A month or so after Puget Sound had broken up (the band that I'd been in for the previous 10 years) I was playing guitar at home and was overcome with the urge to start playing music again. I was going through some tough times at home and as a result of that ended up playing a lot of guitar and writing a lot. When life isn't going well I generally turn to the guitar as music helps me to deal with anger and my emotions. In some ways it's like an escape and in others like a way of expressing emotions without having to rely on words. What's weird is that I find myself getting interested in different kinds of music during these times of immense personal crises. I guess that music speaks to you more when emotions are high.

Once I felt like I had enough material to share with other people I decided to send a text message to Jill who I'd come to know over the years from gigs, though at the time we were only acquaintances. I had always had a lot of respect for her for all her involvement in the DIY scene over the years and was also by then aware of the fact that she has a beautiful singing voice, having heard her play guitar and sing at a session in Fairview one night. She replied soon after I had sent the text and happened to be sitting beside Mick in his flat at the time who also expressed an interest in playing drums for what was then nothing more than a project, an idea. Emmet from The Skies Collide was supposed to play bass but didn't have the time to practice in the end, so Lar decided to fill in for the first practice and decided that he'd like to stay on permanently with the band halfway through that first practice. There was a good buzz in the room. It felt nice.

Mick had Lar had been playing together for years in Kelsey so they're communication when writing the tunes is great. Sometimes I just stand back and watch them piece it all together. We write the tunes collectively, jamming out riffs and seeing what fits where and how long bits should last, what would go nice where, making sure everyone's on the same page. Sometimes I have doubts about how a song is going but I trust the rest of the band and generally, after I hear it played back on a recording, it all makes sense in the end. All in all though, the band was formed on the basis of having fun together and seeing what comes from that. We've received some nice live reviews and people seem to be into the music that we make which is obviously a great feeling, but I'm always conscious of not letting that take away from the fun of things and to not feel compelled to be writing and playing as much as possible and promoting the band until I'm blue in the face. Practice is generally done over a few beers, gigs out of Dublin are always accompanied by nights of mischief and messing, and our first tour was more like going on holidays.

Are we still new? YES we are! We're more established in Ireland now, but I'd like to play Europe a lot more, even just for weekends at a time, a Friday and Saturday night here and there. Everyone in the band has other responsibilities outside of it that take up a lot of their time so we can go at it at our own pace. If people aren't around to practice all the time it's no stress, I keep chippin' away at home. A good friend of mine recently hooked me up with some equipment and programs to record at home so I've been busying myself with that lately. It's become a minor obsession but it means that I can get tunes recorded and out of my head. It can be hard walking around with too much music in your head sometimes.

I sing and I love it. I don't think that my throat was ever cut out for screaming, not in the long-term anyway. Besides that, I wanted to break away from the shouting and screaming cause I had melodies in my head that I wanted to put to the songs. Also singing alongside Jill makes it all that more interesting for me. If there's one thing that I'd like to do in this band at the moment, it's spend more time writing vocal melodies will Jill. I think Mick and Lar would like that too.

To be honest, at our first ever gig it was only at the last second that I decided that I really wanted to sing. It arrived at that part of the song and I thought 'Fuck it!', closed my eyes and went for it. I was expecting a torrent of slagging after we'd finished for 'singing' a song. You don't hear much of it at punk gigs nowadays. I think that the fact that we sing has made it easier for people outside of all things DIY to like us, and as a result we've been offered gigs from promoters who I would never have expected to have been approached by in the past. I really enjoy getting the opportunity to play to different crowds around Dublin. It's about as close as you can possibly get to the touring experience at home in that there's a lot more strangers there on the night, or those faces that you always see around town but are never sure where they like to hang out or whatever. Sometimes while playing I look out and think 'Oh, that's what's-his-face who drinks coffee in Simon's Place', or 'That's the girl who used to work in that record shop!' etc.

