Interview with Resonance!

Padraig left David right.

Today I have another interview with Irish duo Resonance. Resonance consists of David (18) from Co.Clare and Padraig (14) from Dublin. You might remember from my last post were I mentioned how I came across them when I was at the Orla Gartland gig last February and for all the people who got the presale tickets we were lucky enough to have a Taylor swift jam session with David and Orla and truth be told be told David was pretty impressive! In fact he was so good that I actually did a bit of twitter creeping until I came across his account so I could tweet to tell him how great he was and I discovered he had his very own youtube channel with Padgraig. I went on to have a quick glance to see what type of covers they were doing and I was hooked once I saw they had covered 'amnesia' by 5 seconds of summer. I didn't need to think twice when I clicked that subscribe button. It wasn't just the covers that I thought were great It was also there own original songs that they had up on there channel. One of the originals that I reall enjoyed was 'Forever' which as David said in the interview was there most popular song to date!

Now before you read the interview I would like to thank David and Padraig for agreeing to do this and that I had great fun getting to know them over the past few months.

what inspired you to start playing guitar/singing/writing songs?

D:Well I was always surrounded by music growing up, because Doolin is really popular for traditional music. I was playing tin whistle and traditional fiddle in pubs from the age of 8 but to be honest, my heart wasn't in trad music at all. It was more of a routine playing the tunes than an artistic expression, which I think music essentially ought to be. For me, it was Taylor Swift's second studio album "Fearless" which changed my view of music irrevocably and inspired me to begin playing guitar. I remember just being completely enchanted by the lyrics, the music, the simplicity and just how relatable the album was. The sincerity of the lyrics in particular captivated me, and so 2 months after buying the album, I bought my first guitar. The evening of my very first lesson, when the only chords I could play were C and A minor, I wrote my first song. It was called "Walk Away", and it was the cringiest possible heartbreak song, because not only were the lyrics extremely cheesy, but I had absolutely NO experience at all with a similar situation so it was all just speculation on my behalf. But  I guess just like a short story, I envisioned two characters in my head and wrote this story about their relationship and then set it to music. That's still the way I approach writing some of my songs, I love just getting lost in someone else's story, especially when you get to dictate how the story goes. Sometimes the idea I have in mind when I begin writing a song may be completely changed by the time I finish writing it, but I suppose that's the beauty of it. Then other songs, the ones that are really personal, tend to just flow and you could have the whole song penned in less than 20 minutes. That's what happened when I wrote "Forever", which is our most popular song to date, nearly 3 years ago. 

P: Writing and Playing was a great way to express myself through music

who is your biggest inspiration?

D: My greatest inspiration personally is Taylor Swift, from her incredible story of how she fought to be noticed by a label, to her unique style of songwriting, and the way she has never really let fame drive her off the rails. If there was only one person I could look to in order to learn all there is to know about music, it would definitely be Taylor.

P: James Blunt

who are your favourite artists?

D: Along with Taylor Swift, I am a huge fan of Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey, James Blunt, Ellie Goulding, Gabrielle Aplin, Birdy, Lauren Aquilina, Colbie Caillat, Nina Nesbitt, Christina Perri, Gavin James, Orla Gartland and Hozier (just to name a few :P)

My iPod is filled with the most random selection of music though, from hardcore pop, to country, singer/songwriter to musical theatre and classical... My motto with regard to music is "If it sounds good, I'll listen". I hate when people say they only listen to a certain genre of music and disregard any other type of music in the process. Maybe it's just me, but judging from my random selection of songs which I listen to, even I don't know where our sound as a musical act could end up eventually!

P: The Rolling Stones, James Blunt, Gavin James, Ed Sheeran

what's your favourite album by another artist?

D: My personal favourite album is "Speak Now" by Taylor Swift

P: Live at Whelans' By Gavin James

when will the new E.P be released?

D: We're really hoping to record our first EP over the coming summer (once this god damned leaving cert is finished!!!) but we don't have a set date as of yet.

P: Late Summer/Early Autumn

why did you decide to start you tube?

D: We decided to start posting youtube videos a year ago this week actually, after we won a duet competition at the Interschools Music Festival in Wesley College, Dublin last March and lots of people began asking us did we have a youtube channel. Not only do we have great fun recording the videos and covering our favourite popular songs, but youtube is such a great way to get your material out there today and it'd be stupid of us to ignore it. There are so many benefits of uploading youtube, but I think the most gratifying one is the encouragement we can get from people on youtube, it really does mean so much when someone says a video of ours made them smile, or they've listened to it more than once. Of course, being on youtube also led us to the Sticky Studios "Sticky Sessions" competition which we won. We flew over to London last August to record our song "Forever" in sticky studios (where Ed Sheeran, Nina Nesbitt, Birdy and Christina Perri have all recorded) obviously, it was beyond amazing to get the chance to record in sticky, but we learned so much from that trip and the guys in the studio were so unbelievably sound. The whole experience gave us a taste of what professional recording could be like and u think it's safe to say we've been hooked since. So hopefully we'll be back to the studio this summer once exams are finished to record our first EP

P: We decided to start Youtube after we won a duet competition in Dublin together

when did you first perform one of your original songs live?

