Holding a sold out UK tour under their belt, Room 94’s fanbase is rapidly growing as they step off their second support tour with Lawson…
The guys spent a few minutes to chat to us before they played the Olympia Theatre, Dublin.
So, you’re coming to the end of the Lawson tour now- just Dublin and Belfast left. How has it been?
Kieran: It’s been fantabulous… New word right there! Yeah, it’s been great. We toured with the lads before a few months back so we’ve built up a good friendship with them. We’re big fans of the band ourselves, we listen to them all the time. So to be on the road with them a second time- bigger venues, bigger banter- it’s great. It’s a shame it’s the second last date- quite gutted about that!
Dean: The first day of tour was like the first day back at school!
Have you played in Ireland before?
Kieran: Yeah, the last time with Lawson. We played Dublin and Belfast, but when we playe Belfast there was a powercut about 30 seconds into the entire show- we were opening that night- so the gig got pulled.
Has there been one city during this tour that has stood out for you over the rest?
Sean: Each place is different..
Kieran: They’ve all been really good. They’ve all reacted really well. ‘Cause Lawson’s fanbase are cool, they’re up for listening to any new music so everyone has reacted quite well to us. There are some places that are more bouncy and stuff…
Sean: You get your Londons, your Bournemouth..
Kieran: Plymouth was really good.
Sean: Some places like to stand and video the whole thing and take pictures, which is awesome for us and then we can go “aw that’s an amazing picture”, but then you go to Manchester or Plymouth and they just go mad and jump around for the whole gig!
In terms of supporting someone or playing a headline show- what difference do you guys find between the two?
Kieran: Yeah, when you’re headlining there’s a lot more pressure. You’re playing a longer set so you’ve got to make sure you’re vocals are right, you’ve got enough sleep the night before.
Sean: When you’re supporting someone, you’ve got 20 minutes to play your music, when it’s your own show it’s different. Like, we’re really hands-on with what the show itself looks like. Exactly how Lawson are with their’s. When you’re supporting, you don’t have to worry about any of that.
Kieran: As well, you can turn up with a couple of beers and then play the show. And you sit around a lot. When you’re headlining, you’ve got no time.
Dean: They’re both good but they’re both so different.
You guys did a sold out UK tour recently- how was that?
Dean: That was amazing- really good fun.
[Before even releasing an album, it’s pretty impressive!]
Dean: Yeah, we’ve been working at it since 2010, just playing shows up and down the whole of the UK.
Kieran: Yeah, it’s been years of us trying to build up a fanbase, but now after doing support tours and social networking, things are building bigger and bigger.
Sean: It’s nice seeing it pay off.
I heard you did a few shows over in Poland, and you got what was described as “a One Direction” reaction…
Sean: It was crazy! Like when you’re in a band you think you’ll be like “aw we made it big and we went to the airport..”, as if the airport is one place you get greeted by loads of fans…
Kieran: When we turned up to Poland, we could hear this roar in the distance when we were collecting our bags and our guitars. Obviously it was a big crowd of people and we were like “nah, that’s not for us, there’s got to be someone else coming”. We weren’t expecting anything. Maybe two or three people. Like, we got tweets saying “I’m gonna greet you at the airport, I’ll be waiting all day for you”, but then we get there and there’s 300/400 girls there screaming with banners. Then the police came, the army was there with big guns. Then we played our sold out tour there and it was ridiculous- people fainting and all that.
Sean: We weren’t allowed to leave the room..
Kieran: Yeah, if we wanted to leave we had to tell the venue and then 5 minuts later there’s be seven security men with us.
Sean: But it’s insane! Especially when you can’t really speak the language, ’cause the street outside was closed off and people were like “you can’t do this, you can’t do that”. It was fun though!
So do you guys have solid plans for an album next year?
Dean: Yeah, we’re releasing our début album ‘No Strings Attached’ on the 10th of March, and it’s an amazing album!
Can you give us any hints or secrets? Track names or an insight into your writing process for the album?
Kieran: Well, all the tracks on the album are just really real, really current and really relatable. We did an album that we’d want to listen to and that our fans will love.
Sean: It’s like a diary really…
Kieran: That’s a good description! We’re all 20/21 years old, Dean’s 19, so we’re not gonna lie and make up stuff. So we were just really honest and wrote about what we do. We wrote a song about nights out, waking up in the morning and being hungover, we wrote about a break up gone wrong, about liking a girl. But the way we wrote them is really real. There’s no hidden meaning, which makes them relatable. Like, we just released a new song and lyric video and it was “KFC” in it, which we’ve never done before and we thought it was a bit of a risk doing it.
Dean: There’s no hidden metaphors.
Sean: Yeah, like we write the songs ourselves, and there’s a few bands around at the moment and we’re like “why is he singing that?”, like a 40 year old man has written a song for a band. Whereas, our one, you’ll put it on and you can hear we were having fun when we were writing the songs and recording the songs, and you’ll be able to listen to the lyrics and understand them.
Thank you very much for that interview and best of luck tonight!
Sean: That’s alright!
Kieran: Thank you very much!
Enjoy this article? Then why not sign up to Fortitude Magazine’s Weekly Round Up! Our pick of the week’s best news, reviews, videos and music straight to your inbox. Click here to sign up today!