“Sometimes the Journey is the destination.” A sentence which casually left the lips of Irish frontman Rea Garvey, it was a hidden sense which found it’s way into the booklet of the band Reamonn’s new album “Wish”, and later described to me not only what this album is about but also a bit more of what this band is about.
Reamonn are already eight years into their lifetime plan, and in 2006 they’re all set to take it up yet another notch. If you’d been with them after their recent “secret” warm-up show in Frankfurt for just 200 or so lucky fans, you’d have seen a band absolutely pumped about being back with new material, bursting to get out of the traps and perform for people again.
The German-based band already has a multi-platinum résumé, conquering new territories with every release, but their fourth studio album ‘Wish’ is one we’re likely to look back on soon as the staging post to a new level of creative and commercial achievement.
This “Journey” Garvey speaks of continues through an album of songs connected by the theme of finding your goals and fulfilling your dreams. They’ve made their ‘Wish,’ and it’s come true on the best record of their career, Reamonn’s first to be recorded outside of Europe, with producer Greg Fidelman in Los Angeles.
“I really want us to make a statement,” says Irish frontman, Rea Garvey, recalling the massive number of new songs in the band’s locker at the start of the recordings, and how they became united by a common lyrical theme. “We had 62 songs when we arrived, and reduced that down to 13,” he says, “I am not sure if it was a conscious decision to choose these songs because they all had a binding theme or whether having chose the songs we bound them together with one message”.
“You can find it on each song in a different way, — if you had just one wish, what would it be? -- That’s a thought we give up too quickly sometimes. We need to hold on to it.”
“The songs are not wishy-washy, they take the bull by the horns. You’re an individual, you CAN make the difference. You ARE the difference. This message became the pulse driving the new album “Wish”.
Garvey can’t hide the fact that he’s bursting with enthusiasm about the album, and nor should he. “It’s difficult getting excited about something you do yourself, because it always sounds pompous,” he says. “But we went over there with the hope of doing something huge, and it felt like something huge, something that would affect a lot of people. It definitely affected us. Being a fan of the band — there you go, it sounds pompous! - I can’t wait to see what people think of the music.”
He won’t be disappointed. If albums were buildings, ‘Wish’ would be a very tall one, visible from far away. ‘Wish’ was made at LA’s Sound City Studios with Fidelman, who’s worked on albums by such diverse names as Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Slipknot and Jet. Indeed, they were recording in the studio where Cash made his last album.
All five band members found the environment highly conducive to their most creative work yet. “We came away with a Reamonn album which is in its best sense an international sound,” says Garvey, “it’s not an American album, it’s not a European album, it’s not a German or Irish album it is like I said a Reamonn album and that was what we set out to achieve”
The explanation for the longevity that connects Reamonn’s distinguished past with their even more promising future is, simply, that they’re five parts of a whole. This isn’t a story of the Irish frontman and four German guys trying to get a note in edgewise. They’re mates and collaborators. The band that writes together really does stay together.
“We all write in the band,” says Rea. “Everyone comes with their part, and what happens is a melting pot. The melodies come from our backgrounds, and everyone has different backgrounds, which means you have five different melody makers.”
“One of the strengths of the band is that everyone knows where the weight of the song is, and that’s the energy that you want on stage,” says Garvey. “It’s like an elastic band, you pull it back and when you let it go it’s got to be five people coming right at you.”
As a first single, ‘Promise (You and Me)’ introduces the theme of wish-fulfilment, and it’s one of several new tracks on the album that you can easily envisage huge crowds swaying to at venues around the world this year.
‘Promise (You And Me)’ is also part of what became the lyrical thread that runs through the album like a seam through a rock. “It’s a song about unity, that together we’re stronger than we are apart. As a band we’re on the road a lot, and sometimes you think about the fact that you’re going to be away for three months. It takes a lot to work it out, but you have to think ‘It’s about you and me.’ I always say to my wife ‘It’s you and me against the world.’ It’s about people who stick together and make it through, I love that commitment.”
‘Starship,’ another early favourite on the album, is a song that the band worked on for some time before finding the spark in the studio. “The lyrics happened in seconds,” says Garvey. “ The starship is your headspace.” It’s that ‘Wish’ theme again.
But he holds back from spelling out the message of every individual track, because that’s where the listener comes in, to make their own interpretation on them. “The song can be the match,” he says, “but it doesn’t have to be the fire.”
Taking their name from the repatriated Irish frontman’s full name of Reamonn Garvey, the band formed in late 1998 in the south of Germany. The first connection was between Rea and drummer Mike (‘Gomezz’) Gommeringer, after Garvey, placed a small ad looking for collaborators. The chain reaction had begun: lead guitarist Uwe Bossert and multi-instrumentalist Sebi Padotzke knew each other, Uwe told bass player Philipp Rauenbusch, Philipp came to the next rehearsal.
Through the early linguistic challenges, the four guys improved their English, Rea worked on his German, they all worked on songs, and they all gave up their countless regular paying gigs. Over the next few months, Reamonn was created. In 1999, they went public, with a Hamburg showcase crammed with label reps.
They hit the bullseye first time out when the debut single ‘Supergirl’ became a top ten hit in Germany and gave Reamonn their first signature song. The album that contained it, ‘Tuesday’, came out in 2000 and went platinum. Live work with Bon Jovi, Robbie Williams, AHA, Santana followed. So far, so great.
The refreshing part of the story is that, unlike so many promising rock careers that hit the buffers of public or industry indifference second time around, Reamonn built on that debut success. The second album ‘Dream No.7’ followed in 2001 and brought new acclaim, not to mention a guest appearance in the German movie ‘Mondscheintarif,’ in which they performed ‘Weep.’
2003 brought the band’s third set, ‘Beautiful Sky’, which yielded a top three German smash with the title track, further hit singles in ‘Star’ and ‘Alright’ and album sales that went well into the next year in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and beyond. In Germany alone, the album went double platinum, spending more than a year on the charts.
But by now the Reamonn story was also being heard across new borders, opening new doors to live performances. ‘Beautiful Sky’ went on to gold certification in Portugal and Switzerland and when the band visited countries like Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, they played to 30,000-capacity stadiums. Further massive shows followed from Istanbul to Israel to Ireland (naturally), as well as in Poland, Russia, Holland, Sweden, Spain and Greece.
Next it was time to take stock of an ever-improving studio catalogue, and to create a document of the quintet’s formidable power as a live band. This arrived on the 2004 live album ‘Raise Your Hands’, a title inspired in part by the fact that it’s something Reamonn fans can never resist doing at one of their shows.
Which brings us back around to ‘Wish.’ It’s an album full of songs to remember, songs that connect with people on impact. If there were any doubts about that, those disappeared at that opening live performance of the new material, at a blinding “secret” show in Frankfurt in February.
Reamonn is a band where the skies are the limit and with an album like
“Wish” it’s safe to say that if the journey is the destination then sit back because it’s going to be a long one!
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