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The Lowdown: The Original Rudeboys

"We strive to stick out from the mundane sounds you tend to see a lot of now"

by Ffion Davies +, August 6th, 2012 and has been Read 1855 times.
Last Edited by: Ffion Davies August 6th, 2012.

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We're all a fan of the Irish for some reason or another, aren't we? Whether it's their happy go luck approach to life, or purely their lovely accent, the Irish always gets a thumbs up. Well, what would you say to 3 Irish lads fusing together soulful hip hop voices with some acoustic guitars and a delicious addition of a ukelele or two in there too? Sounds rather interesting doesn't it? So, with this in mind, I was rather intruiged to say the least, so when I got the chance to ask them a few probing questions, naturally, I hop, skipped and jumped at it.

Learn about what the Original Rudeboys did before the took to making music together, the story behind the name and listen to the top 10 tracks the guys are loving at the moment.

AltSounds: Hey guys how are you today?
The Original Rudeboys: All good, Just done our first London show last night and it went great.

AltSounds: Tell us what the Original Rude Boys have been up to recently...
The Original Rudeboys: We recently put out a new E.P called "Written Songs" and have been touring with our Album "This Life" for the past couple of months.

AltSounds: Are you guys ridiculously rude, or just fancied a tongue in cheek name?
The Original Rudeboys: We got the name from a T shirt Neddy (rapper) was wearing and it just sort of stuck.

AltSounds: How did you guys get together?
The Original Rudeboys: We grew up in the same neighborhood and have been mates since we were kids.

AltSounds: What did you all do before you started being The Original Rudeboys?
The Original Rudeboys: Rob was working in a supermarket, Sean was in a office job and myself (Neddy) had just finished my 2nd year in college.

AltSounds: You guys took to YouTube to showcase your music, and got some fantastic responses in Ireland, what made you decide to jump online with your material?
The Original Rudeboys: It was actually a close friend of ours who happened to be chilling out with us on the night we did our first video who suggested we record a video and pop it online. He started recording and next thing we notice the views start going higher and higher.

WATCH // 'Written Songs'

AltSounds: The importance of bands engaging with their fans has never been felt greater in the industry, how do you guys go about doing this?
The Original Rudeboys: We all use Twitter and Facebook daily to connect with fans. We try and answer all questions they may have or just have a general chat with them about random topics.We also do some Ustream’s and upload videos to youtube whenever we can to keep them engaged.

AltSounds: What's the freakiest thing a fan has ever given/sent you?
The Original Rudeboys: Sometimes before a show we will tweet something random like “I would love a cup of tea right now” or “Really hungry where's good to eat in this city” and at one show someone had brought a box of tea bags and some local food from the city we were playing and left them on the stage as we walked out. That was crazy but lovely at the same time.

AltSounds: If you had to choose 1 style of music to play forever, which one would it be?
The Original Rudeboys: We strive to stick out from the mundane sounds you tend to see a lot of now so to box ourselves in to just one style would make us go mad eventually. As individuals we all have different styles and genres we're fans of so choosing one would never work.

AltSounds: You've already had a number 1 album in Ireland, which was produced by Jake Gosling, who produced Ed Sheeran's '+', what's the next step for The Original Rudeboys?
The Original Rudeboys: We were really lucky to have Jake Gosling produce our album as we thought his sound was just what we were after. As a band we seem to grow stronger from our live shows. After each one our fanbase grows and grows so we hope to continue playing live shows and winning over new fans.We’d also like to take everything we done in Ireland and bring it to the UK fans and build the fanbase in the UK.

WATCH // 'Travelling Man'

AltSounds: Are you playing any festivals this year?
The Original Rudeboys: We just played “T in the Park” in Scotland and also supported Swedish House Mafia and Tinie Tempah at a Dublin Festival this year. Last year we played Leeds & Reading Festivals and got a great response so would love to return again this year.

AltSounds: What's your advice to festival goers when it absolutely pours it down?
The Original Rudeboys: Approach a festival with an open mind and no expectations of the way it should be. If it rains so be it. Make the most of it and enjoy the time you have to feel it.

AltSounds: Great advice! Where's the best place you've ever played and what was it like?
The Original Rudeboys: We’ve played some really great shows in our short time being a band.I think one big one would have been Oxegen last year which was our 5th ever gig and it was on the Vodafone Stage which was the second biggest stage from the Main! Before that it was just pubs and small clubs.