Story Thieves

Having messed around with songwriting and playing for a number of years in their hometown of Killarney in Ireland, Sean O’Donoghue (vocals, guitar) and Johnny McAuliffe (guitar) decided it was time to take things seriously and in March 2008 formed Ravello, which later, with the addition of Joe O'Leary (bass), became Story Thieves. With influences as diverse as R.E.M.,Morrissey, Guns 'n' Roses, Bruce Springsteen, Stone Roses, Chris Isaak and (being Irish of course) U2, Story Thieves' sound was always going to be melodic. As Sean says “For me, the melody of a song is always the most important thing. Often I couldn’t care less what a song is about as long as it has a tune that I’m left humming after hearing it for the first time”. As an added bonus, their songs have lyrics equally as strong as the tunes. Broaching the usual pop/rock subjects such as love and loss, everyday life and the need for hope to get us out of bed in the morning, Story Thieves weave a gentle web of words that don’t overburden the song. “Though it sounds so quaint, Unrequited ain’t great” (Room for Two) and “They say we’re heading for a meltdown, And summer never took place” (Her Face) are prime examples of this. They have a schizophrenic ability to jump between acoustic-based ballads and heavier rock anthems. “Johnny and I have a similar diverse taste in music and like everybody else, some days you want to hear gentler, reflective music and other days you want to switch off your brain for a while, open all the doors and windows and make some noise. Except in Killarney with our exceptionally high rainfall, this doesn’t happen a lot!” Despite talk predicting the death of radio, Story Thieves still think it’s the holy grail. “I grew up listening to radio”, says Sean. Daytime pop radio and night-time “alternative” radio played an equal part in shaping their sound. Daytime radio even more so. "I can remember hearing Abba and The Carpenters when I was a child and being captivated by their brilliant tunes. I can still remember where I was the first time I heard 'Live Forever' by Oasis on the radio or 'Paranoid Android' by Radiohead (which is not your stereotypical lunchtime radio song) and thinking wow, isn’t it great that everybody is hearing this music whether they are music-savvy teenagers or eighty year old grannies. Radio has that power to surprise you because you’re not choosing the playlist and that’s what I love about it. It can still bring important music to the masses. And that’s where good music should be, heard by as many people as possible. That’s where we deserve to be. But at the end of the day, slow or fast, hard or soft, melody matters most". In fact if this was an ad (and I suppose it kind of is) this should be the tagline under Story Thieves' name. Hopefully you agree.