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Interview with Industry, at the launch of their debut single “My Baby’s Waiting” (MP3, OGG and FLAC). Recorded on Wed, May 13^th 2009 in The Sugar Club, Dublin. Industry are Donal Skehan, Morgan Deane, Michele McGrath and Lee Hutton.

Copyright for the following recording of “My Baby’s Waiting” remains with MIG Artists.

My Baby’s Waiting:

Audio of this interview is available in MP3, OGG and FLAC. The audio and text of this interview is licensed under a Creative Commons, Attribution, No-Derivs License.

Interview:

Industry will be in Trinity rooms, Limerick on Friday May 29^th 2009.

David: I’m here in the Sugar Club with Industry who have just finished their debut single gig, how did it go guys?

Lee: Great

Morgan: Great

Michele: Brilliant

Donal: It was really good. We got a great reaction, that’s all you could ask for.

David: Excellent. there were some really good tunes in there, I particularly liked your second last song,

Michele: Angles can’t die. Yeah, that’s getting great feedback. It’s a bit of a mad story, our manager played us that track last week in the car, we thought “We have to record it” and literally flew to Sweden the very next day to record it. Within a week we were performing it on-stage in our set list.

David: How did you guys get together? What’s the story behind Industry?

Donal: I used to work at Bubble hits, James Hylands company. I came to him with the idea of putting a mixed group together. I knew Lee, we were mates, and he thought he’d come and join us. James had also know Morgan from gigs, that’s how Morgan got involved, and we knew Michelle as well so it just [came together].

Michelle: James has been in the music business for years, so when Donal came to him and said “we want to put a band together” James picked out the people he thought would gel. He contacted us all, and that was it.

David: Were ye in bands before?

Lee: I’ve been in loads of bands, but mostly just local bands.

David: So this is you’re ticket to fame?

Michelle: I don’t think any of us are looking at it as a ticket to fame. We all want to be credible artists: we all sing, Lee plays guitar, Morgan plays piano, we all song-write. We’re not in it for fame, we’ve much more going for us than that.

David: Ye sound much more down to earth than most.

Donal: We take it seriously.

Michelle: Fame has its downsides.

Lee: It’s success in something you love that we strive for, more than fame.

Morgan: Beautiful put Lee, I can see that quoted.

Lee: Sounded good.

All laugh.

Michelle: I think a pop band has a shelf life, and we’re all very realistic about that. It is a business but this is also something we love doing.

Donal: We’ve all seen bits of the music industry before, like Michele said, we have a realistic view on it.

Lee: The music what?

Donal: The music biz!

Lee: Biz?! You said the music Industry, then you changed it to Biz!

David: You’re downplaying the name of the band.

Donal: We like to subliminally put it in there during interviews.

David: Who would you consider to be influences, who do you look up to as artists?

Michell: We all have different people, Donal?

Donal: I love Take That, I think their new stuff is really cool. Gary Barlow is an amazing writer, he’d be someone I look up to.

Lee: Some of the old rock bands, I love rock music. Brian McKnight is vocally amazing. Some newer bands like Creed, Alterbridge. It really is varied.

Morgan: I love allot of pop that’s around at the moment, I love Beyoncé and Rihanna, their albums are really good. An older influence would be Elvis Presley, I’ve loved him since I’ve been really young, I think hes amazing as well.

Michell: At the moment Beyoncé, I’ve been following her career since she’s been in Destinies child. I also love Peggy Lee, Sade, and some of the older performers.

David: Cool, so if ye, as a band, could collaborate with somebody, who would it be?

Michele: Neo.

Lee: For a track, yeah Neo.

Morgan: That could nearly be done, we’re supporting Neo.

Donal: Yeah, we could work our magic.

Morgan: Our managers are always talking. Hopefully, with a bit more road underneath us…

Lee: Or Timbaland.

Michele: Yeah!

David: You guys are supporting the Pussycat Dolls too. Are you looking forward to it?

Lee: Defiantly.

Michele: Hello?! They’re so hot.

Donal: When we got that news, it was like “oh my god, that’s crazy”. It just takes this to another level.

Morgan: That’s down in Kerry, and there are some other big names on the bill that haven’t conformed yet.

David: Any other gig dates or tours coming up that people can look forward to?

Donal: We’re going to be in Sweden, we’re releasing the track over there as well, so we’ll be doing some promo over there.

Morgan: It’ll be a ten day promo tour over there.

