Photograph taken by Tanita Hingerty at Too Far Fest
“We’re not a political band. We don’t have a big agenda behind us… I think the main core behind it all is making people come to a live gig and enjoy being in that group of people in that moment. That’s what i love about it. I want to do it all so other people can come in and enjoy what we’re doing as much as we enjoy doing it.”
We caught up with Anthony, Colin and Ciaran from Too Far Fetched, after the success of TooFarFEST to talk about creating a space for their local metal scene, what the future holds for the band and, of course, local legend.. Count Tornado!
Talk to us about your recent two performances and your input in the festival “TooFarFEST.”
Anthony: It was enjoyable to do two performances, we weren’t expecting it but due to a pull out we had to do a second set- which was grand, got the nerves out of the way the first time around, which we thought, but I fell apart on the second set (all laugh) as running a gig and playing two sets (at the same time) is not the easiest thing in the world.
Colin: It was cool doing the two different types of sets though, separating them and having the ‘light’ set and the ‘dark’ set; the more melodic element and then later on the heavy shit.
Ciaran: It was nice to be able to play the older songs as well because we don’t really get to play those as much anymore.
Was it all completely last minute, the decision to split the set in two?
Anthony: The night before, we were practicing, and we did one rehearsal before we did a breakdown of the whole thing, and we said, ” Sure, why not fill up the space,” as the last thing you want to do is have too much free space between bands.
It was all really good and really worked the way they were spread out…
Ciaran: Yeah, it was good fun.
Between the two sets, is there any song in particular that you loved to perform live or that would be a favourite?
Anthony: That’s a good question…
Ciaran: For me it’s got to be “Medieval” probably. (all agree) First song of the second set after the intro. It’s one of our new ones and definitley one of my favourites.
Colin: It was cool playing “End Of The World” for the first time also.
Ciaran: Yeah we got to play a brand new song for the first time at the end of our first set also, that was also really cool.
How did that feeling doing it?
Anthony: Yeah, it was cool because we’ve been sitting on a batch of new songs for a while now. We currently have an album being mixed, and the new song we played isn’t even part of that album; it’s actually from the even newer album, so we’ve jumped the gun a little bit. We said we wouldn’t play any of the “new, new” songs, but it’s nice to play it and see what way and how it goes down with the crowd. With the newer stuff, we’re writing more for when we’re playing live, so it’s more consistent and more upbeat and punchy.
Colin: It was a special occasion so…(all agree nod and say “yes”)
Love it! For anyone who hasn’t seen you live yet, how would you personally describe a live set of yours?
Anthony: It varies. It can vary a lot… With our older material, it’s a lot more melodic and spaced out and stretched out, whereas with the newer songs they’re more compact and punchy. We still have that melodic energy to them, but…
Colin: More up tempo and energetic…
Ciaran: I think they’re more technical as well…
Anthony: Yeah… there is that as well. It’s kind of hard when you’re playing the songs to describe them to people. If I could stand outside and watch us playing, it would be a lot easier to describe, and I could be like it’s a lot more like this band…or this band…. but it’s kind of hard to tell…
Ciaran: It’s a big wide variety of influences, we try to make our influences shine through as much as possible
Colin: It kind of just happens naturally doesn’t it?
Ciaran: Yeah across…so many different styles of metal, it’s not one specific genre really, which is crazy.
Colin: Largely Metalcore but there’s so many other elements… It’s a big melting pot; nothing is left out. It’s whatever feels right at the time that’s going to happen
Who would you say your musical influences are and if you could co headline a tour or collaborate with anyone who would it be?
Ciaran: Chimaira! (all agree)
Anthony: An awful lot of material would stem from early Chimaira, and then there’s a lot of kind of “Djentesque” music that mixes in with it, with seven-string material. Yeah, I mean Chimaira, if they ever come back full time, that would be an ideal mix for us. Fingers crossed. I think a mixture of metalcore and djent, with a lot of melodic metalcore influence and then loads of chunky riffs. Big fan of chunky riffs and then, of course, breakdowns; we all love breakdowns, we’re a big fan of them.
