Television presenter Paddy McKenna chats to Linda McGee about his new band Storyfold and his excitement over releasing the group's first single later this month.
Storyfold's debut single 'Delphine Wakes' is released on 25 March.
Linda McGee: Hey Paddy, first of all, can you tell us a bit about the beginnings of Storyfold (formerly Run Kid, but we’ll come back to that later!) and how you all got together? Is it true that you met over the Internet?
Paddy McKenna: Yes, God bless the Internet and all who surf her. I was in a band a couple of years ago called Waif. We were looking for a drummer and I met Lindsey (who plays piano in the band) on a drumming forum. Waif came to an end before Lindsey could join us. But fast forward to this time last year, myself Lindsey and Jim got together to form a new group. Lindsey was playing drums at first but one evening we spotted the piano in her apartment. She played us a tune, we were blown away and after a bit of coaxing, because she loves the drums, she agreed to play piano in the band. Soon after we recruited Sean McDonnell on drums and the line up was complete...
LM: Now, getting back to that name change... you were originally called Run Kid. What prompted the name change and what has the response to it been so far?
PM: It was weird because a lot of people really liked Run Kid and it took us a long time to change it even though very early on we knew we'd encounter problems. The reason behind it was because there's a big Christian Rock band based in the US called Run Kid Run. Initially, we were like 'it's just a Christian Rock band, we've got no worries'. But Christian Rock is huge in America! And RKR are one of the trailblazers. People were googling us, finding them and wondering why I was warbling away in an American accent. It worked both ways though, because we started picking up a lot of American fans on our Facebook page that were looking for them. Anyway, it was just too confusing, everyone said to change it before it became a problem, so we did. But I tell you what, it took us a long time to let go of Run Kid and embrace Storyfold. We've done so completely now and most people prefer Storyfold, so it's all good.
LM: In terms of musical influences, did you all bring something different to the group or have you got pretty similar tastes?
PM: I think we all like melody in our music but our influences are very different. We do all agree on Muse. I've loved them since the very first album 'Showbiz' and Lindsey would probably strive to emulate Matt Bellamy's piano style above all others. He's just a genius really. Our debut single 'Delphine Wakes' is quite poppy but some of our singles down the road will definitely move us closer to what Muse have done, whilst retaining our own sound of course.
LM: You’ve been in studio recently recording some new material. How did you find the process? Was it exciting or very hard work trying to make everything come together?
PM: It was a brilliant experience. We recorded in Sun Studios in Dublin, with Gareth Mannix producing. We chose Gareth because we'd all heard the work he did with Republic of Loose and also Delorentos. I thought the Delos last album was really brilliantly recorded and produced and Gareth was our first choice. We ended up having Deco Quinn, formerly of the Loose, play synth on 'Delphine Wakes' and that was awesome. He's just such a nice guy and we had endless questions about what sound he used on 'Comeback Girl' and what sound he used on 'The Steady Song' and so on and it was brilliant to listen to what he had to say. He plays in a really cool covers band at the moment called Smash Hits. They do 90's covers, from 'Rhythm Is a Dancer' to 'Encore Une Fois', and honestly it's note-perfect and really clever. Top man.
LM: When can we expect to hear all these new songs so?
PM: Our debut single, 'Delphine Wakes' is available for download on 25 March from iTunes. To coincide, we've got a big launch night in Crawdaddy on Harcourt Street, Dublin. We've got some great support acts and a really cool MC, which I can't reveal just yet but find us on Facebook and you'll get all the updates on it. We then release our second single in the summer. It's called 'Behind Closed Doors'. We're back in studio shortly recording, so hopefully we'll have an album together by late 2010. That would be awesome!
You can listen to the first two singles here: http://storyfold.bandcamp.com
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LM: And what about touring, are you planning to jump on a tour bus and make your way around the country soon?
PM: Definitely, we've been focusing a lot of our attention on this month's single launch but after that the plan is play all across the country this summer. We're in discussions with a number of summer music festivals so keep an eye out for Storyfold!
