Call it confidence, call it being aware of your own abilities, call it self-belief. Whatever it is, The Rags have it.
It doesn’t come across in them as people, yet how many other bands dare to release two EPs of material quite so audaciously impressive as their Drag Down The Moon and Monsters & I records?
According to Danny Anderson, however, this was just a product of their way of working.
“We have so much material to deal with,” he says. “I think we probably rehearse more than any other band, which is a bad thing and a good thing. The stuff that we’ve put out came because we’ve been there for so long, doing it, doing it and doing it. It was all just coming out. None of it will be on the album. Some of it is old stuff but it was all relevant to the time the EPs came out.”
Part of what makes The Rags so striking is their attention to detail, from the music to their management approach, to the stunning artwork that adorns both EPs.
Based on a similar theme, they suggest that the two records should be viewed as companion pieces. Ciaran Kavanagh isn’t so sure.
“They are and they aren't. We wanted to keep some continuity going on with the artwork so it did look like the same band. The music probably isn’t totally the same.”
What is certainly noticeable is the growing confidence on the second release, a product, says Anderson, of them simply become more aware of what they were doing.
“We were in our own bubble for a long time, just rehearsing,” he says. “We didn’t know much outside of that. We met a guy called Tom Reynolds who had his own little home studio and we spent three days there recording the first record.
“That was our first time doing that. The next time it was a lot more relaxed. They’re supposed to be an introduction, 'We’re The Rags, here we are'.”
Was there a feeling that they wanted to arrive in the public eye as the complete package?
He nods: “Definitely. We’d been locked up in a shed for two or three years before that release. Me, Ciaran and Dermott were together as just the three of us for a while before that. We decided to lock ourselves away and try and create something, try and get a direction to what we were doing.”
Hard work is what ultimately put The Rags on the road.
“It all started to slot into place through people that we met, then we spent another three years trying to get it together," Kavanagh continues. "It’s strange when you hear bands on the radio giving it all this shite talk in the interview and you get really excited and then they play a track and its bollocks. It just seems like the same drill from everybody.”
Like that other great bunch of Dublin musical innovators, 8Ball, The Rags are a big band in the personnel sense – weighing in at six members. Anderson sees this as a definite advantage.
“It gives us a different edge," he insists. "You can see how each person brings their own element to the band. Everybody is playing their little bits and we’re trying to elaborate on that. We use everybody in their place and every time we write a song we try to forget about the last one and make it different. It’s more exciting for everybody.”
The approach is starting to work. The group's name is being bandied about as one to watch and they have a series of gigs lined up that includes the Hard Working Class Heroes and Electric Picnic festivals as well as the 02 In The Park pop lark. Then it’s back to the business of making an album.
“That’s what we’re looking at,” says Anderson. “We’ve enough material to make two records. Whatever happens, it certainly won’t be an album that just sits in Tower Records. It’ll be out there”.
Does he think it’ll be a very “Dublin” record?
“Not at all”, he replies firmly. Then he pauses. “Well, it will be because we’re from Dublin.”
I only raise the issue because, on the evidence of tracks like ‘Stolen Car’, The Rags seem a lot more aware of their environment than most.
“I think those local issues are the issues that effect communities everywhere, not just Finglas,” he proffers.
“There are a lot of places that haven’t got much money and that’s where people are at. We couldn’t sit down and start telling you about Miami Beach. I don’t know how people can do that”.
“Santa Cruz and whatnot”, chips in Kavanagh.
“Yeah," says Anderson, “when we get to LA we’ll tell everybody about it, but until then we'll write about our environment. Otherwise you’re lying. We’re honest”.b