Imaginative Fred take adventurous route with their toe-tapping pop

By Jimi McDonnell

The Galway Arts Festival gets a burst of colourful pop when Fred play Róisín Dubh on Saturday, July 17. The Cork based band won a lot of new fans with their last album Go God Go (2008), with singles from the record enjoying extensive airplay. The quintet are currently working on the eagerly awaited follow-up.

“Since January we’ve been writing and demoing,” says lead singer Joe O’Leary. “We’re quite slow with it, as per usual. Nothing too strange there! We got off to a great start but we’re up and running again [after slowing down]. That’s basically what we’re concentrating on this year. We’re doing a small bit of gigging but not a whole lot.

“We write collaboratively,” he adds. “So it’s always ten times slower than you’d write on your own. But then the results, we like to think, are better. The idea is to go recording the album towards the autumn.”Shortly after the release of Go God Go, piano player Eibhlin O’Gorman left Fred. She was replaced by Carolyn Goodwin, who has slotted seamlessly into the band’s line-up.

“She’s nearly in two years!” Joe says about Carolyn. “Things change and suddenly they’re normal again a few years later. Carolyn’s writing now as well, so that’s interesting because she brings a whole different aspect.”

Joe is looking forward to airing some new material in public, having been confined to the studio for the past few months.

“The fun is the gigging,” he says. “When you get out and a play a new song – you can’t beat that. We did a couple on our German tour in April. We did some great cities – Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Cologne.”

Fred’s trip to the German capital was particularly memorable.“It was mad, we were there the night of the neo-Nazi riots,” Joe recalls. “We were kept away from it; the police are well organised. The Nazis kind of took over May Day; kind of made it a neo-Nazi day – I don’t understand the difference between Neos and Nazis; are they not all the same?

“They just go around break a few shop windows, burn a few cars,” he continues. “In return they’re given a good old showering and battering by the cops. It was good to be around that energy!”

Joe, Jamin, Carolyn, Jamie and Justin will be in cracking form when Fred make a welcome return to the Róisín Dubh for the Arts Festival. They are an irresistibly upbeat band when they play live, a group you can enjoy without having to know all their tunes.

“We haven’t played Galway in a good while,” says Joe. “Hopefully this’ll be a rocking one. I’m looking forward to being out on the road again to be honest. We’ve had the heads down a good bit, stuck in rooms looking at computer screens. It’ll be more interesting being in a big room in front of loads of people!”

Catchy singles like Running and Skyscrapers from the album Go God Go saw Fred get some well-deserved exposure. They were invited to play on-air by Ryan Tubridy, Tony Fenton and Ray D’Arcy. Does Joe feel under pressure to deliver more radio-friendly fare?

“The honest answer is no,” he says. “You don’t feel pressure but you don’t want to let it slip. The most pressure we put on ourselves is just to write a decent song. Even if it’s in a different style or it’s not radio friendly – as long as it’s decent.”

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.