David Doyle reports from the Hard Working Class Heroes festival
Culture Editor
There’s been a seismic shift in the music industry in the last number of years with the rapid growth in the importance the internet plays in the music industry. It’s long been lamented by the industry leaders that the internet and the resultant illegal downloading of music has decimated the industry’s earnings and is slowly destroying music. But amidst all of this, another facet of the industry has come to the fore, namely the rise of independent music distribution. It’s now far easier for artists to have their music heard through the glut of blogs dedicated to emerging artists, and even easier again to build up a fan base using social media. In fact independent music has been hugely popular amongst a group of people who’ve grown tired of the commercial success of music talent shows which have dominated television schedules for the past decade. The rise of independent music in Ireland is perhaps best exemplified by the hugely successful Hard Working Class Heroes Festival which is just finished its ninth year.
Hard Working Class Heroes has grown year-on-year and is now a key component of the Irish music scene, aiming to showcase the best independent music talent that Ireland has to offer. This year’s festival, which took place over three nights, saw one hundred acts play across six venues in Dublin proved one of the most successful to date and also revealed a huge amount about the complexities of the Irish independent music scene as well as hinting at the possible future direction of the industry in this country.
Over the course of the three nights, there were a few standout performances and one of them was Daithí O Dronaí, who played the Grand Social on the opening night of the festival. Daithí first came to prominence through the very first series of The All Ireland Talent Show and though hardly a fertile ground for musical superstardom, the programme did allow the Galway native a chance to show his unique reinterpretation of traditional instruments through his now famous fiddle and loop station combination.
What Daithí has done is fascinating in terms of the development of the Irish independent music scene; having managed to forge out a well-respected place amongst the highest echelons of independent music while at the same time coming from a talent show background, a background seemingly incongruous with the independent music scene. Yet Daithí’s joining of two seemingly antithetical ideas is hardly surprising given the combination of heavily synthesized music and traditional Irish fiddle playing which has not only captured people’s imaginations but remains a wholly unique sound.
Like many artists on the Irish independent music scene, Daithí has largely distributed his music through bandcamp, the platform which has been used by both emerging artists as well as more established artists who brand themselves as lying somewhere outside the traditional framework of the music industry, including Amanda Palmer and Sufjan Stevens. Despite his reality tv start, Daithí has followed the route of many of his contemporaries in choosing his own musical style over instantaneous commercial success and this dogged determination is one of the hallmarks of the strong Irish independent scene.
Like Daithí, Dublin based Bitches With Wolves, headed by the enigmatic James O’Neill, are fond of a synthesized sound yet they come from an entirely different background to Daithí. Starting as something of a joke at a party, Bitches With Wolves have become a staple of the Irish independent music scene in recent months and the release of their debut EP, Hurricane, marks a decided step forward in their career. The recent success of the group was rewarded at Hard Working Class Heroes with a headline slot on opening night and similarly to Daithí, they present a unique insight into the world of Irish independent music.
Bitches With Wolves, for a long time consisted largely of James O’Neill but recent performances, including both Electric Picnic and Hard Working Class Heroes has seen several new members added to the group, giving a much fuller sound in their newer material. Also the signature look of the band has been toned down slightly but just enough to give them a wider fan base; gone it seems are the days of leather cycling shorts and little else, now replaced by eccentric shirts and vintage jackets. The result, then combined with a more commercially refined sound, has been nothing short of stunning. Bitches With Wolves it seems have managed to navigate the difficult path from the fringe of the independent music scene to a far more commercial scene and in doing so have blazed a trail for other independent Irish acts to follow.
Seeing the group eighteen months ago, it would have been hard to imagine that they would at this point have recorded and released an EP, opened for some major acts, recorded a professional music video and garnered significant airplay from the major radio stations. The group’s move towards commercial success has seen them modify their image and sound to make them more viable while at the same time managing to hold onto their uniqueness, something which it seems many other independent Irish acts will follow.
It is this inherent drive for commercial success within the independent music scene that seems to be the biggest potential pitfall for independent music in Ireland. While Bitches With Wolves have managed to navigate the path without compromising their integrity, the path is by no means an easy one and no doubt in the coming months there’s little doubt that many other groups will fail where they have succeeded. The very fact that independent music has become so popular is perhaps its greatest threat as people try to make money off its newfound popularity.
Indeed Hard Working Class Heroes this year was by no means immune to that move towards the commercialisation of the independent music scene given its heavy sponsorship this year. The very home of independent music it seemed was not impervious to the lure of money with virtually every band paying homage to the festival’s sponsors. With the mainstay of musical independence in Ireland having a heavy lilt of consumerism this year, the question must be asked, has independent music in Ireland become a commercial entity?
The answer quite simply is yes but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed it is the sponsorship which allowed such a festival showcasing the talents of the Irish music scene to be held and the emerging success of Bitches With Wolves is testament to the fact that commercial success doesn’t have to come at the expense of artistic integrity. In fact one of the most commercially successful acts at this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes Festival, Le Galaxie, have built their success upon several live performances, most notably at Electric Picnic this year.
Le Galaxie have, by and large, done things the old fashioned way, building up a name for themselves as a great live act and gaining both commercial and critical success with that. However they’ve also embraced the internet, the very thing which has changed the traditional music industry. It is this model of embracing past methods of success while also daring to use new methods, that seems to be the most viable for independent artists going forward.
There is no doubting the artistic merits of Daithí, Bitches With Wolves, Le Galaxie as well as the host of other acts that made up the Hard Working Class Heroes festival this year and the commercial success that they’re having on the back of it should be seen as a good thing for independent music in Ireland. The festival, alongside the acts in it, has shown that times have changed and the professionalisation of independent music scene isn’t a bad thing for the industry. Instead it’s offering the chance for new talent to emerge in a new way, separate from the overly produced talent shows of the past decade and away from the manufactured pop of the boyband era.
The festival organisers have said “You can’t go back to the way things once were and you also can’t just completely alter the way things are done overnight” and it seems fair to say that this largely sums up the way the independent music scene is at the moment; hard work along with a unique sound remain the best route to success, both commercial and critical and while the industry is changing, a small amount of commercial appeal is still necessary to hit the big time in Ireland today.
