Belfast doesn’t really produce bands – the history of NI rock is a curiously provincial affair. So when the city gives us a real set of contenders people tend to get excited.
Sometimes this is true even of the band itself. Take, for example, the strange case of Rivals and their new recruit David Dickinson.
Instantly enamoured, and confident that that the group would be a success, the guitarist jacked in his law degree in order to sign up.
“I went to my advisor of studies and told him that I wanted to chuck it in and go off and join a band,” he reveals. “I was expecting him to turn his nose up at me, but he told me it shouldn’t be a problem and asked me what they sounded like. He sorted everything out for me and as I was leaving he told me not to worry. He said ‘we got Kieran Goss through, we’ll get you through too.’”
“He doesn’t know it yet,” adds frontman Damien Trainor. “But he’s actually still on probation. If he hasn’t bucked his ideas up in three months we’re kicking him out.”
Hang around long enough with Rivals and you can see why Dickinson was so eager to clamber aboard. Their accomplished, wide-eyed rock has caught the attention of quite a few of the across-the-water carnivores (and also seen them net a management deal with the same company that look after Hard-Fi), while the intra-band chemistry is enhanced no end by the fact that Trainor, bassist David McGarry and drummer Peter O’Hare grew up together on the same street in Andersonstown, on the outskirts of Belfast.
One imagines there would be worse groups to be a part of.
“It’s been great,” says Dickinson. “There’s an honesty to the songwriting. It’s not a scene thing, they’re not a cool band. I hung around with them, practised and it was just a great vibe. There was no struggle to fit in or anything like that, and the writing came very naturally. I think we all feel that this is a great thing to be involved in.”
Last year was an eventful one for the band. Despite spending most of the time “hiding away in a bunker trying to write better songs” the release of their first demo saw them debut on XFM and Radio One, and also wangle an invite to BBC's ATLTV.
On the advice of their new London-based management, they spent part of the summer honing their act on various obscure rural stages.
“We called ourselves Johnny and The Big Rivers,” says Damien. “And we played to crowds of mad country boys and stoners.”
The months ahead should see them broaden their fanbase. The band’s first single, ‘The Ending’, is the product of some eventful sessions in Wolverhampton with producer Gavin (Editors, Joe Strummer) Monaghan. Out in April on Sound Foundation Recordings, it’s an impressive and confident statement of intent and a reward for their willingness to look beyond their immediate borders.
“It was important to get away to record it,” insists Damien. “No-one here ever seems to venture outside Northern Ireland and I think you can tell when you listen to the songs. They all tend to choose the same kind of sounds. We just wanted to try our luck, meet some new people and look around a new place. It was a baby step, but we survived a week in England together, eating in curry houses and drinking in superpubs.”
“The mixing desk was great,” adds Damien. “It had been bought from a studio in Oxford and was used to record [Radiohead’s] Pablo Honey and [Supergrass’] I Should Coco.”
As for the rest of the year, ambitions vary in the Rivals camp.
“Meet some more interesting people,” says Damien. “See some other interesting places. Work hard at writing better songs so that ultimately, some day, we can put an album out that we can be proud of.”
Dickinson has other things on his mind.
“I’ve tickets for the France versus Switzerland match at the World Cup,” he says. “We better not be playing Auntie Annies that night.”