So much for the two-week holiday that lasted more than 18 months. You have to have a cracker full of sympathy for anyone that this has happened to, but especially those whose livelihoods depended on performing in front of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. For Irish rock/pop band Kodaline it was, of course, a similar story. They had completed the recording of their fourth album, One Day at a Time, on the same day that (then taoiseach) Leo Varadkar announced the effective shutdown of Ireland.
"The plan had been to take a couple of weeks off, anyway, as a treat for finishing the album," says the band's drummer, Vinny May. "We were looking at the lockdown as a bit of downtime, and then we'd just get back into promoting the album all around Europe, doing radio and television interviews, and things like that. And yet here we are 18 months later, still at home. So, yes, initially it was nice and then after a while, when there was no real sign of getting back to normal, it started to hit home."
Now that most pandemic-related rules are fully relaxed, “getting back to normal” equals touring and playing gigs. Apart from a festival headline slot in Portugal in mid-December, what that means for Kodaline is a rare series of home-sweet-home shows in venues they wouldn’t usually visit. Having real, live, actual people watching them, says Vinny, is far preferable to anything else. He isn’t fibbing when he says that while the online shows served a purpose, there was only so far the band could go with them.
“We knew that fairly immediately,” he remarks. “Look, we’re in the fortunate position of being able to travel around the world and perform in front of thousands of people. Take that away, and you’re then looking down the barrel of a camera or reading comments that people leave on the chatroom side of things.
“We did a series of four online shows, with the first three focusing on our albums and the last one, songs we hadn’t played – B-sides and stuff like that – in a long time or forever. It was a whole new experience, a novelty, and the shows were a lot of fun because we had never played some songs live before, but there’s no doubt that you miss the interaction, the rituals of touring, travelling, a different city virtually every night. Those online gigs kept us connected, however, and we got a great reaction from fans.”
There will no doubt be a similar reaction to the pre-Christmas shows, but on this outing the band will be performing without the sturdy safety nets of loud guitars and dialled-up amplification. It's good, Vinny agrees, to get back to the bones of the songs, before they become adorned with layers of sound.
“A few years ago, we played a show in Switzerland at an unplugged festival. There were only about 1,000 people there, and it was fully seated. Aside from doing songs acoustically for radio, this was the first time we had ever done a gig like that. Playing acoustic versions of our songs is a very natural thing because it’s how they’re written. We had talked about how something like that would be great to do in Ireland, and we had seen bands like Foo Fighters do something similar, so that’s also where the idea came from. Besides all of that, our fourth album was released in the summer of 2020 and never really got the push or attention it deserved, so you could say it’s about time it did.”
PANEL: A KODALINE KRISTMAS
What will Christmas 2021 be like for Kodaline?
"We have a bit more optimism than we did last Christmas. We're hopeful that 2022 is going to be a much busier year for everyone in the entertainment industry, including ourselves, of course. Once again, I'm going to be in Ireland, which is the same as last year, but with a toddler in the house and a normal-ish Christmas, that's great."
What does the band do with regard to Christmas presents to each other?
"We used to do Kris Kindle, but we haven't done that for a while. Normally, we're touring right up to Christmas, so what we would have done is to go out for a meal and a few drinks together, band and crew, and toast to the year gone by. This year, we haven't got shows in Europe or the UK, but we're touring acoustic gigs in Ireland from late November into December, so not all our crew will be around. What will we toast? Here's to the back of 2021."
What do you want from Santa this year?
"Oh, let's see... A new suitcase, maybe, that I can take on tour next year. Some flights to a few festivals. A sense of normality. If Santa can sort out those for me, that'd be terrific."
Kodaline play the following Irish shows in December: Opera House, Wexford (December 3rd), INEC Arena, Killarney, Co Kerry (December 4th), Royal Theatre, Castlebar, Co Mayo (December 5th), 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin (December 8th/9th). Kodaline also plays Malahide Castle, Co Dublin, June 17th, 2022. The band's fourth album, One Day at a Time, is available in record shops and the usual online outlets
