Stomptown Brass bring party vibe to Monroe’s
Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – [email protected]
Expect some good-time New Orleans-inspired sounds when Stomptown Brass come to Monroe’s Live on Saturday, January 23. The Dublin based nine-piece have been only been together for a year but have already made their mark on the festival scene.
It all began when trombonist James O’Leary assembled some players he knew from the Newport music school in Blackrock, alongside some other brass players. “It was an absolute nightmare at the start, especially with the jazz guys who always have gigs, every evening almost,” James says. “But eventually, because a few of us are in 9-to-5 jobs, we found a weekly rehearsal time that suits.
“Gradually, over the course of six or eight months, it became more a thing in everyone’s lives. It came to a point where everyone worked around this band. Now we’re at a strong stage where we can look for gigs well in advance and we don’t have to worry about people being over-committed to things.”
The band cut their teeth busking, but began to make their mark this summer. “We started off doing Canalaphonic in May,” James says. “It’s a festival in Rathmines and at the end of it we did an impromptu march towards the city centre, a big parade following us. “We moved on to bigger festivals as the summer progressed and from that we got some interest from Longitude. We were on the main stage of Indiependence in Cork shortly after that, and then it culminated in Electric Picnic where we had five different gigs.”
Five gigs in three days? That can’t have left Stomptown with too much time for the hedonism that defines the Picnic for many people. “On the Saturday, we had three gigs,” James says. “There were over twelve hours between our second and third gig. The third one was at three in the morning. The partying in between was a bit of a challenge, but we all managed to turn up on time!”
James is the band leader and writes the pieces for Stomptown Brass, but the other members help shape the numbers and come in with solos. “Generally what happens is what I’ll do is have a melody bouncing around in my head, and I’ll be too busy to do anything with it. When it works out nicely, I can bang it out in one day, particularly when I’m cycling around. Sometimes I need to put in a little bit more work.”
Stomptown Brass do an impressive re-working of The Auld Triangle. How did the idea to fuse Brendan Behan’s classic with brass come about?
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.