Renowned for their feisty live show and colourful antics, Dublin punk band The Nilz tell me that they’re too controversial for mainstream attention, so they’ve given up on the idea and prefer to carve their own scene.
They’re doing an excellent job at that, roping in a bunch of gig exchanges that have seen them partner with punk acts in Sweden and Germany, and create a colourful scene that attempts to go island-wide.
As for their own music, it’s a rapid, furious gut-punch, just like these things are meant to be. I caught up with vocalist Eddie Nil and bassist Christ Dahmer to talk it all over…
Congrats on your successes so far. You seem to have done very well outside of Ireland. Do you think there’s a particular story there?
Eddie: Very hard work! It was Chris’ idea to start running our own gigs with the idea of it being a DIY gig swap deal which has led to us forming strong relationships with other bands throughout Ireland, in Germany and especially in Sweden.
Chris: Yeah it happened pretty naturally by working with overseas bands of a similar mindset to ourselves
In my experience, the Irish punk scene receives very little media attention outside of very niche circles. Yet it does really well more broadly. What do you think the story is with that?
Eddie: well the media i.e. NME have their heads up their holes when it comes to actual Irish Punk, but look I know as well as most us DIY bands don’t put ourselves out there as much as we could.
A recent band who unfortunately broke up, Shithätt, should’ve had the music press & radio stations fawning over them but it didn’t happen & they broke up too soon.
We’re in the luxurious position of being too controversial for certain sites, publications & venues to have anything to do with us, so we’re in no danger of “Selling out” HAHA whatever that is.
Chris: The Irish punk scene and bands have always done fairly well in spite of pretty much no media attention really, the reality is the people who are interested will seek out and find the bands and gigs they’re looking for especially with everything being on the internet.