Sligo hip-hop group This Side Up will this week launch their debut album, ‘Full Fat!’.
This latest milestone in the blossoming career of the local trio has come to fruition following a year of recording but they are now excited to be returning to the live stage.
“We have been flat out, we have spent the last year recording this album so we can’t wait to get it out there and start gigging,” said MC Shaool (AKA Shane Leonard).
“We haven’t played live that much recently and we haven’t had a gig in Sligo since March so we really can’t wait to play again.”
The album launch will not be an exclusively local affair and is perhaps a testament to their growing popularity as they also perform in Galway, Dublin and Cork in the coming weeks.
“We have been based in Dublin the last few years and have been putting on a few gigs there. We are heading to Galway then to gig with a band called The Clandestinos in The Loft and then we are in Cork on November 19 with a band called The Cutting Heads Collective, they are good pals who have been putting on Hip-Hop gigs down there for the last year and we can’t wait to get down there and playing with them again.”
The members of This Side Up have virtually put the rest of their lives on hold in order to focus entirely on the album but they are enthusiastic about bringing their first launch back home where it all began.
“We abandoned all real life for about a year and just focused on the music at a studio in Dublin and have been recording there ever since. We got stuck into it and we are glad with the way the album has turned out,” Shaool said.
“Sligo is the best gig for us, we have been playing here for about eight years at this stage. We started out at the Clarence Hotel back in the day then Tricky gave us a regular night in McGarrigle’s and we have been building from there ever since. We started as a live act and it took us quite a while to get down to recording but it feels like a real achievement to have one out.”
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