Ruairi and The Owls 8/4/13

Image compliments of Paul Brown

Ruairi Connelly is the brains behind local group Ruairi and The Owls. Originally the group was set-up with the intentions of it being a side project while Ruairi was involved with the writing of a debut album with Furlo however; it has taken on a life of its own. Ruairi tells the story of how he became involved in music from his teenage years, right up to the present.

“I started playing when I was 15, I used to grab guitars out of the music room and head to whatever room I could find and bang away at the guitar. Then at Christmas I got a red guitar and I pretty much sat and looked at it all Christmas because I couldn’t really play it, I just made noises, I didn’t really know any chords. 

I started teaching myself. I’m a massive Smashing Pumpkins fan and started teaching myself their songs, I had to start somewhere I suppose. It’s funny because I actually started writing my own material when I first picked up the guitar even though I couldn’t really write a song. I started playing then with a few mates, a few failed bands here and there. After school I went to art college for 3 years and we were all gearing up to go to Uni when I decided to go for a music course and that’s when I formed my first band, Derry band, Traffic Episode. 

We just started writing music and Stephen Roddy who is actually the guitar player in Furlo, he was the bass player of that band. Things were going really well but then the drummer had kind of had enough and we split up. I went back to Uni then in England, back to art and then over there started playing with a guy Nick. We were gigging around the venues and bars in Preston playing blues, folk covers and that.”

Even with the experiences that Preston had lined up for Ruairi, he was homesick. An opportunity arose for him to go back home and join a band, he took it! “I wasn’t really enjoying Uni because I kind of went over by myself and didn’t really know anybody over there so I was pretty much just working in this wee bar all the time. I then got a phone call from the singer of my last band and he was putting together a new band and wanted me to play bass so I upped-sticks and headed home. I joined Rescue the Astronauts and we started making music straight away. Things just started taking off very quickly, we hadn’t played a show yet and then already we were booked to support Fall Out Boy on the Belfast leg of their European tour so I practically lived in Dave’s house where we were jamming every day. The first time we actually played together all under the same roof was on the night of the gig because we had all jammed separately so it was quite stressful. We actually were quite prepared to be honest but it’s just there were ones from Belfast and some from here and there. I think someone joined late on as well, I don’t know how it all worked out but we played the first gig at the venue. I wouldn’t be at that craic now, it’s too stressful. That band kind of ran out of steam after a while so I went back home and that’s when Furlo came about.”

Furlo is a group we’ve come to know and love in the local scene but you may have noticed they haven’t been around much recently, the reason, a debut album in the pipeline. “I was playing and writing music with Johnny and Stephen, two local guys from Limavady, we just formed the band. It’s the most relaxed band I’ve ever really been in to date and it was great craic writing and jamming together, still is. At the end of 2011 we decided to take a year out from gigging to concentrate on writing our debut album.”

As a result of this bit of a break Ruairi got to forming Ruairi and the Owls, a side project of his own songs. “I had a bit of extra time on my hands and I’d always been writing my own stuff, solo stuff, from I picked up the guitar and decided at the time, why not band an EP of my own stuff out? I rounded up a load of local musicians from Limavady and we released Ruairi and The Owls first EP, well it was actually called Owl Parliament back then in November 2011. We changed it then to Ruairi and The Owls because there was another band from America called the Owl Parliament and there were mix ups over links for Facebook pages and all that which was a bit of a pain. We went down really well and got lots of radio play which we were really chuffed about. It was supposed to be a wee quiet side project but then took on a life of its own. In early 2012 we started working on the second EP and released that in August of that year. The whole time we were doing that I was still writing with Furlo for this debut album, that’s all finished up at the moment and we’re gearing up to release that, we’re just finalising artwork and all that. We’re really excited about it and proud of the piece of work we’ve produced. Hopefully we’re going to release that in May, well May or June, it’ll depend on when the label, Yogen Records, want to do it, that’s when we’re hoping. In the meantime too I’m currently recording another Ruairi and The Owls EP. We’re throwing artwork ideas here and there now.”

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to question if Ruairis’ alliances lay with Furlo or The Owls first and although the answer looks to be Furlo, Ruairi isn’t the only one to have a side project in the band. “Stevie and Johnny are songwriters as well in their own right so there’s 3 songwriters in the band and we all had songs of our own that didn’t really fit Furlo. Johnny’s got a side project called ‘August’ who released their first single last month and are doing quite well. Stevie has a side project called ‘I am Jack’ and he’s recording at the moment as well. When we’re not at Furlo we’re writing stuff for our own wee side projects, it’s healthy and keeps us busy. Our main priority lies with Furlo and we help each other out with our own projects if anyone needs anything done, artwork, a bass part here or an opinion on a song there.”

As of yet there’s been no confirmation of launch dates for coming material but to check them out online have a look at http://ruairiandtheowls.bandcamp.com/. Boomerang from the Fishing in your Dark EP is a great track!