Galway made band, The Stunning, are back for a 'Christmas shindig' in Leisureland on Saturday December 17. Kicking off the night with Céilí-style tunes from their support group, legendary traditional musicians, Shaskeen, the band are looking forward to a big night of fun with their fans. We had a chat to founding member, Steve Wall (also an actor and member of band The Walls ) ahead of Saturday night.
The Stunning was formed in Galway. Is it special to be back gigging here?
Yes, The Stunning formed in Galway, so we're very much a product of Galway! Myself and Joe )(brother and fellow bandmember ) live in Dublin, but the rest of the band still live in Galway.
I was in college in Galway, and then worked in Druid for a couple of years. I wanted to be an actor so I moved to Dublin to pursue that. I was unemployed for awhile, and there were loads of bands forming at the time. It kind of dawned on me one night when I was at a gig - that if I wanted, I could just start a band myself. I tried originally in Dublin but I didn't know many people, so I came back down to Galway and basically formed the band over a bank holiday weekend.
We're really looking forward to Saturday in Leisureland, and we're delighted to have Shaskeen there. We have very strong connections with the traditional music world as well. Jim (Higgins ) is a renowned percussionist and bodhrán player. There's hardly a traditional musician in the country that doesn't know Jim. When we were based in Galway years ago we were rubbing shoulders with all the traditional musicians. Máirtín O'Connor actually played on our first album. It was a great scene, a great melting pot of influences and friendships and collaborations.There are probably many, but are there any moments you're particularly proud of when you look back through the life span of The Stunning?
I think we did a lot with The Stunning. We paid for the release of four singles before our debut album came out, just by getting out and organising our own gigs. This is pre-internet days - so the organising of gigs was primarily done from a phone box in Eyre Square with a bag of 50p coins and a diary! It was such hard work but we just did it.
I'm particularly proud of what we achieved at that time. There were no grants. We never got a penny from the the arts council or the government. The only useful thing we got off the government was the dole! That helped enable us to continue.
We saved up everything we got from the gigs, we hardly ever took a penny for ourselves. Everything went towards paying for the recordings. We were probably one of the first bands in the country to do that kind of DIY method. We owned and licensed our own records in Dublin. It wasn't until years later that that became the norm for a lot of artists.
You have your own record label, Dirtbird Records. When did you set that up?
The Stunning were together for seven years and then we split in 1994. Myself and Joe continued as The Walls, and we signed a deal with Columbia Records in London. We came back to Ireland after two years in London and decided to form our own label. Since then, we've released all The Walls records on it and then in 2003 there was a renewed demand for Paradise in the Picturehouse (1990 The Stunning album ). It was a huge success initially in the 90s, but most of the sales were on cassette. People began to look for it on CD so we released that as well on the label. It went to number two in the Irish charts - and it would've gone to number one, but the shops ran out of copies!
I think forming our own label also gave us more freedom. We didn't have a great experience with Columbia Records, and we had enough experience at that stage to know what was required.
You have had great success with acting. Can you tell me a little bit about your highlights so far?
Playing Chet Baker (in My Foolish Heart ) was a highlight. It was shot in Amsterdam, and we shot scenes in some of the clubs that he actually performed in, so getting to play him on stages that he stood on was quite amazing. A recent highlight would be a show that's on at the moment on BBC2 called The English. I've got quite a big role in that. It's a six part miniseries with Emily Blunt. I spent two and a half months in Spain the summer before last making that, and it was one of the most enjoyable shoots I've ever done. There was such a great crew, and the writer/director, Hugo Blick, was an absolute pleasure to work with.
What are your plans for the future?
We're putting out a new Walls album early in the new year. It's a collection of rarities and previously unreleased tracks. It's really quirky and it sounds very fresh. Joe and I will most likely do a few gigs to support the release of that. I'm sure The Stunning will be back doing more festivals in summer 2023. In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of auditions over the last month or so, so I'm waiting to hear back on a few things. It's a balancing act between the two, but the great thing about the music though is that you have power over it. We decide how busy we're going to be. With the acting, you can sometimes be quite powerless - somebody else decides whether you're going work or not. That makes me value the music more than ever.
The Stunning, supported by Shaskeen, play Leisureland on Saturday 17 December, 7pm.
Get your tickets here: www.ticketmaster.ie
