KEYWEST interview & gig review at the City Spectacular Festival Dublin

KEYWEST, Ireland, Pop-Rock

For fans of: Boyce Avenue, The Calling, The Script, One Republic

Laya Healthcare City Spectacular, the biggest free festival in Dublin city center, was held on Friday 10th to Sunday 12th of July in Merrion Square. In between food trucks, street artists, magicians and child entertainers, word on the street was (if you pardon the pun) that Dublin's very own favourite busking band was performing three sets on Sunday afternoon.

Keywest started out a few years ago performing in the streets of Dublin and Galway. Today, they have 57k likes on Facebook and 25,8k followers on Twitter. If you are a nostalgic, they also have an non-updated MySpace on which you can check out very early videos and photos of the band. And of course they also have an official website.

The lads will be touring the UK and Ireland next November/December for the JOYLAND TOUR.

As the London date on the 20th November is already sold out, an extra date the following night has been added. Not bad at all for the band's first ever tour in the UK. Whilst chatting with Glove (Andrew Glover, rhythm guitar, keys, back vocals), he confirmed to me that further gigs should be announced soon as most of the tickets are gone for all of the shows. 'We did three dates in a row in Dublin last year' he added with a smile.

Glove

Back to the City Spectacular. I did not go to the first of the three gigs, hence I cannot tell you more about it than 'it went well', still according to Glove. The second one kicked off with their last single 'All my mistakes', followed by a cover of TCL's 'Waterfalls'.

Check out 'All my Mistakes' official video

Then during the first notes of 'Beautiful Fool', Andy (Andrew Kavanagh, lead vocals) cheekily suggested 'if you feel the need to clap' to an audience who happily went along. It was followed by a small interlude during which Jimi (James Lock, lead guitar, back vocals) took a picture of the crowd and tweeted it while Andy asked everyone to grab their phone and retweet it.

The next song was a cover of Whitney Houston's famous disco hit 'I wanna dance with somebody'. Before the last tune 'Galileo', Andy gave a shout out to Keywest's biggest fan Shannon, who allegedly follow them everywhere. Sweet of them to acknowledge her!

When the gig was over, the lads stuck around to sell some of their CDs, sign autographs and take photos. Mark (Murray, band manager), who had already been hard at work selling the records during Keywest's set had to hurry them: they were awaited at Today FM for an interview with Phil Cawley and a second live performance of 'All my Mistakes' (they had already played for Today FM between the first and second gig). You can check out a video extract of the performance here with the cutest little girl dancing in front of them, it's adorable!

Andy

As there were still a couple of hours before the next concert, the band members split out to walk around the site. I seized the occasion to grab Andy for a short interview. He told me about the upcoming three albums... That's right! Three! You might already know that their last record All my Mistakes EP came out last April. It is a preview the future full length album Joyland. Yet, another one, Fairgrounds will come out at the same time, that is September, just before the UK/IE tour kick-off. Andy clarified that both will be different albums, 'two sounds', as the former is a studio album whereas the latter has more of a 'street sound'. Joyland will be on all usual music download and streaming platforms, however, Fairgrounds will solely be available on the band's website and during their live performances on tour or in the streets. Both will have twelve tracks and will be produced on the band's own independent label Sonic Realm. Andy even let slip that there are already talks about a third record for 2016. Talking about the future, he revealed that Keywest will be busking in the UK, then Australia next Spring, which is the Winter for them and the high period for the busking bands there. Andy confessed looking forward to hit the Aussie streets as they have 'a great tradition of busking' down under. The goal is obviously to publicise their music outside of the British isles. Busking and independently self-promoting is the way they wish to keep fueling their growth, as Keywest has not been signed by any record label, thereby the need for taking care of the promotion themselves. On this matter, he simply explained that they 'don't get along' with producers.

Personal favourite pic of the day: Sam (Marder, bass)

Time for the third and last gig of the day, starting with a cover of Mumford & Sons's 'I will wait for you', followed by 'Beautiful fool' and 'This is heartbreak' before another Twitter break.

Then came 'Stuck on replay' that Andy announced to have 'written about his ex girlfriend because she is a bitch' and 'Electric Love' which 'is about falling in love with somebody', before a cover of Tupac's 'California Love' and 'All my Mistakes' to top it off.

Had a great afternoon with Keywest! As City Spectacular is a family festival, the place was full of kids and the lads were really sweet with them. Generally speaking, they are really nice with their public, and patiently pose with whoever asks them, admittedly as part of their self-promotion strategy, even though Andy confessed that pictures 'aren't his favourite part'. Ultimately, they do it for the fans. 

Jimi

I encourage you to purchase their records, not only because their music is worth it, but to support this band who decided to stay independent, regardless of their ever expanding success. It is a brave and unusual decision!

I bought their debut full length album The Message, which is a great record! All songs are written by Andy and Glove, although I noticed that Aaron Karmin (The Calling) and Charlie Midnight (Grammy Award winning producer/writter) co-wrote with them on 'Feels so Cruel' and 'On this Train' respectively, which is pretty cool.

Finally, I would like to thank Andy, Glove, Jimi, Sam, Harry (Sullivan, drums) and Mark for letting me hang around and a special shout out to Robbie. Hope to see you all again soon.

If you liked this article, please share it and support this blog by liking Of Bands & Gigs Facebook page and following @ofbandsandgigs on Twitter. Much more music news, reviews and interviews are to come. I have another interview with English Rock'nRoll band The 45s scheduled for the beginning of August. I have been to France last week for the Vieilles Charrues Festival (biggest French music festival headlined this year by Muse. Also present: London Grammar, The Strypes (that I met), Tom Jones, Lionel Richie, The Prodigy...) and will tell you all about it real soon. Upcoming gigs I will attend in the next couple of months include All Time Low, Twenty One Pilots and Bry (Belsonic, UK), Fall out Boy, Imagine Dragons, The Strypes, Little Hours, The Academic, The 45s, Nothing but Thieves, The Mighty Stef, The Hot Sprockets... If you are a band in the Dublin area doing a gig soon or looking to be reviewed, do not hesitate to get in touch!

From top to bottom: Harry - Band during the third gig - Glove

Find all my best pictures of Keywest's afternoon at City Spectacular HERE.

There is a joke hidden in their setlist, can you find it? Let me know in the comments.