LIMERICK band Protobaby have performed at festivals in Poland and Holland and are on the bill for Cork’s Indiependance festival in August. Before all that they play Dolan’s this weekend with very special guests, Dutch band Nexo Shape. Also on the bill for the gig are local acts My Empire (new band for Peter Mullins of Secret Police, and Randolf and the Crokers). After that the band will be recording new material with an October release promised. Limerick Post chatted with Protobaby’s guitarist Tony Monahan this week to get an update.
Limerick Post: You are playing the Indiependence Festival. Does the band enjoy playing the bigger stages?
Tony Monahan: “We’re looking forward to playing on the main stage at Indiependence, we’ve also another Festival in Holland just two days before so should be a fun weekend!
“Both Juwenalia gigs have been the highlights of the last couple of years, particularly last year’s one! It’s always exciting to play at Festivals always a good buzz about the place. Festivals can be a bit strange though in the sense that at some you don’t even get a proper soundcheck, just a quick line check but you gotta deal with that. Both Juwenalias we did had early in the day soundchecks which was great but that is not the norm!
“Actually for the gig at Juwenalia 2011 we had no monitors for the first two songs and the stage was so big Bryan (drummer) couldn’t see us or hear a note we were playing! We got on with it and settled into the rest of the gig but it was a frightening few minutes at the biggest gig we’d ever done.”
LP: Will Protobaby play new material at the Dolan’s gig?
TM “We will definitely be releasing some new music this year. I don’t think we’ll be playing any of those new songs live just yet unfortunately, but definitely very soon. Once we’ve done the two gigs this weekend with Nexo Shape we have a big announcement to make and some exciting news about the future of Protobaby.”
LP: The band’s music is now available online. Did it take long to get your product on iTunes?
TM: “We’ve used Tunecore up to the point where we signed to FIFA to distribute our music online. You pay them a fee and they deliver it to as many online stores as you want including iTunes. We’ve had steady online sales but it’s a tough one when a lot of people download music for free or even rip music from Youtube videos. It’s ironic that as technology gets better people are listening to music ripped at a low quality from Youtube etcetera and then listen to them on €500 Dr.Dre headphones! Talk about cart before the horse! I’ve even seen our music available to download for free on various websites but I guess there’s nothing you can do about that.
LP: How have you become associated with Nexo Shape?
TM: “Nexo Shape are a band based in Holland who just released their debut album in February. It was our manager who made contact with Andre who’s in Nexo Shape and also runs a small indie label (Kraft Records). We wanted to do some gigs in Holland and having another band to work with in another country makes life so much easier as they looked after backline, venues and promotion.
“We got on great with them and really enjoyed playing with them so now we are returning the favour in Ireland and will be playing with them in Limerick (Dolan’s Warehouse) July 6 and Cork (Crane Lane Theatre) July 7. It would be great to see fans of original music in Limerick out in force this weekend as we also have local acts My Empire and Randolf and The Crokers on the bill. It should be a great night and we’d love show the guys in Nexo Shape what a Limerick welcome feels like!”
LP: Is the video to ‘Traditions’ still banned by Youtube?
TM: “Yep, it’s still banned and we can’t upload it to our Youtube homepage (Protobabyvids). Somebody posted on a different Youtube account (nothing to do with us – honest!). It was banned for Nudity, Sexual Content, etcetera breaching Youtube regulations. It’s very tame by Youtube standards, so bit of a strange one. The week it was banned, Rhianna’s ‘S&M’ video was getting millions of hits and seemed far worse to us!”
Protobaby with Nexo Shape, My Empire and Randolf and the Crokers play Dolan’s on Saturday July 6.
