In the spirit of honesty in journalism, let me come clean. The Rye are my peeps!
They hail from Athenry, Co. Galway, birthplace of my father's tribe. I found them on Myspace not long ago, and my life has not been the same ever since.
The Rye play, in their words, "savage driven ceol." They throw together modern rock melodies into a stew of expert traditional playing, turn-on-a-dime chops rarely seen outside a lower Manhattan jazz club, and an irreverence that ties the whole package together in a rowdy, exuberant bow!
Their music is a lively fusion with Irish roots, including elements of Irish traditional, country, reggae, folk, rock, blues and soul. They add furious fiddling to mimic the crescendo on a killer remake of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," made even more famous by Johnny Cash in his later years.
"Square Peig" begins with the devilish bass riff borrowed from the White Stripes before landing into a full frontal assault of fiddling as the bass line shifts from one familiar lick to another. "Arkle Mountain" is a ferocious reel with the firepower of a gas guzzling machine behind the drums. For fans of the jam band players in Kila - and who isn't? - the Rye is right up your alley.
The members of the Rye are vocalist and acoustic guitarist Kevin, Anna on fiddle and backing vocals, Alan on banjo, electric guitar and backing vocals, Ciaran on drums and harmonica and Barry on the bass. Giving your last name is so 2006!
Since their first gig on New Year's Day 2006 in the Roisn Dubh in Galway, the Rye has been playing steadily all across Ireland, in venues as diverse as small country pubs, nightclubs and on festival stages.
Galway Bay FM has described the Rye as "the liveliest band to come out of the West of Ireland since the Saw Doctors." I'll drink to that!
We chatted about the components in the Athenry farming soil that grew such a wildly innovative sound. Here's how it went:
How would you describe the Rye to someone who has never heard of you?
Our music has been described in many different ways and has been bracketed in all types of genres. It would, however, be true to say that it is founded mainly on the Irish tradition, although we do draw from our own background as a musician which is varied. It is a lively type of music, and judging from our shows it is sure to make people dance.
I was listening to "Square Peig" with a friend of mine, and we caught some familiar bass lines from White Stripes and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." There were some others we did not recognize. What are we missing?
Yes, there is one other bass line that we have used. It is from a popular dance group called Daft Punk and it is taken from their track "Around the World."
"Square Peig" sounds like a great jam. Do you create your music as a jam or was that well thought out?
"Square Peig" is exceptionally fun to play, especially live. It came about one day when Anna (fiddle) was playing some traditional tunes and we thought it might be fun to play some popular songs underneath them. These turned out to be the songs mentioned.
We would like to think that these popular songs draw in people to the tradition and make Irish music perhaps a bit more accessible for those who may not have a keen interest in it. It's a new slant on old tunes, and it has received a lot of positive feedback from both young and old.
I love the cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt." How did you approach that song?
The song had a revived popularity about a year ago when the Johnny Cash movie was released, but we were fond of the original Nine Inch Nails version as well. We decided that if we could arrive at a happy medium between the two it might be cool. We jammed the song countless times and ideas were thrown around.
We ended up with the version we have now, the last minute or so is all instrumental and evokes for us the feelings portrayed in the song.
Where did "The Banana Song" come from?
"The Banana Song" has a very interesting story behind it. Kevin wrote it about an incident that happened in Donegal.
A man had set out early one day to the local pub in search of a few pints of Guinness and maybe a bit of craic. He had not that much money on arrival to the pub, but had arranged to meet friends there at a later time who could give him a hand. So, he had his few pints which quickly emptied and turned into a few more.
At this time he realized that he was only left with a small amount of change, not nearly enough for another pint, and there was no sign of his friends. He began to think of a plan in which he could get money for more drink, Guinness of course, the good stuff. He eventually decided to buy a banana with his small amount of loose change and rob the local bank.
Surprisingly enough, considering his inebriated state, he succeeded to rob the bank by concealing the banana under his jacket and pretending it was a gun. After this, he returned to the pub where he was drinking, ordered another pint, and again waited on his friends.
Of course, the man was arrested but the moral of the story is one that may appeal to all people - the Guinness is excellent in Donegal.
How would you describe the music scene that you come from? I know the Saw Doctors come from Galway. What else goes on there?
The music scene is vibrant in Galway. Many pubs are host to excellent traditional musicians and one has rarely to travel far in search of a good session. There are many good original bands in Galway at the moment, which is good to see. The standard of musicianship here tends to be high which is also great from a musician's perspective.
(The Rye regularly plays on CelticLounge Radio on celticlounge.com. Their web site is therye.ie or myspace.com/ theryeband. To get the CD, log onto cdbaby.com/cd/therye.)