Sinéad Baker | Deputy Online Editor
The first thing that strikes you about Censor the Beast is their name, a Dublin three-piece who say it’s something which “doesn’t give away what the band’s really about. I think it suggests something heavier. People have said it sounds like a metal band or something, but it’s actually more of like a playful take on things. Like the ‘Beast’ represents things that aren’t allowed, or are maybe frowned upon” their drummer, Rob, told The University Times. “It’s open to interpretation,” explains guitarist and vocalist Andrew. “The Censor could be the Beast. We didn’t want to be pigeon-holed either, just having a straight up name that fit perfectly. It’s nice to have something a bit different. It’s tough to come up with a name, and every good name is taken. And now so is Censor the Beast”.
“There’s a lot to be said for getting out of the city and focusing. We want to be able to apply ourselves this summer, alongside jobs and whatever else we’ve got going on.”
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This refusal to be pigeonholed is something which becomes increasingly evident in my time with the band which features junior sophister philosophy and sociology Trinity student Andrew Martin on guitar and vocals, another Trinity student, Rob Nolan, a senior freshman sociology and geography student on drums and Will Peart, a DIT hotel management student on bass. They claim to be inspired by by “everything from Paolo Nutini to Cannibal Corpse” – in particular rock and blues. “I think inspiration is always going to be subconscious from listening to your favourite bands. You’re never trying to replicate them, but it actually plays a part in the way you write music I think,” Rob tells me, as they cite their favourite artists such as Pink Floyd, Foals, Arcade Fire and Kings of Leon, “the giants, the people who are doing it right” as well as older acts such as BB King. Rob even cites the influence of dance music on his drumming, “so some of our rhythms would be quite upbeat. To try and get people moving I suppose”.
Bassist Will Peart was absent from the interview due to work commitments, echoing the problems the band faced juggling their music and being students. They cited these issues with time as “the biggest issue at the moment for us. Will is in his final year and doing a placement in Mayo. It’s in a really good hotel and resort so in terms of career prospects it’s great but obviously it creates difficulty in meeting up because he’s only back in Dublin like once every two weeks, but our best progress comes when we can spend a week together in one place”, Rob explains. They repeat the importance of having an extended period of time to focus on their music, such as working on their EP away from Dublin. “I live in Waterford” Andrew elaborates, “and have a little outhouse for music, and we can work all day, all night. That’s where we wrote the EP basically. There’s a lot to be said for getting out of the city and focusing. We want to be able to apply ourselves this summer, alongside jobs and whatever else we’ve got going on”.
This level of commitment is all the more impressive when you consider that the band formed very recently. Rob and Andrew met in school and have been playing music together for about four-to-five years, doing mainly acoustic sets and busking. “We got really into it at the end of sixth year when we were leaving school and then travelled around southern Europe, just busking and then using that money as the only means of making a living and putting a roof over our heads for about six weeks or so”, Rob tells me. “That gave us the interest in playing for bigger crowds and we just enjoyed it so much. It just kind of grew from there and then we got Will in, and he just fitted in really well. And then we were in a different project for about two years with another guy from Trinity, and now we’ve started a new one with Censor the Beast. That was about last September, when we recorded the EP, which was kind of the first thing we ever did as a band. We just wrote a lot of songs and decided which ones to record.”
Their EP, See Through Skin, was released on April 16th of this year, and was described by fourculture.com as ‘a four song exploration of creativity… worth adding to every library and one you’ll enjoy keeping on repeat”. This creativity is evidently important to the band. “What we were going for is a sense of diversity throughout it. We could have just gone in there and done four fast rock/bluesy tunes but we tried to do something that could showcase that we can do more than one kind of style, and from what people have said, and reviews and stuff, that’s definitely what has been perceived” explains Andrew, while Rob adds that “It’s nice because people are surprised when the next song plays”. They admit that the next step is to sell some hard copies adding that “they’re really fun to make. The producer we worked with was amazing, we had no clue when we were entering the studio, as we’d never done it before The end of summer would be a good target for another one.”
“Doing it half-heartedly or not being able to practise enough just doesn’t work. You need to really just go for it.”
Despite all this, when I had interviewed them two weeks ago, the band had never played a live gig. When I asked them, I was met with laugher and exclaims of “No! That’s all ahead. We were doing the EP, and that was taking up all our time, and then we had exams. We were mainly doing studio stuff, and getting the EP released, and then college took over for a while”. Since then – in the past week – they played their first-ever gig at the NewC festival in Longford, which featured “some big names, and then a load of small Irish bands. We were lucky to get it. It’s really hard to apply for a gig when people ask us ‘okay, well when was your last gig?’,” explains Andrew, as Rob asserts that “We didn’t want to write our last gig down because that was done with another project.”
Part of the reason for their lack of gigs is the almost total lack of opportunities for bands to showcase themselves in Trinity. They described the lack of Trinity Ents ‘Battle of the Bands’ as “a big blow for us” yet expressing admiration as “Sean [Reynolds, Ents Officer] got in a load of local Dublin-based bands to play which was great to see, it was almost better because he got a load in as opposed to just having one”. Talking about Trinity Ents, Rob expressed a disappointment with regards to in ents nights, “we’re really missing out on like live nights. It’s always DJs, which is great if you like that, but I think there’s definitely a place for live music – to have bands playing a night. It’s something we’d like to see”. Rob stresses the importance of young bands knowing each other: “we might not know other bands face to face, but I’ll follow other Irish bands of a similar age, a similar following, and listen to their stuff.” This explains their enthusiasm for their free upcoming gig in The Grand Social at the venue’s ‘New Natives’ night which aims to show-off up and coming Irish talent.
For the future, the band seem committed to continuing their musical journey, and their passion for the band is clear: “I just want to be able to really go for it at some point. Doing it half-heartedly or not being able to practise enough just doesn’t work. You need to really just go for it” exclaims Rob. For Andrew, “for me there’s no other option. Philosophy doesn’t get you a direct job as a philosopher!”. They seem eager to set themselves a clear goal: “if you look like bands who started in a similar way, by busking and working their way up, like the Riptide Movement, they released two albums and had a following in Dublin and then once they had that platform they were able to go onto the next level, and you can’t do that unless you’re doing it full time”.
Sinéad Baker is an incoming Co-Editor-at-Large for the 2014/15 academic year.
Censor the Beast are playing at The Grand Social’s ‘New Natives’ night on June 11th. Admission is free. Their EP See Through Skin is available from Bandcamp.
