Richie Power and Eoghan Mac Mahon are quite possibly best known for being members of Irish boy band Taken, who unfortunately announced their decision to split in January. However, all three members have remained in the music industry, with Richie and Eoghan embarking on a project together. The duo recently announced their debut UK headline tour, which will see them visiting major cities London, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow, to perform their original music.
Here at CelebMix, we had the opportunity to speak with Richie and Eoghan about their musical influences, their upcoming tour and what else can be expected from them. Keep reading to check out our interview!
Your headline shows are coming up very soon. Are you looking forward to getting out on the road and performing original music you have been working on?
‘We love getting to perform in cities. This time, though, we feel it’ll be particularly special. We are excited to show people the beginning of this new project and give them an idea of what it will eventually become, at least in a musical sense. They won’t be like regular gigs either, we hope to make it as informal and chilled out as possible. We see it as a “new music live listening session.” It’ll hopefully be more personal with the crowd and it’ll be good to get a first hand idea of what they think of some of the new ideas and just the new stuff in general, before some songs are even finished. It’s also incredible that we’ve been able to sell tickets before releasing music. That alone shows the amazing support we’re lucky to get.’
Compared to your time in Taken, do you feel that the music you are producing now is different?
‘Yes definitely. We want to write and sing about all things that are going on or are important to us in our lives that we feel so many people go through. The influences now are all the big bands we’ve loved since we were little – Coldplay, The Verve, The Killers, U2 and The Script.’
Was it a relatively easy decision for you both to continue in the music industry, following a phenomenal journey with Taken?
‘To be honest, I don’t think we’ll ever stop. We’ll bring our guitars to the old folks homes with us!’
Do you each have your own creative input into your music?
‘While we both relate on a lot of things, we both have had different experiences in life. It’s good to get a good balance of both of our input.’
As a duo, do you have the same musical influences, or do they differ? How does this impact the music you write, produce and perform?
‘While there’s loads of similarities, there’s lots of differences. Neither of us like to limit ourselves to a specific genre, just what we like.’
Richie: ‘Eoghan often slags some of the songs I have on my playlists, but in general we both like soulful, mainstream, big bands.’
Is there anything in particular you would like to achieve this year?
‘We just plan by the end of this year to have something that we’re both happy to launch. A solid sound and hopefully a new name! For now, we are ploughing ahead, just writing, recording and learning as much about music as we possibly can – obviously with a few small live shows dotted in between!’
How would you sum up your new style of music?
‘Soulful, big band-ish and anthemic. To be honest, we just write and see what comes out and let that speak for itself!’
When writing music, do you write together or separately, and then come together?
‘We like to try out as many different ways as possible, but mostly we write together. Generally, we’d just be heading to the shop or on a train and something would pop up that would get recorded on the phone or written down, and then we’d work off that when we are writing. We also have been getting into some co-writes to try and pick up as much information as possible and to try and learn new things. It’s whenever the inspiration comes.’
What are your plans for the rest of the year music-wise?
‘Just aiming for having a solid idea of our sound in the next few months and something we are ready to show to people and be proud of. Maybe an EP – who knows?!’
Do you have a message for your supporters?
‘Thank you! As we said, we’ve sold tickets to shows before even releasing any music. You forever amaze us, so thanks for sticking with us and we hope you like our music as much as we do. See you all soon!’
Tickets for Richie and Eoghan’s upcoming headline UK tour can be bought by clicking here.