The Young Folk

The first person to introduce me to the Irish band The Young Folk was Davie Lawson, who you might know of one of his hundred sessions for Onder Invloed. Not long after, the band made a guest appearance on a television show by a Dutch singing duo. That caused their first Dutch show to be moved from the small to the big room of the Paradiso. Just before dinner that day, we filmed this session at De Balie in Amsterdam.

Read the interview with lead singer Anthony Furey below the video.

Way Down South

Although lead singer Anthony Furey grew up in a family of musicians – his father George and three uncles formed the famous Irish folk band The Fureys – it didn’t necessarily form his taste and interest in music. “I was around instruments an awful lot, everyday, all day. But it didn’t really influence me music wise. More so, I would say, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. And then I discovered my own music; Ryan Adams and people like that. I got into Neil Young when I was fifteen, sixteen. A lot of the americana stuff influenced me more than the traditional Irish music.” Furey tells me he was a late bloomer. “I was eighteen when I started writing songs, where as people nowadays are often thirteen of fourteen. I didn’t have anything to write back then, I was out with my friends playing soccer and other sports.”

The Young Folk started out as Anthony Furey And The Young Folk, which they shortened after they found out that the name Furey actually worked against the band, with some radio presenters refusing to play their songs. “That’s why we got rid of the ‘Anthony Furey’.” Nowadays, it’s the word folk in the band’s name that sometimes causes confusion, since they don’t play (just) folk. “It’s starting to hold us back a small bit, but everyone’s telling us not to change it because they like the name. It’s not worth it. So, we’ll see in the near future, when hopefully people will know us for the music, not the name.”

“I met Paul (keys, vocals) through college, and I met Tony (bass, mandolin) through work. Alex (trombone, banjo) came along last year and Patrick (drums, percussion) only joined the band about three weeks before the Paradiso gig. That was his very first show, a nice one to start on.” Playing in the main hall of the Paradiso in Amsterdam was an amazing experience, Furey confirms. “I’ve watched so many shows that were in Paradiso. The Lumineers recorded one of their shows there and I’ve been watching it the past few years. Just to be up on the same stage where The Rolling Stones and The Waterboys played, is amazing.” Watch a video I made of Way Home live