Band Members:
Podge McNamee
Niamh Farrell
Johnny Moore
Darcy
Ollie Murphy

Label: Route 109 Recording
Manger: Derek Nally
MySpace: www.myspace.com/eathamsandwich

Niamh Farrell represented the band for the interview

Where did you grow up?

I was born over here [Ireland], lived here for a while and then I moved to Scotland with my mam. I actually lived in Scotland for about twelve years. I was living just outside Glasgow in a place called Coatbridge. It wasn't until I was about 19, going on 20, that I moved back here. Did you have a Scottish accent?

Everybody said I had a really weird accent (now I don't know if I did or not because it was kind of just me). Over in Scotland I sounded very Irish to myself, but when I moved back here, everybody said “God, you have a really strange accent”. I suppose I hadn't necessarily picked up the full Scottish accent, but I'd pick up words, saying “wee”, “aye” and all this kind of stuff. So I had a bit of an upside down accent!

How did you met the lads?

I moved back here, to Dublin, and I stayed with my nanny for a while, just looking for work and stuff, and I ended up doing voluntary work for the Paddy's Day festival. That entailed working in a little cabin down at the end of Grafton Street; a little information cabin for the weekend of the festival and John, the bassist, was working there as well, so we were in this cabin for eight hours a day. We just started chatting about music and stuff and I told him I'd been in a band in Scotland previously, just for a few months and he told me he was in a band over here. So, we were chatting away and then one of the days, I think it was actually Paddy's Day, he said to me 'my mate Podge is coming over today to drop in to say 'hello”' so I was like, alright yeah. So then Podge came down with this big leprechan hat on and he was so drunk, so it was just ridiculous! I thought, aw this guy is really full-on and I didn't know what to make of him, he was just crazy! He was leaning out the window of the cabin and shouting at everybody going by and I was like, oh man we are going to get in so much trouble!

Then basically I started hanging out with John and started hanging out with Podge, because they were mates. We started chatting about maybe getting a band together for a bit of a laugh and see how things went with it. You know, nothing serious, just have a bit of craic. Podge played a bit of guitar but had never been in a band before, whereas me and John had, so he was really excited about doing this thing - something new for him. He's always been kind of mad anyway and automatically you could see him as some sort of front man in a band, he's just crazy! It was just all people that John knew really, John knew Ollie and Darcy from Kells (Darcy and John went to the same school and Ollie and John knew each other from school). We just got them involved, we never did any auditions. I met them all and that was the beginning of it.

What year was that?

We have been together about six years, so 2003? Yeah probably about 2003!

Was it the vibrant Glasgow music scence that got you into music or did it start earlier?

It was more so growing up. I've always been surrounded by sessions going on in the house. My mam and my two uncles have always been really into music, especially trad music and ballads. Even when I was younger and living over in Dublin, I remember there being music around and parties at night and people playing the fiddle and the bodhran and the banjo and all these musical instruments. And that continued when we went to Scotland, because Scottish people are also very musical and very into the 'get everyone around to the house for a sing-song', sort of thing.

Did you sing when you were a child?

My uncle Eamonn remembers me singing when I was very young. For the life of me I can't remember (I have a terrible memory anyway), but he said I sang a little song, a Mary Black song, I'm pretty sure. I used to love sitting and listening to people, I loved that. I just love listening to my mam singing and my nanny singing and stuff like that. When I was really getting into singing myself I joined the local choir, when I lived in Dublin and then when i moved to Scotland we did music in school anyway, so I immediately fell back into singing again.

Did you study any instruments?

No, singing was always my thing. I remember I did exams in music in fifth year and my first instrument was my voice and then my second instrument, I didn't have a clue how to do anything, so my teacher said to pick Xylophone because I should find that the easiest to pick up, and I said “yeah, grand” and I failed miserably! It's Xylophone, probably one of the easiest things to play and I failed! I past my voice though, but I failed Xylophone... (laughs)

Where was your first gig and were you doing your own material from the start?

When we started out we did some songs John had previously written for his other band, so we started out giving them a go over. I can remember our first gig being in the Voodoo Lounge and we called ourselves 'The Famous Five', because we couldn't think of a name, so we were like, "ok we need a name for the poster", and we were like, "right, put that down, that will do for the night". It was a really, really terrible gig. I remember Podge smacked me in the head with his guitar and I'm pretty sure he climbed up onto the PA and it was just a really, really messy kind of gig and pretty much all the gigs we had in Voodoo Lounge, there was something messy about them!

