For some people, being a DIY band means shying away from mainstream publicity – but H4H have managed to combine appearances in the likes of Hotpress with still retaining an underground or indie edge. Perhaps H4H prove that you can do both? "I guess it depends who you ask though," counters Alan. "Because I know for a fact that there are certain people who I would have dealt with in the past that wouldn’t go near us now, because by their standards we would be like ‘mainstream pop’, nothing to do with DIY at all – I presume they draw that from the fact that we were in Hotpress and on the radio and stuff like that. To me, DIY is about the ethics you operate under and it’s about taking control about what you’re doing.
"DIY is one of the most important things in my life, personally. You know where you stand, you work only with people you trust, there’s some kind of moral code to it – like you’re not just trying to grab whatever you get from it and make a quick buck and yada yada – you’re doing it because you love it, you know, you care about it, and you care about every aspect of it – that’s what it is to me."
Áine, Tom and Alan…insert witty comment here!
Does it feel disappointing though that certain people may look at the band and think ‘well they’re in Hotpress – clearly they’ve sold out’, I ask. "Occasionally it does," he sighs. "It depends on where the accusation comes from to be honest. I mean you look at internet forums and stuff and just sometimes it does bother you occasionally. Sometimes you see a certain group of people, or people criticising you that way and you kind of think ‘I would have thought they would know better’. It is really bad when it is someone you know personally or used to know personally saying stuff like that and you think ‘surely they know me better than that’."
But that sort of criticism isn’t something that Alan is prepared to let bother him too much. "If you took everything to heart you’d never leave your bedroom, you’d just play music in your room for the rest of your life. So you have to be prepared for some kind of criticism," he asserts.
