For 25 years Dolans have taken great pride in supporting local up-and-coming acts.
Later this month, we will host the launch of yet another Limerick band currently making a name for itself on the indie circuit.
Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets will launch their new EP at the Kasbah on the 21st of November.
In advance of the event we spoke to the Dylan and the guys about their work to date and their future plans
Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets hail from Limerick and are made up of Keagan Forde on Guitar, Chris Britton on Keys and Sax, George Broadbank on Bass, Gavin Murray on Drums, and Dylan Flynn on Lead Vocal and Guitar.
The band all met each other when they began college in 2017. Dylan Flynn had begun playing solo, after his last band had parted ways.
“I was looking to build a new band”, Dylan says. “At first Gavin and I began jamming, which eventually lead to Keagan coming in on Bass. We recorded a couple of tracks and had a few gigs but we didn’t really start pushing ourselves until 2018”.
During the summer of 2018, the band decided it was time to record some new music which led to the beginning of the new EP that is set for launch in the Kasbah later this month.
“We started making demos and worked from there. When we started back to college in 2018, we decided to bring in George on Bass and switch Keagan over to guitar”, Flynn says.
“We played a lot of shows that year, always writing and always improving our set. We worked on the EP all year and brought in Chris on Keys and Sax in this summer”.
The guys have been working on this project for the bones of two years. What started as a series of demos back in 2018 has now evolved into a full EP.
“We had a rough idea of what the songs were but they weren't 100% there. We began recording in Ballyhane Studios, Birdhill”, Keagan Forde says.
“We did a couple of sessions there, but eventually made the decision to work on the EP ourselves. We began arranging and producing the demos we had and nailed down what we wanted the songs to be. Then we began getting into the recording”.
This hasn’t been a project that was pressure-free. As the band’s first ever project self-recorded, self-produced and self-mixed project they have invested time, energy and a lot of soul searching to arrive at the finish line.
Towards the end of the EP when time began to become tight the band spent time at GAF Studios to do some final edits with Joe Gallagher. The guys describe the process as a long road but one they have been happy to take considering the resulting piece of work.
Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets are influenced by artists such as The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, The Smiths, The Police and U2. Flynn says he feels particularly influenced by older artists in relation to structure and chords and this influence has been embraced by the band as a whole.
“We have a lot of modern pop/rock influences in our music too from artists such as Kings of Leon and The 1975”, Flynn adds.
“Our sound varies from track to track, but this is something we embrace. That’s the way we consume music and I feel inevitably that the songwriting changes daily. Our live shows tend to be really energetic and give a new life to a lot of our songs”.
As a songwriter Flynn says he dedicated a lot of the time to writing songs acoustically in a private space before bringing them to the band.
“I feel inspiration hits me more when I'm alone. I think it’s because I write a lot from experience, and I can explore those avenues of my brain better when I'm alone. Sometimes I'll have all the parts written, other times, we will just jam over the song until something clicks. Starting a song from scratch together is something we have tried, but it never seemed to work. We would always end up going around in circles with no real structure”.
The band notes that the completion of this EP is a hugely proud moment for them as a team.
“It took such a long time, and we put so much work into it”, Keagan says. For us to do so much of it ourselves and to be able to hold it in our hands and know we made it, I think that’s really special. That’s definitely our proudest moment, so far”.
Flynn credits Limerick as a city where he sees the music scene as thriving.
“I have had the opportunity to see it grow and grow over the last few years, and it’s just amazing how far it’s come”, he says.
“I think a lot of it is down to Music Generation and the work they put in with kids. I was part of Music Generation when I was in school and it gave my old band so many opportunities which helped me grow as a writer and live performer. I have seen the same thing happen with so many friends that I met during that time too. I know people making Rap music, Acoustic Singer-songwriter music, Electronic music, that all came from Music Gen. It’s just amazing to see such a diverse scene all working together”, he adds.
Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets will launch their new EP in the Kasbah on November 21st and have a number of other gigs lined up with further dates to be announced. The band are working on new music videos, remixes of the songs, and “loads of other fun stuff that we will be sharing with everybody really soon”.
“The plan is to gig as much as we can over the next few months, and the begin recording our next project. We have an abundance of tracks written so it’s just a matter of seeing which work best live, which sound best recorded and creating something that we feel will be a step up from this EP”.
Dolans Presents wish Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets the very best with their upcoming EP launch. This is a group to keep an eye on. Do support them on the night or consider buying a ticket for one of their gigs.
If you wish to attend the EP launch on November 21st you can buy your ticket here.