By: Mark O'Reilly
The Lavengros are a fresh local pop rock band from Derry played in Bennigans Bar Tonight.
The place where bands really kick start their music career and we catch up with the band before they're live gig. We've heard so many bands play in Bennigans in the last while and this band are something completely different from what we've heard before and it's so refreshing to hear in the city.
There was also Letterkenny band Constant Supply who played after The Lavengros but they really kicked Friday night off with a banging set of tunes and had the crowd that packed the bar out were moving along to some of the tracks they performed including a selection of their own tracks mixed with a few covers of bands like Stereophonics in which at one point I thought Kelly and the lads from Stereophonics were performing in Bennigans but it was The Lavengros.
If you never heard of them before and are intrigued already then I recommend checking this band out...
We got loads of photos and videos from the bands performing now on our Facebook: Facebook.com/Derryvibe
The place where bands really kick start their music career and we catch up with the band before they're live gig. We've heard so many bands play in Bennigans in the last while and this band are something completely different from what we've heard before and it's so refreshing to hear in the city.
There was also Letterkenny band Constant Supply who played after The Lavengros but they really kicked Friday night off with a banging set of tunes and had the crowd that packed the bar out were moving along to some of the tracks they performed including a selection of their own tracks mixed with a few covers of bands like Stereophonics in which at one point I thought Kelly and the lads from Stereophonics were performing in Bennigans but it was The Lavengros.
If you never heard of them before and are intrigued already then I recommend checking this band out...
We got loads of photos and videos from the bands performing now on our Facebook: Facebook.com/Derryvibe
This is a band to watch in the next year or so as these guys are gonna be massive. So I caught up with both bands before they went on stage to perform in Bennigans..
The Lavengros Interview:
Tell me a bit about your band?
We are a sorta a different sounding band, normally in Derry you get alternative sort of sound but we are trying to make it commercial and so we formed about a year and a half ago and things have gone brilliantly and we just released our debut EP and it's gone down absolutely what we didn't expect. We weren't expecting the reaction that we got so we are really happy.
So the sort of sound we have is a pop sort of sound rather than some bands in Derry are normally known for the rock scene and alternative. So we kind of keep it commercial and that's the way we are planning to go.
What's meaning behind the name "The Lavengros" your band name?
I know it's different but it does have a meaning we just didn't pull it from anywhere its like my great great great uncle would have been like a famous author a way back in 1800s and he wrote a book and it done really well. It was called "Lavengro" so we said you know what just call it that so it does have a meaning
Would you follow any of the other local bands around the northwest?
Yeah locally i'd listen to few of the bands The Clameens are a very good band and Artic Crescent and also a band scenery too.
I really love their sound to scenery, Soul seekers as well so we are just trying to get our way in with them into the local scene. So they know that's our second original gig tonight, So we are slowly but surely coming along onto the scene, so we have big plans for this year.
So you must be quite familiar with the local Derry music scene ?
We try and go to as much events as possible. We were over watching The Clameens in Walled City Brewery one night and we do our best to get out and about to see what's going on, even getting some tips and watch what people are doing.
We got a lot of help from Paddy Nash the musician and his band has helped us massively and Stevie McLaughlin as he is in a band called Sand stone, as they were quite big a few years ago and they've helped us as well.
There is a lot of local talented artists and musicians around town. Don't you think these kind of nights held by Bennigans are a great way for local bands to showcase what they to offer?
We love in here it's a great venue and see where to launch our EP aswell there is no better place. We are just trying to get our EP out to try and sell it, so Bennigans is the best place to do it because there is a lot musical people from here.
There is a lot of local bands that have come through here and made their way up?
We know Soak who started off playing here and Keith Harkin who is away in Celtic Thunders loved this venue.
I think too it's the only real place in Derry where you can be yourself. Like we played cover gigs in Granny Annies and stuff and look it's not us, we are an original band and this is the good place that understands music in Derry and that's why we wanted to come here.
You come here to listen to original music, not to dance to a few covers. You don't really hear you unless for us to show you what we are for us to try and sell it.
Your newest single "All I Need" is out now, I watched the video today and it's quite retro looking video and quite catchy, so tell me about the song?
We are kinda going for that kind of 80s cheesy theme kind of commercial like a parody just that kind of style. We do have normal day shots of it, we had this idea that I think it was me and the manager Jonathan where watching a funny video from years ago it was an 80s dating video. Back in the day they used to make dating videos to promote themselves so we thought instead of being a serious video like must bands all you see is in practice so we thought lets do something different and its got a great reaction like a 1,000 views in like 5 or 6 days or something. So it's going really well. We are abosutely delighted with the response to it.
Have to say a big thank you to Conall Melarkey that directed the video and was sort of him his brain child. Its a great video so massive thank you to him.
So tell us a bit about the song All I Need or the meaning behind it?
It's just basically about love that's all it is, the song was more like Valentines Day king of thing. The kind of style of the song was retro. So the song we wanted to try and keep it not too cheesy but cheesy in a way. The songs about 5 guys in a band who are doing this dating video and all they're saying is all they want is love and all they need is love, so they're looking for the girl and it's quite relevant in everyday. It's just really a boy girl story really. so we just try to capture that.
