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Adebisi Shank: Attack Of The Chickens

"If you’re passionate about what you do, nothing can stop you. Not even a shite van.”

Ireland can often feel oh-so-far from the UK when it comes to music; it’s more than just a short ferry ride away. Take Dublin’s Fight Like Apes’ debut, for example. It charted in the top ten of the Irish Albums Chart, but most certainly didn’t elsewhere. Even Jedward’s debut LP went to number 1. There’s no accounting for taste. Recently however, things have begun to change.

“Irish music is the healthiest it’s been since our three year Eurovision winning juggernaut of Martin, Kavanagh and Harrington / McGettigan in the early 90’s,” Adebisi Shank tell proclaim. From the little know Wexford, situated near the southeastern tip of the country, they’re leading the fight back.

“There’s a good vibe in the camp. Seriously though with the internet and Twitter and silicon chips and such, there’s never been a better time to be a band that wants to travel!”

Not so long ago the band put this into practice, tweeting to ask if anyone in the UK wanted them to play their house on 13th August. They appear to have cheated slightly, but it worked.

“Yeah we got lucky, our mates &U&I were playing in Leeds so we played with them. Also I got the date wrong, it was the 14th not the 13th. I fail at date tweeting.”

Currently on tour promoting their new album ‘This Is The Second Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank’ (which, unsurprisingly, is the second album of... yeah. You get it.), these boys clearly have logic nailed, so, how have their UK dates been going so far? All good?

“Yeah, no duds so far! In Liverpool the door of our van mysteriously swung open and dumped loads of our gear on the street while we were driving, so some of our equipment is behaving... badly.”

Any excuse, eh?

“Aside from that though,” they continue, “it’s probably been the funniest tour we’ve ever done. We got to play a couple of towns we’ve never played before so we’ve made a lot of new friends.”

Where the first album was a quick, twenty three minute assault, this new one is more measured, more cohesive. Is that a result of practice makes perfect, or something else entirely?

“It’s hard to say really... on the first album a lot of it was one person bringing in a finished song or half finished song and then the rest of the band working to finish it, but this time all the songs were started as a band, written as a band, and finished as a band. I think that what we’ve ended up with is something that no single member could have come up with, a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts I suppose.”

But Adebisi Shank’s approach to this record had to change from the last, if only because of the almost Mark-Ronson-esque level of guest spots on it; Conor J O Brien (Villagers) took part, and Choice Prize winner Richie ‘Jape’ Egan, amongst others. Did that make the process easier, sharing the work?

“Oh it made it a lot easier, and a lot more fun,” they enthusiastically explain. “Basically we said to them to have no fear and just go nuts. It’s very psychologically healthy for us to suddenly let go of a song and let someone else have their wicked way with it. It’s almost like an old fashioned swingers party in a way, except slightly less sweaty.”

All of which may explain why the record was created in a list of locations only slightly shorter than your average secondary school atlas. “Some of it was to do with the guests,” they explain, “some of it was to do with finances and time, some of it was to do with being attacked by chickens.”

Ignoring the chickens, performing live often becomes an problem with so many chums on board. Thankfully, that’s not an issue.

“The songs exist live for us, when we record them they become something else, it just seems like a natural way for us to do things. They all got written as a three piece in a little room so underneath all the madness of the record it’s always us.”

It’s not the UK that’s falling to their charms either. A Japan release is on the cards for October, with plans to tour the far east. “We’re definitely heading over with the new one. It’s our favourite place to play, being there is just so inspiring and there is just so much good will towards the band there. I think it’s the only place that our music seems to make sense!”

So, with all this going on, you’d imagine Adebisi Shank can give their Irish peers some advice on making it in far away lands? “You gotta get out there and make things happen, if you’re passionate about what you do, nothing can stop you. Not even a shite van.”

Or, we assume, the chickens.