Interference (band)

Interference is an Irish band that formed in 1984. They are noteworthy for their live shows and for their powerful songwriting. Fergus O'Farrel's song 'Gold' was a feature in the Irish film 'Once' which won an Oscar for best song ( Falling Slowly, by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová ) and it is one of the major songs in the Broadway show of the same name, which cast performed the song during the 2012 Tony Awards where it won 8 awards.

Fergus O’Farrell (vocals, piano & guitar) and James O’Leary (guitars) formed Interference during their time in Clongowes Wood College from 1983 to 1986. While in Clongowes they auditioned various friends and referrals to fill out the remaining positions in the band. Maurice Culligan from Ennis joined on Piano and Keyboards, Kevin Murphy from Cork took up the Bass Guitar and Cello and Cal MacCarthy also from Cork became the band's first drummer. Malcolm MacClancy became Fergus’ song-writing partner and the journey began.

In 1986 on leaving college the band moved to Dublin and took up residence in the old Winstanley shoe factory (presently Mother Redcaps Tavern & Market) alongside two other promising new outfits, The Hothouse Flowers and The Black Velvet Band. During this time based on the promise of a ‘demo’ they were selected to perform on the debut edition of ‘Borderline’ RTÉ’s (Ireland's National TV station) first youth friendly magazine show. On the strength of that performance, Fergus and the lads were commissioned by RTÉ to make an original video to be directed by non other than Gerry Stembridge, one of Irelands leading filmmakers. The resultant video of ‘The Doll’ was selected as one of the finest Irish made pop videos of the decade.

By early 1987 the band had actually performed more on television than in live venues, one main reason for this was the lack of a full time competent fiddle player, Kevin’s brother stepping in when the need arose. On a recommendation from The Waterboys’ Steve Wickham, Colm McCaughey joined up…the band was now complete. Now with a completed line-up the band rehearsed, developed and wrote new material with the goal of creating a unique sound to compete with their comtempories on the Irish music scene, during a period of very high quality home grown musical talent.

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