Sir Reg (from Schizo Fanzine #3)
1. Hello SIR REG, please introduce the band, and don't forget SIR REG, who's that?
Hi! SIR REG is a 6 piece Celtic Prog Punk band consisting of Dubliner "Brendan Sheehy" on vocals/guitar and Swedes "Karin Ullvin" on fiddle," Robin Rönnlund" on whistles, mandolin & keyboards, "Erik Ullvin" on drums/vocals, "Juba" on bass & "Jimmie Willefors" on electric guitar. SIR REG is a pet name that Robin had for singer Brendan which just kind of became the name of the band. Weird? Yes indeed!
2. Write some lines about the past, what happen to The Barcrawlers and tell me about the new band The Banshee bones? And what is the main difference between those bands and SIR REG?
The Barcrawlers had toured itself to death and lost a few members along the way. We were more frustrated than anything else, not knowing what direction to take as we'd felt we'd achieved everything we'd set out to achieve as an Irish folk cover band. So eventually we decided it best to end the "fairytale" & move on to new pastures with our own tunes resulting in SIR REG.
As economic times are bad, myself, Karin & new bassist "Juba" decided to create "Banshee Bones" as a cash cow. It's concept is similar to that of The Barcrawlers in that it's an Irish folk covers band but this time instead of being a 5 man band we are 3 plus guest musicians. Makes us a bit more flexible & just three egos to deal with now instead of five, harhar...
3. I think that The Barcrawlers was one of the best irish folk bands among in this very exploited scene. And now is SIR REG one of the best. What do you think is the reason that you succeed all the time? As I said, the scene is really big, wich bands would you put on a top-5 list? And which bands influence you?
Haha, Cheers for that Micke! The Barcrawlers always had an explosive energy which quickly became our strong point. What we lacked in playing skills we definitely made up for in energy! We were lucky to play as many great gigs as we did and gain a loyal following who came to all our shows.
With SIR REG, well we're only in our infancy so we'll just wait & see what happens. We've the same energy as The Barcrawlers anyway which is a good start.
Our top 5 bands in this genre would probably be:
1. The Pogues
2. Horslips
3. Flogging Molly
4. Street Dogs
5. Dropkick Murphys
A lot of bands influence us. We're all into different types of music from punk to classical & I think it's evident in the sound of our new tracks. We've tried to squeeze everyone's influences into what we do and even managed to explore the wonderful world of disco in our track "Golden Days". Seemed like a good idea at the time, haha.
The reaction from folk who've listened to the new stuff has been quite different with some saying we sound like Flogging, The Pogues & Dropkick while others even mention Oasis & King Crimson. We're delighted If people compare us to Flogging or Oasis. Can hardly be a terrible thing. As said, we're only a new band so still have to find our bearings in terms of style & content. Looking forward to what the future brings!
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| Karin, one of the best fiddleplayers out there |
For the time being SIR REG will be an original compositions band only. We've done the covers thing to death over the years and we feel it's about time to have a proper crack at breaking into the Celtic Punk scene with an orginal band. There's a gap in the market here in Sweden for this type of band as our American counterparts Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, Street Dogs etc.have been gaining huge fan bases in this part of the world for many years now.
The plan for our recorded songs is to release them digitally over time. We've already released a 6 track mini-album called "This Is SIR REG" which can be purchased on Amazon & hopefully also on Itunes in the coming weeks. We're due to be released on Spotify too. We'll be putting some new tunes up on our Myspace every fortnight or so & will release the remainder of our tunes depending on the feedback we get, which so far has been really positive.
5. Your really great song Fuck the Celtic tiger have a message, what is the Celtic tiger and what's your opinion?
The Celtic Tiger is the Asian style tiger economy Ireland enjoyed from around the end of the 90's up until a year or so ago. Ireland's economy became one of the strongest in the world and all of a sudden Irish people found themselves wealthy. When the bubble burst, mass unemployment reared it's ugly head & many people who had enjoyed the economy's generous rewards were now forced to sell their houses & cars and settle for a wage from the dole. For the first time since the 80s, emigration among young people rose with many heading off in the search of a better life. The song itself deals with those issues and the hope for a better life abroad for a young Irish man.
6. Here's an obvious question. Tell me about your first whistle player that you had in The Barcrawlers?
Haha, great question! The great "Schizo Fanzine" founder Micke Ström himself was indeed our first whistler! We enjoyed many a great gig in the presence of Micke who could drink any man, woman or horse under the table aswell as playing a great whistle. Fantastic memories!
7. Since you are such a great band but maybe a bit after the culmination. what will you do to tell the world that you exist? Because I still think that you're not just a band among all others. But whats your future plans and whats your future dreams and goals?
We'll use our Myspace at first to gain contacts and see where it goes from there. Our Myspace has been up a little under a weeks now & already we've been contacted by American radio stations who've been interested in playing our stuff. Suppose a few interviews like this help spread the word also! ;)
Our plan is to write quality songs and get out and perform them as much as possible, hopefully getting to support the bigger Celtic bands when they come to Sweden. That'd be a great opportunity to get our message out to the fans of this genre. We're new at all this so will take every day as it comes & hopefully we'll be in the right situation at the right time and things will take off for us. We're dedicated 100% to making things happen anyway!
8. Can we decide over a pint that SIR REG wont be too influenced by the plasticpaddy(boston)(american)irish scene?
We can decide over a couple of pints If you're paying! ;)
Is impossible to say we won't sound similar as we use electric guitars & trad instruments but, we'll do our best to define our own sound. We've got a mellotron fetish which can only be a good thing..erm...yeah.
All Celtic punk bands have at some time been labelled as copying The Pogues. And now years later bands are said to be copying Flogging Molly or Dropkick. Maybe in the future bands will be accused of copying SIR REG, who knows? As long as the scene continues to pump out great music it will thrive and win new fans all the time. At least we've a real Irishman in our band! haha..
9. Okey, let's finish this interview, feel free to write what you want.
Thanks for giving us a chance to do this interview. Hopefully If/when things take off for us we'll give you a more interesting interview!
Check out the Myspace & drive your neighbours mad with our tunes!
All the best!/Bren from SIR REG.
Take a look at their www...
http://www.sirreg.se
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