“The first comparison [to our band] is Thin Lizzy,” admits Glyder guitarist Bat Kinane, “but there is so much more to what we do than being influenced by Thin Lizzy.”
Over the course three full length albums, Ireland’s Glyder have indeed emerged as legitimate contenders to the throne of Philip Parris Lynott when it’s come to being Irish rock ambassadors, though—as Kinane says—the direct lines of influence do not merely begin and end at the Thin Lizzy brand.
“Of course Thin Lizzy are my favorite band,” admits Bat, “and also the other guys love them too. We listen to a lot of other stuff as well, though, and our collective taste in music is very broad, so those influences are also part of our sound. I can understand why people make the Lizzy comparison, but we aren't really as much like them as people say .There are some bands out now that are carbon copies of AC/DC and Zeppelin, but we very much have our own sound. Listen to some of our title tracks like "Playground for life" "Weather the Storm" "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" and they sound nothing like Thin Lizzy…they sound like no one but Glyder. In fact, a lot of reviewers make the Lizzy comparison because it’s easy to so, but at the end of the day it sounds like Glyder. I think if we tried to sound like Thin Lizzy, we could…but it would sound really bad. We’re a band that don't try too hard; we just do what comes natural to us and that’s what you hear on our records.”
Despite the band’s determination to step out of the shadow of Lizzy’s influence, having the blessing of Philip’s beloved mum Philomena Lynott practically serves as the golden ticket for any self-respecting band seeking to once again place Irish rock on the map.
Bat is proud of the plug, saying, “Philomena has been very good to us, and has always championed us since we began. We met her when we opened for Slash in Dublin last week where she was a special guest. It makes her very proud to see Phil's music being brought to a new generation. Phil Lynott is like Slash: a rock Icon. His music will live on forever. It’s wonderful that Philomena at her age makes the effort to go to concerts and she travels all over the world to attend gigs in memory of Phil. I met her through a friend of mine, Blues guitarist Eamonn McCormack who is her friend and neighbor. He also gave me the opportunity to play the "Vibe for Philo" through his friend Smiley Bolger. Eamonn managed us for a while too, and is still a great friend of mine and the band.”
“We’re all about the songs,” says Kinane on the band’s soul ingredients. “Most of our songs have a song and have a riff and a solo, It’s like the meat, veggies and potatoes of rock music. What I love about Phil Lynott was how he could play any style of music he wanted to, Heavy, blues, rock, folk, country, jazz, reggae, pop…he did it all. I think any artist should have that liberty. Obviously, if you sell yourself on your heaviness you can’t do that, but I would never like to feel that I had to stay writing in one genre. Still, we’re a fairly heavy band, especially live, and we opened for Metallica in Dublin and the audience loved us, but if you listen our albums we always have some mellow moments.”
So do Glyder feel any kinship with such historically popular Irish acts as U2, Mama’s Boys, Horslips or The Cranberries?
“In a way,” is Bat’s answer. “I would hope to be able to achieve what some of these bands have done. As a nation, we’ve produced more internationally successful acts per head of capita than any other nation in the world. We cannot compete in other areas such as sports on a global scale, but we can when it comes to music and literature. There is a strong storytelling aspect to Irish music, and that's evident in any of the works of the acts you have mentioned in the question. I think the art of storytelling is getting lost in a lot of contemporary hard rock music and that's why I find a lot of it uninspiring and boring. The best way of communicating with people is by keeping it simple. I can admire virtuosity in music and sometimes going to the extremes of heaviness is appropriate, but I think sometimes you just need to strip it all back and keep it simple. I think it could be the time in music to go back that way, and I hope that we can do that and bring that 70's vibe to a younger audience.”
The guitarist continues, “I think finally at home we’ve started to get recognition. Opening for Slash in Dublin the other night, the whole crowd was behind us, and that felt great. I guess we’re now another band from Ireland that is able to hold itself up with the best of the international bands. In Europe, it’s been good, and we flew out to do some festivals and shows this summer, but we really need to get out on tour there again soon. We have a good and loyal fan base in the UK and have some DJ's and Journos that are behind us, so we just have to keep building on that. The USA has been great, and we would love to come out and tour in the USA. I’ve been there on holiday this year and last year and I absolutely feel in love with it. People in the US are very polite and respectful, and I like that.”
Finally, Kinane turns serious for a moment: “To be honest, it’s been very hard, and I didn't think it would be this hard, but you can’t think about that too much; you just have to keep on working and focusing on the future. For this album, I went through a very creative and fertile period as a writer, and I think I’ve learned how to tap into that consciousness when I need to. I think our greatest and most creative moment hasn't arrived yet, and I believe we have the ability to create a masterpiece, so hopefully the future will allow us to make that dream come true.”
The title track from Glyder's Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
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