Megaphone Bowtie image - Barry Quinn
How many times have you fallen in love with a record only to discover, much to your horror, that the band have broken up? Such is the fate of unsuspecting Irish indie music fans who have not yet discovered Green Lights – this Friday 27 February sees the band’s final performance with good friends The Funeral Suits in Whelans.
Born in a student gaff in Monaghan, Green Lights began in 2006 with guitarist Colin, drummer Daniel and a lot of bad songs. Of which, some (Fold, Threading Ice, Glove Box) survived and make up the live set list.
After about a year of Colin and Daniel jamming away, synths player Nigel moved into said gaff and the line-up of Green Lights was complete.
Colin: We had no bass and we liked it that way.
Drop-D: That’s quite surprising though, Green Lights seem like the kind of band who would have a bassist. And I hadn’t realised you were knocking around for a while…you seemed to just emerge last year in a flurry of EPs, Small Curious Things followed by Time To Tell The Parents.
Colin: We did release quite a bit in 2008. It annoys me to see great bands not getting their material out there. Sure, it costs money but it’s so much fun to do. They were like mini projects that kept me busy when I was unemployed.
Nigel: Yeah it’s much more rewarding if you do all the press release, photoshoot, managerial stuff yourself. Less people to get pissed off with!
Drop-D: It’s quite unusual for Irish bands to produce so quickly though. I’m not sure if it’s entirely financially-driven either, there honestly doesn’t seem to be enough good material to keep releasing….
Colin: Well I think it’s because we live together? Also people can forget about bands very easily in Dublin. I’m not too sure. I do think a lot of bands are scared to fork out money on what can be quite daunting project. My advice is go for it, regret it later!
Nigel: Colin will admit he can be quite prolific with the songwriting if Daniel and I lock him in his bedroom and only give him Sugar Puffs until he writes something new!
Drop-D: So what spurred the advance from bedroom band to really hitting the live circuit?
Nigel: Back in the middle of 2007 we decided Dublin was finally ready for a big onslaught from us and so we started just taking whatever gigs we could get, ranging from support slots to club nights and even barn dances…
Colin: It was hard starting out mind…coming from Monaghan where there are zero bands apart from The Flaws, it was almost impossible to get gigs. Then we started showcasing with the brilliant Garageland which proved a great starting point for us, met lots of people and bands and it got easier….
To read the utter scandal on Dublin’s smelliest venue and for the great laugh of seeing Nay fall flat on her face with yet another inept brand of her own inimitable ‘Wrongzo’ journalism, continue reading the whole article over on Drop-D….
Drop-D: Can you pigeonhole your tastes into one particular genre or do your preferences spread through an array of influences?
