Thursday, 20 June 2013, 1:23 am

It’s fair to say it’s been a very busy year for Dublin singer/songwriter, Orla Gartland. Having played a tonne of gigs over the last few months in Ireland and the UK, Orla is set to play her second ever headline show in London at the end of the month. Before opening for Bastille, in front of a massive crowd in the Academy 2, I got the chance to catch up with Orla and ask her a few questions. Orla, I know you’ve been uploading videos to Youtube for a long time now. Tell me about the first video you uploaded. What age were you at the time? I was 13 or 14 I think, and it was a cover of ...

Most of us go about our daily business and deal with the tiring and mundane in a detached manner, waiting for something exciting to happen. Foolishly, we don't realise that there is excitement and beauty all around us. Rob Marr's Anatomy paints these seemingly bland landscapes in all kinds of colours with a respect and intrigue that brilliantly informs his lyrics. These are the 'everyman' pop-songs that we haven't heard since Ray Davies was in his pomp. While Davies usually used characters, Marr uses everyday experiences. Opening shot Fencebuilding is almost as determined in its delive...

The debut EP from Dimitry Datus, Sound, is an effort that promises much more from the talented Cork based three-piece. Run is a ska influenced rocker with urgent guitar and a thumping rhythm section. A fine opener. Grand Parade has a touch of early Radiohead in the intro, but morphs into a Britpop singalong with a great guitar lead break and a nice latino style outro. The ace in the pack of this five-track EP is The Brave, a melodic rocker that could be the tune that garners attention from the music industry. Lyrically it's searching and indicates a cohesive unit who can really pl...

Dublin brothers Harry and Alfie Hudson-Taylor have been uploading videos to Youtube and gigging on a small scale for a number of years now, and it seems it's paying off. From starting out busking on the streets (...or poles and bins in Harry's case!) of Dublin, and uploading videos to Youtube, to now being included in the line-up for the Cheerios Childline Concert 2012, has been some achievement. To be fair, the last few months have been very exciting and progressive for the male duo in general. Between releasing their debut EP Battles in August, and playing to a massive crowd in Hyde P...

In the 1970, the world was hit by a wonderful new sensation called SOUL TRAIN! This gave start to some of the best performers of Soul, Rhythm and Blues music. It also led to the creation of some of the most inspiring and best written songs in modern music history, songs that still inspire musicians today and enliven any crowd of concert goers. Oddly enough, a lot of traditional musicians find themselves drawn to this music. Some people say it's because its just good music, others dig deeper and draw possible connections between the genres. Like our own traditional music, Soul, Rhythm an...

  Let's be honest here. The Stone Roses are doing it for the money. Normally this would be regarded as a heinous crime against the sacred history of modern pop. Old men coming together to collect the grade of their nostalgia bitten followers and piss on their legacy for one last pay day. But the Roses, cheeky 80s, baggy Manc vagabonds that they were and remain, get away with it. 'Why?', I here you ask. Well, exploring the annals of modern popular music reveals the answer and distances Ian Brown, John Squire, Gary Mounfield and Alan Wren from the rest of the sad, withering ...

  Cheryl Cole’s new album A Million Lights was on course to become number one in the charts but that was not what everyone in the music business was talking about. It’s the cover of her new album that’s on everyone’s mind. Cheryl has dropped her last name in the career statement of the year. Is this move is linked to female empowerment or is it a new media gimmick?   Cheryl has said that the 'Cole' just wouldn't fit on the album and that it was an aesthetic choice to leave it off the cover, nothing more. However, the public does not seem to want to accept this ve...

SOLDIERS Can't Dance played this year's Charity Week and were a massive success. Their brand of indie rock went down a storm among the UL populace. They are comprised of Luke Fitgerald on drums, Conor Cuffe on vocals and Guitar and James Kennedy on vocals and bass. An Focal caught up with them recently and asked for the low-down. Talking about the bands beginnings, drummer Luke Fitzgerald explains. “It started with me and Conor. I put an ad up on the internet and he was in a cover band and he just needed a drummer and then the other members just kind of straightened out. That's how we...

It must be stated, with great vigour, that this notion of a music industry collapsing is a mere, uneducated guesswork. If only you knew the interior of this goldmine enterprise, you would divert your banal assumptions to the greater positive. The main problem the layman perceives is the flaw of illegal downloading. Are we so hidebound to the modern times? Did we not ever discuss the major impact that recording radio broadcasts via tape had on the music industry? And even though this act of immorality was unwatched by the regulators, it was an exploit only done by the semi-tech savvy, meanin...