Are you a saver or a spender? Well, I'm speaking for the band, so, yes, we save. Right from the outset, we decided to do that and we're pretty mean about it. It's one of the smartest decisions we've made because in this day and age it's all about being independent in the music business.
There aren’t many record contracts and much money being thrown at bands, and anyway it’s quite easy to distribute your own music universally with the Internet, so basically we save to record albums.
Do you shop around for better value? We certainly do! We shop around on a whole variety of things from studios to instruments. There are some great deals to be had; it's very competitive out there at the minute, and the amount of secondhand music gear for sale in Ireland alone is mad, with some great deals to be had. What has been your most extravagant purchase and how much did it cost? As a band, it would have to be our trip to Nashville last year to record our second album, Love and Havoc. We got a mega deal on a studio and producer because things are super competitive over there.
That said, flying six hairy guys over and looking after ourselves wasn’t cheap. The cost in total was in excess of €20,000.
What purchase have you made that you consider the best value for money? Figs, our fiddle and dobro player, found a Jerry Douglas-model Gibson dobro guitar on an Irish sell and trade site. He swapped an old mandolin he had and maybe a €100 with it for this beautiful instrument and showed up at a gig with it that night, not having a clue how to play the thing.
He insisted on plugging it in and playing it anyhow and it sounded class even through all those early bum notes. I’d say that’s our nicest find yet.
How do you prefer to shop – online or local? We do our fair share of both. We try to keep it local as much as we can when buying equipment and such, but it's very hard to ignore the value of online shopping.
But your local music shop is important too. Who else is going to get you out of the bind of trying before you buy?
Do you haggle over prices? Yeah, we haggle a bit. If you don't ask, you probably won't receive. Has the recession changed your spending habits? I think we're a positive Irish product of this recession; we're fighting through it, just like everyone else trying to build a business from the ground up. Spending? We spend what we need to but we're not extravagant.
Do you invest in shares? Quite simple on this one – no.
Cash or card? Cash seems to be of more use to us – when the six of us sit down to dinner together we split the bill six ways from our own pockets.
What was the last thing you bought and was it good value for money? The last thing we bought was a spare set of speakers because we blew a speaker at a previous gig. I think they were decent value for money, they were second hand but the show did go on, as it must.
Have you ever successfully saved up for a relatively big purchase? Well, as I've said, by far the most expensive thing we've spent money on is our second album and that trip to Nashville.
We had saved 50 per cent of the finance needed for that whole album project. The other 50 per cent we raised through a crowd-funding website, where your fans get behind the project before it’s a living thing and basically pledge their hard-earned cash to you in return for rewards when the project is completed. We had great success with this.
Are you a gambler and, if so, have you ever had a big win? There's a few of us in Rackhouse that like the odd flutter on the football or the horses alright, especially for the bigger meets.
Is money important to you? Of course it's important, and we're lucky to be making a living out of what we love doing. We work very hard and we've got bills and mortgages to pay like everyone else. But I doubt it's more important than music to any of us. We live for the music.
How much money do you have on you now? It's early afternoon on a Monday and we worked late all weekend. I don't have a bean on me right now. In fact, I'm in my jocks in the bed.
In conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea
