We recently caught up with Anthony Furey of Dublin alt-folk quartet The Young Folk whose debut album The Little Battle is released this month. They have been widely tipped as a band to watch for. In my interview Anthony is very humble about the band’s current standing although it’s very clear to me that if there’s one thing the band aren’t shy of is hard work as witnessed by their current tour schedule. He’s quick to respond when I ask him about their rise to fame. “Fame?” he asks, “We are still trying for this ‘fame’ word but maybe this will happen soon. As in the climb, It’s been fairly smooth over the past while and with the release of our debut album ‘The Little Battle’ we have gotten a few great reviews from some top magazines such as Maverick in the UK & Hotpress in Ireland, so we are hoping it will get easier but still a lot of work to be done.”
All that hard work has paid off with some big supporting moments including an opening slot for Midlake in the US. I ask him whether this was their biggest audience to date. “It was an amazing experience to support Midlake and at that time yes, it would of been the biggest crowd we played to but since then we’ve worked very hard and had a few more breaks i.e supporting Imelda May in Dublin and getting to play some big Irish festivals such as Electric Picnic & Castlepalooza to name a few.”
In our reveiw of The Little Battle (read it here) Mike, our rvewier, touched on the wide references by some of the music press who likened them to Mumford and Sons, a sentiment he didn’t share I hasten to add. If anything, this seems to be a growing act of lazy journalism which is sadly not restricted to the few. Anthony reflects “It’s easy for people to pigeon hole a band. Really we don’t mind. I think people need to see us live to clear this up because each one of us have a lot of different influences from Crosby, Stills & Nash to Fleet Foxes to The Low Anthem and so on to Fionn Regan, Tom Waits and Bright Eyes.”
In case any of you were wondering, Anthony Furey is related to the legendary Irish folk band The Fureys, George being his father and Finbar, Eddie and the late Paul his uncles. Although he may not have followed their line musically I asked whether he felt that connection had helped shape him in his approach to his own music. “I’m sure it has” he responds, adding “Parents are there to influence and guide their children in the right direction or in the direction that’s going to be good for them to learn. Maybe it would have been easier to take the traditional route, however, I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as the music I am making and recording now with The Young Folk.”
I’d noticed in a number of live photographs that the band seemed to have a large number of instruments on stage, I asked him how many instruments they play between them and and how,if at all, it influenced their sets in relation to how accommodating, or not, the stage size was. “It would be down to stage size or venue, I’d say on a good night we would have about 15 – 20 different instruments with us. We are a constantly moving band on stage, which I think adds to the live show, but for some acoustic shows the venues just haven’t got the room for us and our instruments. Sure sometimes we even have to leave out Karl our drummer!”
We recently featured their new video for Way Down South which we selected as a Song of the Day (you can watch it below). It was directed and co-produced by Alexina Davidson & Carla Mooney. Both the storyline and film work seemed to capture the mood of the song really well. I was curious as to how involved the band were in its making and how easy or difficult it may have been to convey their desired outcomes to the director. I was quite surprised by the response. “We had a lot on our plate at the time with promoting our album and single so we actually left them to their own devises and trusted them to come up with something special and as you see yourself they did. (Alexina & Carla we salute you!!). The both of them are extremely talented and hopefully we’ll get to work together again soon.” We agree wholeheartedly!
Having just played the UK for the second time I asked Antony about the reaction to their music in the UK. “…each time we come back we are more and more pleasantly surprised with the turn out at our shows. We always ask the crowd how did they hear about us and we usually get a few different responses, including radio/online or some people still actually just take a chance and head out for a night to see an Irish band. It’s great!”
For those that missed those recet dates there are near future opportunities as Anthony revealed. “we have one date booked for November 22nd, the Whisky Sessions in Manchester with the likes of Badly Drawn Boy, Gomez, The Riptide Movement (Irish) and Turin Brakes to name a few but we are looking into a few shows around Scotland that week so keep an eye out for confirmed dates.”
And what are you looking forward to at the moment? “The Irish tour that starts on the 14th September and runs all the way to November. We are hitting a few venues and cities that we’ve never played before so we are excited and we have a few more tricks up our sleeves with instrumentation and vocals. Also included will be a few brand new songs that we’ve never played live before.”
And finally, name an album you’re each currently really enjoying on your ipods:
Anthony- Ryan Adams / Ryan Adams
Paul- Band Of Horses / Acoustic @ the Ryman
Alex – Alt J / An Awesome Wave
Karl – Fine Young Cannibals / The Raw & The Cooked
Tony – The National / High Violet
The Little Battle is Out Now
Order via: Amazon | iTunes
Visit their website for their upcoming tour dates here: http://theyoungfolk.com
You can also keep up with the band here:
https://www.facebook.com/TheYoungFolkMusic
https://twitter.com/theyoungfolk