Yes. I was leafing through an old tour diary a few weeks ago, from a tour in Brazil in 2001. I used to drink pretty much everyday back then. Then promise to give up drinking forever. Then go drinking the next day. Good times!

Parenthood forced me to stop all of that. My sense of responsibility got the better of me, the bastard! Now I eat well and don't have the time, money or energy to go out power-drinking every week. It's great. The adjustment was certainly difficult, but my son Tadhg has given me a lot of direction, inspiration and a whole new perspective on the world. If it wasn't for him I don't think that I'd be doing half as well as I'm doing now.

It was brilliant. I start laughing every time I think about it without knowing why exactly. The gigs were all generally well received, Karaktermoord, the band that we toured with, supplied us with a great backline, a girl from Portugal called Ines drove us for free and we got lots of free booze too. People were nice, we made enough money to cover the day-to-day expenses and all made it back in one piece. We had a great time in the van and being in Holland meant that we could keep all our stuff in the one place and travel back to sleep in the same bed every night. We were put up by the good people of the Ubica squat in Utrecht who gave us our own bedroom and were really nice. Everyday entailed a lot of booze and blem and stress levels were always very low. I'd say the hardest part of the whole thing was getting the plane home. Happy days!

No, but we were definitely goofy enough and monged enough to get the crowd going with stupid jokes and leaving the stage from time to time to mingle with the watchers. I have dreads anyway so it was all good. Finger-tapping solos whilst running along the front of the crowd definitely had a positive effect. I think that you really have to put on a show abroad to win the people over, but the excitement of the moment doesn't make that very hard. Those gigs can be tough. I think that sometimes you can surprise yourself. Some nights we just picked a key and jammed for 10 minutes, space jams - they were great fun. I'm not sure if I could do it here in Dublin though. It would have to be something special.

I wouldn't. If I tried to, the word 'rock' would appear somewhere. Perhaps 'the 80's' might also make an appearance. Mick is a big fan. That and 'Goulet'. We're trying to push it out there though, we're consciously trying to sound different. We are the Avante Gardai!

Stoppy-starty-avante-gardey-wishy-washy-whiney-bollox.

Pretty much any gig I go to these days I get the tiny hairs standing up on the back of my neck. This may have something to do with the fact that I don't get the chance to go to gigs that much nowadays cause of college and Tadhg. This has made me appreciate the live experience a lot more than I would have done before parenthood. Go to too many gigs and after a while even the best bands can stop blowing you away. Nowadays I really enjoy watching the process taking place in front of me. As long as it's tight enough as well. I'm always on the look out for the band doing something different generally though. Last night I saw a Brazilian forro band doing an Irish trad/Brazilian fusion. It was really nice and the two styles blended well together. Seeing people playing triangles, cowbells and big bass drums was also cool. I play the cowbell in Mongolia from time to time. You generally won't see things like this at a punk gig, though bands like Putrefraction and The Freebooters, while not being particularly experimental, still get me really excited for different reasons.

Who said that? A certain photographer who got a t-shirt made with 'LAR' printed on it? What do say? I'm beyond even trying to explain him at this stage. The guy shits hot licks! He eats guitars for breakfast and picks the frets from his teeth with drumsticks. When I first met him I thought, wow, he's a pretty good bass player. But then I saw him play guitar, then the drums… I consider myself pretty lucky to be in a band with him and I don't mind saying this cause I know he's not the egotistical type. He'll just laugh and put his head down or whatever.

As talented as he is though, it took him three flights to get from Dublin to Edinburgh last year to play a gig. He had trouble showing up to practice for a good while too when the band was in its infancy. Maybe we could call our first EP 'Where's Lar?', as it was a common question at the time of writing the first four songs.

No. He's very quiet in person. He's got a lot of music on the brain and I think that he prefers to be doing things like going to newsagents and eyeing-up the snacks along the counter, or losing his phone.

That's a very big question and kind of hard for me to answer cause I don't get to go to that many gigs. Musically, I think it has become a lot more diverse and yet somehow still vaguely unified. This is reflected in the line-up of the Poo Promotions tent at the Leechrum Fest this year. It's got everything there: oi, ska, melodic hardcore, trad, street punk, experimental, stoner rock, and you can be sure that most people under the tent either know each other or are at least familiar with the faces there from gigs.

Well the potential to determine how things evolve is always there. I'd say that, in general, DIY promoters put gigs on out of a passion for music and so generally are willing to put on any band that asks for a gig. Ultimately, it depends on where the gigs are going on.

There are greater influences on how things evolve though. If the most popular band in town play a certain way then, more often than not, other younger bands will try to emulate that style cause it's their first reference point to the excitement they get from the live music experience. Then there's whatever's getting the most play on the music channels and TV programs. The commercial promoters obviously add to this factor cause they're out to make as much money as possible from gigs.

So I'd say that the independent folks putting on gigs determine how things evolve to a fairly small extent. I think it's more a case of them providing the venue for the musical 'evolution' itself to take place, or to provide gigs for bands that play music that is not commercial.

I'm generally busy with college and family most of the year. I like to go running sometimes. Weekdays generally revolve around studying and minding Tadhg. Sometimes he can take a while to go asleep at night too which can be difficult. I rarely get the chance to call around to friends as a result of this which is a shame. I miss calling around to people. I think that I used to do it a lot more before Tadhg came along. We don't get too many visitors either. I think people are afraid to call around during the week in case we're putting Tadhg to bed or whatever. It would be deadly if peopled called around more though (hint to friends). I do voluntary outreach work with refugees from time to time, but not as often as I used to.

I think things like equipment are a lot more affordable nowadays, but all the amps in the world will never make a shit band sound good. If I was to compare young bands now with when I started playing gigs about 10 years ago then I'd have to say yes, at least in the punk scene anyway. There are lots of reasons behind this though. All in all, technology has been moving along at a very fast pace over that time. In some ways I think that the styles of music being played since then have changed a lot. Still, the best bands will more often than not be the most passionate and well practiced, regardless of what they're playing through. I guess it depends on what you consider professional to mean.

Well, there's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself when you're having a good time.

Playing outside Ireland gives you the chance to see the reactions of complete strangers to your sound. Playing your own music to a crowd of people you know nothing about is very exciting. It's also on tour that you get to see how so many people are involved in different roles in the setting up of gigs, from the person who did the poster to the other one doing the door, the sound engineer, the bar staff, the driver, the punters, all for the sake of your band getting to play its music for half an hour. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of all this at home, that there's a multitude of people involved and that it's not just about the bands. On tour you're interacting with all these people a lot more. It's reassuring to be a part of something like that. Maybe us humans aren't all as bad as we make ourselves out to be sometimes.

Well. If we're talking about the Whitetip Reef Shark or Triaenodon obesus; a slender bodied shark, easily identifiable by milky white markings on the dorsal and caudal fins, a non-dangerous species capable of growing up to a length of 2 metres, I'd have to say no.

The same goes for the Epaulette shark Hemiscyllium ocellatum, another slender species that has a large black ocellus (eye-like spot with a marginal ring) above the pectoral fin and widely spaced black spots on the body. And as for the Nervous Shark (Carcharhinus cautus), well who the fuck is gonna be scared of that one? This is probably the worst shark ever. They really broke the mould with this hot dog, with its bronze to grey colour with a black outline on the tail (caudal fin) and sometimes on the pectoral fins. Sounds like a cheap car from the 70's!

But do you even know what danger is? Let me tell you. It's SAND! Since 1985, at least 20 children and young adults in the United States have died in beach or backyard sand submersions. And at least eight others died in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. And in any case, I hardly ever go to the beach cause I live in town so I don't really see the relevance of this question. We've got bigger problems to deal with here, like aggressive swans over-running our canals, and the economy.