Ireland's Folk Whirlwind 'The Eskies' Tour Australia
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Ireland's Folk Whirlwind 'The Eskies' Tour Australia

Dublin-based sea-soaked gypsy ensemble The Eskies have released their second album, And Don’t Spare the Horses. Brimming with “melodramatic tales of woes, betrayal, conflict, upheaval, rebellion, love, loss, fear and anger”, the band has lined up a handful of Aussie dates in 2018. We chat to the guys ahead of their tour.
Hi boys, thanks for taking the time to chat with Forte. We’re excited to hear the news of you heading down under! What do you expect from your Australian audience?
Well hello there, thank you for having us! Feeling pretty excited here too, it’s going to be great. This is our first time venturing to Australia and after all the good things we’ve heard, we expect nothing less than a ‘how to’ of giving a band a great time.
An exhibition in singing!
A demonstration in dancing!
A. . . presentation in. . . participation!
Have you been pleased with the outcome of your second album, And Don’t Spare The Horses? What does this record mean to the five of you?
Yeah, absolutely. So far so good. We’ve a lot of work still to do, in terms of getting it to people’s ears but all the early signs are good. It’s incredible to go out on tour with an album that’s only been out a few weeks and have entire rooms of people singing verses of songs back at you! Writing it, recording it and releasing it all happened quite quickly so it was a bit of a whirlwind. It was exhilarating and terrifying in equal measures!
How do the five of you collaborate together in preparation for a new album and accompanying tour?

With an album; we bury ourselves away in a windowless hovel in Dublin and each throw things around that we like. There’s a lot of batting ideas around between us before we settle on what we all ultimately like best! As a songwriter, it’s very exciting when someone tweaks something in a direction that you never thought of but that you instantly like infinitely more than before!
Before going out on tour we go to the same aforementioned hovel and get a show together, trying to shape a set and get a bit of a cohesive flow on things so that by the time we get on stage we can just enjoy ourselves!
How does your Irish heritage influence your music?
Our music isn’t something that anyone would listen to and immediately think ‘Irish’ in the traditional sense but we are all big fans of Irish music and do see ourselves as very much part of the Irish tradition of bands. Does that make sense!?
To those who are familiar with Irish music, there are things that are inherently Irish about our music, from the energy to the subject matter and the overall tone of our music. There’s a certain sense of drama, a grandness that is present in a lot of Irish music and real sense of tragedy that no self-respecting Irish song could ever be without. Most importantly though, I think, is the sense of humour. We tend to veer towards subject matters on the darker end of the spectrum and more times than not like to do it in a melodramatic, tongue in cheek kind of way. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.

Your energy is fantastic! Do you all enjoy being on the road and performing to a wide-range of mixed audiences?

Yeah, definitely. If you’re going to spend large chunks of your time travelling with a group of people, it helps if they’re your best friends and you all enjoy being around each other so that’s a good start! Getting to see different places and meet lots of different people is such a massive, massive bonus to what we do and we absolutely love it.
Thanks for taking the time to chat Forte – is there anything you’d like to add or tell your Australian fans?
Thank you! Only that we’re excited to finally get to come play for you all at last and that we’ll see you very soon! Up The Parish!
When & Where: The Spotted Mallard, Brunswick – March 2; The Old Castlemaine Gaol, Castlemaine – March 3; The Mordialloc Food, Wine and Music Festival – March 4 & The Port Fairy Folk Festival, Port Fairy – March 10-12