Inside The High Kings’ rise to international fame and being a part of Oscar-winning film

Four musicians came together nearly two decades ago to re-energise traditional Irish folk music – and almost overnight they went on to enjoy huge success in the US. Here, The High King’s Darren Holden tells RSVP Country about this thrilling journey

In 2007, four musicians – Finbarr Clancy, Brian Dunphy, Darren Holden and Martin Furey – came together to form The High Kings. Their task was to re-energise traditional Irish folk sound and bring it to the US, and they were prepared to take on a lot of hard work to get there. Their debut album rocked to number two on Billboard Magazine’s World Music Chart and since then, the band has gone from strength to strength thanks to their loyal fans – even ushering in a new era as they began releasing their own original tracks.

The current line-up of the band consists of guitarist and banjo player Finbarr, Brian who plays bodhrán and guitar as well as vocals, vocalist Darren who also plays accordion, mandolin, guitar and keyboard, and multi-instrumentalist Paul O’Brien.

Here, Darren chats to RSVP Country about their meteoric rise to fame, folk music becoming more popular and how they ended up a part of the Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated soundtrack for Hollywood movie Sinners .

FORMING THE BAND

In 2007, the founding members of the band all had their own musical careers – Darren was fresh off a stint as the lead in a Broadway musical, Brian had worked on a number of solo and group music projects, Finbarr had toured as part of the famous Clancy Brothers line-up and Martin had performed as part of the band Bohinta.

They were all approached about putting a band together, and things immediately clicked for the foursome.

“I got a call from Brian saying that my name had come up in a meeting in Dublin about putting a band together, to do Irish ballads in the style of the Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers and would I be interested,” explains Darren. “I went into the meeting in Dublin in 2007 and I loved what I heard, I loved the idea of re-energising and re-imagining all of these old songs from way, way back. I signed up on the spot for the band and it all happened really quickly.

“We went straight into the studio and I met Finbarr during rehearsals, because even though we lived close to each other, we’d never really known each other. Martin Furey was in the band and I didn’t really know him at the time, but we just all clicked.”

The band worked quickly, but success wasn’t expected straight away.

“We recorded the first album over the course of three or four months, we signed with EMI Records in America and then we signed a global deal,” says Darren. “The brief we were given was that it’s going to be a hard slog. It’s going to take six months or more to get any sort of ground broken in America, which is predominantly where they wanted us for. But the album went to number two on Billboard within the second week of release and nobody could believe it. It all took off from there.”

SUCCESS IN THE US

As any artist knows, breaking America can be incredibly difficult, and there are any number of successful artists in Ireland, the UK and beyond who have never been able to make a significant impact in the States. But for The High Kings, it all came together, as the Irish songs “worked some magic”, Darren recalls.

“It was a shock to the system in the best possible way,” he says. “I had lived in New York and I had lived in America for about eight years at that stage, so I kind of knew how the American music industry worked and it was always hard work, hard work, hard work and you didn’t get anything for nothing over there.

“It was such a success story at the time. I remember EMI bringing us to a meeting to detail what was happening and all the TV shows we were doing, and then they drove us down into Times Square. They had it timed so that it was around 5.30pm on a Friday evening and we were in Times Square and the head of the record label at the time told us to look up at one of the major billboards, and there was our album, saying number two on Billboard. We just couldn’t believe it.”

It wasn’t just a commercial hit they had achieved, but the beginning of a loyal and longstanding fan base.

“We’ve kept our core fanbase over there for these last 18 years and built on that, and it has just been brilliant. We toured America for around six months on the trot, did all the TV shows like The View, Good Morning America ; it was just insane. We took a break for about a month and then went into the second album, and we’ve literally worked solid ever since, thank God.”

Darren adds: “We just kept building and building, and we’ve toured Ireland, Australia, Europe, Scandinavia but America has always been our big, big market.”

CHANGES

The band have been working together for almost two decades now, and with that comes evolution and growth. The line-up has changed, with Martin Furey leaving the band in 2017 – which left the remaining members at a crossroads.

