Interference is an Irish band originally headed by the late singer-songwriter Fergus O'Farrell.^[1]

The band was featured in the Academy Award-winning movie Once. Songs by interference have also been included in the soundtracks for Alan Gilsenan’s All Souls Day and Damien O’Donnell’s Inside I'm Dancing. A collaboration with Glen Hansard, the song ‘Don’t Go Down’ features in the John Carney film, Sing Street.

In 2018, Trinity College Dublin’s Music Society awarded Interference an Honorary Patronage to the College faculty in recognition of their contribution to Irish Music.^[2]

Following the death of O'Farrell, Interference still perform live with Hansard assuming lead vocals.

DogTail Soup

The band devised an alter ego, where each of them would alternate the role of singer, performing their own songs as well as covers. The chosen name, DogTail Soup, was derived from a line in one of Vearncombe's 'Black' songs, "Cold Chicken Skin".

Interference and DogTail Soup developed a cult following in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the 2000s following several tours in the region.

Once & "Gold"

Interference outings became sporadic as O’Farrell's health caused long periods of inactivity. . The song "Gold", however, is an O'Farrell solo composition, and it features in John Carney Box Office Hit film Once. Released in 2007, the film features a house party scene where Interference perform the song. The song features strongly in Once: The Musical. The success of "Gold" led O'Farrell to sign a worldwide publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music.

Deaths of O'Farrell and Vearncombe

Colin Vearncombe died after a car crash on 26 January 2016. O'Farrell died from muscular dystrophy 7 days later on 2 February.

In 2017, a tribute concert was organised to celebrate O'Farrell and his work. To coincide with these performances, the second Interference album, The Sweet Spot, produced by DanDan Fitzgerald, was released on 2 February, 2017.

A film documentary on the life of O'Farrell entitled Breaking Out^[3] was released in November 2021.^[4] Filmed over ten years, it follows O'Farrell and his band from their own recording studio set-up in Dublin in the early '90's to the last recording sessions, O'Farrell’s death from muscular dystrophy in early 2016 and the release in 2017 of their last album The Sweet Spot. To accompany the film a soundtrack album was compiled, featuring the 31 interference tracks heard in the film. Eleven of these were re-mastered by Bob Ludwig in Gateway Mastering Studios,^[5] Portland, Maine, USA.

References