“Maybe It’s Something We’re Doing Already..” Picture This Tease A Possible Collaboration

Picture This during their press conference at The Westbury Dublin.
Image: VIPIRELAND

From five nights on the Olympia stage to five nights in the 3Arena, Picture This have had what some would describe as a whirlwind of success over the last two years.

Having announced they will be playing five consecutive nights in a row at Dublin’s 3Arena in March following the release of their new album MDRN LV in February, the four lads from Athy, County Kildare, have shown us that they truly don’t do things by half.

Their latest album MDRN LV is promised to be something different to anything we’ve heard from the band so far, and the first single, upbeat pop track ‘One Drink’ shows that is exactly the case.

“It would have been very easy for us to make another acoustic, pop-rock album,” singer Ryan Hennessy said about their latest project, “but this album is very different and we’re very excited.

“We’ve taken inspiration from bands we listen to and there’s a good modern twist on this album in comparison to the last.”

This album will be the first the band have released since being signed to massive American record label Republic Records, who represent acts such as Ariana Grande and Post Malone. The lads have high hopes for the opportunities that will come along with being the first Irish act to be signed by the label.

“They really believe in us and I think that’s something we’re missing now in the music industry,” said drummer Jimmy Rainsford about being signed to the successful label. “Labels will find someone and they’ll try and mould them to try and be successful, whereas Republic are like: ‘we love what you’re doing, we just want to push it’.”

STELLAR’s Cara Croke and VIP Magazine’s Megan Roantree with Picture This.

The new album is produced by Jayson Dezuzio, who has previously worked with acts such as Imagine Dragons. Having produced their first album completely alone, Ryan admitted that he was apprehensive about working with another writer prior to meeting Jayson.

“We had the album finished, so we said we’d try and write with somebody else,” Ryan said.

“We went into it and just absolutely hated it, I just can’t write with anybody else. We had Jayson [Dezuzio] booked in for the next day and he came in and was amazing. He was the best person we’d ever met, I was like ‘holy shit, lets go for the whole evening’. In turn, he ended up producing the whole album with us.”

With opportunities to work with other artists very plausible having being signed to Republic Records, Jimmy filled us in on who they would like to work with in the future.

“We’d love to collaborate with anyone on the Republic roster. Ariana Grande would be great, Post Malone would be great, the 1975.

“We would love to collaborate with people, and y’know, maybe it’s something we’re doing already, but I’m not going to say too much..”

The band credit their first single ‘Take My Hand’ for much of their success. Although acknowledging that a lot of hard work got them to where they are today, they do admit that ‘Take My Hand’ was an overnight success in ways.

“I was shocked when I first heard it,” bassist Cliff Deane recalls. “I said ‘I have to be involved in this somehow, whether you want me to come tune your drums or anything, I’ll do it.’

“It’s a weird feeling, knowing that it kind of was an overnight success in the way of it’s like you kind of just won the lotto,” Jimmy said.

So what makes Picture This the winning combination for a great band? Having sold over 300,000 concert tickets since their formation in 2016, there must be some hidden formula.

“We’re all very different people, and that’s why we work so well together,” Jimmy thinks.

“I would consider Cliff the funny one, I’m on the more business-y side of things, Owen is the responsible one and Ryan is the talent.

“We’re all from the same area but we have different ideas and mentalities, and when we bring that together it makes something incredible.”

Picture This will play five nights in the 3Arena from the 27th to the 31st of March 2019. Tickets go on sale next Wednesday, October 24th at 9am. You can look forward to their new album, MDRN LV, out February 15th 2019.

• Picture This