Colin: We’re trying to make the entire songs not just one entire breakdown. (all laugh)
Anthony: Yeah, that’s always a struggle, we try to get away with it…
You spoke about making upcoming music, do you also have any upcoming shows planned?
Anthony: As of now, one show in Limerick on the 10th of October, and that’s kind of it for the rest of the year so far. We’re aiming to get the album finished by 2027 so we can hit the ground running and release a couple of singles and tour with that while we’re recording the next album/EP, depending on how many songs we write.
Colin: Get out of Ireland! (all agree)
Is there dream place you’d like to play or a specific venue?
Anthony: I’d love to play Ally Pally. I know it’s not really a metal band place, but it’s phenomenal, ever since I saw Don Broco there a few years ago…I just want to play there. I know Architects played there; they’re one of the few metal bands who’ve played in that venue. In terms of a country, I’d like to play somewhere warm with nice weather, but not too hot, because singing for Colin would be hard…
Colin: Yeah the heat plus the spotlights plus all of the movement on stage…
Anthony: Yeah, a whole lot of water would have to be drank…
Colin: I’d either go dark…or really red…. I want to experiment with that!
Mhm…Is it chucking it down where you are now too?
Anthony: Yeah it’s been horrible all day, it feels like it’s just dark all day now and we haven’t even gotten into the bad months yet…but it’s fine, we just close the blinds here, pretend it’s still nice outside and jam away and write songs….
So, this is your jam room behind you? It looks sick!
Anthony: Yeah, this is it. As it stands, we’ve loads of work to do still, but it’s getting there. We were supposed to do loads of stuff because we pulled the gear out of it for the festival, but now we’re gigging next weekend. Everything’s set back up, but maybe over Christmas, we’ll do some home improvements and soundproofing and try to get more heat in the place because it gets really cold here in the winter. Everyone does be wearing big jumpers to try and stay warm during rehearsals…
Colin: Big coats…
Anthony: Apart from Ciaran though, Ciaran’s always sweating no matter what.
Colin: And still refuses to wear shorts.
Yeah, drumming is hard work though, it’s like a workout…
Ciaran: Yeah literally…a little gym session everytime!
Is there any band lore you’d like to share?
Anthony: Well, we were all in bands years ago. We all played in Mullingar in a venue called The Stables, in separate bands. Over time, Ciaran and I played together, and Ciaran and Colin used to play together in different bands; those bands all fell by the wayside with people having children and commitments and stuff. During COVID, I started writing some songs, and Ciaran was buzzing around and wanted to do some songs, so we kind of got that going. At the time, I was just kind of doing the vocals because we didn’t have a singer, so I put a post on the Irish Metalheads (Facebook page) to say we’re looking for a singer, and Colin got in touch and from there it all just kind of fell into place.
Colin: In March of 2023, I had been playing in bands for years- for over a decade, constantly but I hadn’t done metal since 2015 and a month beforehand I was like, I just want to do metal music again… Don’t get me wrong, punk and grunge are fucking great, but there’s just something about metal that I just needed. I needed that fix, and I saw that ad, so I said, yeah fuck it, I’ll throw my hat in the ring, and I spent the next week working on these five songs Anto sent me, and every day I’d spend a few hours just going at it, and at it and at it and then for the rest of the day, even when I wasn’t doing it, I would just have it going around my head and be doing the songs in my head and for about six months after, I still had the songs going around my head. I did the audition the next week, and the lads asked, “Do you want to be in the band?”
Ciaran: Straight up!
Anthony: He had his homework done when he came up to practice, and that was it, and conveniently he lives down the road from us, it’s not every day you find a vocalist who lives twenty minutes away, especially in Ireland if you’re not living in Dublin or Cork, it’s impossible…
Colin: One train trip!
Anthony: Ideal! We had a couple of different members pop in and pop out. Eventually, we found Jonny, our bass player, who was always coming to our gigs anyway. He’d always be up the front of the stage, and eventually it just sort of clicked when we were looking for a bass player; we thought, why don’t we just ask Jonny? At the time, he was just playing acoustic covers, and we were like, sure, let’s get him on the bass and see how he gets on, and over the last few months he’s just completely transformed into a full-on bass player; it’s great! It all just came together really well over the last few months for us.
