SOFTDRINK MILLIONAIRE
Words: Reuben Barter
At the favourite watering hole of many a thirsty Dublin musician, Anseo, I sat down with Josh, Tombo and Paddy from Softdrink Millionaire. This four-piece (Joe was missing) from the real capital of Ireland…’Bray’, were exactly as I had hoped having first seen them cover AC/DC’s “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock And Roll)” during a set at Anseo. You could tell they were having so much fun.
So the EP is called The Good EP as opposed to The Bad EP?
Josh : Oh yeah, listen man we could’ve made a worse one. If we really tried, with the right attitude we could make the kack EP.
Tell me about recording the EP.
Josh: We did it last summer out in Orc’s Lair, with Dara Hansard, who did the mixing for the Search Results albums and some for Stupid Son, and he’s done some mixing and mastering with Shark School as well. All the ideas and references that we were trying to get going, he got straight away. With this EP we had a load of influence from The Fall, Grandaddy…I love all of the Pavement ballads, like Range Life, the more meandering ones. Dinosaur Jr. was a big influence on Buses, when we were trying to get the crackle and shreddage [sic]. He got that.
What about the single Good Enough?
With Good Enough, I had the first bit and the second bit, and then that entire middle bit is just different every time.
Tombo: What I like about that song is that it’s such a mixed bag, the breakdown has a weird little early Arctic Monkeys vibe.
Paddy: That middle bit is an antidote to the sort of overly gridded music that you might hear now, the tempo is even a bit squishy especially when we play it live, it can go faster sometimes or slower.
What were some of the inspirations going into this EP?
Josh: With this EP there’s a load of Pavement and Stephen Malkmus–I think he’s a genius, he’s one of my favourite songwriters–, that school of David Berman of Silver Jews and and Purple Mountains, kind of wry sharper stuff. We’re trying to be funnier as well.
Tombo: If I had to list three I’d say Prince, The Fall and Bloodthirsty Butchers, the Japanese rock band.
Josh: I’ve just been reading loads of books, and listening to Life Without Buildings… For Good Skin, the idea was a bollox Talking Heads song, if the Talking Heads were bolloxed and hungover. The Fall have also been a huge inspiration for the band and that kind of repetition is just becoming an underappreciated thing in music. With Good Skin the idea was to repeat this mantra style, where this person’s a good skin, they’re nice, they’re nice enough. Also it’s like “They’ve Got Good Skin” in the sense that they’re beautiful and I wish I was like them.
Tombo: Especially with Good Skin, our thing on that was Prince, the early lo-fi bag, and just doing it super super raw and simple and getting it done.
Josh: We recorded the entire EP live.
Paddy: That’s the best part about it, it allows the songs to stretch and pull, and you really feel like you’re watching it for the very first time. You’ve never seen this performance before.
What inspired Classic Rock Legend?
Josh: The one song I was listening to while we were writing it was 3D Country by Geese. The entire pathetic cowboy thing, like somedays that’s how I view myself and then others I’m like the only fucking cowboy in the town.
Paddy: A real Irish cowboy, like can’t be bothered to go to the duel.
Josh: The song itself, the title is Classic Rock Legend. That was Joe’s Spotify username, and I thought, well I have to do that. In some way an ode to him. Also there is so much mythology surrounding these “Classic Rock Legends” Bono, for example. Everybody in Ireland has a chip on their shoulder when you talk about him. There’s all these Youtube interviews talking about when Keith Richards swallowed ten kilos of heroin and all these kinds of myths. Ah like it’s all like a load of shite. Even if that did happen, why is that all so romanticised? It’s kind of pathetic I think.
Paddy: The song is a critique of that kind of mentality, it’s actually quite a dangerous mentality to have, like the amount of people we’ve lost to drink and drugs.
Tombo: I think it works lyrically very well in the theme of Good Skin, where it’s like not having the jealousy of Good Skin and being like there’s rockstar qualities that are so different.
Josh: Yeah there’s such a traditional notion of like a rockstar, that is sex, drugs, rock and roll and kind of like doing all of that. Where like in terms of that the best rock and rollers are the people that put gigs on in a shed somewhere that's where the heart of the music is. And I think it gets very romanticised.That notion makes people in a rural village in Ireland go and wear leather trousers instead of organising gigs themselves, instead they’re like “I’m going to try and dress like Slash instead of actually putting on the gig”. That’s the thing of people misunderstanding the idea of this, and cosplaying the rock and roll thing and skewing the message. And as well I just wanted to talk about how funny Barry Keoghan looks in those Beatles films, terrible barnet isn’t it like, he’s got the Liverpool ket wig.
I love the intimacy and kitchen tableness of Classic Rock Legend where you say, “I need a hug, a big kiss and a cup of tea.”
Josh: I’m living with my parents again, I was living in Ranelagh, and even that wasn’t rock’n’roll either man. You have to pay 900 euro rent, and the only thing you’re looking forward to is the free sandwich you get from work and a cup of tea. Simply it’s just a complete myth that you can choose to believe, that you need to be this rock ‘n’roll legend, classic rockstar thing. In the last 20 years people have seen that this lifestyle is sort of fruitless and that you’re going to wreck yourself and burn bridges with the real people that you want to be with. Just go home and have a cup of tea, and chat to your granny.
Tombo: A very grounding experience.
Josh: That’s more important than being the Bray Elvis, d’you know what I mean?
Talking about Greystones and Bray, how happy were you when the brought the 24 hour
buses?
Josh: It’s so funny because the entire song is done in this kind of sarcastic, celebratory nature, like “Oh wow, they’ve made the buses 24/7 isn’t that great, don’t worry about the fact that you can’t afford a gaff to stay in, so you can stay out in town all night anyways, we have the bus that can bring you to your childhood room, isn’t that great?.”
Tombo: There’s a sweet side to that song, like “ Aw it’s great to go out with my friends, and go home to my house.
Any last words:
You should listen to the EP, please listen to the EP and our music. It’s awfully good, you should buy our t-shirts, a bit more peace, a bit more love, get your act together, Soft drinks not very good for your teeth.
SOFTDRINK MILLIONAIRE
5 NOVEMBER 2026 | THE GRAND SOCIAL BALLROOM, DUBLIN
Tickets from €13.99 including booking fee available from universe.com