I remember one of them, Podge said “right, go out on stage and wait on me, I'll be out in a minute”. He was always like this before gigs, “I'll be out in a minute, I have to get ready” and all this sort of thing. We were like, “alright grand” so we went up on stage and were getting ourselves ready to play and we were kind of like, “where the hell is Podge” and then next of all you see this guy walking from the back of the venue, completely wrapped in toilet paper, walking like a mummy down towards the stage and everybody was just like “oh my God! What on earth is he doing?” So the gigs in the Voodoo were always really unpredictable. Very, very unpredictable! Just having the craic?

Yeah. At that stage everybody was just having a laugh really. We hadn't yet wrote any songs together so I think we were just having a bit of fun and seeing how it went. Looking back, we are so differant now at gigs than we were back then. I remember just standing in one place for one gig just singing, not moving a muscle, standing behind my mic stand. Not scared, but just not confident. We did the gigs in Voodoo and then we moved on to Isaac Butt's and Eamonn Doran's. When did you decide to go for it and take things more seriously?

I think when we started writing our own stuff together was when we probably realised, yeah, we can have a good crack at this. When we wrote 'Sad Songs' together, that's when we realised, ok, we should take this a bit more seriously and kind of knuckle down a bit more and see if we can get some interest going in ourselves.

When did the band become Ham Sandwich?

I think it was after that [gig in Voodoo] we thought “we need to come up with a name, should we get another gig - we're not using that one again”. I remember we were sitting around, we used to rehearse down in a little laneway across from Whelan's, and we were sitting down going “just somthing silly”. And I think the Stephen Hawking Treadmill Experience was bandied about for a while and then John came up with Ham Sandwich. We thought “yeah ok, ok, that could be interesting” and then we stuck with it. People said “Hate your name. Change it, change it, change it” and we were like “No” and being stubborn and after a while people started saying “glad you kept it”. Because if you change your name I feel you have to do this thing “formerly known as” for a while. People say about you “they used to be this band” so we stuck our feet into the ground we were like, “No, we are sticking with Ham Sandwich” and eventually I think it worked in our favour. We are glad we stuck with it now.

How did you meet your manager?

We were playing support in Whelan's and Derek Nally [now their Manager] was in watching us from the side of the stage and I think Podge slagged him off or something during the gig and then afterwards he was like “I'd be really interested in managing you guys”. He'd managed Juliet Turner and he was like, “If you guys want to give me a shot, I'll see what I can do for you”, so we went along with Derek and then we decided to release 'Sad Songs' and that was our first release.

'Sad Songs' went pretty well for us in terms of releasing a single, (even at that stage, singles were dying a death - nobody buys singles anymore) but it went really well in terms of getting played on radio and things like that.

When did you start to notice that you didn't know people in audience?

Probably after the 'St. Christopher' release. We got a video done for that as well and that went really well, with the video being played on the TV and stuff like that. Then I reckon after that started noticing one or two people in the crowd. We started getting messages on Myspace, people going “oh, I saw your video on YouTube, saw St Christopher on the TV on Channel 6 and really liked it. Going to come along to the gig”. That was when I started really noticing it wasn't just our friends that were taking an interest, it was other people as well. What have been the highlights for you so far?

For me, first off would probably have been the My Morning Jacket mini-tour. We were really only starting out. We hadn't even released St Christopher yet I'm pretty sure and we just got a call and they were like “they need a support band for Cork, Dublin and for Belfast”. We were like “ok” and we borrowed Podge's dad's van and put all our gear in the back and drove up to Belfast, Dublin and then went down to Cork. It was just amazing. It really was an experience, because it was our first tour and it was our first time meeting a really, really good band. They were really sound as well, we were drinking afterwards with them and stuff. It was amazing to see how professional these people were as well, with their tour managers, with their itineries and this stuff - and us, with all our gear in the back of a white transit, all our gear chucked in, all in seperate cars, not knowing what the hell is going on!

A taste of what you could achieve?

Exactly. Looking at them and going, I hope one day we will get to that stage where we can have our own tour going on.

What is the hardest thing for you guys? Is it the finances?

Yeah. Keeping things ticking over is the hardest because, every gig that comes along, there is always an expense to a gig. We have a new confetti machine. It's attached to a gas canister, so it's kind of a big funnel attached to a gas canister and it fires our confetti. So we have to get silly things like gas canisters refilled and all that kind of stuff.

