HWCH Previews: Bouts

So tell us about the story of the band so far. When did you get together and what were your ideas at the time? Have those ideas changed much since?

Barry Bracken (Singer/Guitarist): Our drummer Daniel & I got together through our mutual friend Nigel back in Summer 2009. The three of us rehearsed with the sole intention of recording and releasing material. Gigging was not a part of the equation. So for about a year it was just the three of us in a room, we got a bunch of songs together and recorded what became the first Bouts album, released for free in Nov 2010. It’s a bit of a prologue rather than a debut album proper. Soon after that Nigel left for Canada and Daniel and I rehearsed White Stripes style for another year. Slowly but surely we racked up after idea after idea, song after song, before we found ourselves asking whether we should actually broaden this thing out. It was then we asked Colin (ex-Green Lights) to join. As soon as he did it became clear there was something there. A few of the songs that ended up on the EP took shape and then, just as we were about to go in to record with Shane Cullen in K9 studios, I asked Niall (bass) to join. He was in the band literally two rehearsals before we recorded the EP. After hearing the early playbacks in studio we had a “so that’s what we sound like?!” moment. And then any slightly detached notions of Bouts being a studio entity only evaporated…