Kíla still rocking Irish music three decades on
Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – [email protected]
It mightn’t be the sound of sleigh bells ringing, but a Kíla gig always has a celebratory air to it. The band make a welcome return to Monroe’s Live on Friday next, December 23.
Since forming in 1987, Kila have brought something vital to Irish music. Their album, Suas Síos, released last year, was majestic and the eight-piece band will be hoping that its energy translates into the live album they are currently working on.
The death of Leonard Cohen is mentioned at the start of the interview, and the band’s Colm Ó Snodaigh mentions the lushness Cohen’s live band achieved. Is this a quality he’d like to emulate on the live record?
“It depends on the piece of music – sometimes it demands it, and other times it requires jaggedness,” he says. “Brian from the band said ‘listen to how it makes you feel, not the technical things. They’ll get in your way’. That’s interesting. For years, we’ve been in studios making sure everything is right, tidying, getting the next take, all that kind of stuff. With this live album, it’s a different approach. There’s a certain looseness in the playing that gives a different type of feeling.”
Was it difficult to achieve this looseness when they knew they were being recorded; that a desire to get everything right might compromise their spontaneity?
“We put the horse before the cart, or the cart before the horse- or both at the same time!” Colm says. “For the past four years, we’ve recorded the concerts. Just so we have them, in case we hit lucky. We’ve been playing really well the past few years, tip-top form. There’s been some great music.”
This is heartening to hear from a band who are fast approaching their 30th anniversary. What has happened in these last few years that has made Colm feel so enthusiastic about Kíla?
“There are a number of things,” he says. “Five years ago, Dave, our drummer, joined and we’d never worked with a drummer all the time. There’s his expertise, but also his personality and his willingness to be part of who we are and what we do. That’s made a huge difference.”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.