I sat down recently with the vibrant and chatty Colm from Blue Syndrome for the first session of 'Serious Q's and Silly Q's'.
Hi Colm. Right so you've just released the debut album. Ok, be honest. How are you guys doing money wise at this exact moment? Spaghetti dinners/using notes for toilet paper?
Haha! As much as I'd love to use notes as toilet paper, I reckon it really hurts! Maybe the really old crumply fiver's would be nice though!
It's actually hard to tell how we're doing to be honest. We have so much support from our parents be it in the form of money or helping to promote and shift the cd's. We do owe a fair amount but I think we're just starting to earn a bit for ourselves now!
Blue Syndrome are quite tour crazy at the moment. Is this a full time operation for all of you? No college/jobs etc?
I'd like to think it is. I mean we do have other commitments. Dan's in one of his busiest years in college. Ste's doing the leaving. But for Tom and I, despite looking for jobs and trying to earn money this is a full time thing. I wake up everyday and dive straight into working for this band, emailing/calling people looking for gigs etc. It's always the last thing I do before I sleep as well.
That's great to hear. In relation to Ste and Dan though, what happens when they both finish their education? Are they as committed to the full time regime as you and Tom are?
I think at the minute it's a bit hard for someone like Dan to come into the band, after the original band being together for five years, and think of it as his sole career. We don't make money from it most of the time so why would he. But we all realise we have something good going on here and it's something we will do for a long time.
As for Ste, he's always wanted to do something weird, from being a marine biologist to believing he can be a rock star. But that's exactly what he is to us! He certainly has the jeans for it anyway.
So, brothers in a band? (Colm and Stephen). Is that easy or tough?
Absolutely savage! We have guitars lying around the house and we just pick them up and jam together whenever we want. Of course we can fight over the most stupid things but we still get on, it's just that cool brother thing. I think people can see our relationship on stage. He really supports me! The younger brother supporting the older brother, how weird is that.
I think he's an amazing musician, it's just a pity about the music he listens to, or the actual fact that you're never too sure what you're gonna hear when you walk into the kitchen every day!
Ask any band and they'll tell you that they're getting out of Ireland and touring abroad. But are Blue Syndrome actually States bound?
In the last week I've seen that there's so much more to Ireland than Dublin, Galway, Cork and Belfast. Sometimes the smaller places are better.
Regarding the USA thing, we've talked about it and right now it's just an idea. I think if we are going to do it it's going to be a last minute thing or else it'll be left until next year!! I think it'd be a lot of fun. We're not going over there to try break into anything, it's more just for the experience! Like we have this vision of buying a van and it breaking down after the first day, so we walk the rest of the way!! That'd be interesting to say the least!
A great debut album... Now what?
Just get it out there! We've been holding on to it for over a year now, we're so relieved to have it out and have people listening to it. We've started writing the next album, possibly even the one after. We've a couple of things lined up in the form of videos and publicity which hopefully will help us out.
Myself and Ste, Ste being the marketing genius, me being the instigator, with this Awkward Turtle Records thing are constantly thinking of new ways to promote the band and the Irish music scene. The scene needs attention and it needs a kick in the arse so we're just trying to draw attention to our gigs and eventually other bands gigs, be it in the form of 'Pay What You Like' shows and this one that we have in December with the Strings and things!
I'm looking forward to seeing what we come up with. The only plan that we have is to go forward, how we get there is constantly changing but when we think of something cool we roll with it and see what people think. It's worked so far but there's still so much more to do, so many more people to get to..
I'd also maybe in the new year try and get a lot more radioplay on the major stations! So we've got some plans for releases and what not so fingers crossed there.
Ok you chatty man. Now time for some short questions:
Fill in the blanks please Colm:
Colm is the GINGER one
Ste is the baby one
Tom is the sporty one
Dan is the SCARY one
We're quite like The Spice Girls! Haha
What's the best thing to happen in Blue Syndrome land so far?
Either playing to 1,500 people in Vicar Street or doing the album launch in The Village.
And the worst thing?
We were scammed out of money by a studio in Dublin who gave us shit recordings, promised us a lot of things, took our money and never really did anything with it! Great learning experience though.
What's the funniest moment in Blue Syndrome history?
There's too many... I think alot of them involve Ste and Tom's intimate relationship. We played a gig in Sligo and were given a room each but Tom and Ste decided to share a room. I recall Ste telling me about the large spoon he got with his soup that night!
Finally, although I admit it has stuck in our heads at last, explain the meaning behind the dreadful band name.
Ste and I wrote a song called 'Blue Syndrome' and when we were looking for a new name for the band it was something that just kept creeping back to us!
I think it was kind of written about being an alcoholic, even though at the time none of us even knew what alcohol was! It's that old!
Blue Syndrome itself refers to that downer buzz you feel during winter, it's also a condition some babies are born with..for us its just a rockin name!! colours are always good!
Blue Syndrome's debut album 'Over and Out' is out now digitally and in record stores around Ireland.
