Aslan Interview

Rock and roll is a state of being, something that is born in the soul and can never be taken away. If ever there was a band that proved this, it is the legendary Aslan, who still sound fresh 30 years since releasing Feel No Shame in 1988. Recently I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to interview Aslan before their performance at the Cresent Concert Hall in Drogheda. I was joined by Christy Dignam and Billy McGuinness. I had done all my research but still found myself feeling nervous. The thought of meeting true Irish legends has a tendency to do that. When I introduced myself to both Billy and Christy the first thing I noticed was how mannerly they were. By now you have probably realised that I like to start my interviews at the start, this interview was no different.

Q: 30 years ago, Aslan changed the Irish music scene forever with Feel No Shame, what was it like breaking through onto the scene at the time?

A: Christy took the stage and answered immediately. “We had been going around Dublin playing small gigs at the time, we then managed to get a loan from a record company to let us go in and record a few demos, and one of those demos turned out to be This Is, we then brought that record around showing it to different people, one of the places we brought it to was Reekus Records in Dublin. They loved it and decided to release it as a single, which was our very first single. What we wanted at the time was to create a profile and for more people to listen to us, but what ended up happening was, it was the number one single in Ireland of that year and won a Hot Press award. It all happened very quickly and then we were signed up to EMI. That was basically it wasn’t it?” Christy pointed the question towards Billy who was nodding his head in agreement. “ In a nutshell that’s pretty much what happened.”“We used to do a gig down in Cork called Lark By The Lee, it was literally a big gig by the Lee, we were the opening band and headed down and played to 15000 people, we opened with This Is and everyone knew the words. We were getting that much airtime but didn’t feel the transition” This provoked my next question.

Q: How was that transition into national fame?

A: Christy was again, quick to respond.“You don’t even realise it’s happening around you, you have no idea that your profile is increasing, so when 15000 people start singing your words back to you, it’s quite shocking.” I then pointed the question directly towards Billy McGuinness to see his response. “Not really to be honest, it wasn’t until we released the album, that’s when things got a bit, silly. The album went straight to number one like. It was such a big surprise to everyone.” It is funny to think that such unmeasurable fame could go unnoticed at the beginning, Christy then gave a brief discography of Aslan. “We were the first band to go to number one, the first Irish band to go Gold and then have two singles from the album to go to number one in the charts. So when you’re in the middle of it all you don’t recognise it happening around you. There was always the next thing for us to conquer. We conquered Dublin, then it was about conquering Leinster and then Ireland. You don’t stop to look at what’s happening around you.” I found it incredibly interesting and admiring that Aslan were always about moving on to the next goal and the next ambition. I was then keen to ask how it feels looking back 30 years later.

Q: 30 years later and here we are, how does it feel?


A: Billy began to chuckle to himself. “It is absolutely mad, mad, mad. It has gone so quick.” Christy was in strong agreement and then explained why. “You see, you’re very young, (I’m 19 to those who don’t know) and it’s hard for you to understand that concept, but when you get to our age you’ll see that thirty years, goes like that”. Christy clicked his fingers and I jumped at the thought that if I blink I’ll awake to the age of forty-nine. “We never had a reason to stop, when we released the Feel No Shame album we split up for five years, due to my own problems, then we got back together and our first single back was Crazy World.” I was in awe at the fact that a person could go through so much and then in turn come straight back onto the scene with Crazy World. That concept blows my mind.

 “That blew everything back up into the air and then we kept releasing albums that kept doing really well. When we released the Live In Dublin album we tried to get a record company to fund it. We were told that the highest selling live album of the previous year was Oasis, and the amount of albums sold then was not enough for us to compete with so we funded it ourselves. But it went on to be our biggest selling album, these things happen in life, Billy is probably the same.” Christy was eager to  prove the fluctuations of life and took a glass bottle of 7Up that I had been drinking and placed it diagonally from where he was sitting. “In your career, and you’ll probably find this in your own life, you’re going along right, there’s your goal (Christy pointed at the glass bottle), in the meantime there’s these little side issues happening and you do a little side issue on your journey and then all of a sudden.” Christy pushed his hand off the line that was perpendicular to the bottle and shot it across the table, “Your career has gone that way”. It’s hard to describe the meaning behind this anecdote but I know that it will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Billy supported Christy’s statement with an example. “When Christy appeared on the Late Late Show with Finbar Furey, it was meant to be a throw away thing, it went on to get 7 and a half million views, nobody was expecting that, not Christy nor Finbar, nobody.” Christy added that “ if you had planned it, it never would have happened.”

Q: Do you find yourselves with a new followership when you’re touring now? 

