Aslan's lead singer Christy Dignam and guitarist Billy McGuinness sat down to discuss their new single, their favourite venues in Ireland and the secret to their success. Watch the interview above.
Ireland's hardest working band has been through the mill in their 35 years; from rehearsing in a disused pig sty and breaking up during their lead singer's struggle with addiction, to multiple near-death experiences ranging from cancer to plane crash - Aslan has seen it all.
"Billy said there a while ago, 'if there was a nuclear war here, it would be us and the cockroaches left'," joked Christy.
The two Dubs sat down to chat about their new single, Now I Know - their first record in five years - and their current tour, Feel No Shame, which brings them to the Iveagh Gardens on Friday, 13th and Sat, 21st of July.
Their latest music video is a love letter to the band, their fans and the gigs they've played throughout their incredible career. You can watch it for yourself above.
Christy said: "It's a really good song, and we're all really proud of it, and because we hadn't done anything for a couple of years with me being ill and stuff like that, we wanted to put something out for our own heads, because we want to be playing fresh stuff as well."
Billy added: "We're as excited about this record as we were when we first released This Is. I'd be ringing Christy saying, 'have you heard it on the radio yet? Who's played it yet?'. There's that buzz that goes with releasing a single and we still have that."
Although he says he has experienced a kind of flow where a song will come together in a spectacularly short amount of time, Dignam insists that the songwriting process is usually about blood, sweat and tears.
"It’s not really me that does it. It comes from somewhere else, I don’t know where. Some people say it’s the Holy Spirit, the collective unconscious – there are all these ideas. I don’t know how it happens. Most songs aren’t like that, most songs you sit down and grind and grind and grind," he explained.
Whether it comes from a higher power or pure determination, the frontman says that the result of his hard work is always an enlightening experience.
"You'll write a song and you'll think it's about a certain thing and then ten years later you look back and you think, 'Holy s**t, I didn't realise but that's exactly what I was going through at that time' - but at the time I didn't know that's what I was writing about," he explained.
Christy's health has been making headlines since he was diagnosed with Amyloidosis, an incurable blood cancer, in 2013 - not that you would know it to look at him.
When we met, the 58-year-old had a spring in his step as he darted from interview to interview, stopping only momentarily to mash some crisps into his ham and cheese sandwich.
After a lifetime of playing gigs - big and small - across Ireland, is there anywhere left on his wishlist?
"I can't think of anywhere we haven't played. We played Croke Park [during] half-time of the Leinster final and things like that, so we've played Croke Park in our own way," he said.
Billy agrees: "We've played Mountjoy [Prison], we've played Wheatfield Prison, we played all the venues; Vicar Street, the Olympia, Ulster Hall in Belfast."
And his favourite place to gig?
"Vicar Street is the best venue in the world. If I want to see a band, I love it and if I want to play somewhere, I love it."
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According to the Finglas man, it's the band's willingness to play everywhere from The StockHouse in Trim to an 8am gig at the Pendulum Summit, that has kept them honest.
"Sometimes you get more out of those StockHouse gigs, for us, you know? Because you're moving away from the purity of the music when you start getting into big venues. It becomes insincere and about money and commerciality and all that," he said.
Once heralded as a religious experience by Roddy Doyle, a live performance from Aslan is always a sight to behold. In fact, it is their constant gigging, amongst other things, that Christy credits as the secret to their success.
"I think the reason we've been going so long is we've gone around every little village in Ireland. People really appreciate the fact that you've gone to Ballincollig in Cork, or some little village somewhere around the country and the fact that you've gone to their town."
Despite playing every stage that the country has to offer, the band are as giddy and nervous about playing the Iveagh Gardens as they were playing Slane.
"If we're playing a gig to ten people, we'll still give the performance as if we're playing to 20,000 people. I think that the day that we give up our passion or our love for it, you'll know. People say to us, 'Do you still get nervous before gigs?' Of course, we do, because we care," insists Billy.
So what's left for these living legends?
"We're just carrying on and see what happens, see where this take us," says Christy.
