Mcgalligog, different but yet Irish



Hello Oliver, How are you doing today? Thanks for getting in touch with BRUTALISM. Firstly, introduce yourself and your band for the readers?
I'm Ollie, I play rythm/lead guitar and do backing vocals. Then there is Matt on lead/rythm also (he's the virtuoso kinda guy, doesn't do clean), Darren on bass. He'll usually be offstage somewhere during the set in the middle of the crowd with his bass headbanging. Our newest member Daragh is in charge of battery and loud noises (Ddrums). He comes with many years of being a metal fan, and surprising ability to learn very fast. Finally it's Phil on vocals. Never one to take it easy or relent on, or offstage. There you have Mcgalligog

How did you guys come about to be like you are today? I hear a massive array of influences. is it yourself that does all the song writing or do you guys write the songs together?
Myself, Darren and Matt met in college. We began exchanging ideas around 2005 to see what we were actually thinking of. Phil was the next recruited due to his shrieking vocal style. I remembered him always walking around belting out and Opeth or decapitated tune, and pretty well too. Before Daragh We had another drummer who left us for a band better suited to his taste. After he left we advertised around Dublin and shortly after I received a pretty drunken phonecall. It was Daragh. All I can remember was that he was really really excited and screaming down the phone at me. That's the current lineup.
It's usually Matt and I that write and arrange the music, although as of late Darren and Phil have had an input in terms of lyrics and melody. In terms of Influences, it would be myself and Phil who enjoy the much heavier side such as black, death, doom metal. The other three much prefer heavy and power metal, and would go as far as thrash most of the time with a few Black metal bands like Immortal who seem to be a favorite for all of us. Other than metal we enjoy traditional music including Folk, some funk, 70's stuff too.

I hear quite abit of black metal in the sound as opposed to death metal as per described? Are you guys fans of black metal? With this in mind, The lead guitar playing is that of quite a virtuoso nature which to me seems almost very separate to both these styles, why is this? what are you influences for the leads?
Cant seem to write without black metal creeping in. That would be my writing style. I enjoy the big use of full chords in black metal along with the aggressive drumming. I don't go out of my way to write that way, it just comes out in the music. I love big chords and harmonics in a riff. I learned on acoustic, so I like to create a big melody even before any lead is added. I think we coined ourselves as death metal because we don't really consider our style to be black metal. For the most part the lead usually tries to deviate from the riff to add another layer to the song. Some people are drawn to lead, some to rhythm, and others again take in the full scope. The style heard is due to Matt's influences on guitar. Paul Gilbert, Micheal Romeo, Jason Becker, these are the people he loves. I play lead in some parts (lunacy). I tend to write stuff that sticks to the rhythm more closely. Iced Earth, and Blind Guardian are my main influences for lead.

You have a brand new E.P. coming out, Delusions Of Madness, have you got some dates planned in support of this? where can folk go check you out? An of course where can folk buy it?
We had a launch Tour back in June 2010. We did three dates. Belfast, Dublin and Cork. We had two dates before that which the EP was available in limerick and kildare all within June. We're looking into organising a UK tour in the new year for about a week long in conjunction with the EP release. Our next gig will be the 24th of september in Dublin. Further details can be found at www.myspace.com/mcgalligog. We're also on twitter, bandcamp, and facebook. The CD can be purchased at any of our gigs coming up. Alternatively you can email us with an address and we'll post one out for a cost of 5 euro. We have a free download available at www.mcgalligog.com . If you search for "mcgalligog" in Google you're also sure to find a ton of blog sites that have our EP for download.

Have you guys played any real crazy shows that stand out in your minds? any crazy on the road stories? Every band has them! who is the nutter of Mcgalligog?
Well the last show we played in Cork was all over the place. With all the re arrangements, changing venue, hiring a new PA, myself having to do the sound for the night it actually went really well. Not to mention the slew of bands that were playing, then not playing. With only two bands from the original Bill playing the gig went really well. Once the main support went on, the room was packed. They were the local band so people really got into them. Once they had finished everyone was buzzin'. We went on and opened with our fastest song, and that night it turned out to be the loudest that night! We were pretty sauced at that stage but we managed to pull off a pretty good show. I'm still baffled as to how we had such luck to keep the gig happening.
I would have to say our drummer is the nutter. We've been to his place only twice as a group, and each time has been crazy. He ended up naked at least twice each time we were there, walking down the mainstreet outside.

The name Mcgalligog, is an intriguing one, what does it mean and whats its origins?
It's actually the only name we could all agree on, and the shortest. The name itself actually came about while in a lecture, one professor mispronounced a surname as "Mcgalligog", it just clicked with us. We like it because it's different and yet somehow Irish. We're all very much into science and technology. We had a bunch of names that were based around our interests, but were just to long or too strange. The name to us means the sum of our ideas and opinions mashed into one ball which comes out sounding like the music you hear. On the serious side, we really dislike labeling and categorizing or music or people based solely on appearance. Stereotyping may be "handy" but it isn't always the same for everyone. Other songs delve into our interest in sci-fi and fantasy such as Earthbound doom, or Jewel of 1000 Worlds.

Ok so moving on. Any big plans for the future? An album perhaps?
As mentioned above we are planning a UK tour in the new year. We'd like to get something in Europe next summer but we'll see what happens. As far as an album goes, we have a couple of new songs in the works, and if we get the time we were thinking of a 10 track album. It's all up in the air for now, but that's what we've discussed.

And Finally Oliver, Any Last rites?!
If you enjoy the EP, come to a show and hear the rest of songs. If you dont like our EP, come to a show and maybe you'll like the rest of our songs, you never know. Metal is what you make of it.

Next show on the 24th of september in Dublin - Updates to be found at www.myspace.com/mcgalligog - if you're around, get yer asses there!
Band:
Interviewer: Connor
Aug 8, 2010
Next interview: Red Snow on the rise

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