Kinsale rock scene proves the kids really are alright
Aidan Lynch and Kieran Hurley of The Love Buzz pictured with pupils of the 'School of Rock' at Kinsale Youth Community Centre.
Growing up with big dreams in a small town may be cliché, but it’s a tale that we just can’t help being charmed by and rooting for a happy ending — regardless of how many times we’ve heard it.
And while the story of The Love Buzz hasn’t quite reached its ending yet — in fact, the band is only getting started — it’s one that already has such a charm to it, it may even have as strong a feel-good factor as their music does!
The Cork band was founded in 2017, comprising of lead singer Kieran Hurley, drummer Henry Love, bassist Aidan Lynch, and later addition, guitarist Oisin Walsh Agnew, and has only been on the up ever since — with both their 2019 debut EP, Candy Flip, and their sophomore release in 2021, Here Comes the Scum, garnering them critical acclaim as well as an ever-growing fanbase.
Not even the pandemic, which induced the all-too-long absence of live shows and recording sessions, has slowed down the rise of The Love Buzz. The band emerged from those bleak days stronger than ever, signing with Cork label FIFA Records last year.
Perhaps the greatest culmination of the group’s success to date, however, came just last weekend when they took Glastonbury’s Woodsies stage by storm, having won their slot through the festival’s Emerging Talent competition.
It all sounds like a dream come true for any musician, but it’s especially surreal for the young Cork band, who saw first-hand how the local music scene was nearly decimated during the recession era.
“Myself and Kieran are both from Kinsale and growing up there, it felt like we were seeing the death of local music — especially the loss of venues in town and the gigs that would have been in them — rather than the birth of much,” reflects Aidan. “As we got older and went into the city more, we discovered that there actually was a space for us to do the type of music we wanted. That’s when it really clicked.”
That ‘click’ would eventually lead to the band’s signature sound, which Aidan describes as being what you’d get if you “imagine ABBA listened to the Pixies and didn’t tell anyone”.
He believes their hometown has greatly influenced the band’s musical style today — one as eclectic as Kinsale itself is, owing to the hugely varied group of people that the vibrant coastal town attracts.
“Kinsale is a truly inspiring part of the world,” he shares proudly. “It’s a real multicultural town with a great mix of people always coming in. Growing up, we met musicians from all over the world, visiting the town with their guitars on their backs and just telling their stories that way.”
While telling their own stories through music may not have always been easy in Kinsale, the local community’s support for the band has more than made up for it. In fact, whenever it seemed there was a lack of opportunities available for The Love Buzz, their friends and neighbours simply created more!
“We actually got our first gig in the local youth club when we were about 16,” Aidan laughs. “We just went in and told them ‘we’re a band now and we want to start doing shows’, and they gave us a chance.
“People in Kinsale have been very good to us. We’re just some lads who love music, but it’s the people who like us that have carried us along the way. We’ve been lucky enough to go to Berlin and now Glastonbury with the band, and it’s nice being an ambassador for the town. I love telling people about the history of Kinsale or teaching them their bit of Irish.”
The overwhelming support from the Kinsale community over the years has motivated the band to give back in more ways than flying the flag overseas, though. They’ve raised nearly €3,000 for charity in the past year alone, through fundraising gigs in Prim’s Bookshop in Kinsale and Dublin’s Grand Social in aid of Cork Penny Dinners and Crumlin Children’s Hospital. Now, they’ve decided to take action on their doorstep and help revive the local music scene.
“I’m good friends with Jack and Sean, two great guys who work in the Kinsale Youth Community Centre, and we thought it might be a fun once-off thing to have a day where I’d come down with the band and teach the kids a few songs, but the response was really positive. The idea got rolling and became a proper programme — before we knew it there were posters all over town saying ‘The Love Buzz presents School of Rock’!
“We’ve got a great weekly group going now and the main thing is, it’s not a formal music class — it’s a space for kids to talk to each other and communicate through music. Myself and Kieran didn’t do music in school, we had to make it all up as we went along and there was no space for us to do that — we weren’t allowed have a drum kit in either of our houses or anything like that. We wanted to give other kids in Kinsale that outlet and show them that music is more than just another subject at school. We want them to learn the core basis or rock and roll, which is to have fun and not be afraid of making mistakes.
“The most important thing about music is brotherhood. For us anyway, growing up as a band, it was our way of talking to each other, letting each other know how we felt as boys without saying anything. We’re all still best of friends, so it’s nice helping these younger kids to make those connections too.
“We’re taking a break [from School of Rock] for the summer, but there’s so much interest from some of the lads that they’re opening up the youth club for them a few nights a week so they can go in and use the drum kit to practice. They all want to start bands themselves now!”
It's easy to see why these kids want to follow in the footsteps of The Love Buzz, with so much happening for the band right now — they’ve just released their new single ‘Sing! Sing!’ with plenty more soon to follow.
“The new track is a song that means a lot to us, and it’s the first of a chunk of new material we’ve got coming,” Aidan teases. “Here Comes the Scum is the last thing we released, and that was a long time ago, so we’re excited to show people what we’ve been working on since.”
