An interview with Relish (part 2)

Relish ponder on their influences & the future. Or something like that.

So, without going so far as to ask that hoary old chestnut of a question 'what are your influences?'... erm, what are your influences? Ken amiably supplies me with an answer. 'Our inspiration does come from like blues-based music, Rn'B - old Rn'B, and old rock I suppose, 'cause you know, we were primarily rock musicians but all that blues stuff and all just filtered in on its own, kinda' the influences we grew up listening to with our parents record collections and stuff and you know stuff from the 60s, Atlantic Records, Motown label... you know, all that kind of stuff. But also we kind of see our lineage as being more from Thin Lizzy and Van Morrison as opposed to like the punk or post-punk era with the Undertones and Therapy and that... although Therapy and Ash did open doors for bands. You know, they did put the Northern bands back on the map... after the Undertones I suppose, but we were never really a part of that sort of scene.'

The band's signing took place at a time of great economic flux but, typically, Relish tend to look on the bright side. Ken comments, 'I think people have been quite generous as regards... people coming out and checking us out as a band and coming back again and being patient with us because I'm sure we weren't easy to stomach two years ago when we were playing the kind of stuff that we were doing at the time. It just didn't seem to be going down as easy as it is now. Obviously we have had radio play.'

On the one hand, having just scored a number eight hit in the Irish singles chart they can afford to be positive about the increased spending power that the local economic boom has brought. And then there is this newfound air of confidence that is bringing people back to live music and prompting them to be proud of homegrown musical product. At the same time, the music industry on the whole is still in the throes of instability, following a series of gigantic takeovers that has left the bulk of the industry in the hands of giant, faceless conglomerates. The fallout has been considerable but the band remains pragmatic in the face of the grave statistics. Ken, 'The advantage of us being signed to EMI in Dublin was that we managed to escape the big mergers and bands being dropped as a result of that. We kind of just put our heads down and got on with our album at the time. It did slow things up for us and it made everybody a bit more cautious but that's just the nature of the beast.'

So, will the second album be characteristically 'difficult'? Ken, 'There'll be no pressure. I mean there wasn't pressure on this one but you always have a question mark with your first album: will people understand at least what we're doing to be able to make the right judgment on it? And I think come the 2nd album we won't really care what anyone else thinks except for us. In a way (with the first album) we were quite calculated. Yeah, we were kind of confident from the response we were getting from demos that we were gonna' get a deal, so we were kind of calculated about it. We knew that on this first album, I mean we're proud of the songs and that, but it's not quite the core of what we are, it's kind of like an overview. And I think on the next album, which we've already started work on now, it's gonna' be a bit deeper in all respects. I mean we touch on rock and blues and Rn'B and stuff like that but it's gonna' be more rock, more blues... more... just deeper, less surface level. It's kind of like an introduction to who we are... the first album.'

So, the future is looking bright for Relish. They have an ever-widening fanbase, including a growing army of underage fans - this despite their not being Westlife - and we all know which particular target audience calls the shots in terms of establishing chart success. They have even organised special tweenie gigs. Darren affirms, 'We've had a really good turnout.' Ken continues, 'It's brilliant. They don't care. They're not into looking cool. They just go like...,' giving us his best Cookie Monster impression by way of illustration. 'It's a bit chaotic but it's great.' 'All on orange juice,' adds Darren, countered by Ken, 'Could you imagine them on alcohol? It'd just be absolutely outrageous.'

And so, there we have it - Vitamin C-crazed kids, wildflowers and rainbow zephyrs - just some of the things to be Relished in this band's kaleidoscope world.

Carol Keogh

See also:
A review of Relish's debut EP 'Shaped on People'
A review of Relish live in Dublin's Temple Bar Music Centre.