Interview: Owen from General Fiasco

July 1, 2010 No Comments

Words By: Matt Wheavil

So there I was in HMV just after Lafaro had finished playing an amazing pre-Glasgowbury shop gig, with 10 minutes until I had to phone Owen of General Fiasco for an interview.

I started wracking my mind for a quiet spot I could reach within such a short time and this certainly wasn’t it – A frenzy of noise surrounding the Lafaro boys who were signing albums by the bucket load.

Then i bumped into AU publisher, Johnny Tiernan, who after hearing my excuse for having to run off, offered me the AU office.. so I took it.

Entering the office about 5 minutes after my alloted time, I quickly gathered my notes and thoughts, and without thinking, recorded the interview onto a dictaphone from my mobile’s loud speaker. This meant the signal was interrupted fairly often, and it sounded like Owen was in some form of transport, possibly driving. Still, we managed an interesting enough 10 minute conversation despite technical issues…

“You guys were at Ward park and you were amazing, How did it feel playing at Northern Ireland’s biggest gig?”

Yeah it was really good, it was amazing, it felt unbelievable walking on – so many people in already – we were told there were like 26,000 people in whenever we played which is a crazy, crazy figure for being the first band on.

Yeah it was amazing, it was like nothing we’ve done before with the sheer amount of people but yeah it was great, really enjoyed it and thrilling for us to be involved.

“My highlight of the gig for General Fiasco was when you were on your own playing sinking ships on acoustic guitar – How did you feel inside when you were on your own holding the attention of 26,000 people?”

Yeah, it was quite cool actually, it was like the biggest crowd I’ve ever played for at a gig. You’ve just gotta kinda switch off and stuff, like I never thought of the crowd throughout the song, just focused on what I was playing. But yeah, you’ve just got to treat it like any other gig – It was very nerve-wracking walking on but I tried not to get too nervous after that.

General Fiasco frontman Owen puts in the performance of his life, enhanced by a smokey haze

Owen giving the performance of his life at Ward Park (C) Gary Moore 2010

“What was the biggest gig you played before that?”

I’m not too sure, I think it was supporting Snow Patrol at the Odyssey in 2008, that was when we were just beginning and I think 5-6,000 people came to that!

“Your album’s really good, want to ask you about the writing process behind that, I heard you guys made sure your songs are really good before you put them out there and you’ve got 12 really strong songs, so what was the writing process like and how did General Fiasco approach writing the album?”

We all wrote music for fun, it was a hobby we’d all had from playing in different bands. We didn’t really think about writing an album whenever we were writing. I think there’s just a way with your first album – you write songs to be the band that you want to be and obviously you want to compile enough to make an album. But we were just writing songs because we enjoyed it and because we wanted to play and its just like a natural process where you go and you practice and you play the songs that you know and then you just want to write more and you want to write new stuff.

We just wrote songs, recorded, went out and toured and we didn’t really think about trying to write an album or that we needed this song or this or that. We just wrote the songs we wanted to write and let our feelings determine what we did and what came out in our songs. Yeah we didn’t think too hard about it, we tried to let it come out as naturally as it possible.

“There’s quite a lot of maturity in those songs though – for example Ever so Shy is saying that drink is a crutch for teenage insecurity and Sinking Ships is about patience in a relationship so I wondered if General Fiasco has social responsibility present in their songs even though they’re sort of party punk that everybody listens to for fun but do you think there’s depth in there you’ve got from somewhere that people relate to?”

I think with song writing you’ve got to make it honest, you’ve got to write about what’s going on. Again, we didn’t think too hard about it, we just… like whenever I sat down with the guitar and started singing it just kind of wrote itself. I didn’t think ‘Oh I’ll write a song about this, I’ll write a song about that.’ You just sort of sit and you sing and these are the songs that came out.

I think it’s quite upbeat and everything and quite major key and they’re all fun rock songs but yeah perhaps the content can be a little darker. We’re not trying to be too preachy, like I know there’s stuff about alcohol being a crutch for younger people, like, for them to come out of their shell. We just felt what we wrote about, we’re not preaching and we’re not saying this is the way you should do this. We’re just saying how we think, what we think.

“I think you guys were possibly one the best of the support acts at Ward park – the atmosphere was just electric and everybody was shouting along and knew the words. It was just a really enthusiastic crowd and performance. How long has it taken you guys to get to this stage?”

I think everybody writes about how it’s been really quick and fast for us. People don’t take enough into account the bands you’ve played with before and how long you’ve been playing music. General Fiasco is just something where we got the first bit right – we wrote songs that people really wanted to hear and we toured and worked really hard for a couple of years. I think that’s the kind of formula that sticks – just constantly ploughing on. We kept releasing stuff and being active and trying to make the most of every little opportunity that came our way. If you make the most of the small opportunities the bigger ones come along.

That’s the sort of thing Snow Patrol outlined but yeah it’s great, the show of support and the people that have come along with us during the time we’ve been doing this. We’re still getting quite a bit of interest and hopefully those people will stick with us and we can keep doing what we do for Northern Ireland.

“Are you in your 20s now?”

22, Yeah

“You do look a bit younger… It’s only taken 3 years for you guys to play the biggest gig ever in Northern Ireland…”

* Laughs *, I suppose you could look at it that way, yeah. I think it was just good fortune and a lot of other things – we just got fortunate and it was really nice that Gary and the guys thought about us and asked us to do it with them.

“Also finally on this point, Wikipedia says your first gig was Glasgowbury, is that true?”

Glasgowbury… Like the Northern Irish Festival?

“Yeah that’s what it says on Wikipedia – that General Fiasco played their first gig in Glasgowbury in 2007…”

Well yeah, it’s true in some regards, it was the first gig we did as a three-piece and it was just how we played in the line up that we are now and so we just sort of said that was it and there was 4 of us for a while…

Sorry, I’m going have to stop here, I’ll be just a few seconds and I’ll be back with you

*The sound of footsteps walking up and down stairs are heard*

Hello?…

Might have to wrap it up now, sorry.

“You were just talking about Glasgowbury, playing there first time. How do you feel about playing Glasgowbury this year for its tenth anniversary?”

Yeah, really good, it’s one of the highlights of the summer – lots of great music there. I think it’s got better every year and it’s great for local music, a great place for showcasing new bands that are up and coming. It’s got an amazing line-up this year and it’s going to be an awesome gig.

“Who are you looking forward to seeing the most this year at Glasgowbury?”

Fight Like Apes

Um… Building Pictures, Fight Like Apes, More than Conquerors… Yeah there’s loads, too many to name!

“What’s your plan for the future, what are you doing after the summer tour, seeing as buildings has been such a success, how can you top that?”

We’re just going to do what we’ve always been doing. Just keep trying to make music and trying to tour and trying to get us heard by more people. I think after the summer and the festival, we’re just going to do more Irish shows, more UK shows and then more stuff in Europe towards the end of the year. So, yeah that’s all we’re doing.

“Finally, as you’ve got so big so quick and you;ve done so well, what’s your advice for upcoming acts in Northern Ireland?”

Just write lots and lots of songs and keep writing songs that people want to hear. There’s a lot to be worked on and touring but get yourself some good songs before you do anything.

“Thanks very much for your time; looking forward to seeing you at Glasgowbury and good luck with the big shows you’ve got this summer!”

Cheers! Thank you.