Akroview

Today it is very difficult for new bands to get recognised in the music business, and it seems as though many people would be afraid of listening to songs that they did not already hear on the radio. It also seems as though people are only interested in artists that have become mainstream and have topped the charts in America and the UK, but you may be surprised to find that there is a lot of music talent on our own Irish soil. One band in particular has risen through the ranks and has now released their second album into the shops.

Their name is Lucky Bones, the band is made up of 5 members; Eamonn O’ Connor, Leon Kennedy Peter O’Grady, Ben Clarke and Conor Miley, all with a different background in music, I caught up with lead singer and main guitarist Eamonn O Connor recently to have a chat about the band and of course one of the first questions I asked was regarding their name. “Well I wanted it to be Eamonn O Connor and the Super Human Crew but that didn’t have a nice ring to it..” he explained, but then went on to explain the simplicity behind the choice of the name, saying that the original idea of “Bones” would be shattered due to the fact that if you typed Bones into Google you would get an American TV series before them.

One of the things that make Lucky Bones unique is their approach to music, nowadays it is easy to pick out a certain genre to put the music into, even though the majority of new hits nowadays are all comprised on a laptop and using extensive auto-tuning software. But Lucky Bones have no distinct genre to be put under, when asked this bass player Leon Kennedy simply replied “I don’t know!” to which Eamonn expanded it was due to the varied backgrounds of the bands members that makes them a unique band to listen to. We all agreed that Lucky Bones teeters on the edge of American folk and rock and roll, with a hint of Irish heritage, given their Irish background.

To this day they have released two albums, one is currently in the process of being made and the other has already been on sale and has been titled “Together We Are All Alone”, this also being the title of the first track of the album. To give a brief review on the album itself would be to say that Lucky Bones definitely have potential and a lot of talent but the subject matter that they sing about may not be to everybody’s liking. To add to their American folk and rock and roll style of performing they recorded the album in the deep south of America, Texas, in a town called Bastrop.

Now they are working on their next album out of an apartment “pre-producing if you will” added Eamonn, and when that process is done they will take all their work and head to Summit Studios in Dublin and get the piece up and running, but both Eamonn and Leon believe that “Together We Are All Alone” is their magnum opus due to the quality of the recording and also since it was the name of their first album, and personally it is one of my favourite tracks off the whole album, it’s the style and the subject matter that really makes it stand out from others on the CD. If you are hoping to see them play live this year you may be disappointed as they haven’t booked any upcoming gigs, due to the difficulty of booking gigs nowadays, but primarily because they want to get out as many albums as they possibly can, even striving for at least one a year, “We don’t want to be one of these bands that releases one of these records every four years, we want to be churning out at least once, if not two.” One thing that shocked me was when I asked them for any further information or if they had anything else to say Eamonn simply replied “Buy our music…because were broke!”

This lead us down a completely different path and onto a discussion about the current state of the music industry which seems to be holding many talented musicians and bands back, Eamonn went on to explain that the gigs were nowhere near as easy to get today as they were four or five years ago, “people’s interest have waned into original music…its hard sometimes for people to hear new bands unless they haven’t heard them on the radio before.” Also one other major impact on the music industry today was illegal downloading of music and people not buying their songs, Lucky Bones are aware of the situation and has this to say in response.

“People are downloading music for free and I get that, people want to listen to stuff but if people would actually pay for stuff it certainly helps because it’s not easy for bands out there now.”

In short, Lucky Bones is a new upcoming band that has a style different from the mainstream artist and has a wide scope for audiences given their mixed background in music. If you think you are interested in hearing some of Lucky Bones’ music or want to get in contact with the gang, maybe to hire them for a show or just to have a chat with them you can do so on their website, www.luckybonesmusic.com, and you can also buy their album off of their website too. You also head over to their MySpace page to have listen to a few of their songs in full at, www.myspace.com/luckybonesmusic.

I caught up with Lucky Bones and put together this little piece below, enjoy!