Ham Sandwich cook up tasty tunesHam Sandwich cook up tasty tunes

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Written by Staff Reporter

Thursday, 28 February 2008

Hotly tipped and toasted Kells-based band ‘Ham Sandwich’ release their sparkling debut album produced by the much sought after Karl Odlum.

The band’s unique sound is built around the dovetail vocals of Niamh and Podge flying against a cloudy sky with catchy yet intricate guitars.

‘Carry The Meek’ features all the singles which include the belt busting ‘Click…Click…Boom’,
the haunting ‘Sad Songs’, the punchy ‘St Christopher, the soaring Words and glorious new single ‘Keepsake’.

The band’s ridiculous moniker is a simple, effective decoy, just like there’s a computer called Apple, a band called Ham Sandwich manages to dispense with the expected clichés of what a modern indie band should be and instead have allowed themselves the space to build a performance that is outstanding in giving people what they want to see, strange outfits, bright colours, a sexy front woman and a lunatic like front man.

According to Niamh: “We called ourselves Ham Sandwich, not because we like sandwiches or because of the s*xual innuendo or to get away from the ubiquitous-prefix-followed-by-esoteric-noun formula that most bands follow but because we couldn’t give a f**k what our gang is called, the stupider the better. It’s a bit of a blessing I guess, no-one ever forgets the name and it makes us work harder. It is always going to be next to impossible to market a band called ‘Ham Sandwich’ because the name’s not cool, sexy or arty which means we’ve got to produce really good pop songs, play really good live and kick our own arses to get any success.” And this is just what the Kells band do.

True DIY enthusiast they have spurned the norms of booking themselves into a studio... to instead build their own studio in Headfort House, with the help of Frames producer Karl Odlum.

Ham Sandwich’s music has garnered them a wide selection of admirers including legendary Beach Boys producer Van Dyke Parks, Pat Kenny, and Bono, who vehemently advised them to change their name and Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan who requested copies of the bands music prior to his solo performance in Dublin earlier this year and invited them along to his show.

For novices of the Ham Sandwich experience here’s some advice: leave your prejudice of what an indie band should be safe at home, stock up on lots of funergy and bring your dancing shoes because live...these guys are deliciously stunning.

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