Since launching at the beginning of 2012 and taking to stages across South Africa, AL BAIRRE, the Cape Town based four-piece classic indie pop band, who combines cello, violin, guitars, keys, ukelele and drums, has played numerous successful shows alongside great acts such as The Hives, Alt – J, Skunk Anansie, St Lucia, Boyz noise and Dear Reader.
AL BAIRRE draws influence from bands such as Arcade Fire, The Cure, Fleetwood Mac, Vampire Weekend, Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Ra Ra Riot, with their goal being to take an indie band and turn it into ‘ice cream of orchestral sounds’.
We chat to them about their upcoming album and a few other things…
Yclad: We’re super excited for the release of the new album/ mini LP, can you tell us a bit about what to expect?
Kyle: Expect to twist your ankle. In a good way though. It’s got dirty bass lines, stinky guitar, fat drums, harmonies all over the shop and string sections that will make you turn vegan!
Yclad: Song-wise: any band and individual favourites?
Kyle: All of them. We are super vain.
Yclad: We saw you perform at Daisies this year…Any other big/ festival performances coming up soon?
Kyle: Heck yeah. Between you and me, if you carry on reading till the end I give a list of tour dates. All those shows are gonna be HUGE! We have some shows with PH.Fat, Shortstraw, The Kiffness, Grassy Spark, etc. It’s all there baby!
Yclad: How was your Daisies experience? Any funny stories to share with us?
Kyle: Yeah, we had to leave daisies at 3am on Saturday night to drive to the airport to fly to Jozi for In The City with The Kooks, Cat Empire, Milky Chance and the gang. However at 3am one of the twins (not Tessa) was nowhere to be found. So we had to send out a search party into Daisies. Obviously that wasn’t gonna work. Anyway, I even went to the flippin’ Red Bull Electro Dome to explain our situation to the stage manager and see if they could do an announcement. Like they do at Fun Fairs when they find a lost kid. They said no, obviously. So we had to just wait it out and eventually an hour later she came rolling into the campsite because she had gone back to a boys tent and he had said ‘no, don’t go, stay here with me just a bit longer’. If ever there was a time to say ‘no, I have a plane and a band waiting for me’, that would have been it. We caught our plane in the end but we booked Julia’s seat 14 rows away from us all so she could spend the time thinking about what she had done.
Yclad: We’re so stoked for you guys blowing up so much in the last 3 years, what with being featured on international commercials and all. So, have you hung out with any cool international artists or celebs as a result of your music?
Kyle: We had Harry from Cat Empire come into our tent at In The City and talk to us, but we were scared to talk to him for too long because we thought Smooth Mike from PH Fat would say something rude to him. So we had to pretend we had run out of things to say. It probably would have been fine but we never know what is gonna come out of Smooth Michael’s mouth.
Yclad: You won an MK for Best Budget Video’ for ‘We Move On’, can we expect another awesome video soon?
Kyle: Heck yeah. Our lead singer and guitar extraordinaire Nicholas, directed our latest music video for our new single called ‘Let’s Fall In Love Some More’. You should check it out. It’s really fun. Pinky promise.
Yclad: I’m sure fans are itching to know when will you be touring again and where?
Kyle: Well they are all in luck because I happen to have this list of our tour dates right here.
11 Dec ~ J Bay ~ The Jolly Dolphin.
18 Dec ~ Cape Town ~ The Assembly.
26 Dec ~ St. Francis ~ Billy’s Beach.
27 Dec ~ Plett ~ The Lawns ~ Beacon Island.
29 Dec ~ Kenton ~ Billy’s Beach.
31 Dec ~ Electric Vines Festival.
[Photo Credit Sam Wells]
