Ahead of their appearances at Castlepalooza and Indiependence this weekend we caught up with The Minutes front man Mark Austin.
Seven months in and 2011 has been going pretty well for The Minutes. Debut album Marcata has received a positive domestic reaction, with European and UK releases still to come, they have played to steadily increasing crowds and it’s no longer surprising to hear their music on mainstream radio.
Still there’s a way to go yet, which explains why lead singer Mark Austin must apologetically interrupt our interview from time to time to deal with a customer. For the moment at least he’s working in a shop to “keep the wolves from the door”. But he’s entitled to be optimistic about a change in circumstances over the coming year.
“From September right through to Christmas we’ll be going back and over to Europe, then England in January I think, so this is the start of a long haul,” he says. “A realistic goal right now is to sustain ourselves as a band, so say we can do a tour in Europe and keep a few bob in our pockets to keep us going til we go out again.”
Longer term Mark is clear about the aims of the band. “We want to get to the top, to U2 level, that’s the long term goal, that’s what we would to aspire to…If you’re in a band you should aim to be in the best fuckin’ band in the world, otherwise don’t bother. Not to say we want to be U2, but we’d love to be up there selling out stadiums and tours all over the States.”
Coming from some that would sound like sub-Liam-Gallagher bluster, but Mark is careful to highlight the need for constant gigging and positive word-of-mouth, the band have been together since 2006 so there are no illusions about success dropping into their lap.
“We’re doing our job by getting out there, it’s a word of mouth thing, once people start talking about you, they’ll tell anybody, they’ll tell their Ma as well as telling their best mate.”
And as happy as they are with the album they see their live performance as the key to getting more fans on board.
“We just want people to see us live, they can read about us and look us up online, listen to the album, but live you’re going to either really like or really hate the band,” he explains. “We just wanted to get out there and give that chance to people to make up their mind.”
That strategy has involved playing “anywhere that wants us” so festival appearances have been interspersed with appearances in venues up and down the country. Any highlights for the year so far?
“Sea Sessions was amazing, first time playing to a full tent, it was full before we started, Oxegen was amazing, even Lahinch [County Clare] last week was great and there were, like 70 people there. That was actually better than Oxegen, being in peoples faces and chatting to them afterward.”
For now there are appearances at both Castlepalooza and Indiependence to concentrate on and then a short break before they attack Europe in the autumn. By the time they play Whelans on October 15th their 2011 could have got even better.
By Kevin Donnellan
