Fighting With Wire, a three piece rock band from Derry, play Kelly’s in Galway City on Sunday, February 12. Their fired-up sound will appeal to fans of Foo Fighters and Biffy Clyro.

Lead singer Cahir O’Doherty is just up, having pulled a late shift recording B-sides for singles that the band will releases this year.
“I was in there ‘til about 3 this morning,” he says. “I don’t know when to just stop and leave! It’s just a bit of madness in me.”

Fighting With Wire released their debut album Man Vs. Monster in 2008, and in the same year also signed a deal with Atlantic Records (famed for discovering Led Zeppelin).

“Atlantic were really keen for album number two,” recalls Cahir. “And so were the band, because those songs from the first record were really old to us as well. In 2009 we started writing and by the end of the year we basically had the second record recorded.”

But it would take Fighting With Wire over two years to release their debut, after their major label went cold on them.

“We finished it up in 2010 and then – silence,” says Cahir. “Everything just went on a strange hold. Terms were being thrown around like ‘rock is dead’ at the label. We were like ‘OK, if you don’t like the record, just let the band go’. They said ‘no, we like it. We don’t want to let the band go’.”

“It was a weird time. For the last two years I’ve been trying to get this record back, so we can release it. And this happens a lot within the industry. Labels – I don’t know what their thinking is with it but they do put you in limbo for a while.”

It was a tough time for Cahir and his band mates Craig McKean (drums) and Jamie King (bass). All that waiting around can be very frustrating – they must’ve come very close to packing it in.

“It’s the ruin of many of a band,” says Cahir. They just break up and stop. I understand totally now why they do that. It was a very strange and frustrating time for us as a band. We watched all our peers continue on and tour – we couldn’t even tour, because we had nothing for people to listen to.”

Yet Cahir doesn’t peddle the ‘labels are scum’ line. Looking back, he is grateful for the doors that Atlantic opened for Fighting With Wire.
“I can’t badmouth them,” he says. “They gave us such an opportunity and we got to work with Nick Raskulinecz, a producer who worked with Foo Fighters, Deftones and Alice In Chains. Such an amazing producer, and if not for signing with Atlantic we’d have never got to work with Nick.”

“And also, I went to LA and Nashville, song writing and stuff. And I got to meet some amazing people and work with some really cool guys. They gave us a lot of opportunity, as well as holding the momentum of the band back. There’s a bit of give and take there.”

With their second album slated for release in April or May, Fighting With Wire are rearing to go. They also have a tour lined up with Helmet, a much-loved alternative rock band who were peers of Nirvana. Cahir and the lads are glad to be hitting the road once again.
 

“Yeah, we’re really looking forward to it,” he enthuses. “This Irish tour will be the start of us getting out there. We’ve a load of new material and we’re really excited about it.”

“We’re all big fans of Helmet,” he adds. “So we’re out touring with those guys through March and April, in Europe and the UK. And then we’ll come back to do our own UK tour. But Ireland’s getting the first listen to a whole load of new songs.”

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.