Breaking into the music scene in 2014, Ireland’s upcoming four piece rock ‘n’ rollers The Riptide Movement are on their way for an Australian tour. Mal Tuohy (vocals and guitar), Jay Dalton (guitar), Gerry McGarry (bass & harmonica) and Gar Byrne (drums & piano) are sure to spread the movement with #1 Gold album Getting Through. We had a few questions for the band ahead of their 10 city line-up and thankfully lead vocals and guitarist Mal Tuohy had a lot to say about gigs, albums and busking!
Hailing from Ireland, you guys have been rocking out together for nearly a decade now by busking in the high streets, did this lead to building a solid reputation on the streets of Ireland?
Yeah, busking really helped raise the band’s profile, especially in the early days. We found it to be one of our best mediums along with our gigs of course. It also helped us sell albums and spread our music across the world, performing gigs in Russia and India which we got directly through busking, when promoters had been in Dublin on vacation, saw us busking, bought the cd, then got in touch inviting us to play in their countries. It’s definitely part of our story!!
Your festival resume is quite impressive, with Reading and Leeds festival and Glastonbury under your belt, did performing at these iconic festivals cement your unity as a group?
All of these festivals were amazing to play at, surreal really !!! They’re the kinda festivals that you dream of playing when you first start a band, but to be honest, the unity was always there with our band. If anything, I think it’s getting through the low points or bad times as a group that cement unity more so than the high points and luckily for us, there’s been far more highs than lows!!
If you could name one festival with the most responsive crowd, which one would it be?
Well it has to be our most recent festival appearance at Electric Picnic (Ireland’s biggest festival) earlier this month. It was our first time to play the main stage and we got a super slot, 4pm on Saturday, the sun was out and 50,000 people came out to see us. The atmosphere was electric and we tore it up!!! 50,000 people singing your songs back to you, what a feeling, I’ll never forget it!!! Check out our FB page- there’s some great pics up there from the day.
You’ve supported huge acts so far, including rock royalty Neil Young and The Rolling Stones, was it a bit intimidating to be warming the stage for the best rock and roll group in the world?
To be honest we were just buzzing and so happy to be asked to share the stage with them! We’ve been very lucky to get to play with some of the greats… Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and The Rolling Stones, these guys are the reason why we picked up a guitar, they’re legends and to be asked to share a stage with them is a childhood dream realised!!!!
You third album “Getting Through” was released in September, how has the reception been so far?
Great! The initial reviews have been good and there seems to be a lot of genuine interest in the band. It’s our first time to release an album in Australia, so it’s really exciting and hope it goes #1 in OZ like it did in Ireland…… We come down there for our first tour in a couple of weeks, so we’re all mega excited, bring it on!!
The Lead single “All works out” is becoming quite poplar across BBC and College radio airways” , in your opinion what Is it about this track that makes it so popular?
I think it’s just one of those songs that really connects with everyone. It’s a positive song and it’s heart felt. We’ve had lots of messages, emails and first hand stories from people who said this song has got them through a difficult time in their lives, which for us, is amazing. It’s writing songs like ‘All works out’ that connects with and helps people, that makes doing what we’re doing worthwhile and it is our first hit single.
Album takes its name after the track “Getting through”, why did you chose this particular song to represent the entire album?
The song Getting Through is the lynch pin of the album for me. Lyrically it encapsulates the overall themes and messages in the album. It’s upbeat but it’s also moody, melancholic, as well as being optimistic too “I can’t count all the storms we came through, I can’t count all the waves we cling too” It’s about perseverance when the chips are down, “it gets tough, but we’ll get through” It’s about togetherness.
October will mark your debut Australian tour, do have any expectations on what the tour will be like?
It’s gonna be a bit of a whirlwind, 5 cities in 10 days, we can’t wait! I’ve been to Oz before on holiday and I loved it. It’s a beautiful country with great people, I think the Aussies are very much like the Irish, they’re good craic!!!!
We hear tickets are selling well so our expectations are it’s gonna be a lively, rockin’, kickass tour.
You’re performing at some iconic Australian venues like The Metro in Sydney and The Astor in Perth, what are your favourite venues back home?
I know! What a way to do a first tour, we can’t wait to play in these venues! My favourite venues at home are Dolan’s, Whelan’s, Vicar St and the Olympia. All the staff and crew that run them, really look after the bands as well as the venues being legendary themselves.
Will you be staying in the country a little longer after the tours over? Are there any landmarks you’d like to visit?
Sadly, we don’t get to stick around after the tour is over because we have a three week tour of Germany, commencing two days after our Aussie tour finishes, so unfortunately we won’t get out to the Great Barrier Reef or get to drive the Great Ocean Road this time round, but we do have a couple of days free in Sydney so we’ll check out the Opera house, Harbour Bridge and Bondi Beach while we’re there!!!
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The Riptide Movement Tour Dates:
Fri Oct 23 Brisbane The Triffid
Sat Oct 24 Melbourne Max Watts
Thurs Oct 29 Sydney The Metro
Fri Oct 30 Adelaide The Gov
Sat Oct 31 Perth The Astor
Be sure to follow the band:
https://www.facebook.com/TheRiptideMovement?fref=ts
https://twitter.com/riptidemovement
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