A quick interview with Revelino

Mark chats to Revlino's 2 Brendans backstage at Dylan's recent Kilkenny gig

The new album "To The End", what are your thoughts on it?
Brendan Tallon: There is a definite thread running through all three of our albums. However making "To The End", as we had limited resources took, a lot of time. I'm a lot happier with this album than the last two as I believe we are getting closer to our ideal sound, that is the sound we have in our heads that we are trying to convey through our music.

How long did it take you to record the album?
Brendan Berry: The album was recorded over two years. In total we spent about two months in the studio. We were working with a producer called Ronan Coin who got a job with Def Leppard that was supposed to be for six months but it stretched out to two years. This set us back a bit with recording the album. Joe Elliot did repay us after stealing our producer by giving us a studio in his house to mix the album. That was great because it was better than anything we could have afforded.

Will you be releasing any singles from the album?
BB: We are not releasing any singles, as we know we won't get any airplay on daytime radio. It costs as much to produce and distribute a single as it does an album and from our point of view we just couldn't afford to release singles. For bands like us it just doesn't make any sense.

How do you feel about supporting Bob Dylan?
BT: It's great. Bob Dylan is such a legend. I would rate him as one of my early influences.

As a band what are your influences?
BB: We are influenced by late Stranglers, Leonard Cohen, Echo and The Bunnymen and The Pixies. Any band that operated with integrity over the years and kept the focus on what it is really about. Bands that were in it for the right reasons. At the end of the day it should really be about the music and nothing else.

What are Revelino's plans in the near future?
BT: Well I have been writing new songs and hopefully we will record a new album in the near future. We are doing a three-band college tour in the first college term. It will be along the lines of the Heineken Rollercoaster tour. We feel we have been away from the live scene for a long time and we understand that we won't have the same standing that we had when we last toured the live scene. We just have to work hard and build up the audience again.

How do you feel about playing college gigs?
BB: College gigs are a mixed bag basically. They sometimes get more credit for being good places to play than they actually are in reality. Colleges are generally going for bands like Abbaesque and covers bands.
BT: I actually think the nature of the student is changing. They are not as into listening to original music as they used to be. They would rather listen to something that is familiar to them like a tribute band playing songs that were popular ten years ago. They're not patient with bands playing their own stuff any more.
BB: College events are mainly social events. They are Duff experiences, an excuse for a drinking session.

Mark McAvoy