WEST Belfast indie band The Shan Vans are set to appear on UTV on Thursday night, showcasing the band's unique sound.

The five piece have gone from strength to strength over the past six months after releasing their debut single 'Inside' which has racked up thousands of listens across multiple streaming platforms. The band also shared the main stage with Kneecap and The Whislin' Donkeys at this year's Féile an Phobail, as well as playing a Saturday night slot at Ireland's biggest music festival, Electric Picnic.

All of the band's members hail from West Belfast: Jake Óg Mac Siacais (lead singer/rhythm guitar), Aidan Mackin (rhythm guitar), Colm Gillen (bass), Adam Gamble (drums) and Breandan McGlone (lead guitar). Most are former pupils of Coláiste Feirste.

The band's name invokes its roots in the Irish language with nods to Irish literature, poetry, and songwriting, and their home city of Béal Feirste. Translating as ‘The Old Woman, it's a centuries old reference to Ireland and its people, among many other things.

INDIE: The Shan Vans in concert
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INDIE: The Shan Vans in concert

Drawing on inspiration from artists such as Patti Smith, Oasis, Nirvana, The Clash and The Pogues – as well as traditional Irish modes of songwriting and storytelling – the band have created a sound which is recognisable as indie but at the same time also distinctly Irish, using Irish and English throughout their songs. 

Speaking on their upcoming appearance on UTV Life, frontman Jake said: “We shot the interview and background footage on Monday and it went really well, it was a really good shoot.

“We want to use music to talk about the Irish language, political activism and environmental issues. We also want to talk about the mental health aspect of being in a band and playing music and how good it is to get together and make music.

“A lot of people in the music industry have said the band era is over but we want to say it’s not, people should still be in bands and forming bands and making music together. People still want to get together and sing about things which are important to them and have a bit of fun at the same time."

Jake said music has the power to relax people and open them to new ideas and ways of thinking and said the band hope to share the richness of the Irish language with everyone.

“We want to use our music to try and change the way people think about issues like the Irish language and the environment and if we can do that, it’ll be brilliant. If us making music in Irish inspired any people to take up lessons or if we got some kid from the Shankill listening to our music and likes the songs and is interested in learning the language then that would make it all worthwhile.

“Part of music is just chilling out listening to a good tune but another part is the artists like Bob Dylan, Bob Marley etc who have used music to change the way people think about things. 

“We’re calling the music we make ‘indigenous indie’, we wanted to use Irish culture, Irish storytelling and the richness of the Irish language. We don’t want to see any of that get put on a shelf so to speak, we want to show there are people out there living their lives through the Irish language.”

INDIGENOUS: The band want to celebrate the Irish language through music
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INDIGENOUS: The band want to celebrate the Irish language through music

Lead guitarist Breandán said the current explosion in learning Irish, with learners coming from every corner of society, was bringing people together.

“With over 8,000 young people now being educated through Irish, with the explosion of Irish language youth clubs, and with the growing number of adult learners from all cultural backgrounds engaging with the language, it’s obvious that Gaeilge is a living and breathing thing and that gives us hope, so we hope that The Shan Vans music in turn helps people dance, learn and think in equal measures, and that it brings them closer to a language that belongs to them and everyone else." 

Jake added that those in the band who grew up with Irish were very lucky and happy to have done so and they wanted to use their musical platform to celebrate the language and also for people to have a brilliant time.

“Some of us in the band have benefitted from being past pupils of Coláiste Feirste but there are a few in the band who were victims of colonialism and never got the benefit of learning the Irish language in school. There’s a very small, very lucky and very happy section of the population here who got to experience the Irish language growing up but the majority of people haven’t.

“There are so many people in our society who have been robbed of their right to have a connection to their culture in a meaningful way. That was the point of the constant attacks from successive British governments and the establishment in the South around excluding the Irish language, making it a pariah in society."

Jake said the language was kept alive by determined activists and those who truly loved the language and they want to recognise and celebrate it through their music.

 “We’re directly benefitting from those who chose to set up the bunscoils and the gaelscoils – such as the one set up on the Shaws Road in 1969. We want to shine some light on that history without it being a lecture and to celebrate it and have some fun whilst doing so.
 
“We want to acknowledge that by design we shouldn’t be singing in Irish, that was the design of the colonial policy to remove the Irish language from everyday life and to an extent they were successful in that because 99 per cent of people don’t speak it. However when you look at all the place names – 99 per cent of them are all from Irish origin.

"They’ve been hidden but they didn’t hide it well enough and Irish was kept alive through people in the back streets, the Cumann Chluain Árd and the sibín ceoils and people who just loved the language.”

The Shan Vans will appear on UTV Life at 11.15pm on Thursday.