The Academic Wants You to Act Your Age

by Naomi Flores Back in April, I had the opportunity to interview with The Academic, an Irish alternative rock, indie band composed of four friends: Craig Fitzgerald, Dean Gavin, and brothers Matthew and Stephen Murtaugh. They have such a natural an...

by Naomi Flores



Back in April, I had the opportunity to interview with The Academic, an Irish alternative rock, indie band composed of four friends: Craig Fitzgerald, Dean Gavin, and brothers Matthew and Stephen Murtaugh. They have such a natural and chill chemistry, which comes across in their music that has such a bright and warm sound.



Their story traces back to secondary school, or high school in the US, where Matthew and Stephen, who grew up playing guitar together, met Dean and Craig. Much like the Beatles’ performances in Hamburg, the boys began playing cover gigs in the local pubs in their hometown Mullingar, sneaking in pieces of their own original music. Once one of their most popular songs "Bear Claws" began gaining local popularity, they knew they had something good.



Act Your Age was released on July 10, 2020. They saw the EP as a way to ease back into music, minus the pressures of jumping into producing a second album.. The songs on the EP explore a variety of different genres, and producing most of it over lockdown allowed them to experiment with self-production. When they weren’t hard at work with Act Your Age, over lockdown the boys were improving their cooking skills, watching X-Files, and getting stuck in YouTube rabbit holes.



Looking to the future, the band is most excited to be back performing live and hearing their venues filled with sounds of their music and fans. When they get back to touring, they hope to continue road tripping across the United States and going to Mexico. This summer, the band will be performing at the Reading Festival in England along with other artists such as Two Door Cinema Club, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Declan Mckenna, and others.



In recent news, The Academic released a new single called “Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)” and their new EP Community Spirit is set to be released this upcoming Friday the 9th. To keep up with the band, follow @theacademic on Twitter and Instagram. I have loads of favorites of theirs, listen to my top song here!