The immortal coil
They might be the alter ego of Dublin rockers Future Kings of Spain but A Lazarus Soul are anything but a side project.
Shilpa Ganatra, 02 Apr 2007
Given the recent hive of activity in the Future Kings Of Spain camp, any reasonable outsider would expect Joey Wilson, Anton Hegarty and Bryan McMahon’s other band, A Lazarus Soul, to twiddle its thumbs in the sideline until the Kings have some downtime.
Not so – in fact both bands have their comeback gigs in the capital just two weeks apart. Now that’s timing, eh?
Yet living in the shadows of a bigger band isn’t troublesome for the A Lazarus Soul’s creator, frontman and chief songwriter, Brian Branningan.
“Oh I don’t mind at all,” he assures, settled with a cup of coffee in the Library Bar in Dublin. “I consider myself much more of a music fan than a music maker. I’ve been going to gigs and buying albums since I was 14, and I’m the Future Kings’ biggest fan, so no, I don’t mind being associated with them.”
Yet the Future Kings aren’t the only well-known people in the band. Brian himself is ex of Sub Assembly. Fin O’Leary of Mexican Pets lends his tubthumping skills to the project, and the new album, Graveyard Of Burnt Out Cars, as well as their previous LP, alazarussoul record, was overseen by Joe Chester, no less. Get him started on the subject of how they began working together, and Brian’s aforementioned enthusiasm for music shines through.
“I heard Joe’s album On Winter and it was one of the best LPs I’d ever heard; I loved it. I then started working with members of Ten Speed Racer [now-defunct rock band from the early ‘00s] when he joined, so the timing worked out really well. Especially with this album, he has a lot of influence over the way it sounds – it’s incredibly collaborative.”
If that wasn’t enough name-dropping, A Lazarus Soul have also got Headrush director Shimmy to make their video for lead single ‘Icon’.
“He was going to LA, so this was his goodbye project. It was quite fitting as it’s a celebration of old Dublin, but it also meant that it ended up being quite rushed,” he says of the video, which has been picked up by Propeller TV and Channel 6.
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