Interview with Sean McGrath of 'In Focus'

Interview with Sean McGrath of 'In Focus'

Young Irish band 'In Focus' have certainly been grabbing people's attention in recent months. Whether it be busking in the streets or playing at organised gigs, these guys have been doing incredibly well for themselves, and have seen their hard work pay off by winning the 'Your Local Star Talent Competition' just under two weeks ago.

I caught up with lead singer Sean McGrath to get inside the mind of this incredible up and coming band and to talk about their outstanding recent success.

"The band originally started as a duo with myself and David (McCabe) getting together and seeing what we could do and then we got a gig through college with Adam (Tracey) and Jordan (Higgins) and as soon as we played with them we knew that we needed to become a band everything just fit. Then we just got Ian (Bailey) in because David knew him and he was a really solid drummer (and he can drive us all around!!)"

With five band members, one would be forgiven for thinking that it may be difficult for everyone to agree on a music style. But Sean insists that it all came together naturally for the guys.

"We do all have completely different tastes in music from swing to heavy metal but when writing we kind of just fell into our own style mainly Acoustic Rock style with our own twist, we added our own style of melodies and lead and bass lines to make ourselves stand out. So it kind of just fell into place rather than us having to force it." 

 "Promoting ourselves was and still is the most difficult thing to do as a band. We got an awful lot of our following from busking and then the more and more gigs we are getting gives us a good following also. We have put a lot of work and effort into getting our image right so that we catch peoples attention and stand out and so far it has been working for us."



There is no doubt that it has been working for the band, because as I mentioned, they were recently crowned the winners of the 'Your Local Talent Star Competition' held in the Riverside Hotel in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. As champions, the band's prizes included a €2000 cash prize, chance to record a single in one of Ireland's leading recording studios with 100 CDs, a brand new website and 5 paid gigs nationwide. So it's no surprise that it is the bands biggest achievement to date.

"It was really amazing we said we would try an original song "Lost" (Our Upcoming Single) and people really took to it as well because it is quite upbeat and catchy. People started clapping along and singing along to the chorus once they heard it and it really made us stand out which we think the judges appreciated and took into consideration when deciding.It's a great opportunity for us to make ourselves known and to make our mark and hopefully find our place in the industry.I think its something we have all dreamt of and now it has become a reality no one can tell how the single is going to go or if it will take off but its still a massive step in our career and we have got massive belief in ourselves and our music."

And on a lighter note.... What do the guys plan on doing with the money?!

"Ahhhh we can't be telling you that now haha! Ah no we had decided before the competition that if we won we wouldn't go mad and spend it stupidly we were going to invest it into getting our other original songs out and get our music out there." 

Wise decision! But the band know that the can't afford to sit back and relax, this really is only the beginning! So what are their future plans?

"We are going to keep plugging away, gigging and working hard, trying to get some notice, get some stuff out there and hopefully record an EP to send to some labels and yeah just see where we go from there. We would love to be playing festivals and bigger gigs but its not just going to be handed to us so the harder we work the better it will pay off for us hopefully."

For those of you interested in listening to the bands music or keeping up to date with all the behind the scenes stuff, Sean has all the details!

"We have our music on YouTube for now but if you like the Facebook page, we post things regularly and now with our single coming out we will be putting it on iTunes, Spotify, XBox music really anywhere we can put it."

In Focus Official - Facebook
@InFocus_Band - Twitter
@InFocus_Official - Instagram 
in_focusband - Snapchat

EOIN!