It’s been five years since we first heard their music, and The Academic is now considered worthy to stand alongside the Killers, Strokes, and Kooks, just to name a few of their indie pop contemporaries.
Known for their catchy guitar riffs and feel-good choruses, the Mullingar quartet is reinventing the pop/rock genre and giving Irish fans something to be proud of. 2018/19 saw many milestones for the band, but 2020 is already having its memory-worthy moments, from a recent new single release to the band’s personal efforts to tackle COVID-19 blues.
Lead vocalist Craig Fitzgerald, drummer Dean Gavin, and brothers Matthew (guitar) and Stephen (bass) Murtagh met between at the ripe young age of thirteen in County Westmeath. By the time the boys were in their late teens, and after playing under other names and alongside other bandmates, they officialised their status as a quartet under the name The Academic. Their gigging hometown of Mullingar soon became too small for them as their popularity and fan base quickly grew. By 2013 The Academics were playing Vicar Street with Delorentos, the Other Voices gig that December, and finally were the support act of The Pixies during the summer of 2014.
In 2015 The Academic released its debut Loose Friends EP, bringing the quartet to households across Europe and the US. The album took radio stations by surprise with its new wave elements and anthem-worthy choruses, giving music critics something new to pay attention to. The EP’s debut single, “Different” was quickly nominated for a Choice Music Prize and soon enough sent the four lads on a 40,000 ticket-sold out tour around the world.
In January of 2018 the band released its first LP album, ‘Tales from the Backseat’, which went straight to number one in the charts. The band went international with its recording, two songs being produced at Abbey Road, the rest in North Hollywood. Frontman Craig Fitzgerald reflects that by that point the band were “just a band who played live”, and so this album was quite the challenge for the group. The album’s favoured track, “Bear Claws”, was an instant hit, being fit for monstrous speakers and designed to get groups of fans singing along. One thing was for sure, the boys were ready for the big stage.
A month before their 2018 Croke Park gig, The Rolling Stones announced The Academic as its support gig. “After selling out shows across the US and Europe this year we are happy to welcome them to the No Filter tour!” said the Stones on their Twitter account. To not only perform at this 82,000 people but also open for one of the greatest Rock & Roll bands of all time was surely only slightly overwhelming for the four boys aged only in their early twenties, but The Academic remained confident after finishing a string of sold-out UK dates. The thirty minute opener was a success, getting fans around the stadium up on their feet and singing along to the band’s hits. If they are lucky the boys might be back to take centre stage in Croke Park someday.
In July 2018 The Academic performed its biggest show to date to a lively audience at the Iveagh Gardens. Not a bad gig for the Mullingar boys in the just three short years of their airwaves existence. Such was the success of this unforgettable show that the band decided most recently in April 2020 to release a Live At The Iveagh Gardens EP, with an accompanying music video for the same performance of “Bear Claws” featuring the audience jumping in the air and singing along to every word.
“That got a lot crazier than we thought it would,” remarked Stephen Murtagh in an interview with Red Bull, when talking about the looped version of “Bear Claws” that was tested on Facebook Live. The Academic came up with the idea after listening from the backstage area to other bands playing, but noticed that the livestream on Instagram that they were also watching would not have started yet. When anyone goes “live” on Facebook, there is a natural delay before it shows up on your page- and so the four lads teamed up with Facebook who worked to get the delay down to thirty seconds, while the band formed a loop of the song and fit its beat to the same thirty seconds. After rehearsing like crazy and landing a few solid runs, they said to hell with it and waited for the “live” red light to come on. Craig later reflected that this viral “performance” was even more tense than doing a live television gig.
The Academic delighted fans this May with the release of its new single, ‘Anything Could Happen’. You’ve probably already seen the song’s artwork, a photo from above of a rooftop girl sunbathing a pair of gorgeous long legs. The song, produced by former Kaiser Chiefs star Nick Hodgson, is already topping the charts with its synth sounds and indie pop edge. Lead singer Craig Fitzgerald tells the press that it is a song whose purpose is to get people once more pumped about being alive, and to break away from the monotony that takes over many of our daily lives. Plans for the single’s music video took a turn when coronavirus took over the world, however. In response, The Academic looked to involve fans by asking for footage of themselves in lockdown- and thus, a video was created. Yes, it also features a string of your coronavirus haircuts, which is all too fitting of the times!
If this video is anything to go by, it is safe to say that 2020 is going to be a big year for The Academic, coronavirus or not. Although the string of tour dates across Ireland, the UK, and Europe is currently on pause, ‘Anything Could Happen’ certainly is not, as it continues to climb the charts.
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