Biography

[asked whether nationality is important to The Thrills] Yeah - it definitely is. I mean, for us, I don't think we could've grown up in a better place to wanna be in a band. Because from a young age we were able to play gigs. When we were 16 we were playing places like Slattery's or wherever, and our friends were able to come in and have a few beers and watch us. And I think, as well, with the way the Britpop thing kicked off, you know, in Ireland and the UK - it was great for us to see so many bands from so close to home in the charts and magazines. And then with Whipping Boy and U2 close to home as well. So just to see these kind of bands doing it was encouraging for us.

[on the two girls that appear on the cover of "So Much for the City" alongside The Thrills] They were just two girls that Kev [The Thrills keyboardist Kevin Horan] picked up somewhere the night before and invited along. We were taking the shot in this place called Rhye, south-west of London, and I think we all agreed that the kind of record sleeve we had in mind should have some women in it. So we brought them into the shot. One of them was called Virginia, as far as I can recall, but the other one, who was French, was too stuck-up to talk to us. I think she thought she was too cool for us.

What is an Irish band? I don't think U2 are an Irish band as such anymore. They belong to the world. I think that very few bands fit in exactly where they come from - unless they're some Brazilian world music pipe band that play music from Brazil. Maybe The Clash and The Kinks were definitive London bands, but I don't really class Coldplay as a British band - they could just as easily be an American band.

[on the song "Bells" which he recorded with Conor Deasy in Dublin's Shed Studios a few days after Christmas 1993] The track almost entirely consisted of guitars played through a phaser pedal and you couldn't hear the vocals. We asked the guy in the studio what he thought of it and he said it was good. He had to be lying.

There was an article in some Sunday newspaper saying we [The Thrills] are all teetotallers, but it's bullshit - it's just me who doesn't drink. Dunno why really, but I've just never really had any interest.