Eatenbybears
One of Ireland’s top independent labels are going on tour. ElevenEleven will be bringing Alarmist, Eatenbybears and visual artists LeTissier and Slipdraft around Ireland over the coming fortnight. And ahead of what should be a good old fashioned wacky races-style jaunt around the country we spoke with Mark Hearne from LeTissier about what to expect on the visual side of things.
First off, what can people expect if they come to one of these gigs over the coming fortnight?
If you are coming to any of the gigs you should be expecting a lot of projectors. We are bringing five or six on the tour along with a boat load of different projection surfaces made from dozens of shapes that the lads have been putting together over the last week or so and also two amazing bands.{Ed; To see what you can expect have a look at a little video here}
Is the visual side of things something that has previously been overlooked a little by bands, promotors, etc or is it just that technology is only catching up to allow it be used well by independents?
There are a couple of promoters and companies who are very aware and supportive of the visual side of things and really get what it can bring to a gig or event. The technology has become a lot more accessible and user friendly over the last five years or so which is why I think that visuals are starting to become more common place in some of smaller venues with some up and coming bands.
Do you think visuals are best suited for particular genres of music or could, say, Christy Moore have a killer visual show if he so wished?
Yeah there is a definite line where I don’t think that you need to draft in a VJ. I tend to try and get involved with bands and genres that I enjoy, it makes it way easier when you are spend a day or two setting up a project if your head isnt getting wrecked during sound checks. Folk probably wouldn’t need some visuals but I wouldn’t be against playing with Christie if he wanted. A 50 foot screen with Christie playing guitar riding around a horse in a Father Ted-esque style might go pretty well with his set.
Any particular VJs at the moment out there that are worth catching?
A lot of the more impressive stuff at the moment is coming from outside Ireland like ‘United Visual Artist‘ and ‘1024 Architecture‘ who have some impressively large budgets to match. I’m gonna blame the recession here. There are some really talented people in Ireland at the moment, CLU are doing some really interesting stuff along with a few others doing things for building projections. I feel that there are people doing visuals at a lot of club nights but there are very few of us branching out and really pushing what video can do when it is produced with a band directly in mind.
Eleven Eleven Tour kicks off tonight in Limerick and takes in seven venues, finishing on February 18th in Twisted Pepper, full dates below.
Kevin Donnellan
Tour dates:
Feb 08 Limerick Bakers Place 8pm €5
Feb 09 Belfast Radar, Queens Speakeasy 9pm Free
Feb 10 Mullingar The Stables 9pm €5
Feb 11 Galway The Factory 8pm Free
Feb 16 Derry Masons 8pm £3
Feb 17 Cork Crane Lane 8pm Free
Feb 18 Dublin Twisted Pepper 11pm €5
