Well-travelled Deans return to Monroe’s Live

Fusing elements of blues, folk and rock, The Deans make a welcome return to Monroe’s Live on Thursday, January 26 after spending much of last year on the road, playing in Europe and the USA.

Gavin Dean from Athenry is the charismatic, guitar-wielding front man of the trio, while Ronan Lally, the band’s newest member, plays bass. Gary Keon from Woodford is the drummer, and joined forces with Gavin five years ago.

He explains where the band get their rootsy, bluesy sound. “Gavin’s dad is from Liverpool,” Gary says. “And Gavin would have grown up listening to old blues records and sixties and seventies stuff. That’s where the influence comes from, you could say.”

The three band members are all in their early twenties, but Gary seems to have chosen the musician’s life as soon as he sat on the drum stool. He joined The Deans when he was just 16 and, in Gavin, he found someone who was equally committed to music.

“I was playing in a different band at the time,” he recalls. “The boys were playing around, and I wanted to concentrate more on playing music full time. The others guys in my band would’ve been more focused on school and that. It was the same sentiment for Gavin, really.”

While his friends were preparing for their Leaving Cert, Gary was gigging. “We all just dropped out of school, basically, and went touring,” he says.

“We were 16. We just made the decision, we didn’t even think twice about it. We’d a manager at the time who could get us shows in London, so we went over and back as frequently as we could. We haven’t looked back since.”

It mightn’t be the most rock ‘n ’roll of questions, but how did Gary’s parents feel about his decision to leave school?

“I think my parents realised it wasn’t so much a fad. As soon as I got home from school, it was straight into the shed and play and listen to music. You could see it was this sort of juggernaut.

“Basically, it was half gigging and going into school every now and again, when I could. So that’s the way it happened, it became a natural progression.”

It’s not surprising to hear that these fresh-faced kids found themselves having to deal with sceptical doormen.

“We were playing in bars where you had to be 21 to get in,” Gary says. “And we were getting stopped at the door by the bouncers saying ‘where are ye going, lads?’. We’re like ‘we’re the band’. ‘No, you’re not.’ ‘Get management, we are!’

For more of this interview see page 20 of this week’s Tribune