Vowels? Where we’re going we don’t need vowels. In the latest installment of Inbound, we chat to Conor Wilkins from Kildare/Dublin rock quartet CPNHGN about their name, formation, debut album and plans for the next coming months.
Hey Conor. Can you tell us a bit about CPNHGN and how you guys got together?
Myself, Kev and Donal were playing as a three-piece band for a while and then we thought we should get another member in. The first person that came to mind was Ste, not only because of his rugged good looks and charm, but he really was exactly what the band needed musically. Not long after Ste joining the band we started writing as a four-piece and were moving in a different direction with the songs. So we decided to get rid of every song we had written and start fresh to write an album from scratch. We began writing Inhale Exhale at the start of 2012 and recorded it later that year in Temple Lane Recording Studios. It came out on January tenth this year and the reaction to it has been great so far.
Where did the name come from and what does it mean in relation to the band?
We’ve been asked a good few times about the name and every time I wish we had a cool story behind its origin but sadly we don’t. None of us have ever been to Copenhagen and we all use vowels on a regular basis. We were trying to think of a name for this new project we were working on for a while and had a terrible list of names and Copenhagen was one of them. Kev’s brother-in-law did up a logo for us that had no vowels in it and we thought it looked pretty cool so we stuck with that.
Who would you say are your main influences?
The influences within the band vary widely. Donal and myself would be big fans of bands like Interpol and Future Kings of Spain and then I’ll arrive at jamming and Ste and Kev will be blasting Pantera and Slayer riffs at each other. We would all agree on bands like Queens of the Stone Age though. I think its a good thing to have that variance, it definitely helps in the writing process. We would take influence from any type of music, it doesn’t have to be rock music or guitar-based music at all; just anything that gives direction to something we can build on.
What are you currently working on? What can we expect from your sound?
We just finished a quick tour around the country, which was great. Writing and recording is a lot of fun but actually getting out and playing in different towns and cities, meeting new people and new bands is what its all about really. We are also writing new songs and just finished a cover of ‘Constant Craving’ by K.D Lang for the Sound Training Centre Charity album, which will be out soon. As far as what to expect from the sound, we like big guitars, drums and bass but also like breaking songs down to quiet and simple melodies too. We try to avoid being just one or the other, that’s the intention anyway. I think if you listen to the album you will hear that in it, hopefully.
What’s in store for CPNHGN in the future? Any plans for other releases this year?
We definitely hope to have a new release in some form or another by the years end, be it an EP or a couple of singles, we are not sure yet. We are writing all the time and are looking forward to putting something together for a release in the not so distant future. We will be gigging a bit more throughout the year and hopefully playing a few festivals during the summer, starting with the ‘Light Colour Sound Festival’ in Kilkenny on the 4th and 5th of July.
Where can we find out more about you?
We are on Facebook and Twitter etc, but it’s easiest to go to our official website – all the links and info on us are there. Our album is on Spotify and iTunes, so go give it a listen..
Photos by Aideen McFadden.