Colin: It made so much sense. He was so dedicated before he even joined. Before he was in the band, he’d be in Spain one day, and he’d get a flight the next day to come back just to see us play, even before he was in the band.
Ciaran: Every single gig…giving it absolute socks!
Colin: I think he missed one or two of our gigs over the space of a few years, and you look at his stage presence as well, he’s a total fucking rockstar, with a drop top merc as well! (all laugh)
Meant to be! I love that!
Anthony: This is it, like! We went through the same thing with a few other members, stuff like different commitments and moving away- and Jonny just fitted in perfectly and ever since he joined, he’s just added another element of fun to the band. He’s always full of energy and devilment… but in a good way!
Colin: He’s a great fucking singer as well; we’ve been able to incorporate his vocals now as well, which is a whole other thing, three-part harmony!
Anthony: Yeah, we were working on one of the new songs there, and just before the festival, we were running over the set again and again, so we thought, let’s just run through some new stuff as well just to keep it fresh and we started working on three way harmonies for some of the songs and it’s going to be interesting going into the new year with these new songs..
Colin: Our other current album..
Anto: Oh yeah, we’ve the other album coming out first but we’re constantly looking towards the future!
Sounds good! Meshing loads of things, very experimental… Is there an experiment you made that had a really big pay off towards your music or helped to shape our sound?
Anthony: The first five songs were kind of like an experiment, and since then it’s been taking what we learned from those and refining it and refining it again, and it’s gotten to the point now where we know exactly what we want in each song, and it’s just about making the structures different and making each song different enough from the others that they’re interesting to listen to. I think the first couple of songs were really just a blueprint for everything, and it’s always just been a continuation of what we’ve been doing in the past. Even what we all did in our previous bands has all come together in this one band, so we have influences of black metal and metalcore and all this different stuff coming together in this interesting project we’ve been working on.
What are the main themes and inspirations behind your music?
Anthony: I personally just want to write music that I would like to hear..
Colin: For sure, that’s the way I’ve always approached things too, no matter what I’m doing. I mean, if I don’t want to listen to this, who the fuck else is going to? Also, my taste is so niche, so I’m always like, okay, this is only going to appeal to one hundred people out of ten thousand, but I’m good with that because I like it. Okay, you want people to like your stuff, but at the same time you’re doing it for yourself also…
Ciaran: Yeah, and you want it to be fun every time you play it, so keep it interesting instead of it getting monotonous when you play it over and over again, but I genuinely haven’t found that with any of the songs we’ve actually written; they’re always really fun to play endless amounts of times!
Colin: When you have a bandmate that’s always like “ahhh I hate playing that song, can we not do it anymore” (makes face)
Anthony: We haven’t had that issue thankfully!
That’s great!!! Like that’s really good..
Colin: That’s how good the songs are! (all laugh)
Exactly!
Colin: Ahem…buy the album!!
(all laughing)
Colin: Please…
If you had to say your music stood for something…what would it be?
(all take time to think)
Anthony: Well… we’re not a political band. We don’t have a big agenda behind us… I think the main core behind it all is making people come to a live gig and enjoy being in that group of people in that moment. That’s what I love about it. I want to do it all so other people can come in and enjoy what we’re doing as much as we enjoy doing it.
Colin: I think the creative freedom as well… there are no limitations with this band… There are so many other bands that are so fucking set in stone with genre-specific rules, but with this, we just do whatever sounds right.
Ciaran: Yeah, there’s a lot of freedom to just do whatever we like sound-wise, and it all fits in real nice, which is cool.
Colin: That’s what makes it work so well, everyone is happy and heard!
Ciaran: It’s so nice to get the metal community back locally as well, there’s so many metalheads around here, and there aren’t a lot of metal bands around here throwing gigs, so you kind of forget how many metalheads are around here until you organise a gig. Big surprise for the turnout at our last few gigs, and then of course the fest…that just blew us away, which was really nice to see.
Yeah. That’s really special. It was honestly one of the best events I’ve been to in so long. I didn’t want to leave. Damn public transport! Spoke to people who came from all over for the fest and everyone was so lovely. People loved it. There was just such good vibes...
