The Terribles

A band fronted by a young
Donegal singer and music
entrepreneur will be taking
to the stage at this
year's Hard Working
Class Heroes Festival
(www.hwch.net).
Neassa Doherty from
Donegal Town is the lead
singer of music combo
The Terribles who will be
performing for the first
time at the Irish festival
for Irish bands, celebrating
its fifth successive
year running in Dublin in
association with BudRising.
At first they weren't going
to apply to play at the
festival, according to Neassa,
or they never
thought, and then a friend
talked her into registering
online.
Neassa said: "Looking
at the line-up of this year's
festival it's great to see
such an eclectic variety of
bands and not the usual
suspects.
"I was really surprised
when I was notified that
we had been accepted to
perform at the festival and
we were all very delighted."
The band started out as
a one woman project
when 26-year-old Neassa
wanted to record a few
tracks with her friend and
sound engineer, Ian Mc-
Nulty from Letterkenny,
living in Dublin.
Neassa said: "I was still
living in Galway at the
time and I got together a
few friends, Greg and
Gary from The Hollows
and my friend Gareth on
drums for what was meant
to be a once-off.
"But people seemed to
like it and we then released
an EP last year in
March, but the band actually
only got together after."
Neassa has performed
her music around the
country with her friend
Tim, aka Vertigo Smith,
but she is really using herself
as a guinea pig on her
own label Poltergeist
Records.
"The Terribles became
a band and in fact the first
I signed to my label. I've
since signed other people,
but our band is really still
at the forefront of this label
in its experimental
phase."
Neassa said that there
has been quite a lot of interest
expressed in the
band's debut EP and Penny
Distribution based in
San Francisco is reissuing
the EP and releasing it in
the States and it will finally
be in the format she
wanted it to be.
"I'm really pleased with
how things are going so
far. Alison Curtis and Tom
Dunne on Today FM both
championed the EP and
gave it a great plug and we
ended up being 'artist of
the week' on Pet Sounds
which was fantastic."
The Terribles sound is
anything but ‘terrible’, it is
a unique blend one can only
descibe as Indie Pop
Rock and very radio
friendly.
Neassa has used the
www.myspace.com a lot to
promote both her Indie label,
The Terribles and the
EP: "Myspace is a great resource
if you use it the
right way. With Poltergeist
we don't do a lot of
in-your-face advertising
and really depend on
word-of-mouth quite a
bit," said Neassa.
Now living in Dublin,
since last year, Neassa remembers
how it all started
with a four-track recording
machine.
"When I first started
writing and recording it
was all mainly instrumental
stuff that I recorded on
my four-track and then
started working with Ian
in Dublin.
"I then moved to Dublin
and did an MA in Literature
and Publishing and
I'm now working full-time
while I'm getting my label
established."
Neassa said that she
wants to put as much energy
as she can into her label,
but is not afraid to
wait a few years and make
the right plans.
She said: "It's good that
bands and solo artists are
taking things into their
own hands and do their
own thing as they have
more control.
"The more I learn about
the music business the
better it's getting and I can
take a more realistic approach
to the whole
scene."

-Sean P. Feeny
- Donegal News

"The debut four track ep from this irish based five piece outfit, and its a rather beautiful collection of very very mellow electronic pop sounds, something similar to a cross between postal service and lali puna with its clever use of electronic sounds mingling with live guitars, tape loops, cello and brass, a very refreshing sound." - www.roadrecs.com