Summer sounds on new EP from Mikey and the Scallywags

Get ready to cause a ruckus and have some foot-stomping fun – Mikey and The Scallywags launch their debut EP, Living In The Light in Kelly’s Bar on Thursday, April 5. The band is made up of Mikey McCrory (guitar/lead vocals), Alan Gosker (banjo/backing vocals), Bri Gosker (drums/backing vocals), Paulie Smalls (double bass), Juliana Erkkonen (fiddle) and Ivan Coleman (keys).

Mikey and The Scallywags started out in June 2010 – and the feeling of summer runs through much of their music.

“We all got together at a house party, played some tunes and the next day said ‘fancy going busking?’. And it literally kicked off,” recalls Alan Gosker.

“People straggled in one by one, hearing the tunes on the street,” adds Mikey. “More people wanted to play along. I’d say the real birth of The Scallywags didn’t really occur until we got Juliana involved in the band.”

“I hear this every day!” Julian laughs.

Along with Juliana, Mikey says the addition of double bassist Paulie Smalls was integral to the Scallywags’ sound.

“When those two decided they wanted to come on board, that’s when it really got serious for us.”

Mikey and The Scallywags play music with a gypsy, bluegrass flavour that has a rocking kick. Juliana has a background in the folk tradition, but has never played with a front man as animated as Mikey.

“I would’ve played in a bluegrass band, but not really with drums,” says the Finnish fiddler. “I haven’t been playing original music that much. So that was quite good fun. And I’ve never played with such a great entertainer!”

The Living in the Light EP features Loola, a tune with an instantly memorable chorus that’s become a live favourite at a Scallywags’ show. It’s a rambling story-song that came together fairly quickly.

“Loola came from when we went busking and [fiddler and actor] Aindrias De Staic came with us,” says Mikey. “We were playing a cover by the Squirrel Nut Zippers and he was like ‘more of that, more stuff in minor chords’. I went home that night – he wanted to go busking with us the next day – and I wrote Loola.

“I wanted to make a ruckus kind of song, and I felt a bar room fight had already been done,” he adds. “So I was going to turn it on its head, where the women attack the men, and add a bit of comedy to it. The idea of this unattainable woman – all the boys want to go for her.” 

Also on the EP is When We Were All One, a song that draws from Mikey’s experience of living in California (where he was born), Barcelona and Galway.

“When We Were All One was written a long time ago,” he recalls. “This is the great thing about having formed this band. When I came back to Galway, I had no intention of playing music any more, really. I was going to university and I really wanted to focus on that. But having met all these guys, they breathed life back into these older songs.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.