Irish hip hop band in rude health
Andy Richardson talks to a band with a difference who are really making waves across the Irish Sea
The Original Rudeboys will warm-up for their summer slot at V Festival with a headline gig at Birmingham's O2 Academy on Wednesday.
The Irish acoustic hip hop band, best known for their hit single Stars In My Eyes, have been rising fast after supporting The Script. The band consists of Sean "Neddy" Arkins (rap vocals), Robert Burch (guitar and vocals), Sean "Walshy" Walsh (ukulele) and Conor Walsh (banjo).
Three of the band-mates grew up together in the same neighbourhood in the North Inner City of Dublin and they became friends around the ages of seven. They each wrote and performed music individually before coming together as "The Original Rudeboys".
Neddy said: "As much as we would like to take the credit for it (their name, The Original Rudeboys), the truth is we stole it from a t-shirt.
"I was wearing a top one night that had The Original Rudeboys written on it and we basically lied to people and told them that it was band merch. This was before we had even put the band together but somehow the name stuck and here we are.
"The music we play now is pretty much what we each did as individuals beforehand, just merged together.
"To be totally honest, we didn't think that much about it so I guess it did come naturally to us. We just starting playing music together and put it on YouTube for the world to see without really thinking about it. People seemed to like what they were hearing so we kept doing it."
The Original Rudeboys debut album, This Life, has already been certified gold in the Republic of Ireland.
Neddy added: "It felt fantastic. I had some really embarrassing photographs up in my house that I was able to take down and replace with a gold disc plaque which felt incredible."
Sean: "It was great for us. There were a lot of people who said our band wouldn't work because our sound is just so different to anything else out there to be able to say to them that we've now got a gold status album that has already nearly gone platinum is a great feeling and a great achievement for the three of us."
