Interview: Bringing it home... Kells band Ham Sandwich ready to release fourth album

After studying for a degree in accounting and finance in Dundalk for three years, Dunderry man Brian Darcy was unsure of his next move. Rather than rush into the next stage of his career, he decided to take a year out to plan his future.

A chance encounter with an old school friend led to him joining a band called Hamsandwich, who 20 years later are releasing their fourth studio album on which Brian is a mainstay, playing guitar and piano.

One of the most enthralling live acts in recent times, Hamsandwich are well known for their incendiary live performances which has put them right at the top of the live acts to see, boasting an appearance at Slane Castle, supporting Bon Jovi. The combination of Niamh Farrell's powerful yet sweet vocal and Podge McNamee's juxstaposing baritone gives the band its signature calling card, while Brian - or Darcy as he is known in the sandwich - is happy to stay in the background, doing the administration and promotion.

“I was always trying to leave the band at the start, when we were trying to find our feet, but it kept on getting better and better," he says.

Rather than taking money from the band to make a living, Hamsandwhich reinvests a lot of the income into future projects, working ordinary nine to five jobs to earn a living.

“We put the lion's share of everything we make back into the band, to make us a better, more professional outfit," Brian explains.

"We all have two or three jobs, so we’re incredibly busy. We believe that we spend so much time coming up with ideas and original music that we want to have the best opportunity to share it as far we can, and that's not going to happen if we take loads of money out.”

HamsandwicH perform All My Blood live from the Red Church in Kells.

As the band grew and their production level increased, so too did the costs associated with releasing an album, according to Brian.

“At the start we were happy with 24 cans of Dutch Gold but now we have to pay a studio and a mixer in New York and mastering in New York as well as a producer in Dublin. The raw material used to make vinyl is very scarce because there was a fire in a factory in America so, that adds to the cost, so there’s not much room to take your slice just yet.”

While being in a cover band may be a more lucrative business for musicians, the sandwichers are committed to creating their own sound as it gives more satisfaction than covering someone else’s music ever could.

“We get the biggest kick off people singing our own songs. That's the best buzz of all, that’s probably why we do it.”

The band’s fourth album is 'Magnify', set to be released on 30th September, which will feature new elements such as indie electro dance, but also nods to more familiar material that fans of the band will recognise, with themes such as human connections and examining old and new relationships, making peace with the past while also reaching out to those who might be a bit lost.

The cover also features art from Kells artist Derick Smith who went to school with singer, Podge McNamee.

Hamsandwich have varied their approach to their albums as they have grown.

“As we evolved, we went for songs more suitable for the radio and were a little bit more commercial, which is a little bit of a dirty word!" Brian says. "But that second album got us on the radio and did fantastic for us and got more people going to gigs. When it came to the third album, we decided to make a really good studio album so we put a lot of money into it and it paid off as we became the first unsigned band in Ireland to have an album go to number one, which was a great claim to fame.”

They decided to focus on issues relevant to the stage they were at in life on the current album.

“We just wrote an album for us and what we were going through. When we look out at the crowd we see people in their mid to late 30s. So you have to write music for those people because you're not going to come and listen to the thoughts of a 22 year-old. You have to write to your audience. We also wanted to make sure it was something we could stand over and just wasn’t for the radio.

"I think we're all happy with how it finished up. A lot of it was recorded in my house at 2am on my laptop because we couldn’t afford to go to the studio as our budget was severely reduced when Covid meant we couldn’t do gigs.

On the subject of funding Brian reflects on how they band were forced to survive on very little funding during Covid-19, although in hindsight he feels this was a good thing in ways.

“The Government tried to give out funding to everybody involved in the arts during Covid, but only 10 per cent of got it. 90 per cent of people didn't get anything, it was quite hard to manage at organisational level.

“We were really annoyed at the time, but we understand how difficult it was. We just to rely on ourselves so we can stand over the album and say we brought it out by ourselves.”

While it can be difficult to earn a living from music, Brian feels that this can benefit the quality of music.

“It’s quite tough to make a living. If you want to be in the arts you have to be aware of this. This could be a good thing as it keeps you pure and stops you from chasing the dollar because you’re in it for the right reasons and if you make money eventually then that’s just an afterthought.

“You have to be in it to be creatively fulfilled and be a bit penniless for your creative life and be ok with that. I always feel like I’m chasing something to fulfil myself. If we were on a weekly wage I don’t know would it still be at it, I wouldn’t have the appetite anymore.”

To mark the release of their new album Hamsandwich are staging several free events around Ireland including one in the Red Church in Kells, which is part of the old convent in the town on Sunday 2nd October between 2pm-4pm.

The event will feature a display of Kells local arts talent including images and paintings by Derick Smith, Ross Dillon and Marc Corrigan as well as Q&A and acoustic performance with the band.