Meg.ie spoke with Ellie McNamara of Heathers about gigging, recording, studying and THAT song from the tourism ad.
Heathers were formed back in 2007 by twin sisters Ellie and Louise McNamara. They recorded and released their debut album ‘Here, Not There’ in 2008 while studying for their Leaving Cert. Since then they’ve both combined third-level studies with band activities, touring the States with Ghost Mice and Kimya Dawson and drawing inevitable, though favourable, comparisons with another indie twin duo, Tegan and Sara.
However before March of this year Heathers were not particularly well known by the wider Irish public . Then Discover Ireland decided, correctly, that their song ‘Remember When’ would make the perfect accompaniment to their television and cinema ad campaign. Suddenly Heathers were synonymous with that blonde wan in the bikini on an Irish beach and trips to the cinema. *
The album was re-released this year (Click here for your chance to win a signed copy) and ‘Remember When’ joined the list of previously underlooked classics that were suddenly ‘discovered’ by people lazing in front of the couch during Coronation Street.
“It’s opened up our music to a wider audience, people who mightn’t otherwise have heard us, so it’s been great, a great experience,” said Ellie.
With their debut album receiving renewed attention the band can now take their time completing their follow-up.
“The [first] album is probably being heard now by more people but we’re still writing for our new album,” explained Ellie.
“We spent most of July writing stuff but with college it’s hard to get enough time to do everything, I’m doing Primary School teaching and Louise is doing Geography and Music Technology , she’s in her final year but we’ll try and get a good bit done and should have the new album out next year”.
Before they start back in college there’s still some touring to be done, Heathers make their debut Electric Picnic appearance next month as well as a couple of solo shows and a few appearances supporting Paulo Nutini.
“We had our Irish tour in June and that was great, got such a great response pretty much everywhere we played,” said the singer.
“We’re so excited about Electric Picnic, we haven’t played there or even been to it as a spectator but we’ve heard such great things about it from friends”.
When the inevitable influences question rears it’s head (maybe it’s not inevitable, maybe I’m just crap at thinking of original questions, hmmmmm) Ellie adopts a different tack to the bands who trot out a list of different acts like a mantra.
“I don’t think we’ve any particular influences, like no-one we specifically said ‘that’s who we want to sound like’ I’d say our friends are probably our biggest influences, like we grew up with a lot of music around us, and like our brother is a big influence, things like that,” she said.
“We listened to a lot of say Simon & Garfunkel and Bruce Springsteen when we were growing up but I don’t think there’s anything specific there in our songs that you could say is a direct influence”.
And at a time where bands can sometimes put the marketing before the music Heathers are trying to keep the whole thing simple.
“We don’t really think about it [marketing], we just go and play our music and if people like it they like and if they don’t they don’t”.
For the moment Heathers are best known as the “that band from the ad” but with Electric Picnic coming up and some great new material already written for the new album that won’t last long.
By Kev Donnellan
* I doubt that’s what Discover Ireland had in mind but the ad’s been on in the cinema so much that ‘Remember When’ now makes me crave popcorn and minstrels.
