Castleisland Daycare Blog

Turf are a 4-piece band from the Camp/Castlegregory area in West Kerry. They play a Funky/alternative rock genre of music usually with rap-style vocals. The band consists of the Vocalist Eoin Herlihy, the Guitarist Kealan Dowling, the Bassist, Andrew Finn and his brother, the Drummer, Darragh Finn. The band was formed nearly ten months ago and they have since been writing songs, learning songs, playing live gigs and entering competitions such as the IYMA's. They have qualified for the IYMA's finals this year by seeing off competition in the Kerry heaths in mid March.

There is a lot of background to the band Turf. They have many interesting stories to tell of their time together as a band. Although they haven't even been a band for 12 months, they have managed to get up to a lot in that short time. However, there was one point during their time together that brought back fond memories for the band members and others.

Andrew and Darragh had a very musical upbringing thanks to their older brother, Eoghan. Years ago, before Andrew and Darragh had even picked up an instrument, their older brother Eoghan was playing in a band himself. The "Live band project" is a long-running project started by the KDYS and 5 years ago, Eoghan was playing himself in the live band project with his band "Johnney Depp and the Quartet of Doom". His band was a five piece band with two guitarists, bassist, drummer and singer. Eoghan was the singer of the band. His band was playing live gigs, writing their own music and entering competitions just like Turf are today. During his time with the band, Andrew and Darragh kept a close eye on the bands progress and frequently saw them playing. Eoin and Kealan also both knew of the band and were fans themselves. At the time, there were very few bands around in the Camp/Castlegregory area so interest was shown in the band by the locals. This is very similar to today, where Turf are one of the only bands in their area.

Darragh got his first drum kit about 5 years ago. This happened to be around the time that JDATQOD were in full swing. Now, 4 or 5 years on, the band JDATQOD are long since finished up as a band. But Andrew and Darragh have both since picked up instruments with Bass guitar and Drums. Turf were formed from Darragh and Andrew jamming together in the shed and drafting in Eoin and Kealan. It'd be a lie to say that their older brother Eoghan had no influence on their decision to form a band or on their decision to learn to play instruments. Nowadays, it's the opposite of what it was years ago. JDATQOD are now fans of Turf instead of vice versa.

It was late November when Turf were asked by a Camp local to play at his 21st birthday. His birthday was a double birthday. It was his 21st and it was Eoghan Finn's 20th. What better place for Turf to play? 3 members of JDATQOD were present at the birthday and mid through their performance, Turf called upon those 3 members to come up and play with Turf. The 3 member were David, Eoghan and Brendan. They were the singer, the guitarist and the bassist. After some persuading they came up and got a hold of guitars. Before the gig, Turf had prepared for it by learning a song that JDATQOD had also learnt years ago. Turf and JDATQOD both played the song together on stage. It brought back fond memories for the 3 oldies of their teenage years. They remembered the good old days of playing together but they did forget one thing.... how to play well! They were a little rusty to say the least but it was all about the occasion and they got a great kick out of it. Turf have claimed that night to be one of the main highlights of the band since they formed. Craic was had and mainly because of the cameo from the 3 lads.

Even if Turf eventually finish up as a band they can safely say one thing...... they'll never forget about the experiences they had as proved by the 3 members of JDATQOD. And they're hopefully their music can persuade others to pick up an instrument and start playing, just like in their case.

Turf will be representing Kerry in Dublin on the 28th of April in Liberty Hall in the Irish Youth Music Awards. Their Preparation gig for the competition will take place on the 13th of April in the KDYS Tralee. Beginning at 8PM.

-Tech Uploader (Story provided by News Writer)