Anthony: Yeah, people have been craving metal in the Midlands for a while now. It went from, like, 2006- 2013, running gigs in Mullingar and the place being absolutely to the rafters, to it just completely dying off for a long time there, and it was nearly all just happening in Dublin for a long time, and now it was great to be able to put on a gig in Mullingar and have such a good turnout and not being afraid that it was going to bomb. It’s really special. It’s nice to see such good support coming from the locals and all the people around.
Colin: Clarke’s bar for facilitating it!
Anthony: Yeah, Clarke’s bar! What a venue…
Colin: Everyone, even the boys in Aesect who play massive festivals and came in saying how the venue was incredible.
Ciaran: They did a great job for sure, phenomenal.
Anthony: It’s nice to see people coming and people being happy there. Happy to come and play a gig and enjoy the way that things are set up there, and then have a BBQ mid-gig and have a big merch room for people to come and have a look around. It’s class and something to be really proud of.
Yeah, it was actually perfect. Yous thought of everything! Best gig ever- I was so happy when I found out we’re getting fed!
Anthony: It’s the little things! The little things always make it!
Definitley! Do you think you’ll do a second year of it and it’ll be a yearly thing?
Anthony: Yeah, definitely. Me and I will probably go back in a couple of weeks to look at dates for next year. We’re not going to oversaturate Mullingar; this year just gone we did about three gigs and a festival, so we’ll probably aim for in and around the same for next year, maybe four gigs and the festival as well, and just make it bigger again- bigger and badder!
Colin: Too Far Fetched with a “W” (tWo Far Fetched!)
(all laugh)
Sounds great! What else do you think the future holds for you? What else is in store for Too Far Fetched?
Anthony: It would be nice to get over to the UK; there is some stuff in the works for next year. Obviously, we’ve worked with Sworn Amongst; we’ve put them up every time they come to Ireland and set up the gigs for them and I’m sure we’re due a trade with them at this stage so maybe try to get over to them for two or three dates in the space of a week.
Colin: Yeah that would be sick!
Anthony: Yeah, and see if there’s anything else we can muster up over there. As it stands, we all are busy, so we can’t fully commit; however, if we get an opportunity, we’re going to take it without a doubt. We’ve always been working on trying to be a successful band, for as long as I remember, so if we do get the chance to be successful or go on a run, we’re definitely going to take it!
Colin: Some big festival slots would be nice as well…
(all agree)
Anthony: Well, I mean, Ireland is doing up to about six or seven festivals around the country now, so every year we want to hit up all those festivals again while also doing smaller gigs in between. It would be nice to try and get abroad somewhere. Our bass player was trying to set us up with gigs in Spain…
Ciaran: Yeah!
Anthony: So we’re definitely going to look into that next year when we have our album ready to go, so we have something to promote and sell over there. We’ve got a couple of things in the pipeline. It’ll be nice to make a goals list coming into next year and try to tick them off.
For sure! What have the highlights and biggest achievements been for you all so far?
Anthony: I have to say I really enjoyed playing Scream For Me last year.
Ciaran: Awh yeah, that festival!
Anthony: Yeah, that was really good, and then we did a gig with Follow The Signs in Cork; that was a really good one as well. What we like to do is, when there is a gig coming up, we tend to try and book the days off before and after to actually go and get to enjoy the time, network properly with the bands and hang out with them and get to spend time with them.
Colin: Experience the local food!
Always! The best part!
(all laugh)
Colin: The whole point of starting a band!
I’m just in it for the food too! That’s why I’m here!
(all laugh)
Anthony: Other major highlights, we haven’t had a proper album release yet, so that’s yet to come, which will be a highlight for sure
Ciaran: Yeah, for sure, and we got to play with The Scruff as well, that was pretty cool and definitely a surprise too!
Colin: Great crossover! Playing in Enniscorthy in the old church as well that was pretty cool…
Anthony: Yeah The Outrage fest was fun, it’s always fun to play with the lads from 12 Gauge Outrage down there, nice guys!
Such a nice community! Especially the day of the FEST too!
Colin: That’s just Mullingar for ya! Everyone is lovely. Best town in the country!
