We’ve a bit of history with Kodaline, not that you’d (or especially they’d) know. When we were in our infancy, dreaming of doing this as an actual job and meeting heroes (how we laugh now) Kodaline were one of the first bands we were actually asked to write about. Moreover (I think this is true) they were THE first band we ever got asked to go and review live. And they we’re great and consequently we’ve had a soft spot for them ever since here on Backseat Mafia.
Fast forward seven years, and Kodaline are headline news. Millions of streams – 15 million across Spotify and 7.5 million views on YouTube just for their recent ‘Whatever You Are’ and ‘Sometimes’ singles alone, the band are gearing up for the release of their new album ‘One Day At A Time’ on June 12th and have just released a new single, Saving Grace.
It’s accompanying video was inspired by the band asking fans to submit footage of them having lockdown fun and they were rewarded with over 500 entries from 64 countries. Meanwhile, well, we’re working on our side of it.
Check it out, here
Ahead of the album release, we chatted to guitarist Mark Prendergast from the band about all things Kodaline.
Hi, thanks for talking to us – how have you been keeping? All ok? What are you missing most?
Hi, thanks for talking to me 🤟. I’ve been keeping really good. Thanks for asking.
I miss a lot of things to be honest.
It’s a strange feeling knowing we won’t be able to play a gig this year. I really miss that idea.. or football.
Really miss football too.
Have you been able to be creative at all, or has it given you the time to have a break, or focus on something / something different?
In the beginning I definitely took a break. It was nice not having a schedule for a few months. Certainly made the most of it.
Got back into writing some stuff after a few weeks but it was lovely. No real pressure to do anything for a while.
Got big into gardening too.
Weird times to be promoting / releasing an album – how has that felt?
It’s been pretty weird not being able to travel around and promote it like we usually would. It’s all been done from home, it’s been eye opening to see how many people you can talk to around the world from the comfort of your own house.
Everyone has this strange thing in common now so there’s been a lot to talk about.
Saving Grace has an incredible video – tell us a bit about that? When you get that many people sending you stuff – is it a bit overwhelming?
It was crazy emotional to watch back the finished video. We’ve never seen our fans just hang out and be themselves like that before.
It was really overwhelming, especially seeing people getting involved from every corner of the world.
Tell us a little about that song? When was it written?
That song had a pretty long life in the writing process. Steve showed us that chorus back in January 2019 and we only finished it in December. There was always something we loved about, it instantly felt like a Kodaline song to us.
6. And One Day At A Time – can you tell us more.?
So for this album we kept it to just the 4 of us.
Jason produced it and we did it in Dublin in our studio.
We started January 2019 and finished it in February. There was a lot of touring in between the recording process, which probably had a huge affect on it. Especially playing new songs before they were released, that was great.
Favorite tracks?
My favourite track is probably Spend It With You. Feels like a really classic song to us, we’ve been rehearsing it up in the studio this week and it’s a lovely song to play through.
This one recorded super easily, it kind of fell into our lap.
Judging by the number of views and streams you’ve been getting – you must be excited for the record coming out, although in unusual circumstances?
One of the most exciting things about being an artist is releasing new music. It’s so good to finally get it out there after spending all last year on it.
Watching the reaction has been crazy, I’ve been able to pay so much more attention to it online with all the time at home.
This is your fourth album now I think – how much have you changed since those early writing forays? Do you write or do things much differently now, or do you still basically to the way you’ve always done it?
It can be really important and necessary to mix things up with the writing process. We’ve done it a bit before in the past but we work a lot better when it’s just the 4 of us in a room together.
Probably a question you can’t answer, but what’s next for Kodaline?
We’re now able to play together again in the same room. So we’re in the process of organising some shows online in the very near future.
One day at a time is out on June 12th via B-Unique
