London-via-Limerick trio whenyoung are flying after the release of their stunning debut album Reasons To Dream. Ahead of their UK tour this September, we caught up with the band.
When and why did you start playing?
Aoife came from a musical family so she had it around her from a young age. For Niall and Drew it was more of a tool that we found to branch out into a different world, away from the normality around us. Listening and discovering bands in our early teens definitely helped.
What was the first tune you learned?
‘Whiskey in the Jar!’
How do you handle mistakes during a performance?
Play through it, turn away from the crowd and laugh at each other. Then kill each other afterwards! We rarely make mistakes, we’re a well-oiled machine.
What advice would you give to beginners who are nervous?
It’s hard, nerves never go away, you just get used to dealing with them. Accepting nerves is probably the best advice. That and a stiff drink before stage.
Tell us your best story from touring.
Classic breakdown story. We had this old van that was a pile of crap despite the interior being completely leopard print and last summer we were driving to Leeds for a festival. It was about 30degrees and the windows didn’t open! The motorway was closed so we were driving the back roads and there were steep hills. At one point we were driving up a hill really slowly and Dan, our driver, just said “my foot is to the floor and the van isn’t moving anymore”. It had completely overheated. So we got stranded in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully Rae Morris’ driver came and rescued us.
If you could pick three fellow musicians to have a meal with who would it be and why?
Iggy Pop could cook us a macrobiotic meal.
Shane MacGowan would bring the craic.
Bjork for the conversation.
What’s your favourite record from 2019?
Our own, Reasons To Dream, and Weyes Blood, Titanic Rising.
Recommend us a film/TV show from this year so far…
Just watched The Rolling Thunder Revue. That was pretty good. Its a documentary of a tour Dylan did across the states and its an interesting insight to his character.
Don’t miss whenyoung on tour, playing the following dates in September:
30th September – Nottingham The Bodega
1st October – Manchester Gorilla
5th October – Newcastle Think Tank?
7th October – Birmingham Hare & Hounds
8th October – London Scala
9th October – Leeds Brudenell Social Club
11th October – Southampton The Joiners
12th October – Bristol Thekla