If The Idle Hands were a film they might just be The Princess Bride;

Scaling the Cliffs of Insanity, Battling Rodents of Unusual size, Facing torture in the pit of Despair – True love has never been a snap.

It may be the tagline from the cult 80’s film but, Rodents aside, Minneapolis 5-piece The Idle Hands can relate to it all. Tales of nightmare tours with previous bands, unrequited love in indie discos and personal battles with various intoxicants read like a modern day fairytale. The inevitable happy ending being the coming together of 5 local musicians and now best friends to form The Idle Hands in 2005.

Frontman Ciaran can be credited with assembling The Idle Hands, rescuing himself from a previous band who were falling apart before his eyes, whilst persuading best friend Eileen to play keys. He asked pal Erik to come down from the mountains in Minnesota (he was there learning to drive sled dogs whilst escaping the dark temptations of the city – perhaps a story for another time – certainly a story for a potential Princess Bride sequel) to audition for drums. He passed with flying colours.

Criostoir joined as bassist - he was the easy part – Ciaran’s kid brother and the only bass player he ever wants to share a van with. That leaves guitarist Adam who met Ciaran at an early Idle Hands gig. Following an aftershow including numerous bottles of red wine, awkward moments involving ex-girlfriends and much stumbling around, Ciaran looked right at Adam and planted a very drunken, slobbering kiss right on his lips. And so the perfect Idle Hands line-up was complete; sealed with a kiss and with many empty bottles of red to thank.

Ultimately it is their love of a huge variety of music, past and present, that brought The Idle Hands together. Everyone from Johnny Cash and David Bowie to The Velvet Underground and The Smiths are major influences. Meanwhile more contemporary bands such as Spiritualised, The Strokes and Oasis are all high up the bill at their fantasy festival line-up. The Idle Hands can be considered a band in the great tradition of cross Atlantic influences.

Minneapolis itself has a thriving local band scene and an amazing mix of talented people, but it lacks the record company resources of the east and west coasts. The Idle Hands’ confidence in themselves and their determination to reach as many people as possible with their music lead them to Killer’s Hot Fuss producer Mark Needham, who has produced the tracks that will soon become their debut single. It also lead them to London based label Lavolta Records who will release the single in April (17th to be precise), something the band, given their numerous Anglo influences, are more than excited about.

It’s sounding more like a fairytale all the time…

The Idle Hands are Ciaran (vocals, guitar), Criostoir (bass), Eileen (keyboards), Adam (guitar) and Erik (Drums)

Click HERE to visit The Idle Hands website.

click pic to enlarge