After a 14-year hiatus, Dublin-based alternative outfit Loko Parentis have released their new album, Dream Longer Than You Sleep, along with six new videos. We asked Paul O'Mahony of the band the BIG questions . . .
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Paul founded the band in 1981 as a studio-only project featuring members of Cork’s first punk band, Berserk (including himself), and post-punk band, Nun Attax.
He moved to Dublin in the '80s and wrote for Hot Press magazine for a number of years. He then brought an amended line-up of Loko Parentis to the Oxygen Festival in 2007, where they played the Pet Sounds Stage. The band have also opened for acts such as Sinéad O’Connor and Brian Wilson.
The album cover of Dream Longer Than You Sleep features ex-Shelbourne and Galway professional footballer Emma Starr from Philadelphia, who now plays in Australia. It is believed to be the first album cover anywhere featuring a professional female footballer.
Tell us three things about yourself . . .
I ran 20 marathons between 2006 and 2014, at home and abroad, and usually in aid of Concern Worldwide or Aware. I did Kenpo karate for a few years, brilliant for flexibility and fitness. I go to live women’s as well as men’s League of Ireland soccer games every week. My two favourite players (male or female) are the wonderfully creative and talented women Alex Kavanagh of Shelbourne and Ellen Molloy of Wexford FC.
How would you describe your music?
Guitars with attitude. Words with meaning.
Who are your musical inspirations?
Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (1913) is extraordinary and above everything else. In the pre-punk era, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Mott The Hoople, and Black Sabbath. In the punk and post-punk eras, Sex Pistols, Television, The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, and Modern Eon.
What was the first gig you ever went to?
Rory Gallagher, who returned to Cork almost every Christmas for a number of years and always jammed the City Hall. His guitar playing and energy was exceptional. Wild, fun times.
What was the first record you ever bought?
I think it was Mott the Hoople’s All the Young Dudes album (produced by David Bowie).
What’s your favourite song right now?
Prayer of a Child by Eric Clapton. I saw him live for the first time in Dublin last May and I’d never heard the song before. It’s new, and it was very moving. It’s in aid of the children of Gaza.
Favourite lyric of all time?
Gimme Shelter was released in 1969 and remains the definitive Rolling Stones song. It was written in the time of the Vietnam war, but its message about war is still applicable today. "Oh, a storm is threat'ning, my very life today, If I don't get some shelter, oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away, War, children, it's just a shot away, It's just a shot away, War, children, it's just a shot away, It's just a shot away."
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
That would be a tie between Shake Dog Shake by The Cure (from the album, The Top), and Real Hymn by Modern Eon (from the 1981 album, Fiction Tales, reissued and expanded in 2022 by Cherry Red Records).
Where can people find your music/more information?
Spotify and Bandcamp online, and on CD in selected independent record shops. The videos are available on Bandcamp.
Alan Corr
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