Reclaiming what’s important through rock

Dublin republican, Glenn Brady is lead singer and guitarist with ReClaim, a Dublin-based rock band that includes bassist Graham Tully and drummer Aran O’Malley. The band have just released their debut single.
Glenn, a former Dublin Sinn Féin Organiser and election worker for Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD speaks to An Phoblacht about the band, the various influences on his music and song-writing.

Why ‘ReClaim’?
ReClaim is a call for people to take back ownership of their own identities, their history, both personal and cultural. It is important for people to regain a meaning to their life, like why do I drive four hours a day back and forth to a job that I hate and that eats away at who I am? Who are the people who own the company I work for? How do the words I speak determine how I think? If I spoke Irish would I think differently? Why is my country divided?
A couple of years ago I was working with a woman who said to me that she had to work two jobs in order to pay for a new car she bought. She needed the new car for the second job! Bloody nonsense. It’s come to the stage where the machines are controlling our destiny rather than the other way around. Thus ‘ReClaim’ seemed appropriate.
We were once the land of poets and scholars, now we are pumping our time and money solely into manufacturing and service industries while arts and music department budgets are being cut. It’s important to keep that in check and ‘reclaim’ what our lives actually mean.
 
Should rock bands use their profile to spread a political message?
Some republicans get furious at this or that musician for expressing a political opinion. It’s usually that they don’t agree with the musician’s opinion. They have no problem with the rantings of other musicians. It’s very difficult not to be political.
A rock-band is just another group of individuals with minds of their own who have things to say. In ReClaim, I write the lyrics and in that process I am conscious that I play with two other musicians so, I’m not going to be reciting Marx and Engels. That would not only be ridiculous, but inconsiderate. Generally the lyrics are about subjects which Aran and Graham agree are important to be sung about.
Rock is the most political music however and I would be deluding myself if I pretended that I had nothing say. In a sense being a rock band is being political. There is an apathy in a lot of young people about politics yet they all seem to love popular music. Therefore it’s important to realise your responsibility. Too many musicians loud mouth before thinking of their influence.
I think rock bands should do whatever they are motivated by. In our case that is writing entertaining rock music that tries to push the boundaries and lyrics to get people thinking about themselves and their world.

Does your social background influence the type of music you can appreciate?
It definitely influences the gut-response to musical styles. A black kid from Harlem will respond faster to Rap or Jazz than Classical music or Rock and Roll. There is an element of cultural influence on these preferences but you would be surprised at how little exposure it takes for people to appreciate other music. The key is how relevant it is to their lives.
It’s unfortunate that because of a lack of music education in primary schools, those less well off are deprived of exposure to different musical styles. This contributes to the ghettoisation of different types of music and stifles the music appreciation of children.
I worked in many schools in North West Inner City Dublin teaching music as part of a collective in the late 90’s, which was funded by a couple of development bodies, but like other great projects to help disadvantaged kids, funding was pulled despite the programme being a great success. Aran also worked on this and we even contributed to developing a music syllabus. We taught musics of the world and had diverse musicians play for the kids and helped them write their own music. But now, unless their parents have the money to pay for private tuition it is unlikely many of these kids will get to reach their potential of music appreciation. This is the context in which they become victims of what is called the music industry
Kids are fed music now as just another part of a capitalist diet.  But there are certain social background necessities to writing good rock music. Aran, the drummer in the band, always says ‘you can’t play rock music unless you’ve had a batter burger and a kick in the bollocks at some point in your life, preferabley in childhood! He says that is the reason why other Europeans are basically rubbish at playing it! However they are far superior at most other musical styles. I do think that people from English speaking countries are better at writing rock music. Have you ever tried to listen to an entire album of Italian rock?

Who are ReClaim influenced by?
We have had a diverse range of musical and other influences. We write rock songs and could definitely be called a rock-band but you will find influences from everywhere. Our most recent song titled Soul-Eaters was originally written as an Irish traditional song. I used an alternative tuning on my guitar, one used for trad and I wrote about the subject of abortion and the silent experience that thousands of women in this country have to go through every year taking that trip to England. When I took it into the studio with the lads it was transformed into a rock song.
Graham has a lot of funk in his bass playing. Aran also played for Riverdance for two years touring Europe, the US and Russia.
We all have shared rock influences – The Beatles, Rush, The Police, Led Zeppelin.
Other influences would be classical. I studied in DIT conservatory of music part-time for six years and developed a great appreciation of hundreds of years of diverse styles. Bach and Schubert are particularly influential on my writing, as is Irish traditional and a multitude of political and cultural thinkers including Frantz Fanon, Bobby Sands, Che Guevara, Albert Memmi, Noam Chomsky, Sigmund Freud to name but a few!

What would success be for you?
For any rock or pop outfit success is getting your music listened to and appreciated by as many people as possible. We will undoubtedly find our niche of appreciators. To that end the project is long-term. It is important to love the music that we write and to enjoy entertaining people and being the best original musicians we can be.
We have started the project of distributing our music to the general public by our debut single release so time will tell whether people pick up on the scent. In the mean time we are happy to be playing good live music to appreciative audiences.

ReClaim’s debut single ‘Seeing Clearly’ is available 28 Dec for download from iTunes, Vodafone + 400 other online retailers. Also from ROAD Records, Fade st., Dublin 2.
You can buy the single now by texting ‘sp see’ to 57780, Only €1,  or from www.sonikpollen.com 

ReClaim play ‘The Button Factory, Temple bar, supporting ‘The Smiths’ tribute band ‘These Charming Men’ 28 Dec, 8pm.

Check our ReClaim’s videos, other songs, tour dates etc. at www.myspace.com/reclaim