Bebo

(Faustine)
What is the history of 9lies? When was it born and why?

(Steve)
The band was formed around 3 years ago with the co founder member of my previous band Nick Black who now plays
guitars for us, and my good friends Dave kernohan. At the beginning Nick was living in England working for Airbus trying to pull himself out of a lot of debt that he had built up back home, so in its early stages the band was basically myself and Dave locking ourselves away in my studio, which was for all intents and purposes my bedroom with a lot of wires hanging around!
During those sessions we started to get the roots of the sound together for what was to become the Behind It All album. Nick would then be over at the weekends and would come around and stick a few great lead guitar over dubs to the recordings, but He wasn't just a part time member though, as he would spend a lot of time recording ideas on a palm studio and emailing them back to us. Following on from that when we felt ready to take the songs on the road came our Drummer Steve "Stoogie" McAuley and Bassist Chris Cardwell, since then the whole environment for writing new material has changed with each member being able to get on with creating their own parts, and fortunately for me they are a great bunch of musicians, and we all get on great at a personal level as well.

(Faustine)
How would you describe your music?

(Steve)
We sort of do two types in the wider Genres which would be Slow, moody guitar ballad rock, and then at the other end of the scale where the crowd pleasers live is the Uptempo, bouncy, melodic rock. The one thing that they all have in common is that we do spend a lot of time on each, doing quite often complex arrangements, and if when finished we don't like the songs they
go straight in the bin never to see the light of day again. We are our own biggest critics!

(Faustine)
What are your influences?

(Steve)
For myself personally, i've always been a big fan of U2, im also big into the Manic's, Nirvana and the Killers to name but 4, and for the other guys th imagination is stretched a great deal!

(Faustine)
Has being Damien Rice's cousin helped you in your career?

(Steve)
Not as much as I would have hoped in the early days. People tend to ignore the situation and never really ask any questions, which Im happier about now that we have managed to establish
ourselves without it appearing to be off the back of Damiens success. Saying that, I am very proud of Damien and what he stands for. He's a lot more arty that I could ever be.
One thing he did do, was prove to me that you could record an album using basic equipment in your own room and if its good people will buy into that.

(Faustine)
Title track 'Behind it all' was described by Johnny Hero as '9lies, sounding absolutely brilliant,' and you were given international acclaim from the US. How do you feel about that? Would you describe it as a consecration?

(Steve)
I think I probably would yes! We are always pleased to get any airplay as its taking our music out to a wider audience than we could otherwise expect just playing dive bars and putting it on
myspace and the like, and that helps drive us on really. But more than that its humbling on a personal level that someone actually appreciates what you have created and thinks it's great,
That's something I don't think we will ever be able to become glassy about.

(Faustine)
What are the most rewarding moments?

(Steve)
There's two major rewards, and the first would be when your in the rehearsal room and a new song is born. There's always a major buzz about and a bit of a high. The next reward is when your playing these songs live and the crowd get into the music and start giving you feed back, it's
easy to understand why people say it is a buzz. ... there's nothing like being worshiped.... Although, im never sure if its us or the songs, lol

(Faustine)
And the most difficult ones?