Burning Desire
Villagers look to have a breakthrough hit on their hands with {Awayland}, a record of rare grace and beauty. Mainman Conor O’Brien talks about getting the nod from rock legends Paul Weller and Radiohead, and also offers his opinions on U2, Obama, Savita, Michael D. Higgins, Official Ireland and the legalisation of drugs. Oh, and reflects on spending time in a Mexican jail cell!
The Hot Press Newsdesk, 29 Jan 2013
Forget The A-Team or The Expendables. If it’s improvisation, daring and a flagrant disregard for the safety or rock stars you’re after look no further than the Hot Press
Art Dept.
Word having filtered through from our editorial meeting – in case you’re wondering, Mario Rosenstock got it spot on! – that we want to set fire to Conor J. O’Brien, our man Trevor Nolan reveals that he aced pyromania at design college.
Rejecting his improvised Coke bottle flashbomb on the grounds that first degree burns to most of his body could impair the Villager-in-chief’s ability to tour, we opt for Trev’s plan B of alcohol-soaked cotton wadding in plastic cups that due to some weirdly chemical reaction produce cold flames when ignited. Legal disclaimer: not to be attempted by anyone unwilling to undergo painful and costly skin grafts.
Luckily his PR personage is on soup and coffee fetching duties, which means we don’t have to convince her that all possible health and safety measures (a bucket of water) have been taken.
“It looks like I’m a wizard conjuring fire!” Conor enthuses as bright blue flames shoot from his hands. It turns out that he has something of a grá for the supernatural.
“I’ve been having some mind-expanding adventures in my free-time,” he reveals. “You know, focusing on more cerebral things and seeing rainbows around the moon and stuff.”
I didn’t know Conor was mates with Jim Corr.
“It sounds mad I know, but it did happen. I had an amazing night with some of my friends and we went out to Kildare tripped.”
Er, were chemicals involved?
“No chemicals, just our imaginations. We stared at the moon and all these colours appeared. I could really see myself in the Phoenix Park at two in the morning, no light pollution with a telescope.”
I could totally get into that Professor Brian Cox/Dara Ó Briain stargazing thing myself. Chemicals weren’t a factor this time, but Conor has made no secret about his partiality to the odd joint.
“I’d be in favour of legalising every drug and making it available in a safe manner,” he states. “They should just sell weed in shops and stop people having to go to the same places that they sell heroin.”
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