Dublin rockers 8 ball are just one of 100 new Irish acts featured at this year's Hard Working Class Heroes music festival. Brian Boyd hears one band's hopes for the event
THAT'S the taxi-driver question," says Kormac, one of seven members of 8 ball, the new and highly promising Dublin band. "We call it the taxi-driver question because whenever any of us get into a taxi with a guitar case, we get asked 'so what sort of stuff do you do?' and questions like that."
The question "what sort of stuff do you do?" elicits a long pause from 8 ball's multi-instrumentalist. "Well, for my part, I DJ, I play guitar, I play keys, work with ProTools and do vocals - all within the band. There are seven of us, so there's a lot of different sounds happening.
"People hear different things in our music. We have heard, more than once, that at times we sound a bit like Spiritualized [the influential British psychedelic band of the 1990s] but I don't think so at all. Other people say Crosby, Stills and Nash. All I know is that one of us will bring an idea for a song in, and the other six will all contribute. What do you think we sound like?"
Gosh. At times maybe there's a bit of Radiohead's OK Computer in there crossed with a very slight undertow of Nick Drake. Maybe. Perhaps. Just a little bit.
8 ball really are the sort of band you have to hear to understand. If you really want to ram them into a category, you'd have to stretch the definitions of folk, indie, jazz, hip-hop and electronica.
With their debut album out in early September, the band are one of the main draws at this year's Hard Working Class Heroes music festival, taking place in venues all around Dublin from August 26th-28th. HWCH, now in its third year, is the most important date on the Irish independent music calendar. The festival is dedicated to up-and-coming Irish bands who are showcased in a series of gigs around the city. The idea is that everyone involved in the music industry attends the shows looking to sign up the next big names.
This year more than 100 new acts will perform in venues ranging from the Olympia to small pubs. As always, there will be a few surprise "big name" bands added to the bill nearer the start date. Already confirmed this year are Scottish band Idlewild.
In addition to the shows, there'll also be a series of music industry seminars taking place during the day, which will offer new bands pointers on progressing in the notoriously volatile music industry.
HWCH is a chance to mix it with music fans and industry types alike. "We've played the festival before and it's great, a great showcase event," says Kormac. "For 8 ball, it means we get the opportunity to play to people who wouldn't see us normally. There's so much happening over the three days that people tend to go out of their way to see acts they wouldn't normally go to see. Also, for us, when we started, we weren't hugely involved with lots of other Dublin bands, but this gives us a real chance to see what else is going on.
"We now have a record deal with an Irish company called Lakota and HWCH allows bands like us to learn things very quickly about how the music industry works. There's all sorts of advice on offer, about the legality of record company deals and all that side of the business. I also think the media really get behind the event - there's a lot of press coverage and a lot of bands who are playing the festival are being played on the radio."
While 8 ball will use HWCH to show off their debut album, there's always the chance that a music industry type in the audience might be interested in bringing the band further along.
"You do get a lot of A&R [the record company people responsible for signing new bands] types at the festival, as well as people from music publishing companies, so it's ideal for bands who want to get their music out into different countries or get a publishing deal. I think mainly though, most bands depend on word of mouth, which can be just as important in getting signed as anything else."
From last year's HWCH, acts such as Humanzi (now signed to a major label), Joe Chester and Mainline all made a big impression, and already there is talk of The Amazing Pilots, The Rotators and Stars of the City being the ones to watch this year.
"We received amazing feedback from bands and fans alike last year and felt that we needed to deliver just as exciting a festival this year," says co-organiser Angela Dorgan. "We are still the only Irish festival for Irish bands on the festival calendar, and the success of the showcase dimension last year should easily be matched by the bands who are playing this year."
The 100 acts were selected from some 700 demo tapes sent to the organisers. The big attraction for new, young bands is that music industry people from the UK and Europe - and even the US - travel over for the festival.
"It would be great for HWCH to continue to build," says Kormac. "It could potentially turn in to something like South by Southwest [ the annual music industry event in Texas]. I think most bands find that just playing the festival is in itself a good thing. The more gigs you play, the quicker things seem to move in the music industry."
