• State Faces

    state.ie names its artists to look out for in the 12 months flowing from January each year, and accompanied by original photoshoots from our team of photographers.

The Optimists

Joy on twelve legs..

Photographed for State’s Faces by Kieran Frost

How did you find 2016 in terms of your creative output? Were you as busy as you’d have wanted?

2016 was a really big year for us! Not only did we release our first single but we got to play in a number of great venues including The Workman’s Club, The Loft @ Seven and supported Radio Room in The Button Factory. During our French tour we had the amazing chance to play to 5,000 people at the Montjoux Festival. All of these brilliant opportunities really got our creative juices flowing, travelling around and meeting new people opened our eyes to a new way of thinking and therefore, a new way of writing. Although things started to quiet down after playing The Circle Sessions and The Oxjam Stage at Electric Picnic we are really excited to pick things up again in 2017 with lots of new material.

With regard to playing live, do you think there are enough opportunities for upcoming bands to showcase their work regularly?

Although there are plenty of great gigs being put on weekly in Dublin, eg; The Circle Sessions and We – Bloom, it is hard for bands such as ourselves to find a regular platform to perform. We are energetic and mad and it’s hard to place us on the same bill as a beautifully delicate acoustic act or a trance or electronic artist. We would love to see more spots opening for bigger bands (members wise) with big, bouncy sounds.

What would you change about the Irish music industry? If you felt there was something which needed changing.

We think the main issue with the music industry at the moment is the lack of Irish radio play. While there are DJs like Louise McSharry, John Barker and Dan Hegarty championing homegrown talent, there’s still a distinct lack of Irish music across all radio shows and stations which we think could be improved. This is looking hopeful with acts like Walking on Cars, Hozier and Hare Squead getting much more mainstream radio play, aside from shows dedicated to 100% Irish music.

Is there anything you have planned recording-wise that you’re really excited about?

We hope to record a single and EP really soon! With loads of new material from the summer we can’t wait to get our music out there. We are all very creative people so we’re currently brainstorming other ways of recording to make the songs pop and other ways of sharing our music besides listening to it on platforms like soundcloud and youtube. We have some really cool ideas in terms of sounds and visuals, we just need to materialise our imagination!

What is your focus right now, and how do you think that will translate unto the rest of 2017?

Our focus right now is us. We love writing, playing and sharing our music and right now, and in 2017, we want to do just that.