About The Rye

Connaught Tribune Interview


Ireland's ease and contentment with itself is reflected in much of the anodyne and unchallenging music on daytime radio. In an increasingly homogenised society the rough edges are being smoothed away. Praise be, then, for The Rye , whose trad with a twist might just shake us out of our 'semi-d' stupor.

Lead vocalist Kevin Melly formed the band just over two years ago. "I just started looking at every angle, from music shops to putting in ads, anything at all, just looking for musicians," says the affable Donegal man. Alan Walsh, The Rye's guitarist and banjo player, was the first to join the fold. Introduced to Melly as a piano player, Walsh explains how he joined the band: "I called down to Kev's house and I brought the guitar cos it's handier than bringing the keyboard. Then I kinda liked it and forgot about the keyboard- it's too heavy to be lugging aroung anyway!"

Bassist Barry Wallace answered a notice Melly had placed in the paper. "He rang up and took a chance and it just gelled straight away."

Drummer Ciaran Kelly had met Kevin during a Vtos course and The Rye's line-up was completed when violinist Anna Faulkner joined. "I went into Ti Colis' one day and asked Aengus behind the bar 'do you know any fiddle players.?', remembers Melly, "I wanted someone who was open minded, I didn't want to go down a trad rock road. Aengus said 'sure throw up an ad.' It was a month after, the ad was hanging off the wall, and Anna just rang me up when I was out one night. I said ring me in the morning cos I'm not gonna remember this at all!"

From the get go, Kevin had a good feeling about his new band: "There was a mad energy there straight away," he says, "Our first gig was a burst of energy; it just felt kinda special."

The Rye's Thursday night residency in The Cellar has helped the quintet establish themselves as a fearsome live act. "We've been doing that for about a year and half," says Kevin, "It was a pure fluke getting in there, some band couldn't play and I just happened to walk in that night and ask them for a gig."

"It's a residency for playing original music," he adds, "I don't know of many bands getting away with that in Galway."

"We're lucky that we've a lot of friends and people who like what we do," says their drummer Ciaran, "but you do see a lot of surprised faces too." "It's almost a cult following we have," continues Alan, "So many times people have said 'I didn't even know this was down here'. The Cellar's seen more as a cover venue."

The raucous nature of The Rye in full flow has led to some memorable(and half forgotten!) nights. "Every night is just mental, there's always a great buzz" enthuses their front man, "Anything goes. No one takes themselves too seriously, everyone's just diddle-eying like mad!"

"Two weeks ago I fell off the drum stool backwards and pulled down the backdrop on top of me" says Ciaran.

"I turned around and it was like the negative of a Halloween ghost," Kevin recalls, "You could just see a black drape with two arms coming out the side trying to hit anything at all. Professional to the end!"

Blasting out what they describe as 'savage-driven ceol', the twist and turns a Rye gig can take is the result of relentess rehearsing. "We do practise a lot and work hard to get tight," says Ciaran, "We could be playing 12 bar blues, then go into a ska break down, then in to a dance beat. We rehearse so much that in live shows you kind of have the freedom to play around. It's like the old blues saying : 'never play the same thing the same way, twice.'"

"Feel free to do whatever you want when you want to do it" is Kevin's ethos in The Rye, "When you have that idea behind you things take a different kind of route."

Rehearsals take place in Kevin's attic in Renmore. "We play full on, in my bedroom. The neighbours' are absolutely sound," says the Donegal man" The people next door are retired – they've come in to the Cellar to see us play!"

"The boys in another house near me were having a party and 'said any chance ye could turn it up a wee bit, we're on a session. Leave the windows open and bang it out!'"

The Rye were recently invited to play at the Life Festival in Lough Cutra, Gort. "It was the third day and everyone was dying" recalls Kevin, "We went on about 4.30 or 5. It was chilled out music til we came on and went ' ein, do, troi, ceathar! . Everyone got into, got back into form."

"We were playing at the bottom of a hill," says Declan, "There was people a foot away from the stage going mad and then you could see two people way up the back, jigging away."

Playing at festival is a much different experience to a regular pub gig, as The Rye's drummer explains. "Sometimes people can be little apprehensive letting go but at a festival there's music going all day, on a drop of a penny they're ready to go mad!"

Kevin enjoyed reaping the VIP benefits: "The highlight for me was the hammocks backstage, we'd four of them in an army tent!"

Having regular gigs but limited resources has led The Rye to come with a novel way of plugging their shows. Upon getting their food, customers of a local pizzeria will see a flyer for Thursday in the Cellar. "Alan had this great idea of making one with some of our lyrics on it, explains Ciaran, "We had this idea to think outside the box, literally!"

"The song we picked for the flyer is called 'The Big Dip'" says Kevin, "I'm thinking people are gonna be sitting there thinking that The Rye have written a song about dip. I'd just like to clear that up! People are gonna be singing this song, dipping pizza into barbecue sauce!"

"The 'big dip' is the comedown after the session or whatever you're at," Kevin says about the song, "You get up in the morning and you're surprised how you're not dying; around 11 or 12 the big dip hits you , depression kicks in. You look at it with regret but further down the line you realise if I didn't make that mistake that door wouldn't have been open for me. Sometimes these mistakes are the things that put you on the right path."

"It's not a depressing thing though, it's a buzzy tune from start to finish. Don't think about it, beat it out and it'll be all right in the morning!"

The Rye's fusion of trad, blues, ska and whatever else makes them one of the most vital bands on the Galway scene.

Band Members