Deadpool to Make a Big Splash! 18/3/13

Image compliments of Deadpool

Deadpool, a local four piece alternative group are searching for success at the up and coming semi finals of the Dylan Fest singer/songwriter competition in Greencastle. The heat takes place on the 14^th April in the Castle Inn where they will compete for a place in the final.

“We entered a singer/songwriter competition in Moville and we’re through to the semi-finals now and we’re just basically playing about trying to get the name out there at the minute. A good friend of our Jack Craig entered it and we thought why not. He said to come down and play a few songs, play a few covers. A review went up saying one of the songs was a perfect ten, ‘Ink’, so we have to go back down now for the semi final”, said lead singer Aaron.

Reviews on the Criac On website couldn’t speak highly enough of the group’s performance saying, “They got a tremendous reception from the crowd” and went onto say, “If any pub owners are reading this who have a space for a full band they should get onto them.”

Even though the group are doing so well they haven’t actually been together that long, around 6 months in total. Aaron and drummer Darren, explain how the band got together. “Well three best friends, we all play guitar and myself and Willie were actually in a band before. We had written all our own songs so it was inevitable, as soon as that band broke up we were going to start a new one. We got a hold of Darren who’s a magic drummer and took it from there. Myself and Dee have been friends since we were wains, he’s a great guitarist so we had to get him on board.”, said Aaron. 

Darren describes how his dads reputation helped secure his place in the band.“I was in a band about 8 years ago, playing away. I went to London and I came back a couple of years ago, my partner is related to Willie the bassist so he kind of said to Aaron about me and that I play drums. The only thing they could go on was my Dah, so they went onto YouTube and they typed in my father’s old band The Sect. I think it was one of them ones where if my Dah could play I could play, so that was how I ended up going in for the first practise session up in the Nerve Centre.” 

From the Nerve Centre to their first gig, they had some expected nerves but for lead guitarist Dee, nerves ended when the music began. “The first gig I was freaking out up in the Castle Bar. I mind before the gig I was standing there shaking and all but as soon as I got up on stage and hit my first chord it just all went away. The whole band just becomes its own thing. I was expecting to go up and mess everything up but everyone was saying how good we were then. We looked back at the videos put online from the live stuff and we were surprised that it actually sounded really good.”

The group has managed to move fairly quickly and have already started recording already.  “They already had their tunes down so all I was more or less doing was walking into tunes that were already set-up but putting my own drum take on them. We’re making up more of our own stuff now and filling up on covers just to keep us going and keep us practising and filling up the practise times. When all our new stuff starting coming along we got this EP but we’re getting that replaced now with a LP. Brian from Beechwood (Beechwood Recordings) loves our stuff and he decided that because he’s getting new gear in we should scrap the EP and use it as a demo to through about to get gigs. He’s decided he’d like to stick with us and do a LP instead so it’s going to be rocking.”, said Darren.

Upon talking about the drive behind song writing in the group it became clear their inspiration is touching on some home truths. “We write about everyday things, life and times, different relationships, things that have happened in the family, things that happen around me in Galliagh, scum bags, drug dealers, that’s where it all comes from really. A lot of it is about the real City of Culture, to me it’s all really fake over there. For people like me coming from Galliagh you see what’s really going on with drug dealers, joy riding and that kind of thing.”, said Aaron.

 Darren said, “It’s about us being disaffected. If you’re on the dole at the minute or going about your day to day life and you’re not directly affected by the whole City of Culture buzz then you just get on with life. get on with wakening up , going to bed and everyone saying, ‘Aw, this is going to be a good year’. It is going to be a good year, but a good year for some people. There are still many of us out there that it’s another day, another year. If far as I can see the City of Culture is all about the legacy so let this year be done and we’ll have our legacy, hopefully it’ll be all good.”

 “We have no genre really, I could say alternative because it’s kind of a bit of everything but the songs vary. We have raps, sum guitar parts by Dee would be a lot heavier, were as myself and Willie would have a more punk sound. I think it’ll be about spring or summer by the time it’ll be coming out, we’ll make sure it’s all perfect this time, get it mastered and have artwork behind it.”, said Aaron. For this reasons it might be a good idea to take a look online at the groups Facebook for links to some of their material until you can get your hands on their album later in the year.