Unlike most bands, H4H managed to get lots of positive press and attention practically straight away, appearing on local and national radio and television and national press. I ask Alan if it is something he has to grapple with. "Very much to be honest," he says. "To be honest, certain parts of it can not sit so well with you, especially coming from the background I have come from. The way it took off was amazing in one way because…at the start we were so nervous and we didn’t have a clue of what we were doing, and we didn’t have a clue if anyone would like us, or anything, and it did get a really quick response, which was good. I guess we really needed it in a sense to gain confidence and say ‘OK, we’ll have an album out in less than a year’, things like that. But it was kind of crazy how quickly it caught on."
I question if he thinks the reason H4H got such a buzz going was because they’re doing something that not many bands are doing in Ireland – particularly on the Cork scene. He nods: "In all of these cases, say Hotpress or anything like that, the radio or whatever – it’s always, I know this might sound terribly conceited, but it is a case of them coming to us rather than us coming to them. So I guess in that sense it must just be a result of the style we’re playing, the music itself, because it seems to grab people’s attention."
However, it’s refreshing to note that no matter how much attention the band gets, Alan wants to keep a level-headed attitude. "As far as I’m concerned, the moment you start considering yourself better or above anyone else is the moment you should give up music," he says passionately. "Once you start taking for granted that you’re more considered or more popular than anyone else, that’s the death of it for me – so you should always be realistic about it and be modest about it – not false modesty, you should genuinely be modest about it, because otherwise that is the beginning of the end of it. The honesty goes straight away if you start taking things for granted."
