Pot Luck Of The Irish

Unfamiliar with The Potbelleez? The first thing you should know is that they’re very big Down Under. A full-throttle, four-piece electrohouse act that have taken Australia by storm, they were founded by two Irish blokes abroad around the turn of the century.

They may have played on the steps of the Sydney Opera House and toured with Usher, but Dubliners Dave Goode and Johnny Sonic can stroll around their hometown under cover of anonymity. It suits their aesthetic.
“People will know the songs before they know the name of the band or what we look like, which is the way we’ve always really worked,” says Johnny Sonic. “We’re not coming out as a pop act, we’re a serious dance act with music that we believe in.”
And yet, you get the feeling they don’t want to lurk in the shadows for too much longer. Having conquered Oceania, they’re now looking to Europe.
“The plan is to get the album out and make a bit of noise. Start touring Europe and have more of a presence. Ireland’s our little baby and we want to service it properly. I think this is the first time that we’re in a position where we can present ourselves to the Irish.”
It must be strange returning as thousands head the other way through sheer necessity. When they emigrated, the country was booming.
“In times of hardship and recession,” proffers Sonic, “people dance harder and party harder than they did when they had money. It’s a good time for us to be back, to give people a bit of light, a few good times.”
Why did the two DJs leave in the first place?
“What I felt in 2001,” begins Dave Goode, “was that the Irish scene was all very closed-in and tied up for a DJ trying to break through. Everybody had ‘their gigs’ and they weren’t letting them up for nobody. Dance music in Australia was kicking off and the fact people would reward you for results, rather than kick you down for doing well, really made me think, ‘Wow, this place will be really good to me.’”
Goode hooked up with fellow DJ and flashpacker Sonic in a Bondi Junction pub and the duo set about establishing their name. Vocalists Ilan Kidron and Blu completed the line-up.
“Johnny and Dave really brought a European flavor,” explains Blu, the band’s female MC. “When I first met them I was like, ‘You guys aren’t from around here!’ The culture they come from is much deeper into dance music, there’s much more of a history of it in Europe. And they put in the hard yards running their own parties for a number of years to build the brand.”
In 2007, the hard work paid off as second single ‘Don’t Hold Back’ starting receiving some serious airplay. Gold and platinum discs, TV performances at some of Australia’s most iconic landmarks (Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House) and non-stop touring followed.
“We’re the busiest band in the country for sure,” says Goode. “We were chasing our tails for a year-and-a-half really. Our label was telling us, ‘We need an album’. For the second, they were like, ‘Take the time, we don’t want to hear that you feel rushed.’”
“It means that Destination Now feels like our first proper album, it really does,” Sonic resumes.
In March, Potbelleez supported R&B superstar Usher.
“He’s a really cool guy,” Goode enthuses. “We were dancing around on eggshells, trying not to piss anybody off and just do the right thing. But as the tour progressed and we got to the eight or ninth show, he seemed to warm to us. He wrote with us, we jammed with him onstage during rehearsals.”
“He approached us actually” says Blu. “We didn’t think that we would get to meet him but by the third day he was going, ‘Hey dudes’. He’d be cruising the halls on his Segway.”
A Segway? It seems Usher saves his legs for dancing. When you’re that big a star, having to walk anywhere becomes optional.
“What a way to travel around backstage,” laughs Goode. “How brilliantly lazy is that – I don’t want to walk to the toilet, I want to drive! Is our ultimate aim to get our own Segways on the rider? That’s the dream, yeah!”

The Potbelleez play CHQ, Dublin on November 12 as part of the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project. Tickets are exclusively available from www.facebook.com/Smirnoff