Kodaline, The Academic, and Nell Mescal

The band is made up of childhood friends Steve Garrigan, on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, and Mark Prendergast, on lead guitar, backing vocals and keyboards. The other two members consist of Vinny May on drums, percussion and backing vocals and Jason Boland, who plays bass guitar and also provides backing vocals. Garrigan and Prendergast grew up in Swords, Dublin together. They attended the same school and took part in many ‘battle of the bands’ together, indicating an early love for music that would later shape their careers.

Formed in 2005 under the name 21 Demands, the band changed their name in 2011 to Kodaline and soon after started to gain in popularity and fame as their star grew brighter and brighter. They transformed from an unsigned, unknown band to one of the most popular indie bands today, eventually signing with RCA records. Their debut EP, self- entitled, was released on 7 September 2012 and their first studio album, ‘In a Perfect World’, was released on 17 June 2013. Both albums received great critical acclaim and resulted in enormous success for the band in the indie scene. From their debut EP, the single ‘All I Want’ was selected as BBC Radio 1s record of the week, allowing the relatively unknown band some great exposure. It also featured in Grey’s Anatomy, garnering the band even more exposure. Their second album contained recurring singles from the first as well as many new tracks such as ‘One Day’, ‘Brand New Day’ and ‘After the Fall’.

Their songs have been used extensively on television, as background tracks to The Vampire Diaries and The Fault in Our Stars, to name but a few. Potentially the most popular track the band has produced to date is their hit single ‘High Hopes’.