Michele: We’ll be on a radio tour starting tomorrow for the single release, which is out on the 19th of June.

David: Is there any advice you guys would give to upcoming artists, people singing into their hairbrushes at home who want a break?

Lee: Just keep on trying, relentlessly go for it.

Donal: Never give up.

Morgan: Between us we’ve had so many knocks. You’ll be ready to give up 101 times. Unfortunately there’s no such thing as overnight success, people who say that are talking absolute rubbish. If it does happen it’s one in a million, so be realistic about it. If you want to do it you have to be in it for the long haul.

Donal: I know it’s cheesy, but believe in yourself.

Michele: And follow your dream.

Donal: So cheesy.

All laugh.

Morgan: Persistence is the main thing.

Lee: You know you’re only good at one thing, that’s what you want to do with your life. You have to be relentless.

Michele: What you should do is: All the knocks people give you just make you stronger.

Donal: Turn them around. Nobody else is going to make this happen for you.

Michele: It’s so cheesy, but that’s the gods honest truth.

Donal: This is your fault for asking the cheesy question.

Michele: Be realistic, don’t think you’re Mariah Carey (?) if you’re clearly not. Know your place and work with what you have.

Lee: Don’t work with what you think you have.

Michele: I feel so sorry for the people on the X-Factor and other shows who say “My mum tells me I’m an amazing singer”. That’s just bad… I wont elaborate.

Donal: But those people can still persist.

Michele: Yeah, work with what you’re good at.

David: I was chatting to Donal earlier who said he released a cook book recently. If you weren’t doing this, what would you be at?

Lee: I’d love to be…

Morgan: A cowboy?

Donal: An elephant trainer?

Lee: A fireman.

Michele: God, you’d be a hot fireman.

Lee: Thank you. I’ve always wanted to do that. If I wasn’t in music, that’d be my second choice.

Morgan: I’d like to get into producing, I’d probably be a producer.

Michele: She’s an amazing song writer.

David: Did you write any of the songs for [Industry]?

Morgan: No, none of the songs…

David: Yet?

Lee: It is a big yet, because she’s brilliant.

Michele: I can’t stress this enough, Morgan and Lee are amazing.

David: So where does that leave you and Donal?

Michele imitates a do-wop backing vocalist.

All laugh.

Michele: We all sing, but I’m not a songwriter, these two are talented, they blow me away.

Donal: We’ve gotten very close to our two producers, Jake and Oscar, they’ve been asking us to give input.

Michele: So, anyway, before I was doing this I was modeling and acting. I would probably be in London, chasing the dream, or in PR.

David: You guys, I can envisage, are about to become big. One thing that comes with that are people who want to listen to your music, people wanting to get it. What’s your take on Piracy?

Donal: That’s a hard one.

David: I imagine as teenagers you downloaded one or two tracks, but now that you’re on the other side what are your views?

Donal: The music industry is changing so much. At the moment the industry is finding itself and the issue with piracy is going to resolve itself. There has to be a happy medium for both artists and people who want to listen to music. It’s going to come with time, the recent case with The Pirate Bay is going to really have an impact on the music business as it is right now. It’s a matter of time I think, but we’d like people to be buying our records.

Lee: That’s what keeps it going, obviously there needs to be money coming in. But there’s two sides to a story, music does allot for people. And a way to get it is to download it.

Donal: It’s so available at the moment. If you ask a kid whether they’re going to pay or not… Well, it’s a temptation, it’s there: would you not take it? But we’re against it, so buy our records.

David: One thing I’m hearing more and more, is that artists are making their money from gigs, tours and merchandise.

Lee: That’s very true.

David: So, best of luck to you guys in touring.

Morgan: Thank you.

Donal: Thanks very much.

David: Any closing words for future fans?

Michele: Just that our music is really happy.

All laugh.

Donal: Are we going to close with that? Our music is really happy!?

Michele: A Michele random model moment.

Morgan: Michele is adorable.

Michele: I can’t believe I said that, it’s defiantly one for my book. You know the “Overheard in Dublin” book, that should be “Overheard: Michele’s life”.

Lee: We’d love to build a fan-base.

Morgan: Stick with us. We’re not going to stick with one type of music, we want to delve into different aspects of pop because it’s so wide and so varied. We’re going to be constantly changing.

Donal: I think that even the songs we have now have good variety.

Lee: It’s going to be great to see a fan-base building, we’ll be good to our fans.

David: Brilliant. I’m looking forward to it, and good luck guys.

All: Thanks.