Interview: The Telling

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Colm, Keyboard player, The Telling

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

The radio was always on when I was growing up and many road trips over my early years exposed to a lot of music, I started by Playing with an old piano in my gran-mothers house and around the same one of my older sisters was doing music in school, eventually I started getting lessons, to prevent causing ear pain to others. One driving force that kept me exploring music was the first live transatlantic broadcast from NYC, Garth Brooks live in Central Park, during that show I remember a buy coming out dressed in black and joined Garth on stage for a few songs, I had neve heard nor seen a piano played like that before! It hooked me. That drove me learn more and play more. A few years later, when dial up internet became a thing, I learned it was Billy Joel.

Music was always playing, everyone in the household had their own favorites and so we all had our allocated slot to here some music. I was listening to nearly everything. I really enjoyed watching live bands, particularly Queen. Seeing the crowd interaction kept driving me to play.

If I didn’t get into music, I really don’t know maybe I would have a collection of model cars, perhaps a model railway.

What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity? I like walking and Hiking, it’s a great way to clear the mind and re-set a little, you can draw inspiration from a lot of things on a hike, scenery in particular can be nice reminder that life shouldn’t be work work work. A trap we all fall into from time to time. It’s also a good time to reflect on things, I am not sure many people do it these days, we tend to just move to the next thing “that has to be done”.

How long has your band been around?

We formed on the backend of 2019, but the demo’s would have started development just after the summer. I was looking to make a little more income and so decided to try and do some dep work, during one of those session I met Shane, our first Guitarist. We started jamming together outside the dep sessions and we had a bit of magic playing together. We had some works that we had both developed we exchanged them to work on each others work and afterwards, we had some great instrumentals. After putting together 3 working demo’s we shared them on social media to see if any other musicians may be interested in the project and the type of music we were playing. Thankfully there was interest and we have an awesome line-up right now. We have our Leading Lady Lindy Loo on vocals, In our rhythm section we have Paul Ames on drums and Simone Pujia on Bass. Our guitarist is Tommy Pasquriello and I am on Keys.

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

We are based out of Dublin Ireland, naturally Ireland has a rich history with the arts. Some amazing musicians have come from the Emerald Isle. Irish Folk and even pop/rock play a big part in our music scene. All you need to do is go out in the city and there are plenty of live bands/musicians, poets and Buskers to be seen. It is a vibrant place oozing inspiration.

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you.

When were formed and started discussing the name of the band, we had a gig upcoming, The Telling was the first proposed and a few others also, but we didn’t actually agree on anything, so we decided to think about it and come back to it, we used by default The Telling, I guess it stuck to us and has grown on us. I do like its definitive nature. It reminds me a little of a Seanchaí or Bard, a traditional Gaelic story teller. I have an image of people gathering for The Telling (of tales) ?

Tell me about the best and worst shows you have played.

Personally one of my worst gigs, was the first gig we played, thankfully it was a successful night, but a nightmare for me on stage. Just before we went on stage, we assembled back stage and I was front of line, I checked behind everyone was ready, we walked out in darkness lead my torch light to the stage which was blacked out, I got into position and I waited, I couldn’t see any of the band, but I’ll wait a bit longer to make sure everyone is in place. Then my foot pedal had fallen apart, this particular pedal is the one that will switch my patches during songs, I have quickly figure out how to make the changes without the use of the pedal, I calm myself and start playing the intro to the first song, the light came up on stage…Paul our drummer was missing. It was the longest intro to a song I think I have ever played. I couldn’t enjoy the show, I was constantly having to think ahead of how to make the patch changes without noticeably stop playing. I’m told it was great night. With every gig we play and song we write we get better and better, I think our best shows have been our latest ones, good chemistry and thankfully the audiences have enjoyed our music.

If you could play any show with any lineup who would be on the ticket?

That’s a really hard question to answer, I think we would all have a different answer to that, for me, headline would have to be a Strong female vocalist, Ann & Nancy Wilson from Heart or Evanescence or both even. I think we would be a great support band in that lineup.

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band?

Practice and Play! Listen to your band, be critical and don’t take it personally if they are critical of you. Make a plan you all agree on. Most most most important….have fun!!

If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?

Keep playing and Keep practicing, I kind of stopped playing myself when I finished college, although I played if there was something like a public piano ect, but that was it. I wish I kept on going with it. I only started playing again when I met Tommy must be about 7 years ago now.

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

A Summer Field means the most to me, I feel that the music is an accurate representation of me, when composing it originally I had the image is lying down my girlfriend in a field, during summer. When Linda put her lyrics to the song it was complete. I am very proud of the final product.

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

“Your Favourite Song” is great to play, people usually dance to it and there is a nice part that people can sing to, even if it is your first time hearing the song. Another song requested is the Wolf, a song of temptation.

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

Usually it starts with a short piece or Idea and we would give it to the group, not completed, and we would jam it and play it until something is formed, this can go back and forth and have many changes as we all add our little twist to the song. For me it is something in the moment of playing, I don’t know what it is, but I play and play trying to portray what I am feeling at the moment. I think that is best way to describe it.

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

Personally I love a good story in a song, for me as long as it is something to reflect on, be it good or bad, It’s a good thing. I think everyone needs a bit of a time out from the madness of life, this pandemic has largely done that.

Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?

I think it is natural to have disagreements in creative collaboration, but the key thing is not to have an ego about it. The band has a life of its own, like a monster, as the tamers of this beast, which is bigger than all of us, we have to do what is best for the beast. Some ideas are work and some don’t. If an idea I put forward is discussed and rejected, I move on to the next thing. We don’t take it personally.

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that's coming up?

At the moment with restrictions lifting we are hoping to finish off a few tracks in the studio and get some songs released this year. We are also looking to get back gigging, fingers crossed, we will be announcing something on our socials in the coming month or two.