On Monday, 10th of November, I had the pleasure of interviewing Walking on Cars who are supporting The Kooks on their UK tour. This up and coming group from Dingle in Ireland, released their first EP Hand in Hand, back in July. So if you haven’t heard of them before, go and check it out.
So, my first question has to be, how did you come up with your name?
Well, we played around with a few names to begin with, in phonetic forms, but people kept confusing us for a Spanish band. We really struggled to find something that wasn’t taken. After a while we just said OK, we’ll take whatever the next thing is. And on a night out someone suggested we walk on those cars, of course we said no, but the name stuck.
I read that a Red Bull band competition helped get you started, how do you think your goals have changed from then to now?
Well our first aim was just to try to get out name out there, playing wherever we had the chance. Then we progressed to getting our EP out and now we want to move onto producing an album. We’ve always really had one goal and then moved on, helping us stay focused.
Speaking about the EP, Hand in Hand, which was your last release, when can we be expecting new material?
Our next single, ‘Always Be With You’, will be out on the 8th of December. This’ll be the first track on the new album which we’re hoping to get out around the middle of 2015.
When you’re not touring are you still based in Ireland?
Yeah, we’re from a place called Dingle and we have a farmhouse there where we do most of our rehearsals and creating songs.
So you played Manchester last night, being from there myself I have to ask, how was it?
It was really great. We had a fantastic response from the crowd who were really warm. We’ve only played three times on this tour but we’d have to say it was probably the best. The first two we were sort of finding our feet. We’re actually back playing at the night and day café on the 25th so we promoted that at the end which got a good reception.
We’ve already spoken about this tour, but what’s the best show you’ve ever played?
Oh that’s a tricky question. Probably Paramore in Dublin. Or perhaps the Electric Picnic Festival, that was great because we always go as customers, so it was cool to be there performing at a place we really enjoy ourselves.
Who are your own personal influences or just performers you enjoy?
Sorcha: Arcade fire have to be up there for me. Although I like a lot of classical music and that’s something I personally enjoy.
Paul: For me I like anything, it changes daily. I’m a fan of Ben Howard. Recently we’ve been listening to First Aid Kit who are a duo from Sweden and they’re really good, you should give them a listen.
What’s a distinctive feature of your music that you think makes you stand out?
Well what we think is great is that when we’re back in Dingle we don’t have much influence from anyone else. That means there’s no pressure to get stuff done so we can get it how we like it. Another positive is the rent is a lot cheaper than most places. Meaning that we have a lot longer to rehearse than other bands might be able to afford, so we can get our music just right.
For someone who hadn’t heard you before. Who would you say you sound like?
Hahah that’s a horrible question. We’d like to say that our music doesn’t sound like anything else. Other bands may like to fit into a sort of mould but we don’t like to really try and follow something else.
I’ve already spoken about the Hand in Hand EP, but I have to ask about the video for the single. I had a quick look through the Youtube comments and there was a lot of discrepancy to what people thought it was about. Can you shed any light on it?
Well we like to keep it intentionally ambiguous. There’s no set meaning or plan, we were just playing around with it a little bit. It’s open ended!
Finally, is there anything else that you think Kettle readers should know about you?
When we started the band the first 6 months were spent in a really old house with no phoneline no WiFi and it was right in the middle of nowhere. It was cut off and all we had were two big speakers that we’d just bought. So we spent sort of 6 months sat by the fire listening to about 3 albums which we played repeatedly- Ben Howards first, Bon Iver’s second and James Vincent McMorrow’s first. I think both Don’t Mind Me and Speeding Cars which are on the Hand in Hand EP came from that sort of era. That was a cool time for us.
One thing’s for sure, big things are in store for Walking on Cars! Caught them with The Kooks are listened to the EP? Let us know what you thought!
