As they prepare to bring their music stateside, The Shoos talk to Grace Duffy about the trials and tribulations the band has faced

As the Irish music scene gathers momentum, the Shoos are the latest band to find themselves on the tip of everyone’s tongue. The group have come from playing small shows in pubs and clubs to securing a series of dates in New York City at the end of the month, with an date in the Academy 2 also forthcoming.

“We’ve been together about three years now,” says lead singer Tex of the group’s origins. “Myself and Barry Plunkett, the lead guitarist, started recording some of our own stuff and we played a few gigs around Dublin, just the two of us. Then Steve Meyer, the bass player and his older brother Scott joined in, and that’s how it all started.”

The singer admits it was difficult to contend in the scene at first, though the band did benefit from Scott’s experience in the industry.

“We just started playing in clubs and pubs, any gig we could get. Scott’s been a musician for his whole life and so he knew some other bands and got us a few supports here and there. More often than not, there was no money involved when we started off and that’s how it went, just gigs and gigs!”

However, the band’s efforts appear to be paying off, as they released a four track EP, Yeah, in September with the eponymous song as a single shortly thereafter. This has been garnering them some hard-earned recognition.

“The feedback from Yeah has been great,” Tex says warmly. “We did as much publicity as we could and we got good reviews and a lot of national and regional radio play, so we were delighted with that. It helped us to get a lot of gigs and notice. We’re setting ourselves up to release a second single, Distance, off the EP, which will turn into an album. It’ll go Yeah, Distance, and then the album in July.”

Before all this, however, the Shoos have been booked to play a number of shows in New York City, an opportunity that Tex acknowledges as huge for the band.

“We got invited by a booking agent who knows Scott, as Scott goes out there to do his own stuff,” Tex explains. “We’re inviting as many people in the business as we can to come and see us – there’s a guy from Interscope coming from LA. It’s only a few gigs; we’re not expecting to get a deal out of one week in New York! Either way, it’s a unique experience to get to go over there and play so we’ll see what happens.”

Onwards and upwards for The Shoos thus, as hard work and perseverance pays dividends.