D: We started busking last Easter. Since then, we've busked in Dublin, Galway, Athlone & Ennis. There is such an amazing thrill when a crowd gathers to watch and listen to you, and even more so when they all enjoy the music. Busking, while being probably the most fun activity in my opinion, is also an extremely valuable way to learn how to play for crowds and learn certain tricks to keep people's attention. It's in busking that we test out new material and covers. Our first proper gig was at the Éigse Arts Festival in Carlow last June. That was our first experience playing a full hour on stage for a crowd while amplified, and no exaggeration, we didn't want to come down from the stage when our slot was up! It was in Galway I think that we first played "Forever" publicly and it went down an absolute treat thankfully!

P: Wesley Music festival in Dublin city

what made you want to start singing together?

D: We began singing together when we were cast as the 2 main parts in a school show and we had lots of free time between rehearsals in which we began jamming initially, then for the craic we decided to enter the competition in Wesley without much expectation, and once that led to youtube well... As they say, the rest is history!

P: Our voices really complimented each others and we have a great connection and understanding in music and personalities

were is your dream venue to headline?

D: It's quite a far fetched idea, but the dream venue would be croke park or some massive stadium, simply because the videos alone from these legendary gigs in these huge venues seem so full of energy and the crowds screams just sound INSANE. But realistically for the moment, the Olympia theatre or Vicar Street would be amazing venues to play in

P: Croke Park in Dublin

celebrity crush?

D: my celebrity crush is Chloë Grace Moretz. She's just perfection.

P: Chloë Grace Moretz 

Once again thank you so much to both David and Padraig for agreeing to do this now I'm going to finish this post with the youtube video of there sticky studios session which was mentioned earlier on in the blog post and I'm also going to leave the link to there youtube and twitter accounts.

There twitter

There youtube

if you would like to see Resonance live the will be supporting Dublin boy band taken on Saturday April 18th so make sure you grab yourself some tickets for that.

I hope you all enjoyed that post

Izzy x

Orla Gartland gig 15/2/15

Orla giving it socks!. 

This day last week I was lucky enough to attend Orla Gartlands gig in the Sugar club Dublin.

When we arrived at the venue we got to go to the preshow meet and greet. When we first went in Orla was standing at the door saying hello and giving everyone hugs. When we first went in and she hugged me I may or may not of freaked out and cried...moving on.

Orla and David the busker.
(sorry for bad phone quality)

So then Orla got everyone who was at the presale meet and greet to come down to the front of the venue. She introduced us to who she called David the Busker. She explained how she had found him busking out side of the venue just before the show and invited him in to perform for us. They did exactly that and they did a duet of Blank space by Taylor Swift. Which in all honesty was brilliant. (by the way Davids a youtuber check out his chanel here) I actually have a blog post with David coming up soon so keep an eye out for that.

Top: Chanele Mcguinness and her E.P Untold
Bottom: Martin Luke Brown and his E.P :Take out of me

As you can tell by the pictures Orla had two amazing support acts. Chanele McGuinness opened up the show by singing original songs off of her E.P Untold.. and some covers. After she had performed I was able to meet her! And buy her E.P which she very kindly signed for me. She was so lovely to talk to plus she complemented my outfit! Chanele also has a youtube chanel which you can check out here. After she performed Martin Luke Brown then came on and performed his own original songs off of his E.P take out of me . I met him after his performance and he was very friendly and signed hs E.P for me also plus he said he liked my hat !

Afterwards Orla came on and blew everyone away as you can imagine. She was so and energetic onstage along with her band and back round singer. Literally there wasn't a dull moment the whole night! 

Me and Orla after the gig!

After the gig Orla did another meet and greet were she met everyone in the audience. Which was so kind of her and she signed autographs for everyone also. Plus I made two new friends when I was waiting to get my picture taken. And Orla took pictures with us all together!.

Myself Orla and my new friends Aoife and Ruth

All of the merch I got and she wrote "Don't cry" on her lonely people E.P. I may or may not be absolutely skint after buying all of her merch but it was worth every penny.

Have you ever seen Orla in concert?