An Interview w/ Mark Prendergast of Kodaline!
A few weeks back I was introduced to Kodaline; a band with such depth in their lyrics I simply couldn’t ignore them. They have some really fantastic songs. The first track of theirs shown to me was All I Want– my friend Eoghan loves their music and I’m extremely glad he showed them my way. We each had a couple of questions for the group, so Kodaline’s Mark Prendergast took the time to speak to us about influences, their album in the works, dinner and touring!
AMBY: How would you explain your lovely music to others?
MP: We’d say our music is really honest and from the heart.. Every song has to have a meaning, if we don’t believe it ourselves nobody else is going to believe it.
AMBY: You’re recording an album as of right now, so how’s that coming along?
MP: The album is all recorded at this stage and now we just have to mix it and add a few final touches to it. We’re very excited about it because we’ve been working on it for a few years now..
AMBY: Your first headlining tour seems to be selling out almost everywhere, how does it feel to get such a huge response from fans?
MP: The response from people is amazing. We played our first headline show in Dublin a few weeks back and it was completely sold and people were singing our songs back to us.. That was pretty amazing and bizarre at the same time..
AMBY: Speaking of tours, which bands would you love to tour with?
MP: We’d love to support bands like Radiohead or Paul McCartney, we’d really love to go back in time and support Talking Heads, but we’ve no real way of going back in time so that’s not gonna happen.
AMBY: Your music videos are all really amazing, are these done by yourselves as a band or by some talented friends of yours?
MP: The videos are done by some very talented friends of ours. Our main video for All I Want was done by a friend of ours called Stevie Russell, he dreamed up the idea in his head and pitched it to us, we let him go with it and we loved it.
AMBY: Who would you say your biggest influences are as a band?
MP: We’re influenced by a lot of bands, but we sound nothing like the bands were influenced by, bands like Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem and Motown singers like Sam Cooke.
AMBY: What’s on your iPod at the moment?
MP: We picked an album each, here they are.
Steve- Jackson Brown, The Pretender
Mark- Dry The River, Shallow Bed
Jay- Jon Hopkins, Insides
Vinny- Elbow, Build A Rocket Boys
AMBY: We really dig your track All I Want, what’s the story behind it?
MP: It’s a song about that lonely place after a break-up, feeling lost.
AMBY: What do you think about the state of modern music?
MP: We think there’s a lot of disposable pop out there but there’s also a lot new great bands out too. If you look for great music you’ll find it.
AMBY: If you could invite three people to dinner who would you choose?
MP: Santa, Dave Grohl and Barack Obama.
AMBY: What is the best song of 2012 so far?
MP: The Muppets Version of Call Me Maybe
AMBY: And lastly, tell us something about the band that nobody knows, yet!
MP: We write a lot of our songs on the GarageBand app’s on our phones..
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If you want to hear an admirable song and watch a video which will guarantee you to feel a river of emotions, then All I Want is the track for you. It’s the first song of their’s I heard and once you’ve had the same musical experience… It definitely won’t be the last Kodaline tune you hear either! And of course, thank you very much Mark, for giving us your answers!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtf7hC17IBM?feature=player_detailpage&w=480&h=300]
Alicia Atout & Eoghan Hynes