Ian: Let’s start with introductions, can each of you tell us your name, your role in the band, and one word that describes your personality on stage?
Band: Cian – Lead vocals – Nice / Jack – Guitar & Vox – Fun / Meg – Piano and Vocals – Really nice / Adam – Guitar – really fun / Anton – Drums – Very nice / Dan – Bass – very fun
Ian: How did the band originally come together? Was there a moment you knew this lineup just clicked?
Band: We first met in college as friends and decided to start playing together. At first it was just for fun and then as time went on it we all started to grow closer and more committed to the band. Covid happened shortly after we graduated and we really missed each other. When we came back we all had matured as musicians and realised how important the band is. From we there took it a lot more seriously. The rest is history.
Ian: What’s the story behind your band name? Does it have any special meaning?
Band: We decided on Big Love first because we felt it sounded good and represented our vibe as a band quite well. but there are a lot of Big Love’s out there like different companies etc. so we decided to go with something that was a little more individual (wasn’t trademarked). We struggled to find something that could give the same feeling and somehow landed on BOLD LOVE. This just felt right instantly and even better described our personalities and music.
Ian: How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard your music before?
Band: Big and Bold. We have sound that fills the room, there are six of us in the band and we all take up our sonic space, we create an atmosphere live that you can’t get otherwise, we have a lot of drama in our sound and a lot of movement.
Ian: Who are your biggest musical influences, either as a band or individually?
Band: As a band we don’t draw from one individual influence and never really have. Each member and all of them have extremely different musical backgrounds and influences, some of us come from a more jazz background, some rock and some trad. We believe that our music holds traces of all these influences in each part of each song in some form and that’s what makes us unique.
Ian: Take us through your songwriting process. Is it collaborative or does someone usually take the lead?
Band: All six of us are songwriters and so the writing process can vary. any artist will tell you there is an element of chaos when writing. Sometimes an idea just hits you and the song writes itself, sometimes it’s a little harder and you all have to make decisions as a team. Either way it’s an amazing experience working together and having fun trying to make something cool, sometimes someone will come in with a well formed idea and we will chop and change and add and subtract, sometimes someone will play a riff while messing around and it turns into a full song and sometimes we just all start from scratch together and see what happens. None of these are more valuable than the other though. We spent years thinking we were just hanging out, but what we didn’t realise is that we were actually working on communication and decision making to get to a point where we can write as a team and come up with art we can say we are proud of and have a lot of fun doing it.
Ian: What’s been the most memorable show you’ve played so far, and why?
Band: We’ve played a lot of amazing shows and had an incredible year so it’s hard to pick just one. Touring with Cliffords was an amazing experience for us along with supporting The Corona’s in the Olympia. We recently played a show at The Great Escape in Brighton and that was just incredible. The crowd was amazing , the stage was big and the atmosphere of the venue was electric and that’s all we want at a gig.
Ian: Have you ever had a show go completely off the rails? How did you handle it?
Band: We’ve been very lucky with shows (so far). Other than the odd very wrong chord or mic cutting out, the good thing about being a musician is if things go wrong the vibe is weird for a sec. So if you don’t take yourself too seriously youll have a good time.
Ian: Your latest release ‘All The Lives’ has been getting attention. What inspired it?
Band: Adam came in with this guitar riff that was the core of the song. It went through a few changes before sounding like it does. We workshopped this down in Cork with Brian Casey which was a realy intersting process as we’ve never written with someone outsids of the band before. It was his idea to split the riff into two seperate parts so you get this cool panned effect.
Ian: On the matter of releases, how were your previous releases received?
Band: They’ve been really well received, we’ve been lucky enough to have our followers who’ve been supporting us from the very beginning and through their support we’ve been lucky enough to reach a wider audience. It’s been fantastic to see our followers grow with these singles.
Ian: What do you hope people feel or take away after listening to your music or seeing you live?
Band: We want people to feel like they are witnessing the start of something big. We find playing and writing a very emotional thing and we pour everything we have into our performances and we hope that translates to our audience and listeners.
Ian: What’s next for the band, new music, touring, collaborations?
Band: What’s next for the band is more gigs, more tours, more writing, more fun, more love.
Ian: Finally, what’s something fans might not know about the band: any hidden talents, weird pre show rituals, or inside jokes?
Band: Every time we go to a restaurant we pretend it’s Adam’s birthday. And we get people to sing to him.
Find Bold Love music here: https://boldlove.bandcamp.com/album/dancing-loving
Words – Ian Mc Donnell @mcgigmusic