Benni and Gib of Logikparty

Words and photos by Nay McArdle

Rewind to last summer: a bunch of musicians hung out to jam together, got on like a house on fire and immediately began to meld into a band. Six months on, they played their first gig and six months on from that they were invited to perform at the last-ever Hideaway House show. Simply put, it’s been a great year for Logikparty.

“It wasn’t exactly a case of everything falling into place right away,” says Gib Cassidy, drummer and one-quarter of the band, as he throws light on their rapid ascent from the rehearsal room to real stages. “In saying that, things did move along pretty swiftly when we started to develop our sound. We actually recorded our first 7″ before we had even played a show, not intentionally to do things the wrong way around. We weren’t ready to do a gig but we were ready to record a couple of tunes. This drummed up a bit of interest and months of our mates asking when we were actually going to play live worked in our favour. We got the buzz going before we properly existed as a band.”

“Essentially we didn’t even envisage ourselves being where we are right now, at least not this quickly,” agrees bassist and vocalist Benni Johnston. “Everything just kinda flowed! We haven’t done a huge amount as we only started gigging in January but I really loved playing The Hideaway House. We all have a big interest in non-traditional gig spaces.”

“The last Hideaway House gig was sublime. Technically speaking, possibly the ropiest one we played but we just got on with it.” says Gib. “I almost fainted with the heat about 10 minutes into the gig but it ended up being such an amazing buzz.”

Although regulars on the gig circuit with many friends and associates already involved in music – Gib works for Road Records, Dublin’s popular independent record store – Logikparty is their first experience of actually performing as part of the new, improved Irish music scene. For a fledgling band to walk into such a set-up must be a pretty special experience?

“It’s amazing. It really is,” extols Benni. “There’s such a support network out there at the moment. Everyone is interested in what everyone is doing and there are so many people out there willing to get stuck in to making things happen. It’s really, really inspiring. There’s such a supportive vibe behind anyone even attempting Do-It-Yourself gigs, labels, markets, everything. That’s something that I really think was lost for a while.”

“It’s an amazing time for music in Ireland,” says Gib. “So many bands and artists playing gigs in galleries or front rooms, bringing out their own releases and generally helping each other out. It’s overwhelming at times. Traditionally, music has flourished in times of recession though, examples being New York in the Seventies or Manchester in the Eighties. I think we have an element of this happening here now too.”

One aspect of the benefits of the central music community was the fast, positive reception to Logikparty’s first release – two songs, ‘Iodine’ and ‘Good Hood’, were made available in early March on 7” vinyl. The record went on to be stocked by Rough Trade stores and the songs featured on a variety of radio and podcasts.

“We were pretty overwhelmed when it was taken on by Rough Trade,” admits Benni, “especially as we were totally unknown. We have it on sale throughout Europe too and it’s just a great feeling to think that people are picking up on what we’re doing not because of a scene or connections but just because they like what they hear.”

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