Interview: A Plastic Rose

This review was subsequently butchered, putting it kindly, by the kind editorial team at the Gown Newspaper (QUB newspaper). The 'editor' completely changed the format, adding a narrative which at times didn't make sense and used words (s)he did not know the meaning of. Fortunately, not many people read the Gown....
Here's the interview as it was originally submitted.

I was lucky enough to steal a minute with local rockers A Plastic Rose backstage after their headline Radar gig at the Speakeasy. The lads buck the obnoxious, self-centred musician trend in style, instead coming across as four really down to earth, approachable, everyday guys. As expected they are surrounded by well-wishers but I managed to extract Gerry, Ian, Troy and Dave from the melee of fans to quiz them about the gig, their self-created genre, their upcoming tour and their imminent single launch.

Ian (vocals, guitar): ‘Playing the Speakeasy you get a buzz, there’s lots of random passers by, drunk students. In a way you’re kind of busking, trying to get peoples’ attention, but it’s a lot of fun.’

Gerry (vocals, guitar): ‘I remember when we first moved up here from Dublin, we’d been to Radar a few times, I said to Ian, ‘Ian I never wanna play that place, nobody’s listening! But when you’re on the stage it’s just completely different. It’s one of the best gigs in the city. The lights and the sounds are amazing, we don’t care if there’s nobody listening, just get some people down the front going mental and it’s great.’

Dave (drums): ‘It’s very sweaty.’

A Plastic Rose have come off the back of a very successful 2009, achieving Radio 1 daytime airplay and a coveted slot at the Reading and Leeds festival, along with a joint single launch with local pals The Good Fight. But whether it’s a festival or a makeshift stage in a field in Limerick, any audience is sure to be blown away by the energy, angst and enthusiasm flowing from the stage.

Ian: ‘We approach all gigs with much the same attitude.’

Gerry: ‘It’s destroy or be destroyed.

Dave: ‘ We call it “kowalskying.”

Troy (bass): ‘It’s the name of a local band, yeah, but we’ve turned it into a word of our own… it means to outshine.’

Gerry: ‘We don’t see the point of being on a bill if we’re not going to be the best. We played this outdoor yard in Limerick last week, there was nobody there except these two girls, but we still loved it. We’ve played Reading and Leeds, packed out gigs in Belfast, but we’ve never played an empty yard in Limerick. Now we can tick that off our list.’

In the course of the post gig euphoria the individual personalities of the band really shine in a way that epitomises their confidence in their own ability, in their music and each other, and their ease together as a unit. This is a band in the true sense of the word. They could well be the next band to be taken from our midst and thrust onto a bigger stage and they’re going the right way about it with a UK tour in the pipeline.

Ian: ‘Well, we’re signed to a local label “DidiMau” and we’ve just hooked up with a press team in England, and one in the Republic as well. Then a booker, who had seen us at Reading and Leeds, contacted us looking to arrange a tour for us. It’s become sort of an extensive tour… it’s madness.

Gerry: (laughing) ‘ I can’t remember what he said…best band at the festival was it? I can’t remember, but he likes us anyway. He thinks his 10% is going to turn into a lot of money.’

Looking around the Speakeasy it was clear that among the legion of loyal fans, there was a healthy smattering of recent converts. It’s easy to see why somebody stumbling across such an energetic and talented band would take notice, but touring brings an unknown quantity to the band. I asked what they’d say to a room full of people who’d never seen them before.

Gerry: ‘The plan is to be supporting bands as well, so the plan is to show them no respect and just leave a blazing trail behind us.

Dave: ‘Kowalskying!” (laughs)

Gerry: ‘Yeah, we’re just gonna try to be remembered wherever we go really and next time we go back they’ll all say (exaggerated English accent) “ do you remember that A Plastic Rose… they were wicked.”’

Troy: ‘We’d describe the sound as ‘converse-gaze.’

Dave: ‘Yeah, we’ve invented a new term. We listen to a lot of ‘shoe-gaze’ stuff so this would combine with the sort of mid-nineties emo craze…so that turns into ‘converse-gaze.’

For those of us, myself included, not sure of what ‘converse-gaze’ really is, the band have been compared to the likes of Biffy Clyro, so hopefully that might give you a rough idea. Their new single ‘Kids Don’t Behave Like This,’ is set to catapult the band to a par with their contemporaries.

Gerry: ‘We’re releasing our single ‘Kids Don’t Behave Like This,’ for download on the 29^th March, from all the usual e-tailers. And we’re having a launch party in the Stiff Kitten Belfast on the 26^rd March to kick off the tour of the UK all to support the single. We’re shooting a video tomorrow, and you’ve gotta buy it ‘cause it’s the song of our generation. There was ‘Teenage Kicks’…and now there’s ‘A Plastic Rose…’

With a cheeky grin on his face and surrounded by the laughter of his band-mates, I leave Gerry, Ian, Troy and Dave to enjoy the buzz of the fans still lingering almost an hour after they come off stage. On stage and off, this is a band who instantly endear themselves to all they encounter, and you can’t help but hope they fulfil their potential.