Twice-nominated Dublin duo We Cut Corners are among the acts playing the Choice Music Award gig in Dublin's Mansion House tonight. Conall Ó Breacháin talks to Alan Corr about the Choice, work on the band's third album, and the "Hozier effect"
The name says it all with Dublin duo We Cut Corners. Teachers by day and crack commandos of kinetic guitar rock by night, across two albums - 2011's Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards and last year's Think Nothing - Conall Ó Breacháin and John Duignan have become surgeons of lyrical brevity and exacting musical economy.
Lean and sometimes mean, they deliver crisp pocket symphonies of guitar attack and mellow string-driven moments. Tongue-in- cheek but never frivolous, they are critical darlings for sure.
In fact, The Choice Music Prize jury has nominated them twice for Irish Album of the Year. However, if Ireland's answer to the Mercury Prize can have a faint whiff of industry luvvie-dom about it with little traction in the mainstream, Conall knows that for an act like We Cut Corners even being nominated can make a difference.
"It has meant a great deal," he says. "Our success wouldn't be from mainstream radio play or album sales so getting critical acclaim is a really big thing. It helps with public perception: we wouldn't be on daytime radio, so in terms of people finding out about bands, those sort of awards are huge. It was like a seal of approval and made us think maybe we should continue to pursue what we're doing. The Choice is also a great party to be invited to!"
Tonight (April 29), We Cut Corners line out with previous winners The Divine Comedy, Julie Feeney, Adrian Crowley and Delorentos for the Choice 10th anniversary bash.
The celebration comes at a good time for Irish acts. Yesterday, Donegal band Little Hours announced their signing to RCA Records; Gavin James, Delorentos, Le Galaxie and James Vincent McMorrow are all embedded with major labels; and then there are the sunlit uplands enjoyed by the more mainstream likes of Kodaline and The Script.
However, it would be nice to think that last week's No 1 album for hard-working Meath act HamsandwicH, with an independently produced album on an independent label, was some kind of tipping point, and that Ireland's new age of industry-savvy indie was finally paying dividends.
Either way, it's certainly encouraging for acts like We Cut Corners, who are signed to Delphi, the industrious Dublin imprint who also boast Jennifer Evans, Deaf Joe and Sacred Animals on their roster.
And then there is Hozier or, if you will, overex-Hozier. His success may be beginning to have a similar impact on Ireland as U2's meteoric rise in the mid-Eighties. Back then, the A&R feeding frenzy saw major labels snap up a glut of Irish acts, most of whom weren't ready or, to put it diplomatically, just weren't very good.
It's a very different industry now but Conall does think the 'Hozier effect' will see the international record labels turning their Sauron-like gaze to Ireland again.
However, he is wary. "I guess so. The Hozier thing is just mind-boggling, and I don't mean I don't understand it from the point of view of the talent. Of course, he's insanely talented and he's made an amazing album, but that level of success is just otherworldly.
"As you said, it's like U2 - once in a blue moon . . . But I'd be looking at someone like Villagers and Conor O'Brien, who perhaps might have served as a gateway to Hozier because Conor had this immediate, unquestionable, critical acclaim right from his first EP and it was almost from that that I would have seen a real change in the scene.
"There was a new proliferation of bands and then someone like Hozier comes along and blows it out of the water altogether. I'm sure the eye will turn, that the big major labels will now be looking for the next Hozier. People like Gavin James being signed is also a big deal. It's an exciting time and it's exciting to be part of it."
We Cut Corners are already making good progress on their third album. They're certainly widening their frame of reference and letting their music grow. They recorded with a string quartet and worked with Villagers mainstay Tommy McLaughlin last time out and their third release will expand on that again.
"We're in the throes of recording our new album at the moment," says Conall. "We've done a lot of work on it and the tracks are pretty much down. This time around we want to have someone play bass with us, but that probably won't spill over into the live thing - we'll probably just keep the two-piece.
"But we don't want to be restricted in the studio, so we're having strings and brass and bass and anything we can get our hands on for this record. So we're definitely trying to expand the sonic palette. The next album will not be under thirty minutes either!”
We Cut Corners and Adrian Crowley and Julie Feeney ahead of tonight's Choice Prize gig
Since 2005, The Choice Album of the Year has honoured Julie Feeney, The Divine Comedy, Super Extra Bonus Party, Jape (twice), Adrian Crowley, Two Door Cinema Club, Delorentos, Villagers and this year, The Gloaming.
Seeing as we are talking about the 10th anniversary of an award that sets out to honour excellence in Irish music, Conall must have some strong opinions on what is the greatest Irish album ever made.
There is a long pause and an longer exhalation of breath: "Woowwww. God, I certainly wouldn't have the authority to say definitively, but I can certainly say one of my favourite Irish records ever made was by Fionn Regan - Hundred Acres of Sycamore.
"It was criminally underrated but it's one of the most exquisite pieces of music. The string and woodwind arrangements and the lyrics are incredible and he never wastes a word. That would be my favourite Irish record."
Alan Corr @corralan