(all laugh)
I agree! Besides the giant Niall Horan card board cut out in the middle of the pub that freaked me out, I talked to it twice by accident thinking it was a real person…haha
Anthony: I think Aesect made the most of that by putting their merch on it and taking a photo of it!!
(all laugh)
When are you thinking of doing the album release party?
Anthony: So we’re hoping to have it out by Christmas; that’s the goal, so that we’re ready to go for the new year. We’re kind of in cahoots with another band in Clare called Redsetters. They’re just after wrapping up recording their latest EP, so we were half thinking of doing a co-headline release and doing two dates, each weekend over the space of three weekends. We don’t have a timeframe, though, because that all has to be coordinated with them as well if that does go ahead. It would be really fun to get that all going!
Colin: We’re also considering doing a listening party also!
Anthony: Yeah, we wanted to do a listening party, so once it’s done and finished, before we do any actual gigs, we’d like to do a big listening party down in Clarke’s and invite the likes of yourself and people that were at the FEST to come down and hang out and listen to it and get your feedback and see what you think and what song you’d like as a single and so forth!
Yeah deadly! That would be so cool. Are you going to film people’s reactions to the breakdowns and stuff? We could make it all really cinematic!
(all laugh)
Anthony: We could definitely do that! If we’re not performing, there’s so much other stuff we could actually try to do! Wrap GoPros around us and go around annoying people, and you never know- it could turn into an actual video for one of the songs if we get enough ideas for it!
Colin: That’s not a bad idea…
Yeah! That would be sick! You have to go up to the locals and blare it in Tesco and film their reactions! I’ll take a GoPro and help, no problem!
(All in agreement)
Anthony: We might wait til Mike Denvers comes back and plays in The Rebel and catch some of his supporters when they’re leaving the gig and see what they think of the material. We would be interested in supporting coming to the next few gigs
Colin: And Count Tornado!
Anthony: Yeah, our local Count Tornado, he definitely would have a couple of opinions on it also and would definitely want to support us on the next tour if we asked him to!
Colin: He might not want to just be support…
Anthony: Well yeah Count Torando is a big fish like..
He sounds amazing!
Anthony: Yeah, he’s quite the character, he’s a local legend, there’s not too many left but he’s still knocking around..
Colin: He says himself he’s Jimmy Hendrix’s keyboardist…
Every town has one don’t they! Local legends!
Anthony: Yeah we used to have about nine of them but we’re down to about three of four of them now at this stage. We’ll have to keep an eye out for the ones up and coming. But that would be a great night. Listening parties is something you don’t see metal bands doing often and it’d be something different.
Definitely! Anything else you’d like to chat about or something to promote today?
Anthony: We’re doing Praelium‘s album launch in Limerick on the 10th!
Ciaran: It’s in a tattoo shop!
So cool!
Ciaran: That’ll be interesting for sure!
Seeing them in a small space when they like to climb things also….
Anthony: Yeah, it should be interesting! Hopefully the album launch early next year, and we’re working on some collaborations with bands around the country…I’m not going to give anything away, but when it’s set in stone, we’ll make some announcements. We’re definitely looking forward to that!
Ciaran: Constantly writing! Everytime we jam we write a new song! The backlog is big!
Anthony: We record everything in house so we’re lucky in that sense. We demo everything here. Everything is localised around the band, so we’re lucky in that sense; we don’t have to travel too far or anything like that…
Better to have too much then too little aswell in terms of writing! You’ve got this!
Anthony: I’d just like to thank everyone who came down to the festival, a lot of work went into it and we’re just delighted with it’s success and that we pulled a crowd and everyone enjoyed themselves!
Ciaran: Shout out to the staff at Clarke’s and Ryan on the merch and Ais…
Anthony: Yes, big thanks to Ais for putting fire up my ass to do the fest because it was something I was saying I wanted to do for a long time, and she really was like why don’t you do it and pushed me and helped me to do it, and we all pulled together and did a great job!
(all in agreement)
Can’t wait for next year!
Ciaran: Me too!
Anthony: Next year we’re hoping to have it in the same place, outdoors in a warmer time of year and for it to be bigger! Fingers crossed we’ll see how things go at the beginning of the year when we start to set it up!
Watch this space!