Brothers Tadhg and Oisín are taking the world of Irish music by storm – with their YouTube channel, gigs up and down the country and following that increases everyday! Despite having college and exams to contend with the brother’s still find time to make a really fantastic sound that they can call their own – be it covers in English and as Gaeilge as well as their own stuff.
A couple of weeks ago we featured Tadhg and Oisín in our EwTube ‘Covers You Gotta Hear’ piece, where they sang an Irish version of Mumford and Son ‘Little Lion Man’ and now taking some time out from making music, we have a chat with the lads about, their music, their videos and the Cuban Missile Crisis…no wait video games! (Sorry we always get those confused)
Can you tell us about yourselves?
Tadhg: We’re brothers; I’m 21 studying Law & Philosophy in UCD, playing music on the side. I was classically trained in piano and violin from a young age and taught myself guitar. I’m much more interested in playing my own music with Oisín now than anything anyone else wrote! My hobbies: ping pong, hurling, disco dance.
Oisín: I’m 17, still in school. I’m hoping to study music full time when I’m finished, still deliberating between classical/jazz! I’m studying harp and piano and love to play guitar, sax and harmonicas. Still playing hurling and the GAA, which is great craic!
Have you always had an interest in music?
Tadhg: We have been playing some sort of music since we were about 5 years old, I started playing violin, then learned piano and taught myself guitar. The two of us have been playing together since we were about 10 or 11, playing duets and doing the Feis Ceoil etc. When I was 13 I started getting into the idea of being in a band, Oisín became the obvious target!
Oisín: We’d have to give the credit to our parents because from a very young age they always made sure we went to our lessons, did our practice and all that stuff. Our mum is a singer/singing teacher which helped a lot, as children instead of singing pop songs we were singing Handel and Mozart! Which I’m sure comes through in our music!!
Is there any advantage or disadvantage to playing music with your brother?
Tadhg: When I first started playing in a band I didn’t even consider playing with Oisín, he was still at annoying younger brother stage in my eyes [I’m hoping he’ll grow out of it soon!] So I played with some friends etc, but honestly playing with a brother is great, it’s hard to pick a disadvantage! We know each other so well that we are really tight musically without much effort, we also are always around each other so can’t avoid playing together!
Oisín: Obviously we can be much more blunt with one another than with friends or colleagues which may lead to some Oasis style brother fights! But it’s a good development process.
Your video and cover for Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons has started to receive a lot of attention – was it your plan from the start to upload your songs and covers on YouTube?
Tadhg: Well we recognised that it’s a great way to get out there and see what people think of your music without having to leave your house! You have people who have never done a live gig on YouTube but getting millions of views, it’s a whole new music medium…I guess we wanted to in some way be part of that, it’s a good way to get some response to our stuff.
Oisín: Also we have always been into making videos and films, making short films as kids. At this stage we don’t have a lot of time for it…we try not to go too crazy and put too much emphasis on the YouTube videos as although it can be good craic we prefer to focus on live music and developing our sound.
Is it harder to translate and sing a popular song in Irish? Do you plan on covering more songs in Irish?
Tadhg: Some songs prove more difficult to translate that other however singing it isn’t usually a problem once you get the lyrics into your head. I don’t think we plan to do many more covers in Irish. We have a few on the web and a lot more that we do at gigs but to be honest we much prefer doing our own stuff. I like writing the odd song in Irish, it’s a great language for music but obviously as it’s not my first language the creative process is slightly slower and therefore I’m more inclined to write in English.
Oisín: When we do ‘all-Irish’ gigs we tend to do all our songs in Irish so after writing them in English we sometimes end up preferring them once we translate them to Irish. It’s been really great the amount of interest and exposure we have attracted simply because we do our own songs and popular songs in Irish, so we will definitely continue with the gaeilge in some shape or form.
Could you describe your own music? Is there a particular sound or band that you could compare your own stuff to?
Oisín: People always ask us this question and we never have a straight answer and don’t slot into any particular genre, we try to stick to a more acoustic sound that would be a more folk sound with harmonies (as many as we can fit in!). Some people who hear us compare us to the Hot House Flowers, however having never listened to them properly I can’t confirm this!
Tadhg: We have such broad influences from classical and jazz music to pop and rock so understandably our music is a bit of a mix. However the music that most strikes a chord with me and that I guess I aspire to in a way is the songs of Irish artists like Damien Rice, Fionn Regan, Conor J. O’Brien, The Frames, Bell X1 and more recently Christof and the Staves [who are super awesome!] All of these artists really are ‘artists’ in the full sense of the word, they are engrossed in what they do in such an inspiring way, they play for themselves and for everyone and manage to be authentic and original all at once.
The tail ends of a lot of the videos you shoot yourselves are…kind of quirky. We have to ask about the end of Wheems, was the guy in the van staged or did it happen for real?
Oisín: That was for real! We were filming a bit of a video on Valentia Island in Co. Kerry, when this local man pulled up wanting to listen to us, it was hilarious afterwards when we realised the camera has been rolling, we knew we had to include it somehow!
Tadhg: We find that we always have a laugh making our videos and so any of the messing that goes on during shooting often makes for a fun ending to a music video. Oisín makes some killer faces without even meaning to sometimes, he likes performing to camera a little too much sometimes!!!
What are your plans for the future? Will you take music on professionally?
Tadhg: Honestly there is nothing I would love more than to give music a go professionally, obviously studying Law I have some serious decisions to make but at the moment I feel that I have to give music a chance, I just enjoy it so much and it is something that I could see myself doing and being happy, and that really is the most important thing for me.
Oisín: I don’t have a plan B at the moment! I’d love to do whatever it is that Tadhg and I are doing right now professionally, that would be the sweetest of all! I am hoping to study music performance next year and reach a certain personal level that will enable me to keep working as a classical musician if needs be! I do love all the shapes and forms of music that I have the opportunity to play!
Finally if you were trapped in an Arcade for all eternity, what game would you play to pass the time?
Tadhg & Oisín: ROBOT UNICORN ATTACK!
If you would like to check out their YouTube channel just click here.
Mo Hat Mo Gheansa? are also on Facebook so be sure to check out there page here.
