Mark O'Leary Interference

  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 Ferg, Kev and Cal. As already iterated, I was in a moderately successful band with Kev, we played a lot of gigs, some massive crowds, even had a manager, we were recording and had a bit of potential, everyone was into the band; Kev, yours truly, Tom and Seam, all hunky dory until Kev 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, Kev approached me, and basically offered me the guitar role. I went to a few rehearsals and I was in. Then 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 Kev and Tom/Seam was paramount. This is an interim portion of the music for me, I never really mentioned Cillian in interviews, 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 and looked to the future, he decided it was in his best interests to leave the band 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. In this transitional period, they did not have a guitarist and Kevin suggested me to Ferg, I attended some rehearsals and was in. We recorded several demos, these are the demos they went to Dublin with. So, one could say, I am an embryonic figure in their evolution. There was no talk about moving to Dublin. But they were slightly older, and decided to relocate to the big lights of Dublin, I have a clutch of teachers on both sides of the family, I had to do the leaving cert to placate them. Two things to peruse upon, Interference did not know that the Seattle Wave was coming to Cork, perhaps it might have been more sagacious to have remained in Cork, but they had no inkling Cork was going to be the centre of the Music Universe. Lastly, if they stayed in Cork, I would have thrown my lot in with them and like the Roman Soldier overlooking the Tyber, I would be with them to this very day. Fait accompli, I then had no band, but for a side project with Cal McCarthy and Paul Von Mensenkampff and another as a session guy for a pet shop boys synth band, that I must say, I have never seen so many synths and synth modules in one place...That said, Interference are now a cult band. As an appendage, I did play again with Kevin and Bernard in Monkstown several years later. But their aesthetic and mores were more attenuated to pre USA Mark O'Leary, that was their man.