When young people watch the likes of The X-Factor, they see a one-way ticket to fame and fortune but do they realise the actual slog that’s involved for these hard-working bands and why they persist?
Asking a plumber to mend your dishwasher for free is something you would just not do and this is where the hard slog takes place for artists. There’s no money in becoming a musician, but they do it because of the love, the growth, the passion and the satisfaction they get when performing live.
“I guess the hardest thing about being an original act is staying in love with the job and not giving up on it. We have been extremely lucky and have had brilliant experiences and we have great support and encouragement from our fans and families,” Eimear Fox, of Fox E and The Good Hands, explains. She advises anyone who wants to make a career in music “to pace themselves for the long haul, do it because you love it, don’t give up and don’t expect for it all to fall into place.”
Eimear Fox and her band The Good Hands (right) have been on the music scene as a group for over three years, playing all around Ireland at festivals such as No Place Like Dome, Vantastival, Paircfest, Dublin Soul, Electric Picnic and Le Chéile. They have played in Dublin venues such as Le Circ, The Grand Social, The Ruby Sessions, Bruxelles, The Twisted Pepper, The Pint, Crawdaddy and Whelans.
The band’s current line-up consists of Barry O’Farrell, Philip Donnery, Gordon Dunning, David McDonald and Paula Size. They released their first album Curvy in April 2013 at The Grand Social, Dublin. “The album took an awful lot of hard work, time and money,” says Eimear, “but we are all very proud of what we achieved, because for us this album was a representation of two solid years on the road capturing those experiences forever.”
Fox E and The Good Hands recorded their album in Grouse Lodge in Mullingar, where legendary artists such as Michael Jackson have walked through the doors. These high-profile names come with a high price and to help with costs, the band set up a Fund it campaign to raise money. Fund it is a crowd-funding website for Ireland’s creative projects, giving everyone the power to help good ideas happen.
They saved every penny to fund their album, but needed help with mixing, reproduction, distribution and for the actual event of their album launch to take place. They released a Fund it YouTube video for their fans and had their target set to €3,500. In return for their fans’ donations, they set up rewards which ranged from a hard copy of the album plus digital download of the album upon release at €15 or a vocal master class with Eimear herself for up to twenty people which cost €250. They surpassed their target and raised over €4,000 for their Fund it campaign.
“Our fans are always there for us, supporting our events, campaigns, getting behind everything we do and without them it would be very difficult to stay positive.”
Fox E and The Good Hands have had an incredible year and are constantly moving forward and growing as a band. They are taking it easy this Christmas to prepare for their new EP which is set to be released in 2014 and they are also hoping to tour across Europe. With their latest music video reaching more than 20,000 hits on YouTube, Fox E and The Good Hands are noticing their hard slog paying off.
Photo courtesy Fox E and The Good Hands.
By Donna Dunne
