Irish a cappella group celebrate their 10-year anniversary concert on 27 July at the Button Factory in Dublin and have released new single, One Good Day. We asked them the BIG questions . . .
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Ardú are a six-piece vocal band primarily based in Dublin performing original arrangements of well-known songs without instruments, using only their voices.
They have represented Ireland in festivals across Europe, including Tempere Vocal in Finland, the Edinburgh Fringe festival, vokal.total in Austria, as well as festivals in London, Italy and Slovenia.
Ardú regularly perform at Irish festivals such as Boyle Arts Festival (2023), City of Derry International Choir Festival (2020), MusicTown Festival (2020), K Fest (2019) and the Cork International Choral Festival (2018), and in 2019 they performed with the famous American a cappella group Straight No Chaser at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
They have released three studio albums to date, Gravity (2018), LIVE (2020) and Songs From Here (2022), which was nominated for a CARA (Contemporary Acappella Recording Award).
Tell us three things about yourself . . .
We are Ardú, an award-winning professional vocal band and a pioneer of contemporary vocal music in Ireland. As Irish ambassadors of the a cappella genre in 2017, we founded the Irish International A Cappella Festival, and regularly perform at high profile international vocal festivals in Ireland and abroad. We have released three studio albums to date, most recently Songs From Here, which is a love letter to music originating in Ireland.
How would you describe your music?
As a six-piece vocal band, we typically perform music using only our voices. We're quite versatile and do a variety of styles and genres, such as covers of popular music, original songs and even folk tunes. However, our new release One Good Day is a bit of an experimental departure from our usual a cappella vibe: it is a powerful, uplifting pop ballad which includes instrumental accompaniment as well, in addition to our six voices.
Who are your musical inspirations?
We take a lot of inspiration from other professional vocal groups such as The Swingles, The Real Group, VOCES8 and Pentatonix.
What was the first gig you ever went to?
Obviously, each singer has a different answer to this, but I think as a group outing for Ardú it may have actually been The Swingles!
What was the first record you ever bought?
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Queen. We're big fans of Freddie Mercury!
What’s your favourite song right now?
You mean other than One Good Day? Haha! One of our singers, Andy Dempsey, is also a songwriter and has recently released his own single called Finish Line. We're so in love with it that we have done an a cappella cover and will perform it at our upcoming concert.
Favourite lyric of all time?
"I wouldn't be the human I am, Without the friends that let me fly and help me land, Our foundations grow deep, I always have a place to sleep, I wouldn't be who I am" - I Wouldn't Be by Kodaline.
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Pentatonix's cover of Simon and Garfunkle's Sound of Silence.
Where can people find your music/more information?
You can find us online in all the usual places! We have a gorgeous website and all the usual social media channels. Our music is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer etc, and we have loads of music videos on our YouTube channel.
Alan Corr
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