„I can come back to medicine later, but you can’t come back to being in a rockband”

An inked punk-doctor? What can a band do if someone is harassed in the crowd during a gig? Politics, Brexit & Eastern Europe. Interview with Otherkin.

 

 

Not long ago the Irish band, Otherkin visited Hungary. We had a moment to talk with Luke Reilly (vocals/guitar) and Rob Summons (drums) before their show about Irish people, politics and Eastern-Europe.

 

Although they only started in 2014 in Dublin, the band already has an LP and they’re right in the middle of a European tour. These guys are on the way to be the ‘Next Big Irish Thing’. The key to success, according to Luke, is being conscious.

 

‘When we started the band, we wanted to take that very seriously. We wrote a lot of songs and didn’t just expect things to happen. We always wanted to play gigs and make more music, until people started to realise us and listening to our music.’

 

Two out of four members of the „most overqualified band in the world” are qualified doctors, only Rob, the drummer dropped out of college 3 months before graduating. In this case, we must ask the guy with skinny jeans, inked chest and Martens shoes about choosing a career path.

 

 

– I only started playing music when I was sixteen. So when I left school I was pretty bad. I thought I was pretty cool and wanted to make a living out of playing the guitar. My parents were like ‘Oh, we really think you should go to college’. And it was a good idea because we all met when we were in college. And it was during the last year of college that things with the band started turning quite seriously. We broke off a record deal the same time that we graduated. So we had to decide what we want to do.’ – says Luke.

 

And what was the main reason behind choosing the band?

 

‘I can come back to medicine if I want to, later. But you can’t come back to being in a rock band. That’s something that you have to start when you’re younger.’

 

Sexual abuse during a gig: NO WAY!

The scandals about sexual abuse came mainly from Hollywood, but a few weeks ago Otherkin posted a statement on Facebook after they realised that during their show at Camden a young female member of the audience was sexually harassed. In the statement, they made it clear: they won’t tolerate any of it during their gigs. Then we talked about the case of Ethan Kath (Crystal Castles) and Jesse Lacy (Brand New)

 

‘Reading about the allegations of Ethan Kath, and then we read the story of Jesse Lacy, who admitted the charges… I think he’s a piece of shit. People will find excuses and say ‘oh, he created all this fantastic music’. I think: I don’t care! I think he’s a prick. Simple as this. Cause you know, if you’re in a situation when fans, like a 15-year-old girl looks up to you, and she loves your band, you have a huge responsibility in this situation. And the way he acted is disgraceful, and there’s no excuse for that. I think they should burn.’

 

‘Some only enter politics to be more popular’

– We’re really against Brexit, Donald Trump, and a lot of crazy stuffs. We’re liberals – answers Rob the question how important politics are to a post-grunge-punk-rock band today.

 

– I’m vegetarian, Luke’s a vegan, but we don’t write songs about veganism. We play music to have a good time and to enjoy ourselves. We don’t want to hit them over the head with these big issues. We saw a lot of bands who started talking about Brexit and politics, I think in a way to get more popular. But they talk about politics in a very dumb way, they don’t really understand the issues – explains the drummer.

 

 

According to Luke, they have a few songs which are political but they ‘do it in a way that if you casually listen to the song, you wouldn’t necessarily think: oh this is political! But if you pay attention, you’ll see what it is.’

 

And talking about that: what it’ll be like when Brexit happens? – ‘Nobody really knows what’s going to happen. This is a big thing. I don’t think there’ll be problems with us. Maybe for English bands. It’s gonna be very difficult for them to tour in Europe, it can destroy the English music industry. We have English musician friends, well they worry!’ – says Rob.

 

Luke joins: ‘During this tour, we’ve been to Germany, Holland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Hungary… If we had to pay for each country to enter, for a visa, this tour wouldn’t have happened!’

 

 

Rethinking the question: what’s going to happen if the British music industry closes its doors?

 

– I wouldn’t think we’d play less there. It’s expensive for us to get into the UK, we have to pay for a ferry, and it might get more expensive but probably not to the extent where we wouldn’t go because once we’re in, we can move freely around. But we have to wait and see. It’s a crazy time to be alive, anything can happen’ – summed up Rob.

 

‘This is just like home!’

About the tour, we had to ask about how it goes. Talking to the Irish Mirror, they said they didn’t really know what to expect in Eastern Europe. They told us that they don’t know anything about this region, and they only had preconceptions but Hungary was a real surprise for them.

 

– We were expecting that eating vegan here would be difficult because that’s what we’ve heard. But this is the best vegan food we’ve had so far. In Ireland, we don’t know much about Hungary. So you have misconceptions in your head. And then you come here and you’re like: ‘this is similar to home’. Amazing!’ – they explain.

 

Luke even said that they are proud of being Irish. During one of their German stops, he had to go to the hospital and was taken care by a rude nurse. As soon as she found out that he is Irish, she turned very friendly and helpful.

 

– ‘A lot of places where we go in Europe, people like us because we’re Irish. People around like Irish people because they’re very easy-going and friendly, and this whole St Patrick’s thing. Especially when you play in a country like Hungary, where not many Irish bands come, it’s nice to be abroad and flying the Irish flag’ – they summarize the Irish sentiment.

 

The guys are really serious about working hard. As soon as this tour ends, they’ll start organising the next one, they come back in February, be part of the festival hype and planning an American tour as well.

 

‘We love touring. Going to places, meeting other people and playing music. A lot of fun and a lot of drinking. Maybe we should take a month off when it’s over.’

 

EDITED by Károly Gergely

 

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