By Sean Kavanagh
Many rock bands take much consideration when coming up with the name of their group. Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament reportedly spent over three months arguing about what they would name their grunge-rock startup before settling on the name Pearl Jam.
Precinct, however, took a slightly different approach.
“We had two names. One, I can’t even remember, it was that forgettable. The other one was Precinct, and we asked a waitress at the bar ‘which do you prefer?’,” guitarist Barry Fenton said.
“I can’t even remember the first one, I only remember precinct,” the waitress replied.
And so, they went with Precinct.
The group was formed in 2017 during a Junior Certificate music project by Fenton, fellow guitarist Oliver Grennan and drummer Simon McVeigh, before they were later joined by bassist Zap Dickinson.
They discovered their current lead singer, Andrew O’Donovan, at a ‘battle of the bands’ style event in University College Dublin shortly after Dickinson joined the band in 2022.
“We did our set with a different singer at the time, and then Andrew came on after on his own with just a guitar and f—ing blasted the place away,” Fenton said.
Soon after, Precinct parted ways with their original lead singer due to problems with punctuality and differing musical styles, though the group insists that the breakup was “nothing dramatic”.
The first choice for their new frontman was O’Donovan, whom they contacted through a mutual friend and asked to come and do an audition.
According to Fenton, there was an instant connection between the band and their new lead singer, and the moment Andrew left, the rest of the members knew that they had “hit the jackpot”.
“It’s almost like a relationship; you just hit it off.” Fenton said.
The first song the band wrote together was “We’ll Be Fine”, though the band decided not to release the track.
“If we’re going to record a song we all have to be fairly enthusiastic about that song. If there’s much questioning about it, we probably wouldn’t do it,” Fenton said.
But it didn’t take long for the fivesome to put together their first single-worthy track, “Marlay Park”.
The song originated from a chord progression written by Grennan just moments before a rehearsal began and turning it into a full composition took a collaborative effort from each member of the group.
“There wasn’t much buzz around [the song] at first, but I think once we got the full band on it and we got some lyrics, and Barry wrote a really nice riff, like you hear in the song. I think in that moment it all just clicked,” Grennan said.
This spontaneous collaboration is indicative of the groups writing style and Fenton says that there is no methodology behind their making of music. If it doesn’t come naturally, he says, then the entire process becomes an “uphill battle”.
Precinct then moved from their rehearsal studio in McVeigh’s house to Paradise Studio Dublin. They worked with producer Cian Tisdall, hoping that his expertise would add a level of professionalism to the record that they couldn’t get at home.
“I remember the first time we tried to record something, we just got out a laptop and tried to do it ourselves, and it went terribly. So, we learned that lesson,” Fenton said.
The song, like the band’s music in general, fuses jazz, rock and R&B to create a unique, fast-paced indie-rock sound that could be likened to The Strokes or fellow Irish band Two Door Cinema Club.
This style blends the musical interests of the three founding members, though the addition of O’Donovan, according to McVeigh, added “a little bit of sauce” to their music.
Although Precinct are yet to earn royalties from their music, they have begun to get paid to play at small venues and functions, which helps to fund their studio time.
The band’s first paid gig wasn’t exactly the rock’n’roll birthing you might expect, as they mainly performed cover songs in the Talbot Hotel to a group of pharmaceutical toxicology students at a ‘master’s ball’.
“I would 100% prefer to do our originals over covers. When we’re doing covers, they’re not judging us, they’re judging how the original band sound, and then our sound,” O’Donovan said.
“It was just an insane night. We were so underprepared,” Fenton added.
O’Donovan was no stranger to live performing prior to joining Precinct, having spent much of secondary school doing solo shows in front of classmates with his only backing being an acoustic guitar.
He still struggled in their first live shows, though, feeling naked without his guitar and unsure what to do with his hands. But as the band played more and more shows, O’Donovan has found his footing.
“I think we’re all still kind of finding out what our performances are like on stage, what kind of people we are as performers. I tend to run off the stage for Marley Park and then just literally run around everything. It feels great to interact that way on stage,” O’Donovan said.
Fenton also admits that the group struggles most with finding the balance between being musically accurate on stage, whilst still displaying the dynamism and showmanship that defines all great live performers.
Precinct’s two newest singles, “Take Me Home” and “Light Up The Ceiling”, are available to stream on Spotify and you can click here to follow them on Instagram.
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