, record deals gave bands or artists a development deal. If the first album wasn’t a success, it didn’t matter, they would have a chance and advise on hand to try again. That kind of arrangement allowed a band to develop. It simply is not realistic to expect instant success. Even those who win the shows have a fairly limited success and that whole scene is all too contrived,” he says.
He also puts some of the onus on Irish radio. which, he claims, is not adequately supporting new emerging Irish artists.
“They are obliged to play up to 40% of Irish acts, which on the surface they are doing. But they play plenty of U2, Thin Lizzy, Westlife, Van Morrisson but not new bands that are really good like The Villagers, Roy Seven, and Two Door Cinema Club. I feel very sorry for these young bands, because they’re not been given a chance.”
For that reason, Aslan try to showcase new and local bands at their Irish concerts.
“In Scariff, there will be a local band playing with us, which are yet to be confirmed. Everywhere we go, we do that. It’s important to us to give local bands a chance to play live in front of an audience. That’s how new bands learn their craft and see how their songs work, just like we did years ago. We have to help each other out because the music industry in general terms doesn’t,” Billy comments.
Aslan play on the Fair Green in Scariff this Saturday at 10pm. For more details on the festival see www.scariff.ie.