The High Kings Are Set For A Big Return To Australia

THE HIGH KINGS from Dublin are a traditional folk group who give new life for a new generation of Irish and Celtic music fans alike and they make their triumphant return to Australia following their Sold-Out tour last year.

THE HIGH KINGS are Finbarr Clancy, Darren Holden, Paul O’ Brien and Brian Dunphy who have held the position as the distinctive voice of Irish folk music across the world for the last fifteen years. Together they continue to sell out venues around the world to an ever-growing army of loyal fans.
Having surpassed a 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify as well as 2 platinum albums, 2023 saw THE HIGH KINGS celebrate 15 years together by releasing 15 new tracks, as well as the release of their eighth Studio Album The Road Not Taken.

Renowned for their captivating harmonies and timeless melodies, The Road Not Taken is a collection of original songs that breathe new life into traditional folk music, blending the old with the new. The album is a groundbreaking collaborative effort which includes household names such as The Script, Kodaline, Picture This, Sharon Corr and a guest appearance from the legendary JOURNEY frontman Steve Perry. Darren Holden talks to Hi Fi Way about returning to Australia.

Are you looking forward to returning to Australia after a huge sold out tour last year?
I can’t tell you how much we are looking forward to it, it was amazing last time. There was some talk about that, we had no idea that it was going to be as big and successful as it was. You would be forgiven if you were thinking that you had not been out there before even though the dates are booked and you see the ticket sales, we didn’t really know what the reaction was going to be. We weren’t ready for it at all to be honest. We get a buzz thinking about it and when we heard that we were going back again we were absolutely delighted. I just can’t wait to do it. I fell in love with Australia, bring it on as fast as possible!

Do you have a lot of highlights and moments that stood out from the last tour?
The crowds were just incredible and the volume, it was almost like a rock gig, the venues were just wedged. We had an electric feeling from the whole thing and the welcome we got from the tour managers, road managers and crew, we had not met a friendlier road crew that we had who are now friends of ours. We are working with them next year when we go back down. We just don’t see that anywhere else and we tour all over the world. In Australia, we felt it was different, way more friendlier and it was way more laid back which suits us being Irish and all. We found we really slotted in and I can see why so many Irish people love it down there. I have a nephew living there in Sydney for the last five years, he’s never coming back home, it is just the way it is as he absolutely adores Australia. If I was a younger man I would go back there myself and set up shop there.

Do you notice difference between Australian and other fans you meet around the world?
We predominantly play Germany, UK and America every year as well as Ireland. America is a vast country as you know with the biggest following but I just felt there is another level in Australia almost as if they have been waiting for us for years. There were all these stories we have heard about us getting played in pubs, restaurants and festivals but I didn’t believe it until I started getting videos from friends of mine there in Irish pubs and watching people dancing to our songs. I went to our management and said we need to get down there and get it organised fast. It was a different level, that’s all I can tell you, it was so enjoyable, our favourite kind of gig being hot and sweaty, the audience were in our face screaming at every song, singing all the lyrics to the songs back. I’ve never had it before with The High Kings after fifteen years and it is definitely one I want to relive again.

Does anything prepare you for that long haul flight to Australia?
Sleeping tablets! I’ve heard all the nightmare stories, I think I slept a lot, we went to Dubai first then on to Perth. I think I slept for most of it, when I got there I was pretty fresh and on the way back we did a concert in Dubai and I slept for eleven hours. I think if I could do that again I would be very happy but I can see why people dread it. It is a monstrous flight but you are well taken care of on the plane, loads of movies, the food is great, loads of space and just take it for what it is.

You must be thrilled with your eighth album The Road Not Taken, it almost seems like one of those dream albums?
It really was and it came about organically, it wasn’t meant to happen the way it did at all because we planned another album but we didn’t know it was going to be an original album but then lock down happened and we had to cut short our tour in America. We got back home took a month off and was itching to get something happening as we knew we would be coming up to our fifteenth anniversary of the band. I talked to my manager one day and said look, let’s try and do an original album as I had a ton of songs that I have been sitting on and maybe it is time to get them out there and get in the studio to do something. He thought it was a good idea, I played him some of my stuff and he was like this could be more modernised, contemporary version of the band.

The word got out that we were doing that, we’re great friends with the lads from The Scripts (Glen and Danny) and they said we have written a song for you, would you like to hear it? Obviously, yes! I am a big fan of theirs, I got the song which was “Chasing Rainbows” and I was blown away immediately by it, I was almost crying when I heard it. This was exactly what we need to kick start this next album. Suddenly the word got out that we were accepting songs from contemporary artists.

Steve from Kodaline sent a song in, we got one from Ryan Sheridan, Picture This and I wrote one with Sharon Corr from The Corrs. Sharon is a really good friend of mine and we wrote this instrumental piece Go With The Flow. That’s one of the more popular songs from the album. Chasing Rainbows is the big hit off of it being played everywhere and has gone crazy on Tik Tok. We have a whole new generation of younger fans that are coming along to the gigs with their parents and grandparents. It is a free for all these days for all ages.

It is incredible how that stuff happens?
It is like a lottery! Sometimes you put an album out and it won’t take, this one almost connected immediately. The highest streaming for the album was in the first week. Spotify put the yearly streaming stats out and we actually came in, we can’t actually believe this for an Irish folk band, we got forty two million streams on Spotify alone in the last year. The nearest Irish folk band had twenty five or thirty millions streams below that. We are going how is that even possible, it is all through people finding us on Tik Tok and Instagram. The word of mouth and going old school, the first album in five or six years that we getting the songs played on a daily basis, even in the USA as well which is really cool.

It is a shame that artists don’t get paid what they deserve with Spotify?
I know! I keep hearing that it is going to change but not any time soon. It is wrong but there aren’t to many avenues out there. Physical sales are a thing of the past. The only thing is vinyl, we’re killing it on the vinyl. Every time we get it redone and restocked it is gone again. It has come full circle, the only thing we didn’t do is cassettes. Believe it or not we had a ton of requests for cassettes because they are the new in fad as well.

Do you think you will do more collaborations in future?
Yeah, I am the annoying member of the band as I start reaching out to people all the time. I’m always looking at other bands all the time and potentially sizing them up that maybe could work with us. While I was in Australia last time I reached out to Andrew Farriss from INXS. Nine times out of hundred no one gets back to me but Andrew did. We’ve become pals and talk all the time on the phone and we’re in the midst right now as we speak of putting the finishing touches on a really cool collaborative effort. Very folky but very contemporary and I’m really excited about that. We made do a couple of other things but I am always reaching out to other bands like Dropkick Murphys, I’d love to work with them. I would love to do something with Neil Finn, he did mention us in an interview a while back which I thought was mind blowing. I’ve put the word out there and I always like to do that when I’m going in to a certain country. Who knows, by the time I get to Australia we might have a bunch of collabs already in the bag, maybe play one or two of them and have some people on stage.

Do the collabs translate well live?
We had a meeting about how we are going to bring all these songs to our set and what we will have to do with the old Irish classics Finnegan’s Wake, Rocky Road To Dublin, Grace… all those have to be in the show. You can’t drop those in favour of doing a predominantly new set list. The only way we could make it happen is if we had less chat, less song introductions, less stories but more music and more songs because with all the chat and all the songs that we want to do it would be over a three hour show. In this day and age only Bruce Springsteen can get away with that because a lot of people want to get in, get a show done and go home. People don’t want three hour shows any more. We will do our best and try to fit everything in making it the best show we possibly can.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch The High Kings on the following dates, tickets from Metropolis Touring…