Bringing Tallaght to Europe: The act making waves on the continent
Introducing KILNAMANA – the Irish/ Spanish musical act making waves across the continent.
The Berlin-based duo, Enda and Miguel, have just released their debut album Paradise Suicide.
Enda Gallery spoke exclusively to SHEmazing about the band's formation and success so far.
Now, the band name might ring a bell for those of you hailing from the West Dublin area, and yes it is a nod to the suburban area.
The pair agreed on the name after they discovered that Miguel had spent his summers learning English at Enda's primary school in Kilnamanagh.
''He ended up living about 100 metres away from that school I went to in Kilnamanagh, so it was a super crazy coincidence.''
The musical duo, now based in Berlin, met at a language school in the German capital.
''We met in language school and I was kind of busy producing other artists and doing other things… he found my stuff online and he wanted to do a session and I was kind of fobbing him off for a few months because I was too busy.''
Enda continued, ''Then on the last day of language school I was like hey I really like this guy – he's super nice, let's do a session.''
The chemistry was instant and the guys ended up producing songs straight off the bat.
''We found it really easy to work together and we made our first song in our first session.''
''We kept it going and we had out first album within about 12 weeks.''
The album may have only been released last Friday, but the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
Their music video debuted on Nialler9 and the duo were just named Best New Irish Artist of the week in The Irish Times.
As for the German reception, KILNAMANA have already already enjoyed some radio play and have racked up an impressive Spotify following.
'We're getting some radio play over here… the Spotify spins are also super big – we're almost on 75,000 listeners for the main single – and that's only in like 10 or 11 days''
KILNAMANA's live shows can be described as ''very powerful''.
Fans can expect an exciting and 'danceable' performance featuring keyboards, flutes, and electric drums.
''It has some acoustic moments but we do bring in up a level – we play a lot of live instruments.''
Unfortunately the band don't have any Irish tour dates set right now, but say it's something they're definitely looking forward to doing in the future.
''It's something I'm going to push for now. I didn't actually know how good the reception was going to be in Ireland and it's going really well so I think for the first time I probably will throw our name in for a few festivals and see what happens.''
Earlier this month KILNAMANA released the video for the last song on the album, Adios Amigo.
The video, directed by Enda's friend, Dave O' Carroll, was shot in Lough Dan, Co. Wicklow and Krumme Lanke in Berlin.
''I had the idea in a band meeting back in February, and you know obviously when you're a small band you don't have the budget to do crazy stories and stuff but we still wanted to do a really really cool video,'' Enda explained.
KILNAMANA's debut album Paradise Suicide is available to stream or download now.
You can check them out on Facebook or Instagram.
Keep your eyes peeled for a remix by Miguel's brother Kid Simius, set to drop this Friday.