So you kind of find that a familiar situation with yourselfs then?
Yeah well we all have girlfriends and think Emmett is the only single one. He is on the look out!
That's what it was wrote about we all have girlfriends and all were saying is all need is their love and attention and that's it really we are getting all sloppy.
We are kinda going for that kind of 80s cheesy theme kind of commercial like a parody just that kind of style. We do have normal day shots of it, we had this idea that I think it was me and the manager Jonathan where watching a funny video from years ago it was an 80s dating video. Back in the day they used to make dating videos to promote themselves so we thought instead of being a serious video like must bands all you see is in practice so we thought lets do something different and its got a great reaction like a 1,000 views in like 5 or 6 days or something. So it's going really well. We are abosutely delighted with the response to it.
Have to say a big thank you to Conall Melarkey that directed the video and was sort of him his brain child. Its a great video so massive thank you to him.
So tell us a bit about the song All I Need or the meaning behind it?
It's just basically about love that's all it is, the song was more like Valentines Day king of thing. The kind of style of the song was retro. So the song we wanted to try and keep it not too cheesy but cheesy in a way. The songs about 5 guys in a band who are doing this dating video and all they're saying is all they want is love and all they need is love, so they're looking for the girl and it's quite relevant in everyday. It's just really a boy girl story really. so we just try to capture that.
So you kind of find that a familiar situation with yourselfs then?
Yeah well we all have girlfriends and think Emmett is the only single one. He is on the look out!
That's what it was wrote about we all have girlfriends and all were saying is all need is their love and attention and that's it really we are getting all sloppy.
Watch The Lavengros - All I NEED Music Video:
So is that something we can expect tonight similar to "All I Need" or different?
It's very different, our ep is like there is a mix of all genres kind of as there is funk, groove, dance everything in the ep. People say what kind of genre you like and i say i am into all genres so our is literally everything.
Except Metal..
What advise would you give to other bands that are starting out and trying to get noticed?
Just go for it and just do it, do whatever you think and do what you wanna do, just do it because like we were in former bands and we just sat and took a gig every weekend as it came we weren't getting anywhere. Best advise i would give is do whatever you wanna do, don't think it's far fetched just go and do it and that's what we did.
We just have to say a big thank you to everyone who helped us through the way, we got Jonathan our manager who we wouldn't be half way where we are and Stevie McLaughlin who mastered and recorded the ep. We wouldn't be anywhere without him and Conall who done the video and Don who took the photographs and the lads in the band they're brilliant lads to work with..
There is loads of bands we could thank for helping us like Paddy Nash, he given us loads of advise, contacts and bar suggestions which is a really good help throughout the way.
It's very different, our ep is like there is a mix of all genres kind of as there is funk, groove, dance everything in the ep. People say what kind of genre you like and i say i am into all genres so our is literally everything.
Except Metal..
What advise would you give to other bands that are starting out and trying to get noticed?
Just go for it and just do it, do whatever you think and do what you wanna do, just do it because like we were in former bands and we just sat and took a gig every weekend as it came we weren't getting anywhere. Best advise i would give is do whatever you wanna do, don't think it's far fetched just go and do it and that's what we did.
We just have to say a big thank you to everyone who helped us through the way, we got Jonathan our manager who we wouldn't be half way where we are and Stevie McLaughlin who mastered and recorded the ep. We wouldn't be anywhere without him and Conall who done the video and Don who took the photographs and the lads in the band they're brilliant lads to work with..
There is loads of bands we could thank for helping us like Paddy Nash, he given us loads of advise, contacts and bar suggestions which is a really good help throughout the way.
Following this gig in Bennigans, Where can we see you play next or what's next for the band?
So what we plan to do in the summer its obviously the festival scene , so we are hoping to play festivals in summer and just getting on original circuit and after Bennigans we plan to find some bands maybe not locally but maybe in Belfast or somewhere that's bit out of Derry to support. So I don't wanna go to far ahead of ourselves but we are looking to support a few bands around Belfast and maybe doing a few radio tours and getting the song plugged and ep.
Also planning on recording an album in the summer as we been writing new songs and there sounding maybe even better cause we are still learning and they are sounding really good. Yeah so we have a lot of plans in the future...
So what we plan to do in the summer its obviously the festival scene , so we are hoping to play festivals in summer and just getting on original circuit and after Bennigans we plan to find some bands maybe not locally but maybe in Belfast or somewhere that's bit out of Derry to support. So I don't wanna go to far ahead of ourselves but we are looking to support a few bands around Belfast and maybe doing a few radio tours and getting the song plugged and ep.
Also planning on recording an album in the summer as we been writing new songs and there sounding maybe even better cause we are still learning and they are sounding really good. Yeah so we have a lot of plans in the future...
Where can we find you on social media so we can follow your music?
We are on Facebook: facebook.com/Thelavengros
Twitter: Twitter.com/TheLavengros
Youtube: Youtube.com/TheLavengros
We are on Facebook: facebook.com/Thelavengros
Twitter: Twitter.com/TheLavengros
Youtube: Youtube.com/TheLavengros