Up-and-coming Tipperary rock band Charcoal Greys have four more Clonmel gigs on the way

June is turning out to be a hectic month on stage and in the recording studio for up-and-coming Tipperary alternative rock band Charcoal Greys.

Hot on the heels of playing at the Clancy Brothers Festival and Clonmel’s Cruinniú na nÓg celebration and launching their website over the past fortnight, the five-piece group are now tuning up for an intensive weekend in the recording studio and will finish the month with two more gigs.

The band’s popularity and reputation is rapidly growing in the local music scene on the back of the success of their debut single, Sober, and impressive high-energy live performances.

This coming weekend the Charcoal Greys travel to Drogheda to record two more of their original songs in studio with producer Daniel de Burca.

And the following weekend they will perform back-to-back gigs at Lonergan’s Pub on Clonmel’s O’Connell Street on Saturday, June 28 starting at 9.30pm and The Haven Hotel in Dunmore East on Sunday, June 29 at 3.30pm.

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The band played their first gig exactly a year ago. Lead singer is 20-year-old Emily O'Keeffe from Whitechurch, Owning near Carrick-on-Suir and she is joined by three of her cousins.

They are guitarist Luke Boland from Grangemockler, the band’s oldest member at 31 years-old, and brothers Zach and Sam O’Keeffe from Figlash, Carrick-on-Suir. Guitarist and back-up singer Zach is aged 17 and drummer Sam is aged 16 and completed his Junior Cert exams only last week. They are both students of Edmund Rice Secondary School in Carrick-on-Suir.

Charcoal Grey’s fifth and newest musician is bass guitarist Killian Wierczynski from Clonmel, who has been embraced by his bandmates as an “honorary cousin”. He has performed gigs with the band since February and, like Sam, completed his Junior Cert exams last week.

Four members of the five-piece Charcoal Greys, from left: Sam O’Keeffe, Zach O’Keeffe, Emily O’Keeffe and Luke Boland. Missing from photo is Killian Wierczynski.

The group originated with Emily, Luke and Zach getting together to play covers of their favourite songs, which progressed to them starting to write their own material.

Emily recalls their first gig was at the Clancy Brothers Music & Arts Festival’s Family Fun Day during the June Bank Holiday Weekend last year.

Ahead of the performance, she says they recruited Sam as their drummer. He was a newcomer to the instrument and has come on leaps and bounds in performing the vital backing beat for the group over the past 12 months

The hugely talented band’s progression has been just as rapid. They built up performing experience at the Iverk Show and through gigs in pubs in Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir. The band played their first Dublin gig at The Soundhouse in February when Killian joined them on stage for the first time.

Sober was recorded at a studio in Longford in January with producer and songwriter Keelan O’Reilly from Monaghan. The proceeds of the group’s busking sessions in Waterford City financed the recording.

“We worked from 10am to 1am and went home the next morning. It was a long day but a really good experience,” recalls Emily.

The song was released in April on the online music streaming platforms – Spotify, Apple Music, You Tube and TikTok.

The band has been blown away by the online viewing figures for the songs so far and the positive public reaction.

“The feedback we have received for Sober is crazy,” says Emily. “It was one of the first songs Luke brought to the band. We worked on it with him as much as we could and decided it should be the first song to be released.”

Luke explains the song is not about alcohol but the sobriety that comes when the intoxication of a new relationship wears off and one’s mindset and perspective changes.

The Groovy Chuck music blog gives the song high praise.

“It’s an absolute stomper of a track featuring a high energy bass line and an exceptional and sincere vocal delivery,” the blog’s reviewer writes

And adds: “Sober is a wonderful song, driven ferociously by an almost disco style bass sound and a thumping drum beat. It features a guitar led chorus and mixes elements of rock and pop. This is an anthemic song you could dance to and rock out to.”

The band’s fans clearly agree. The audience went wild at Charcoal Greys’ Clancy Festival gig in Cooney’s Bar in Carrick when the band performed the song near the end of the night with many of those present singing enthusiastically along with the group to the lyrics.

It was one of the many high points of their two-hour set that featured a mix of the group’s original songs and covers of hits from an eclectic range of bands from Fontaines DC and The Pixies to The Cranberries, Sultans of Ping and Beetles.

Cooney’s was one of two pub gigs the group played at the Clancy Brothers Festival over the recent bank holiday weekend.

They also lifted the roof of O’Ceilleachain’s further up Main Street the following night – the first anniversary of their debut public performance.

Emily says it was great to come back and perform again at the festival this year. The gigs highlighted how they have progressed as a group over the past 12 months.

A week after the Clancy Festival, the band performed at Clonmel Applefest’s Jam in the Plaza celebration for Cruinniú na nÓg at Kickham Plaza on Saturday, June 7.

At the end of last week the band launched their website: www.charcoalgreys.com where fans can keep up to date with their performing schedule and news and access their music and videos on the various digital platforms they are available on.

They will be holed up in studio in Drogheda this Saturday and Sunday, June 21 and 22 recording their next two new singles, which they aim to release towards the end of the year.

One of the songs was written by Luke and the other by Emily with all the band’s members working collaboratively together to create the final version of the singles ready for performing and recording.

Zach also writes songs for the group. Luke points out each of them bring their own styles and musical influences to their original material ranging from rock, pop and punk to alternative and indie.

The band are funding the recording of their two latest songs through the proceeds of their busking and recent gigs as well as the sale of Charcoal Greys t-shirts. This merchandise can be purchased at the band’s gigs and through their and Instagram account.

Emily notes without the support of their community of fans they wouldn’t be able to record these songs.

If you don’t get to see Charcoal Greys’ upcoming live shows at Lonergan’s and The Haven Hotel, they will be back in Clonmel a few weeks later playing support to Crow Black Chicken at the Chicken Stock Festival at The Railway Bar on Clonmel’s Thomas Street at 7pm on Saturday, July 19.

They will also perform at Gleeson’s Summer Sunday session at Gleeson’s Pub in Irishtown, Clonmel on July 27 and again at Lonergan’s Pub on Friday, August 1.

Check out the band’s website for updates.

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