It's great to have merchandise, that's like petrol money for us, so that really helps a lot. We have our Cds with us and now we have vinyl and then we did the T-shirts thing for a while, because that's really great to have there if you've finished a gig. The hardest thing a lot of the time is travelling. At one point I think we had a gig in Letterkenny and I think we were playing down the bottom of Ireland, Limerick or something,so you are in a car for eight hours, just driving straight, so that is pretty hard.

If we are gigging close to Dublin we'll drive home after the gig, but if we are gigging far away, more than two hours away, then we will stay over, and then we all get to all have a drink together, chat together and stuff like that. It's a big help when we have somewhere to stay, but if it's close to Dublin we'll just go home. It's nice to be in your own bed sometimes.

DIY – is it your own label?

Yeah it's our own label. We just release our stuff ourselves, we share the work [with Derek].

For the albums for example, Podge took care of a lot of the artwork, he would liaison with the girl who was doing artwork for us and Ollie would take care of the CD duplication and getting all that end sorted out, the mixing, getting that sent off. I'd drop stuff out to places if I had time - drop Cds off and collect Cds and things like that. Whenever anybody is around and whatever somebody can do, you try and help out as much as you can, It's not fair if one person is doing everything.

Everybody has their ups and downs. We definitely try and share the workload and to help each other out . I'd often ring Ollie and say “hey, do you have anything for me to do?” or “is there anything you want me to do?” that kind of way, so that people aren't taking on too much stuff themselves or feeling that they are the only person that can do this or stuff like that. We are all quite capable and it's all a learning thing as well. We have to learn to do these things orselves, because that's the way it's going to be for the foreseeable future. Are you all working as well as doing the band?

Two of the lads are working. I'm just full-time mammy and Podge jworks with his Dad, so we all kind of do bits and bobs and then in between, doing stuff for the band when everybody has time so it's easy enough to work, because there is only two people working, so it's easy enough to work a schedule around as far as rehearsing goes and things like that. If all five of us were working, it would be a lot more tricky. It's great in terms of doing rehearsal and if we have to go into town and do an in-store or something, we are available to do it.

What is the goal, the dream?

There is just so many things I'd love to do with these lads. Do a bus around America. Who wouldn't love to do that? When I first realised I wanted to be in a band, that was the first thing I thought of, I'd love to just travel around America, even if you are playing in shitholes, it dosn't matter. But at the moment, the goal is really just to make a non-shit second album, basically. To make a good second album. That would be the immediate goal.

You are a pretty well-seasoned band now, better musicians, is that making a big difference with the second album?

Writing this time around is kind of great, because in terms of everybody's confidence in giving ideas, it's much more developed. Everyone has learned their craft a bit more over the years. In terms of songwriting, everyone is contributing now, including myself. I never used to be confident to speak up and give an idea, whereas now we have a new song and all the lyrics I completely wrote to them, whereas three years ago I wouldn't have been able to do that. I wouldn't have been confident enough to share my ideas. But now, we all know the Ham Sandwich sound, we all know what our sound is, so it makes me feel a bit more confident with coming up with ideas.

Early on it was mainly John's material and now it's more collaborative?

We are way more collaborative now. Everybody is pitching in ideas, it's really, really great and it's so refreshing to go down to rehearsal and just everybody has an opinion now. And sometimes, ya know, opinions are taken into consideration and then sometimes everybody goes “yeah, yeah, yeah!” I can't wait to start demo-ing the new stuff, because it's stuff we have all had our hands in. We have all got something to feel precious about. Podge was saying the other night “do you feel it now? Like you have something in a song, like your lyrics in a song, that part of that song is you”. And I thought, yeah that's true, and it's kind of like that we all have little bits of the songs that are ours.

Do you feel more invested in it?

Definitely. We didn't not all feel invested in the first album, we all feel invested in it in terms of our roles in the band, but I think creatively this time around, we feel a lot more kind of immersed in it, because we have all being giving our own ideas. Rehearsal now, for me anyway and I think for everyone else, is extremely enjoyable that we all kind of crack the whip at each other and make sure everybody is listened to as well.

A democracy

Exactly. There's five hands in this band.

What is the plan?

Hopefully we will have a new album possibly January/February next year [2010]. Fingers crossed! We'll see how it goes with that all important second album.

Update:

'Out of the Darkness' , the first single from the forthcoming new album, was released on November 6th, 2009 in time for a series of national tour dates.