The Goo 1
SEP '25 room. To be together. To actually have a
reason to be human beings in a room with one another. So [we decided] we’re not gonna do it unless we can be together, as cheesy as that sounds. For the eight years that we were a band, we more or less lived in the same house for a lot of it. Lar and I lived together. Basically every night, sleeping in the same room, two of us sleeping on the floor. Like brothers. We still kinda are, but a bit older now. We’re looking after each other. We managed to do that, and protect the friendship. The music is really important, but the friendship is moreso. Just to be around each other and be nice to each other. To have that support. It’s such a rare thing to have lifelong friends. We’re all very aware of how lucky we are to have that again. And how has it been, being back in that room together? Has it been cathartic? For me, personally, I don’t wanna speak for anybody else, the music side of it is almost like a life buoy. I mean, catharsis, yes. But… At times I’d find myself going to the hospital, and I’d be listening to the ‘First Album…’ and the ‘Second Album…’ . I’ve told the lads about this, I just gravitate toward those things that we did. At the time, we were very dismissive. It’s done and we were onto the next thing or whatever. I don’t know for anybody else listening to it, but for me, there’s something in that music that I need. Maybe it’s not cathartic. Maybe it’s aspirational in a way. Listening to the music, you’d probably think that we’re the most upbeat dudes on earth. We made that. We can go back to that. Like putting a flag on a mountain. It’s possible for us to be up there. You go back and listen and you’re like, yeah, like, that feeling is what we’re aiming for. That’s what I’m aiming for everyday when I’m going through my to-do list or whatever I’m doing on a given day. I think there’s some music that’s like a power source. When you’re on 17%, you can plug into this album and it’ll get you over the line. I don’t know how anybody else relates to it, but that’s always my own kind of relationship with it. And when you say we’re dismissive of things do you recognize Adebisi Shank and the influence you’ve had on a whole generation of Irish music?. No. Have you… have you not heard the bands coming out in the last ten years? I namecheck ye at least once a month. Even in terms of what people could achieve in Ireland, even. Getting signed to a good international record label, ye were trailblazers in that respect. You have acts like Bicurious, who I would also say are somewhat musically indebted to you guys, playing international festivals like you guys did. I love that band. I don’t know. Without Kidd Blunt, Puget Sound or ABAM, there would be no Adebisi Shank, you know? When people say that, it’s obviously nice to hear, but it’s not something we’d sit and think about. Our thing was just keep moving. I think to our detriment a little bit. To look back dispassionately at the whole experience, maybe we didn’t allow ourselves to appreciate it as we were going through it. Something as simple as working on that video for ‘Start a Band’, getting all that old live footage, locking it down and just looking at it, and thinking “yeah that was actually deadly”. As a debut music video, you couldn’t ask for a better document. Collecting footage from every live show you could find. What was that process like, putting together that kind of video now, the fact? We always said if we were going to have a music video, that it would be live. People have always said to us over the years about doing a music video, and we didn’t have any money. You’re at the whim of somebody who’s gonna devote their time to make something, so you collaborate with them and then you get to a point where they’re gonna be a bit exasperated. “Do you really want me to catch every little thing that’s going on”, and it’s either going to fully contain what we’re doing or it’s not. So if we’re going to do a video after however many years, it was going to be live. Even before Adebisi Shank, with your work in The Vinny Club and Pin, you’ve always been ahead of the game somewhat. What’s informing the new songs? How is it shaping the material? In terms of, like, pushing things forward, it’s funny. The new stuff, we’re a bit obsessed with not repeating ourselves. That works to a point, but it can paint you into a corner as well. Ironically, some people listen to our discography, and might think it sounds the same all the time. To us, it’s more like “we don’t wanna do that again, we did that trick already, we‘ve already done this kind of rhythm.” Etcetera. So to actually just relax with ourselves a bit. The most important thing with these tunes, we were only really making them just so that we could feel nice in the room. That idea of “does it sound too much like us? Does it sound not enough like us?”, that pressure was off. It’s kinda corny but it helped us to reconnect with that thing that made us as people pick up our instruments in the first place. THIS IS THE SECOND EP OF A BAND CALLED ADEBISI SHANK is out now. 15