A:  Billy lit up immediately, “ Agreed, Agreed.” It was clear that I had asked the right question. Christy was then able to describe the reasoning behind it.
 “We wouldn’t be able to rely on our demographic, like if we were to rely on people our age” Billy then cut in to give the blunt response, “They’re all at home watching the Late Late Show!” Christy started laughing. “That’s it exactly, they are all at home rearing their kids. If we didn’t capture some of the younger generation coming up, we wouldn’t be able to sustain it. We’re doing Vicar Street at Christmas and I can guarantee that 50% of the audience will be 18 or under. I do see 10 year old kids at these gigs, like last time we were playing I looked around and there was a load of kids, but then, I got a not handed up to me on stage and it was a woman’s 80^th birthday and she wanted me to sing her a happy birthday. It is mad to see it through the generations.” It didn’t surprise me that their music could reach such a variety of people. I know people from my age in college, right up to the generation of my father living alongside Aslan.

“The thing is as well, the lyrics to Feel No Shame could have been written last week, especially with the likes of the homeless in Dublin. Its like what we were going through in the 80’s with the unemployment. Those songs like Down on Me and Pretty Thing, they could have been written last month. Lyrically they are still very relevant.” I had to agree with Billy at this point, I even made the point from another song Heat Of The Cell has very poignant lyrics that are still incredibly relevant. If you haven’t listened to it yet go and listen now. We then began to talk about how the emotional wants of a person rarely change and that is a key factor in the longevity in good music and then Christy made a very interesting point.

“I often get asked in interviews, what is it that made Aslan so popular and last, but I don’t know, we don’t know, it isn’t something that I want to know the answer to. I am just happy that it is.”
I was afraid I was keeping Christy and Billy for longer than I had planned but they were delighted to continue the conversation. Aslan had just performed at the Fleadh in Drogheda and done a free street gig as part of it so I decided to take the conversation in a new direction.

Q: How important is Irish culture in your making of music?

A: “It’s so important, we’re Irish, we’re proud to be Irish. When we first signed our record deal, they want you to go to London or LA to record the album, our argument at the time was, all of our influences, the reason we’re making music, comes from Ireland.” It is clear that both Christy and Billy are proud and delighted to come from a country with historically fantastic musicians. Billy then interjected with a fact about the Aslan albums. “Every album we have ever made, was made here in Dublin.” I was very impressed, that is a lot of homegrown talent. Christy later went on to describe his love for Ireland and how the Irish are looked at internationally when it comes to making music.

“I went to see a Pink Floyd tribute act and the guitar sound was incredible, the similarity was insane, I was very impressed. I remember I was walking down Grafton Street in Dublin and I seen a street artist, they were drawing a picture of the Mona Lisa in sand, I stopped and looked at the piece and I was blown away, this thing was the spit of Mona, but that’s when it dawned on me, it is easy to just copy art, it is incredibly difficult to come up with new art. I find this is very true in America, American Rock is very generic, but when you look at Irish performers they’re always very different.” I was intrigued by what had just been said and Billy was quick to provide an example. “If you look at Sinead O’Connor, every song is completely different.” Christy also used U2 as a strong example. “However hard it is to create success, it’s ten times harder to maintain success.”
I then finished by asking about their performance at the Fleadh.

Q: Can you describe playing at the Fleadh Ceoil  in Drogheda?

A: In unison their reaction was the gig  that they played on the street with Hector O Heochagain. “The gig we done on the street with Hector was gas craic. For me that gig was better than the concert we done that night, when you’re on the street with lights, drums and everything you can play with science, but when you’re playing on the street with a guitar, with people standing around, you cant mess around, people will cop it. The thing about Irish people is if they like something they take it to heart, but if it doesn’t have quality, they’d tell ya in a f*ckin’ heartbeat. That’s why I loved that gig.” Billy then pointed out another very important fact, “Plus Hector is absolutely mad” I   had to agree with Billy. He then turned to Christy and said “Did you see he gave you a shout-out on the Toyland thing?” to which Christy replied with, “Did you see all them Buddhists saying How’ya Christy?” I was very confused and in desperate need of context.

“A few years ago I went to a Buddhist monastery, it was years ago. But now Hector is doing a show called Syria go Saigon or something, he was in Northern Thailand last week at this Buddhist monastery and they gave me a shout-out on the show.” Christy was in the middle of this story when someone came over to our table and started to abuse Billy for having tea from a fancy teapot like a true rockstar. I laughed as he offered me tea and biscuits which I kindly turned down but was incredibly grateful for the offer. I then asked Billy for his opinion on their performance at the Fleadh. “First of all I was delighted that Drogheda got it, it gave the town a real lift, the way West Street was pedestrianised really made it an incredible event. It was massive, five hundred thousand people attended the festival. Ennis only had four hundred and fifty thousand, we’re already booked for next year”. The best news I could have asked for! Aslan are coming back to Drogheda for the Fleadh next year. That is something that cannot be missed.

A laugh and a few photos brought the interview to a close. I was honoured to be in the presence of true Irish legends and I have no doubt that their music will outlast time, the gig that Aslan performed that night was something to  behold, a truly beautiful gig. I would also like to thank the band for allowing me the time to spend with them and especially to Alan Downey who made the interview possible.

Follow me on Instagram @The_Art_Of_Rockin and the photographer Kelan Molloy who took sensational shots on the night.