Releasing their debut LP In A Perfect World back in March, Irish alt-rockers Kodaline were good enough to head Down Under for a brief jaunt, with the highly praised record in tow. Bassist Jason Boland took the time to have a chat with Music Feeds about the trip.
Touching on everything from their democratic writing process to their deeply personal subject matter and translating songs into live performances, Boland covers it all. With some big, big things on the horizon, Kodaline have well and truly earned the label of ‘band to watch’, so start paying attention.
Music Feeds: Hey Kodaline, thanks for taking the time to chat. You were only recently in Australia. You picked a great time of year to visit, how was your brief stay?
Jason Boland: It feels like we squeezed a lot in even though we were only in Sydney! The minute we arrived we went for breakfast on Bondi Beach so we hit the ground running. Everyone was so welcoming to us it was great.
MF: Of course you were supporting your latest opus, the stunning 11-track offering that is, In A Perfect World. You released the album back in March so now that it’s had some time to find its footing, how do you feel it resonated with the fans?
JB: We’ve had such an amazing response online with people telling us exactly what the album means to them, and for us that’s the best reception we could hope for. It was incredible to see the album chart during our Australian trip, that really hit home.
MF: The album seems to be an all-encompassing record, housing all the sensibilities and musical tastes of Kodaline rather than sticking with one sound. Was this a conscious effort or a happy accident?
JB: We generally just record whatever the song needs so I think that has a lot to do with it. There’s very little of our own egos on the record.
MF: I imagine it would be impossible to stay away from all the feedback since the album was released. From reviews and opinions you’ve heard so far, do you feel people ‘got’ In A Perfect World?
JB: I really think the only real gauge we have is how our live shows react, and over the summer it went from people checking us out because they had heard one or two songs to people singing along to the whole set, we never anticipated that!
MF: It feels as though you bound from theme to theme during the album. What are some of the stronger topics you feel the album addresses?
JB: The album is very like our diaries, so it addresses real life events that we’ve been through, so I guess there are some songs about breakups and moving on and some songs about dreaming big.
MF: You’re currently running a competition for your fans to win signed handwritten lyrics, as well as a signed acoustic guitar [as the prize]. You also have a very strong social media presence. How important is it to the Kodaline mission to keep an open line of communication with the fans?
JB: Without the fans we’d still be in our hometown playing in a shed somewhere, so they are most important part of the whole puzzle. Twitter and Facebook give us a whole new way to interact and communicate with them and I think that brings us closer than ever before. We can put on last minute shows through Twitter or talk to people in a different language on Facebook. It’s really incredible.
MF: Let’s talk about the live aspect – how are the newer tracks going down in a live setting, for both fans AND yourselves?
JB: We’ve really been enjoying the sets over the summer, we were almost transitioning from a set full of EP singles to an album set and now on our US headline tour it will be almost completely album tracks. The reaction live just hasn’t stopped getting better, the more we get to play somewhere the better people know the music and the atmosphere just goes with that
MF: It’s not even October yet but it looks as though your 2014 is booking up very fast. What future escapades are exciting you the most right now?
JB: We’re already planning our next trip Down Under and it looks like we’ll get to put some Asian dates in as well, so just with the start of the year it’s looking exciting. We’ll be playing our biggest show to date in the O2 arena Dublin in March so that’s on all our minds right now.
