This year’s festival calendar has been pleasantly impacted by the rise in DIY culture throughout the country and is seeing a lot more smaller festivals taking place. One of the last hurrahs of the summer takes place this August 22nd at the East Point Bar in Dublin 3, with shuttle buses provided from and to the city centre. Summersound Festival is in its first year and is playing host to some of the best indie rock around with the likes of The Spikes, The Funeral Suits, Identity Parade and Disconnect 4 playing. Headlining the event is The Mighty Stef who talks here about his second album and his own festival experiences. Connected also had a quick chat with Summersound’s A&R Aurelie Montfrond. For full details on the festival see www.myspace.com/summersoundfest    

With your recently released second album and an extensive tour schedule you seem to be outstripping some of your contemporaries in becoming one of the city and country's most respected bands and live acts, would you say that's a fair observation? Where do you feel you stand within the 'scene'?
The way I pretty much look at it is that everything is going according to plan in the sense that there never was a concrete plan. When I started the Mighty Stef thing in 2004 it was just me and a guitar and a growing number of songs. The sound and the line-up has been ever changing, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. In 2004 there were some great bands I was friends with who kinda fostered some kinda scene. Most of those bands have either disbanded or evolved into something else. The Things will always be one of my favourite bands and the band most instrumental in helping me in my early days. I just do what I do, I don’t think I’ve outstripped anyone but I’m proud of my output and glad that I get to get up and sing and play as much as I do these days.

The MightY Stef

Many of your songs illustrate an anti-authority stance and portray an alternative bohemian lifestyle. Did you ever feel like jacking that in and joining the rat race? Or have you always believed in what you are doing?
I’d worked in various different jobs from my mid teens to my late 20s. I got a taste of the lower end of the rat race, I also did a few stints in college. It would break my heart if I ever had to trade what I do now for any of that again. Music was always what I dreamed of doing, I work hard at it and hopefully I’ll be doing it till I’m back in nappies. The travelling life is great; a lot of my writing comes directly or indirectly from my own experiences. I believe more in what I’m doing now than I ever did.

How did it feel to collaborate with Cait O'Riordan and Shane MacGowan on your new album?
It was a great experience. Cait has been a real friend to me and the band, always willing to help us out, she’s come and sang live with us on numerous occasions. Shane is a hero to many, including me. The day we recorded with him we had great fun, got drunk and had a laugh and somewhere in the middle managed to get the song sounding as dark and evil as it does. It was a good day’s work.

You play quite a few festivals and the upcoming Summersound Festival is one of them, is there anything about this fest in particular that you are drawn to/looking forward to? Are you a fan of the festival experience in general?
Summersound put us as headliners which is exciting, and I’m excited to see ID Parade who are also on the line-up, it will probably be our last Dublin gig of the summer and maybe for quite a while after that. The festival experience can be mixed, on one hand we played Benicassim this year and it was the single most amazing gigging experience of my life and on the other hand we have done some really depressing festivals which I won’t name.

The Funeral Suits

What's in store for TMS for the next few months?
We have still not officially released a single in Ireland from the current album, Downtown has gotten some great radio support but was never officially released so we might put that out and push for that elusive number one hit!! The Sins Of Sainte Catherine was released by a label in Germany in June so I go on tour there solo-acoustic in September. We’re also playing at Electric Picnic, possibly another tour in the States October/November, a tour in Scandanavia is talked about too as well as loads of gigs here and there around Ireland in the midst of it all...Me and the lads will be kept busy enough to hopefully stay off crack for a little while longer at least.

Aurelie Montfrond, A&R, Summersound Festival.

What made the Summersound team feel there was space on the calendar for another festival?
Well basically Summersound is one of the last festivals of the summer, and we wanted to bring about an event with some really interesting music and we were thinking of doing that a long time ago. We’d been talking about it for a couple of years and this year we really started working on it. We are all friends working together and we are all from different backgrounds, both professionally and ethnically so we can all contribute different things. Professionally we have all been working in the music and media industry.

What makes Summersound special?
Well, it’s new. And it’s an independent festival as well, so we are free to choose what we believe are the best independent bands around and we can really focus on musical quality rather than having to deal with commercial responsibilities.

Who should go to Summersound?
Just about everyone really, apart from the bands we have a combined music and art exhibition. Pieces will be displayed through a projector on to one of the walls of the venue and there is a lovely outdoor space where we will have a BBQ and there will also be DJs playing after the bands.

Words: Jade O’Callaghan

Connected interview archives

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.