Guerillas in our Midst

Many aspiring bands are of the opinion that when it comes to getting a leg up in the Irish music industry, it’s pretty much a case of who you know as opposed to what you know. A recent wave of rock bands have swept into the Top 30 singles charts however… and none of them claim to know Glen Hansard. All three bands unanimously agree that their newfound commercial success was the result of little more than hard graft, perseverance, and cracking songs.

“I felt great about going in higher than the Hothouse Flowers,” says Morello’s Darren Mulligan about his reaction to entering the Top 20 with ‘Alarm/Hold On’. ‘I dropped out of college to do this, so it’s good to show our family and friends that we’re not the wasters they thought we were.”
Having initially invested €5,000 in their single campaign and tour, Mulligan is the first to admit that it was the band’s hard work that eventually paid dividends.
“What got us into the charts was constant gigging,” he contends. “In the run-up to the single we did 11 gigs in 6 days, and many of them were all-ages gigs.”
While some musical purists tend to underestimate the significance of chart placement, Mulligan is mindful of the fact that sidling into the charts in between Gary Jules and Blazin’ Squad has opened doors for the band.
“Larry Gogan rang us up in the week and it was surreal. What a guy…he still has the balls to play a band like us on daytime radio.”
‘Transmitter’ may sound like a radio-friendly enough band name, but the lads themselves are somewhat cynical about the workings of our more popular radio stations.
“The way national radio is at the moment, you have to sleep with a programme manager to get playlisted, and I wasn’t prepared to do that,” laughs vocalist Stewart Quinn. “We decided to go with a grass roots approach so we decided to concentrate on local radio. We got some great support from the local DJs, they were people who would at least take the time to come to the gigs.”
Transmitter’s ingenious guerrilla approach was arguably the key to their Number 28 chart placement with ‘Hold On’.
“The other thing we did is that we took e-mail addresses and mobile numbers from people who came to the gigs, and on the day of the single release, I went into Vodafone with my database of mobile numbers and sent my free monthly 500 text messages to everyone. It was a question of being sensible with the little bit of money we had.”
Dublin four-piece Ginseng recently found themselves nestled, somewhat improbably, in between Simon Casey and Pop Idol’s Sam & Mark when they entered the charts with their first single, ‘Killers’.
“It was a case of sticking a foot in the water to see how we would get on,” says bassist Paul Hare. “We put posters up around the city and on various website forums. We also e-mailed everyone we knew and begged them to support us.”
Having sold most of their records at in-store launches at Tower and HMV, the band rocketed into the Number 24 position.
“It was the best feeling ever. Before we even got our position, we got calls from people saying that we were going to chart, and we honestly didn’t think it would happen first time round. I guess after years of gigging and recording, releasing a single in itself was brilliant. When I found out that we charted, the relief was immense. To see it in the charts and to see the single in the store itself really was a brilliant feeling.”
The fact that three relatively unknown bands have made such an impact on the charts with relatively little pomp or hype is certainly indicative of a turning of the musical tide.
“It’s a shot in the arm for independent music in Ireland,” concludes Darren Mulligan of the recent spate of unsigned band activity. “If it keeps going like this for bands like us, people will have to be alerted to it, and the labels, or someone, will have to set up some kind of a subsidiary for independent acts. Either way, it’s all good, and looks like it’s going to get even better.”

Ginseng's single ‘Killers’ is out mow on Ginseng Music. Morello's double a-side ‘Alarm’/‘Hold On’ is out now as an independent release as isTransmitter's ‘Hold On’ on QMR