If you study at Trinity College Dublin, it’s likely you’ve heard of the Trinitones, the all-male acapella group legendary for their snapping virality and even snappier renditions of songs ranging from Sean Kingston to the Strokes. However, despite the fact you may have seen their TikToks or perhaps even connected your phone to the television so you could stream their Christmas songs at your holiday party (guilty as charged), the Trinitones occupy a somewhat mythical sphere at Trinity. Who are these suit clad young men snapping their fingers outside of House 5? I spoke with Trinitones co-director Aengus Gilligan to demystify the legends themselves.
Gilligan, a final year PPES student specialising in sociology and political science has been a part of the Trinitones since his first week of his first year. He explains to me that one of the boys that he had done choir with from ages eight to fourteen was in charge during Gilligan’s first year and suggested that Gilligan audition. Four years later, he now co-directs with final year Medicine student Johnny Henderson.
One thing I was particularly keen to uncover was the process of becoming a Trinitone. Gilligan describes the process to me as “chill enough” with the first round of auditions “you just go in, you sing the song of your choice. That’s all there is”. There is also a bit of sight singing though Gilligan assures me it’s not a requirement. He then laughs and brings up the beatboxing of it all. He says, “sometimes, even if you’ve never beatboxed before, sometimes people uncover a hidden talent that they don’t know about”. A score is also sent out in advance of a second round of auditions which is to be sung with the wider group.
This may seem like an arduous enough process, but it’s clear to me it’s completely worth it. Gilligan also sets out the rehearsal process which is twice a week in the evenings. He tells me, “The set is always changing, as well as the members”– something he finds beneficial. He also explains that all the arrangements of making a song acapalla are done in house. This, he says, “gives it a really nice personal touch and also kind of little inside jokes in the score”. He admits this is a “little bit self indulgent, because you’re like, ‘I want to sing this song’, or ‘I want us to do this song’. There’s a mixture of kind of refreshing, keeping on top of old, and then also bringing in some new stuff”.
Since Gilligan is one of the longest standing members in the current group, I was also interested in learning more about how the group has evolved during his time with it. Gilligan explains, “I joined a very tight group” who he says were well into their 70’s music. The current group likes to “keep a good mixture of what’s current, what would be a really good sound”. An example he tells me about is Hozier’s Too Sweet, which was added to the set this past year. Gilligan explained this as a positive addition to the set, as it’s one one of the big songs this year but also works very well as acapella. This stems from, as he says, “the music taste of the group at a time kind of feeds it itself into what we sing and perform.”
Despite this evolution of sound, the close-knit nature of the group that Gilligan joined has continued in his four year tenure. When I ask him what makes the Trinitones so special, he pauses before telling me, “We’re such a good group of friends. I mean, we spend so much time together,” going on to say “I like how tight the group is at the moment, where everybody gets on so well where any combination of us can be brilliant together”. He explains to me that this bond is assisted through the opportunities the Trinitones have had together including trips to Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Australia.
I also ask Gilligan about the single-gender aspect of the Trinitones. “I’m not a fan of the clear divide that’s been there in the past” he answers. He mentions the Trinity Belles, Trinity’s all female acapella group, saying the two groups have had joint rehearsals and even recorded a few songs together. Gilligan tells me the plan is to have much more interaction with the Belles in the future, though he points out that a merit of an all male group is the sound blend with all the lower voices. Gilligan also calls the group “fundamentally unserious” when I inquire about what he thinks makes the Trinitones so special. “It’s a different kind of music, especially from all the other music societies in college like the more formal, serious Choral Society” he says, adding that “it’s so personal every song that we do, it’s like, this feels like an arrangement done by a different generation”. Arrangements are key for the Trinitones and Gilligan shares that he recently mandated, no matter how good or bad they were, that each member of the group had to submit an arrangement of their own.
I would be remiss to not ask Gilligan about the viral achievements of the Trinitones, who boast 135k followers on Instagram and an eye watering 292.7k on Tiktok, with numerous videos gaining millions of views. Though the group was founded in 2014, Gilligan tells me the uptick in virality began in 2016/2017, when social media opened the group to “what could be and what was possible”. Though Gilligan jokes that he is haunted by the Trinitone’s viral Beautiful Girls rendition, he insists “it’s come full circle now, it’s love, it comes from a place of love” and that the videos have “sparked incredible opportunities” for the group. Some of these opportunities include performing at weddings, places like Whelans, touring the world, and most recently a French perfume ad in Galway. The Trinitones also hold a charity gig each term, the one this past December raising over €1,300 for the Mater Foundation.
The Trinitones have much to look forward to, Gilligan tells me. They have just recorded their first full length album and hope to release it sometime this year. They had previously released an EP, the capstone project of former Trinitone Johnny Mason. They also are in the planning stages of a trip to tour America this upcoming summer. Trips like these are clear highlights of being a Trinitone, as Gilligan shares a story about performing ‘Danny Boy’ in a GAA club in Buenos Aires and “these Irish expats, they would just have a tear to their eye hearing the traditional songs”.
When I ask about the legacy of the Trinitones, Gilligan says “you’re always building on what came before” adding, “what I like is grounding us in the college, that people know us personally. That we’re not this kind of ethereal entity.” He also tells me, “every time we perform, we’re always the people having the most fun.” It’s clear to me how much the Trinitones mean to Gilligan and how much we have to look forward to with them filling college up with what Gilligan describes as “pure craic”. It seems uncovering the mystery of the Trinitones makes them no less alluring and perhaps makes them altogether more enchanting.
