Off the Record: Limerick band KingFishr keeps traditions alive

AMONG lively chatter and clinking glasses, Limerick band, KingFishr discuss their ongoing success.

It looks like the trio is quickly taking over the indie folk scene, as they’ve just announced they’ll be going on tour with English singer-songwriter, George Ezra.

After meeting in UL while studying engineering, Edmond ‘Eddie’ Keogh, Eoghan ‘McGoo’ McGrath and Eoin ‘Fitz’ Fitzgibbon, collided in an “attempt to disassemble the contemporary Irish experience.”

Speaking of how it all started, singer and guitar player Eddie, recalls: “Myself and Fitz wrote a tune that ended up being ‘Eyes Don’t Lie’ and we were wondering what we could do with it. We knew McGoo from the course, and he’s a wizard on the banjo. So, it just happened.”

A week before their final exams, the three-piece released their debut single, ‘flowers-fire’ - a sprawling, continuous build telling the story of what could have been. As they stepped out of their last exam, KingFishr were told they would be supporting Hermitage Green in front of a crowd of 4,000 at King John's Castle.

“It was just one of those coincidences where everywhere we turned, opportunities were presented to us in a way that made it really accessible,” remarks Eddie.

Coincidences or undeniable talent? Between singer and guitarist Eddie, “banjo wizard” McGoo, and bass and concertina player Fitz, the trio has all it takes to keep things fresh, while also making sure they keep tradition alive.

Growing up, McGoo was surrounded by Irish music. “My grandparents played it, all my family played. In college, you meet new people and you get new influences. Being able to incorporate your roots and your tribe into more modern music is quite fun, really. I still do love tribe music, but this is a new adventure,” he smiles.

According to the “banjo wizard,” there’s a storied history to spoken word in Ireland that defines its culture. “There’s something of that authentic Celtic vibe that I think people are still hungry for. In some way, that’s what we’re trying to get at, while keeping it fresh at the same time.”

Perfectly capturing the aim to thread between avant-garde and traditional sounds, KingFishr share emotive experiences through which their audience can relate, and find comfort.

For Eddie, music is paradoxical. “It’s about the things you can't say, that you couldn't possibly tell anyone - which is why it's so weird. It's such a paradox because you never share these thoughts with anyone else, and yet you're publicly standing up and singing as loudly as you can.”

Are they ever wary someone they know might recognise themselves in a song? “They can speculate but, they'll never know for sure,” laughs bass player Fitz. “ I think the songs are vague enough, they’re usually about three or four different situations bundled up into one,” he explains.

Fitz believes people will have to find “their own meaning” in the song. “It means something to us, but we don't want to tell you and take away from your experience,” he says.

Implicitly, they take from each other’s feelings and experiences during the creative process. “When you’re in the room, if someone is down about something, it rubs off on everyone else,” says Fitz.

Eddie adds: “Every so often, we’d be playing along, then McGoo or Fitz does something, and all three of us will turn around at once. There’s a sense of meaning we share.”

As the band’s first single was released in April 2022, they still find it difficult to wrap their heads around it all.

Humbly, Fitz notes they never imagined the response would be to this scale.

Speaking of touring with George Ezra, he says: “Even today has been a bit of a wild day, getting to announce quite a large gig. It’s just beyond anything we had expected. We’ve always wanted it, but I don’t think we ever thought it would happen this quickly.”

McGoo finds it all the more crazy, as they only graduated last year. “We all went into engineering jobs, and the music has essentially taken over. It’s crazy that in a room, certain sounds mean something to others; that what it means to you probably means something completely different to them.”

Even though 2023 promises to be one hell of a year, the trio is refreshingly humble. And their feet, are definitely stuck to the ground.

“It’s a weird feeling when you're writing for nothing but the sake of writing something. I think keeping that makes your little legs planted somewhat on the ground, and if you can't do that, you're totally screwed,” notes Eddie.

According to him, the fact Irish people are “emotionally stunted” doesn’t help when their music is being praised. “It’s a weird one, Irish people are famously bad at taking compliments,” the singer laughs. “People actually paying attention to music is the highest form of compliment anyone could be given. People would be like ‘oh I love your stuff’, and I’d be like ‘why would you say that?’”

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Pretty soon, KingFishr will release ‘Heart in the Water’, a song which will “cut closer to the bone”, from a lyrical perspective.

Fitz points out that they’re still at an early stage. “I think we're still very much at that stage where we are still figuring out what we want to sound like, but we're getting quite proud of everything we're coming up with these days. It’s a very exciting process.”

A process which takes place in McGoo's grandparents' house. "It's only an hour off the road. We've got some space there to make noise, and the only people we disturb are the cows," he laughs.

As the conversation quickly turns into a pub quiz, they share who they’d want to have pints with – dead or alive. American record producer, Rick Rubin, Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, and former professional boxer Chris Eubank. Quite the party!