Celtic Punk taking over Europe

Celtic Punk taking over Europe

THE CLOVERHEARTS ANNOUNCE ST. PATRICK TOUR 2023!☘️

Despite forming just before the pandemic, in 2020, The Cloverhearts have quickly become one of the most productive and original bands of the Celtic-Punk scene. After exceeding the 3 million streams on Spotify , the Italian-Australian band is ready to bring their powerful and original Celtic punk around Europe with their St. Patrick tour 2023.

Their tour starts in March, with 15 dates that will take them to Italy, France (where they will open for Ferocious Dog), and Czech Republic. In Germany they will be headlining St. Patrick’s Day in Berlin at Wild at Heart, followed by the main stage of the Irish Folk Festival in Magdeburg and then they will be supporting Irish Bastard on the final date in Nuremberg (already sold out). Thanks to the constant growth of their fan-base, 2023 looks like a busy year for The Cloverhearts, and likely new music will be released.

But for now there are kilometers to grind, concerts and rivers of beer to drink! Before everything starts, at Nziria we had chance to talk to Sam Cooper, frontman and leader of the band. Here’s what he told us!

The clover_hearts Nziria

INTERVIEW WITH SAM COOPER, FRONTMAN and LEADER OF THE CLOVERHEARTS

A studio album (The Sick & The Sacred) followed by “The Sick & The Sacred Acoustic”, an EP (Still Pissed), many  concerts and a pandemic in between. Certainly The Cloverhearts have a big dose of “Nziria”.

How did the project come about and what encouraged you not to give up?

Ph_Christian Thomas @krishanja.fotografie

In 2018 I was in New York to watch The Rumjacks, an Australian celtic punk band. There I met Gianluca, their manager, and his girlfriend Chiara. Later, they contacted me and proposed me to form a band with me on vocal and songwriter and Chiara on bagpipes and flute.

Shortly after we l found the other members of the band.

In 2019 our first album “The Sick&The Sacred” was recorded and released, and we toured and supported The Rumjacks on some dates.

Unfortunately between 2020 and 2021, as we all known, the music sector was forced to stop due to the pandemic. But fortunately, from 2022 to now, despite the change in the line-up, The Cloverhearts have grown massively, we are getting stronger!

I m very proud of what we are doing and what didn’t make us give up was the energy and enthusiasm from the audience since the very first concert.

You’ve been sharing the stage with important names of the Celtic Punk scene, who you were inspired from, how did you make this genre your own?

This is a tricky question. I actually grew up listening to a lot of Skate Punk, especially bands from Fat Record (NOFX, Millencolin). For this reason, I believe, that what makes the difference with The Cloverhearts, compared to other bands of the Celtic Punk genre (very much influenced by groups like The Pogues and Dropkick Murphys), is our “melodic” and “skate” background, that we combine by adding traditional Celtic instruments such as bagpipes and flute.

Sam, you have been in the music scene for a while. You have been part of three bands (Pug Jelly, Saw Loser, The Dirt Radicals), a solo project (St. Pineapple) and today frontman and songwiter of The Cloverhearts, obviously punk is your choice of lifestyle. How do you bring this idea into what you write?

As I said, I have a Skate Punk background with slight Pop Punk influences. Reading my lyrics, you also notice how much I was influenced by the songwriting of Elliot Smith, Fiona Apple, The Beach Boys, combined with the sounds of Green Day and the use of Celtic instruments.

For The Cloverhearts I wrote sometimes more introspective and profound lyrics like “Where did we go wrong?” others more fun and entertaining and much more suitable for festivals, such as “Drinking songs”. This is because, when I write lyrics, I first consider what I want for myself and what my personal taste is. But then, no doubt, a good percentage of my writing takes into consideration what the audience might like to hear.

What does mean being a punk to you?

 

Cloverhearts_nziria
ph_Krystof @chrishfoot_IG

 

 

Yeaahhhh… living,  getting on the plane going to Thailand, doing magic mushrooms and going to parallel universe and hopefully coming back with inspiration but more often then not, I don’t :)))

 

 

 

March will be a busy month for you, St. Patrick’s Day is upon us and you have many gigs scheduled. What can we expect from this tour and what’s new in this 2023?

nziria_cloverhearts punk
ph_Christian Thomas

March will be a fantastic month also because we have the longest tour since the band was formed. We have played with big names from celtic punk (The O’ Reillys and the PaddyHats) and we will continue to do so, on this tour, with Ferocious Dog and Mr Irish Bastards, bands that have helped us to get our music known and more followers with the streaming.

Our plan for 2023 will therefore be to continue touring and make ourselves known. After the St. Patrick tour, we will play in May at Rock Am Kuhteich in Leipzig, at Beltane Pagan Festival in Masserano at the end of the same month, in June we will be at Mighty Sounds in Czech Republic together with Rancid, The Interrupters and many other bands, and finally, in July, at the Panic Fest in Saint Felix in France.

It is likely possible that later on we will start recording new music, aiming always to the quality. I am saying this as I think that listening to music today has changed compared to the past. Now people hardly listen to a full album, maybe not even an EP! Therefore, personally, I prefer to write 12 songs, but record only one, which is the right one, able to get straight to the public!!!

NZiria Team thanks you for answering our questions and we can’t wait to hear The Cloverhearts play again, maybe in new locations, for instance Southern Italy where we are originally from.

Thank you for your questions. We would love to come to the South Italy, mainly because we don’t know of any Celtic Punk bands that have played there.

I personally would like to come visit the South, so what better excuse not to than to come play with The Cloverhearts? So…see you soon!

THE DATES OF THE ST. PATRICK TOUR 2023!

10.03.2023 : Drunk in Public, Ancona (IT)
11.03.2023  : Almdiele, Lutago (Italia)
13.03.2023  : Unter Deck, Monaco (Germania)
14.03.2023  : Vagon Club, Praga (Repubblica Ceca)
15.03.2023  : Andel Music Bar, Plzen (Repubblica Ceca)
16.03.2023  : Hellraiser, Lipsia (Germania)
17.03.2023  : Wild at Heart, Berlino (Germania)
18.03.2023  : L.A.Cham, Cham (Germania)
20.03.2023 : Backstage By The Mill, [as support band of Ferocious Dog], Parigi (Francia)
21.03.2023 : Brin de Zinc, Barberaz (Francia)
22.03.2023 : Kulturbrücken Jungbusch, Mannheim (Germania)
23.03.2023 : Pitcher, Dusseldorf (Germania)
24.03.2023 : Irish Folk Festival, Magdeburg (Germania)
25.03.2023 : Club Stereo [as support band of Mr. Irish Bastard], Norimberga (Germania) – SOLD OUT!

The complete list of events and ticket information is available at www.thecloverhearts.com

 

 

 

 

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