Kodaline are making a striking return as they prepare to release their eagerly anticipated fourth album later this year.
Wherever You Are, the first single to drop from the record has quickly exceeded 10 million streams, while the emotional accompanying video has added another 3.3 million views. The band subsequently announced an intimate summer residency at Dublins Olympia Theatre, which was quickly extended due to phenomenal demand. Theyve since become the first band in history to sell out a run of seven shows at the venue.
This was soon followed up by their latest single Sometimes. The song starts as a sun-kissed acoustic folk groove before launching into the kind of anthemic, larger-than-life pop hook that the band have become renowned for. It also captures Kodalines rare gift for exploring a challenging topic within a song that feels both joyous and life-affirming. As the song admits, We all get lost sometimes.
Kodaline reveal the official video for Sometimes. Directed by Mike Baldwin, the video get up close and personal with Kodalines frontman Steve Garrigan.
Speaking about the video he saysWere happy to release the video for our new song Sometimes, we filmed it in London a few weeks back. The songs about my personal experience with anxiety and we tried to capture that in the video in a fun way. Its a little different to our other. During these strange times I hope everybodys staying safe and keeping their distance and I hope you guys enjoy the video.”
Delving deeper into the inspiration behind the track, Steve explains, Sometimes is a song I wrote while on tour in Asia last year. I had a really bad day dealing with my own anxiety issues and I let it get the better of me. I started writing the song in my hotel room to help me calm down, music has always helped me in that way. For me, its a song about accepting the bad days and trying to stay positive.
The Olympia Theatre shows represent Kodalines first in Dublin this year. In 2019 they sold-out two 15,000 capacity shows at St. Annes Park before playing to another 60,000 at Electric Picnic. The festival reached an emotional crescendo when Cranberries’ guitarist Noel Hogan joined Kodaline for Zombie, a whole-hearted tribute to the late Dolores ORiordan. It also represented Kodaline going back to the beginning. Their first arena show came when the Cranberries invited them to open a gig in Paris back in 2012.
The dates are:
MAY27th – Dublin, Olympia Theatre (SOLD OUT)28th – Dublin, Olympia Theatre (SOLD OUT)
JUNE1st – Dublin, Olympia Theatre (SOLD OUT)2nd – Dublin, Olympia Theatre (SOLD OUT)3rd – Dublin, Olympia Theatre (SOLD OUT)5th – Dublin, Olympia Theatre (SOLD OUT)6th – Dublin, Olympia Theatre (SOLD OUT)8th – Dublin, Olympia Theatre
After first breaking through in 2013 with their debut single High Hopes, Kodaline have scored three #1 albums in Ireland, two Top 5 albums in the UK and numerous strong chart placings all over the world.
In 2019, Kodaline played some of the biggest shows of their career. In addition to their Dublin shows, they completed a ten-date UK tour which culminated with a packed show at Londons historic Roundhouse. Further afield, they hit festivals including Lollapalooza, Benicàssim and Opener before becoming the first Irish band to headline the massive NH7 Weekender in Pune, India. Their extensive touring throughout Asia also included a headline set at Monsoon Music Festival in Vietnam plus dates in China, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore.
That reach suggests that Kodaline are perfectly placed to continue to be discovered by new fans all over the globe with their fourth album. After more than a billion streams at Spotify and almost 600 million views at YouTube, theres a lot more to come in the Kodaline story.