Mark O'Leary Interference Story

  I was in Interference for a while when they were based in Cork and played on several demos before they moved to Dublin. It was a nice formation, yours truly, with Fergus O'Farrell, Kevin Murphy and Cal McCarthy. As already iterated, I was in a moderately successful band with Kevin called Midway, based in Monkstown Co Cork, we played a lot of gigs, some massive crowds, even had a manager, Brian Ormond, who went on to manage Radiohead. We recorded a demo, Fergus went to Clongowes with Kevin's brother Bernard, Fergus engineered and produced Midway's demo, he brought his recording gear down to Scotsman's Road in Monkstown and Bernard was a guest member on Violin. Kevin, yours truly, Tom and Seam, all hunky dory until Kevin was offered the bass position in an early transitional line up of Interference and basically, left his own band to join them, he was persona non grata, although, I still personally had great time for Kev, then Interference had no guitarist (at this confluence Interference were Fergus and Kevin), Kevin and Fergus, offered me the guitar role and I was in. But as consequence, I was persona non grata and had to explain exactly what was transpiring to Tom and Seam who were great friends of mine and thought that there was a conspiracy going on. So I had to elucidate, but remaining friends with Kevin and Tom/Seam was paramount and simultaneously precarious. This is an interim portion of the music for me, I never really mentioned Cillian Murphy in interviews, nor Brendan O’Connor, nor did I ever mention Interference, I wasn’t asked, or maybe I was just too busy with what I had going on myself or maybe they didn’t know, well, now they do!

Just a little more context with the ephemeral Interference epoch. Kevin was approached by the Mark II Interference line up (basically Fergus and Kevin) and looked to the future, he decided it was in his best interests to leave Midway and join forces with Interference. I have always liked Kevin, but after leaving the band.... We were all very disappointed, but Kevin met up with me and laid it out on the table, that he felt that this was an opportunity, just too good to pass on and he felt that with Interference, he could develop more as a musician, then Kevin and Fergus asked me to join, I went up to Patrick's Hill and was in, albeit, I knew Cal McCarthy as I was in a band with Cal and Paul Von Mensenkampff, the first thing I said was "fancy seeing you here" to which Cal replied "fancy seeing you here". In Patrick's Hill We recorded several demos, they were the demos Interference went to Dublin with. So, for all intents and purposes, I am an embryonic figure in the Interference evolution. Kevin and Fergus intimated to me and Cal in late August they were moving to Dublin, what was said was “we’re moving to Dublin are you coming” and I demurred, this was personally difficult for me as I personally liked Kevin and Fergus tremendously, we had good chemistry, were compatible, were creating some fantastic music, albeit, I had to sit the Leaving Cert and was intent on going to Los Angeles to study at Musicians Institute.. It was an open secret that Mother Records was interested in Interference when I was a member and that interest continued on to Dublin. I then had no band, but a month later I joined Mandrake Rook with Brendan O'Connor (RTE) and then a synth band Voltaire that went from The Human League to Cabaret Voltaire to being a Depeche Mode synth band with me playing more Synth than guitar, this band had potential to make it, to play Glastonbury, get on Top of the Pops etc...That said, Interference are now a cult band. As an appendage, for an ephemeral period I was a fully fledged member of Interference and played a part in their evolution and appreciate being part of this iconic band.