Fortune favours the cold
It wasn't too long ago that The Blizzards were unknown outside of their native Mullingar. Now they've three top 10 Irish singles to their credit and an album, A Public Display Of Affection, that has the potential to explode internationally.
Peter Murphy, 15 Nov 2006
“Small-town outsiders frequently believe more intensely in rock myths. Swallowing dreams whole, they can lack the worldliness, agnosticism and chameleon habits of Big City scenemakers. Kurt Cobain’s version of punk could be nothing but fundamentalist.”
Bill Graham, Hot Press, October 1993.
And so it is with The Blizzards. Mind you, the Mullingar band, whose debut album A Public Display Of Affection is out this month, betray little of the angst-ridden posturing of their grunge and second-wave punk antecedents.
Instead, they cleave to old-fashioned (but not quaint) entertainment values acquired from playing venues where rock ‘n’ roll was never meant to be played.
Acts who cut their teeth outside the hermetically sealed metropolitan bubbles tend to learn the practicalities early. A full dancefloor means a return booking, a sullen audience a tactical setback. Despite this though, the quintet have managed to dodge the rock-showband epithets hurled at acts like The Sawdoctors and The Revs.
“We decided we had to get out of our comfort zone as soon we as we could,” says Niall Breslin, the former rugby pro who fronts the band. “You can only get so far with your friends clapping, so we came up to Dublin straight away and played Eamonn Doran’s a few Friday nights, and almost before we knew it, we started creating this fanbase. At the time our songs were quite undeveloped, but we did have energy and we did put on a show. Now we’ve scrapped all the songs that weren’t good enough.”
Having developed under the tutelage of A-list producer Michael Beinhorn, The Blizzards can now boast one of the tightest and most single minded of Irish rhythm sections. That said, the ska-rock hybrid inflections that distinguished early singles like ‘Trouble’ are largely and surprisingly absent from their debut, as if those elements were an adolescent infatuation. That said, they still hold fast to the importance of an unrelenting groove.
“The Clash were my biggest influence,” says Niall. “When friends were listening to Metallica and Sepultura I was listening to Clash records. I didn’t even know what ska music was. But nobody in the world hates ska music. Not everybody loves it, but nobody hates it. I mean, I can’t dance, but when ska music comes on, you can’t help it.”
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