komodo

Komodo
For 3years prog-rockers Komodo ruled the reins for Cork fans delivering a set of slow burning rock songs with perfect harmonies and intelligent lyrics. Singer Donna McCarthy’s distinctive vocals kept the ear listening while the band provided support with their edge guitar driven melodies and chords, Komodo in recent times have been described as “Edgy Indie Rock”.
Lineup
Komodo are Brian McSweeney-Drums, Rosin-Bass, Kevin O'Mahony-Guitar and Kurt Gaul-Guitar
Music
Each member of Komodo had a very different background in music. It was because of this that each song they composed had a sound that was distinctive and memorable but was always difficult to narrow down to a specific genre, especially with the most recent styles.
Biography
Started by Jason, Brian, Mike and Angie practicing in a prefab in Ballipheane, Kurt and Kevin joined soon after. At these early stages the band had toyed with a few names like “Flipside”, “101 Dead Cats”, “3 Bishops and a Kebab” but settled on Borderline which was to be changed to Komodo after the first few gigs. By the second gig Mike and Angie had moved on to better things and a new area of Komodo ushered in with the arrival of Donna McCarthy, a renowned singer in the Cork region. From here the band set there sights on recording their first demo after a succession of successful gigs in theaters and venues across the city and county. Recording 5 songs in September 2005 at Data Studios in Carrigaline by Ross O’Donovan, the band set about flooding the city with their music handing out free CDs in colleges and at every gig to great reviews by magazines and newspapers alike. Then with being honored as one of the artists on the “Southern Fried 2” music compilations, Komodo set to head back into the studio to record their new material starting with “Single Word”. This new material promised to be more edgy with a stronger, distinctive sound, but things didn’t seem to be the same for Komodo. Jason sadly left the group for a promising carear in sound engineering setting up his own highly regarded studio and a hunt for a new bassist began. This brought the introduction of Liz, a talented bassist with a dark sound. Then with the departure of Kurt, Donna and Liz in May of 2007 the band continued as an instrumental group bringing in a new keyboardist and Jason back as bassist. This line-up lasted through the summer of 2007 but ended again as prior commitments beckoned. But the band has reformed since the end of the summer 2008 and should be back on track soon enough.
Recordings
Komodo entered the studio for the first time in September of 2005 at Ross O’Donovan’s Data Studios producing 5 songs for their first demo. The demo got great feedback and caused a reaction that was to make their following grow. The demo consisted of perfect harmonies and intelligent lyrics all fused with songs that people couldn’t stop listening to. The promising second demo was already in the works with “Single Word”.
Live Shows
Komodo became regulars in a lot of the big venues and especially in the warm atmosphere of Sinners bar and The Phoenix. Songs from there first demo got great feed back as well as new songs such as “Sound is Rising” and “Mystified” which became firm favorites and with the Komodo following growing at each gig each show was always regularly packed out. But Komodo always preferred the smaller venues such as the memorable show at Hackett’s pub in Schull Co. Cork Sinners Bar, Sat 17 Dec 2005 Belfast ROCKS Cork II: Crúiscín Lán. Sat12th august 2006 God is an astronaut, Cyprus Avenue 21st of October 2006
Future
The new sound promises to be up tempo but will still hold the melodic feel. The new material is going through a trial and error process and the new E.P should be ready soon. Thanks again to everyone who has and continues to support us.
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