by Chelsea Ness
Indie four piece, Strawman & The Jackdaw are a new discovery for me but as soon as I heard their music I knew I had to share! Their unique individual style makes them stand out and if they weren’t on your radar before then they should be now! I caught up with the band to find out more how they got started, the craziest thing to have happened to them on stage and of course their brand new EP. Have a read below now…
1. How did the band form and who came up with the incredible name? When we moved to Ireland in 2017 to attend the BIMM Dublin, we met each other in a pub during a concert: we drank too many Guinness, we started talking about why we came to Ireland and we decided playing together. Secondly people started calling Riccardo Strawman because of his huge jumpers and curly hair; so we had the idea to give a very visual and imaginary name to the band. The Jackdaw (which is an Irish type of crow) is theoretically scared by the strawman, but in our case, they are attracted by each other. This creates a strong metaphor on the meaning of the band, our music and live shows. We want to encourage people facing and overcoming all their fears instead of running away from them.
2. Describe your music to us in 3 words. Never the same.
3. You recently released your brand new EP, FOX – what’s the influence behind it and is there a particular meaning that you wanted the EP to represent? Every single member has different musical backgrounds and favourite genre of music. This is why there are many shades of colour in the EP. The EP wants to represent the concept and the experience of a life journey, described by the changes of tempo, dynamics and atmospheres. We wanted to give people a glimmer of hope in their everyday lives.
4. What’s your favourite song from the EP and why? Field Of Wonders is the one that most represents the meaning of the EP, with all its rollercoaster emotions; it is also the funniest to play live.
5. How long did it take the band to write the EP. It was a process lasted more than 3 years; we had the chance to experiment the arrangements during live shows before recording the songs in the studio.
6. You guys are based in Dublin, how would you describe the local music scene ? Before the pandemic, the city was musically active; even in a Monday evening you could come across a live show. Moving from Italy gives us the opportunity to confront ourselves with a thriving and welcoming music scene. Every genre has its own chance to be shared and listened to.
7. What Dublin based bands can you recommend for us to check out? We did an Irish tour with our friends from Post-Party, you have to check them out. We really like bands like Toy Girl, Bicurious, Toshìn, Nicetry and Nerves.
8. What’s been the craziest thing to happen to you on stage? When we did our first show in Belfast, there weren’t too many people and they all came close to the stage to dance in front of us; in the middle of the gig, a huge body builder was so drunk that he puked on the back of them. So we ended playing the rest of the show just in front of him.
9. What’s been the most memorable gig and why? For sure the Turin’s one during our first Italian tour; we would have never expected such a warm welcome from the Italian crowd; people were engaging, dancing and singing to the lyrics of the songs. At one point, one guy was so hyped that he jumped on the shoulders of one of his friends and punched the ceiling.
10. What’s your future plans / ambitions for the band? We can’t wait to get back on stage; that’s our main priority at the moment. For sure we want to reschedule our Russian tour which was supposed to happen in March 2020, as well as the English festivals. We are preparing also a European tour and it will be amazing seeing our fans and friends again. If you are curious about our live performances you can check out the new Official Video of Field Of Wonders.
Find out more about the band via their social medias below:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strawmanandthejackdaws/
Instagram: @strawman&thejackdaws
The Music Files 