“Martin left the band; I think the road isn’t for everybody, it’s a long slog,” says Darren. “I think he wanted to focus on his own thing, which was fine. But we were all at a crossroads, wondering what to do, do we take a break? We all decided to stick together, but we took about six months off and then we recruited Paul O’Brien. I had known Paul from a few years back and I approached him to ask if he would be interested in coming in for a few rehearsals, maybe a recording session to see what it sounds like. He did, and it felt right. We all felt like this was a great configuration of the band.”

The band have also changed record labels, before striking out on their own: “We took control of the band ourselves; myself, Brian and Finbarr being the longest running members and we started our own company, took control of the direction and the material.”

SINNERS

The High Kings aren’t strangers to some Hollywood attention over the years, with a number of celebrities, including iconic actor Steve Martin, as fans. In fact, the band’s version of The Parting Glass was featured in season four of his show Only Murders In The Building . But a whole new level of attention was bestowed upon them when they featured on the soundtrack of the Oscar-nominated film Sinners , directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan.

The film features The Rocky Road to Dublin and Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go? by The High Kings. The soundtrack was composed by Ludwig Göransson, known for his work on films like Oppenheimer, The Mandalorian, Black Panther and Creed . It was a “pinch me” moment for the band, but it came about entirely by chance, Darren explains.

“It happened while we were on tour in America last year. Ludwig, who had done the music for Oppenheimer and The Mandalorian and all of this stuff, came to see us in the Troubadour in LA and loved the band,” he says. “He brought us into the studio the next day to show us what he was working on – nobody knew it was Sinners at that point. He asked us to sing on the soundtrack, which was mind boggling stuff really. Crazy.

“It’s kind of a pinch me moment because it’s so big. Ludwig called us and his lovely wife Serena called us, and they invited myself, Brian and our two wives, MIchelle and Anne, over to London for the premiere in Leicester Square. We got to hang out with the cast afterwards and had a great night.

“We’ve been in contact and very friendly with the cast and crew and all the musicians ever since.

“It’s a door that opened purely by chance.”

TRADITIONAL FOLK RESURGENCE

Irish folk music is having a big moment lately, with artists like Kingfishr, Amble and more skyrocketing to the top of the charts. It’s been amazing for The High Kings, who have noticed younger fans coming along, and Darren thinks it’s because of the unique relatability of Irish folk.

“I’ve always said that there’s a realness in Irish folk music,” he says. “First of all I noticed that during the recession that happened in 2008/2009, everybody was in big trouble and struggling financially but for some reason, The High Kings kept going. People kept coming to see us, saying that they wanted to save some money and come to see the band because the music was real. We noticed it again during lockdown, people were responding to folk music in general.

“Folk music is real; you sing about real things, you write about real things that are going on in the world or in your own house or your own village or town. It’s a universal kind of language. Particularly in Ireland, people love to sing along and be involved in the music. When you look at Kingfishr with Killeagh , everybody responds to that because it doesn’t have to be about that one club, it’s about any GAA club in the country or the world.

He laughs: “It’s a thing, it’s cool. Banjo is cool and accordion is cool – even though I always got such a slagging for playing the accordion!”

A NEW ERA

The band recently entered a new chapter of their career as they released their first all-original album in 2023, with an amazing reception from fans.

Going forward, they plan to continue on this route, as a new album is in the works and slated for release later this year, with another full tracklist of original tunes.

“It was a chance we took because we were always releasing albums with older songs and maybe one or two originals, but we decided to go all the way original with the last record and that’s how we’re continuing now,” explains Darren. “We’re currently recording the new album which will be out later this year.

“Our next single is called The Irish Roar , and it’s a very passionate, patriotic, upbeat, crazy song that’s going to have a fantastic video. We are throwing the kitchen sink at this and it’s coming out on the 20th of February, so we hope it’s everything we think it might be.”

See dates and tickets for The High Kings: The Rocky Road Tour on www.thehighkings.com/

This interview originally appeared in the spring edition of RSVP Country.

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