Sinead Brennan chats to Rhos Horan of Dublin band Raglans ahead of their Irish tour.
They formed in 2010 and have since released their critically acclaimed debut album, toured with The Fray, supported The Libertines in Hyde Park and played at pretty much every Irish festival there is. They're about to kick off their 10-date Irish national tour so it was time to check in with the lads and see how they're getting on.
Taylor Swift told Jimmy Kimmel recently, "People who say they don't care are lying" when he asked whether or not she reads her album reviews, and Raglans aren't too cool to read theirs either with Rhos saying, "Yeah we do, out of curiosity, it's good, everyone's been saying nice things so there's no reason not to read them."
You were just over gigging in New York, how did it go?
"It was really cool, I'd never been to the states before so to go to New York first of all is crazy and it's just like, thrown right into it, all the gigs were great. It was really cool, we played in a place called Trash Bar in Brooklyn and 50% of the crowd were Irish, it was good, they all got on board, it was cool."
While it's great to play in Europe and America, is must be good to have some gigs to look forward to with the home crowd?
"We can't wait, we haven't played in Dublin in a good while now, the last one was the Academy and stuff and that was a good while ago, we're really looking forward to getting back on home turf and doing some gigs."
Is the Dublin gig the one you're most excited about?
"Well, yeah, Dublin is always the most fun generally, well, no, a lot of them are good around the country, but Dublin always goes off, it's always a really good time and there's an after party and everything so it'll be crazy."
You're four lads on tour, do you play a lot of pranks on each other?
"Yeah we do wind each other up a bit yeah, sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad, but yeah there's a lot of messy around."
Have you started to put together a bit of a rider now that you're gigging so much?
"Kinda, well most places just, water and beer and if we can get it, hummus and stuff, fruit - try to stay healthy, but usually they just throw a packet of crisps in a room and a few waters and beers, that's what we get."
And when you're supporting other bands, is there anything on theirs that you'd really love to have?
"The Fray had a lot of real fancy beers in their rider, in their dressing room, a lot of really nice food, we were really jealous of them because we were like fighting over a bottle of water."
You supported The Libertines in Hyde Park and you're often compared to them, were you fans before?
"Yeah we were big fans, me and Ste, the singer, would be the biggest fans in the band, and the other two lads just casually listen, that was crazy to see our name on a poster with them. It was a bit 'wow' you know."
Collaborations seem to be the big thing at the moment, everyone is working with everyone. Is there anyone in particular you'd love to work with, or have feature on a track?
"Plenty yeah. Who would I like? Noel Gallagher would be great. That'd be cool to have his voice on it. Or Alex Turner maybe, I'd love to see what he'd come up with."
Raglans kick off their national tour in Portlaoise on November 14 with dates in Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny, Belfast, Dundalk, Galway, Limerick and Castelbar all on the schedule. For more information visit www.mcd.ie or www.raglans.tumblr.com and tickets are available on Ticketmaster.
