Make friends with Black Soul Strangers

15 July 2010

Brendan, on the far left, with his band mates

BEAL High music teacher Brendan O'Mahoney may not have many school terms left in him if the band he formed soon realises its early potential, as many tastemakers are predicting, writes MATT TROLLOPE.

Black Soul Strangers are being compared with the likes of Coldplay and Snow Patrol, and it's easy to see why - not least because the latter's producer, Tom McCall, engineered their debut album in Van Morrison's prestigious Windmill Studio, Dublin.

That was last August. Now, with drummer Brendan, 26, singer Barry Gorey, 24, guitarist Phil Wyer and bass player James O'Brien, both 25, all relocated from Ireland to London, the band are on the verge of huge things.

Brendan moved from Donegal two years ago. He works as a music technician at the school in Redbridge, lives in South Woodford, and is soon to move to Wanstead with his actress girlfriend.

He told Review: "Back in Ireland I grew up in the country so I like my leafy surroundings. I'm very sporty, and love cycling in Epping Forest.

"I'm always getting stick from the rest of the boys, saying that I'm an Essex boy now, and that I don't live in London really, like the rest of them. But I love it where I am, and the fact that I'm still really close to the central areas where bands play.

"We all made a conscious decision to move to London to further the band's prospects and it seems to be paying off so far."

Still essentially an independent band, Black Soul Strangers' debut album, Animate (see page 3 for details on how you could win a copy), was released to critical acclaim last week, through an off-shoot of Universal Records. But no permanent deal is in place....yet!

Of their brilliant debut single, The Haunting, which will be released in September to coincide with a UK tour, Radio 2 presenter Janice Long exclaimed: "Beautiful...absolutely beautiful", Uncut Magazine enthused "a gorgeous hypnotic melody with an aching vocal...chimes as stirring as early Coldplay", while the NME proclaim "a band who actually look and sound successful before their time".

But before their time does inevitably come, there is the little matter of those day jobs, which Brendan argues makes them strive for full-time and long careers with the band even more.

His three colleagues are all based in north London - Barry is a paramedic, James an engineer for TfL and Phil the manager of a guitar shop in Soho.

Barry and Brendan formed the band, after meeting through friends at Dublin University, where Brendan was studying for a degree in business.

He says: "I was doing the degree thing, keeping my parents happy and buying myself a load more time to work on my music, which was and always has been a priority for me.

"Myself and Barry started working on some stuff last year, and then went off to a relative's holiday home in the country for a couple of weeks and came up with most of the album then, on very basic levels, working on songs and rhythms.

"We had already earmarked Tom McFall as the man we wanted to work with, and he just happened to be staying in Dublin at the time, so we sent him some demos and he really liked them.

"Tom booked us into Windmill, and we initially got James in as a sessionist to work on the material, but then invited him to join the band.

"When we all moved to London, Phil was someone we knew of, also from Ireland, who was already based in London. We needed a guitarist to complete the line-up so we asked him to join too.

"The comparisons are great, but we're actually quite embarrassed by it, because we still feel we have a lot to prove.

"We want to be in the music business for a very long time, and, God willing, we will, but there's lots of work to be done yet, and the fact that we all need day jobs in the meantime, helps keeps things in perspective."

For info on the band, including live shows, go to www.myspace.com/blacksoulstrangers