The Delorentos frontman talks big heavy Mercs, ancient Citroens and how women do it differently.
Delorentos formed in Dublin in 2005 and since then, aside from a brief hiatus, they’ve been pumping out tuneful guitar-based music that’s gone down well on the live circuit and has garnered its fair share of airplay on Irish radio – particularly their song SECRET.
Their frontman is Ronan Yourell, and he took a break from writing songs with the rest of the lads in the Wicklow Hills to tell us about his automotive credentials.
JOE: What was your first car, Ronan?
Ronan: I had a Toyota Yaris because it was easy to learn in and cheap to run.
JOE: What made you chose your current set of wheels?
Ronan: Living in Dublin I don’t currently have a car that I can call my own, but I have access to various cars of various standards.
As a band we’re using a 1991 Mercedes Foster and Bay camper van at the moment. It’s pretty tripped out and pretty cool. It’s become our acoustic room while we’ve been camped out writing songs in a studio in Wicklow.
It’s nice to say we have a Mercedes, even though it weighs about 20 tons and has a top speed of 60mph.
JOE: What’s on your stereo right now?
Ronan: Níal our bass player is the one who tends to check out the new music and educate the rest of us. At this moment in time we’re listening to stuff from Panda Bears, Foster the People and Egypytian hip-hop. Níal is much more on the case than me; I still have the same Bruce Springsteen tape that my dad gave me.
JOE: How nifty are you at changing a wheel?
Ronan: Yes I can. I’ve done it, but only on a practice run. I’m a bit nerdy like that – the sort of person who’d check that sort of thing out just in case I ever need to. Luckily I’ve not yet needed to do it on the side of a busy road in the rain.
JOE: The perfect car would be…?
Ronan: I’d love to have one of those old Citroen DS cars. Reliability aside, I do like older cars.
JOE: And the perfect journey…?
Ronan: The south of France is pretty nice. On a sunny day, but one where nobody else knows it’s sunny so that I’ve got the road to myself.
JOE: Obviously you’re a brilliant driver, but what trait in other drivers really grinds your gears?
Ronan: People who go crazy on their horns. Particularly those assholes who beep their horns and roar at learner drivers when they stall. Very nasty.
JOE: Women can’t drive. Discuss.
Ronan: They can drive, they just do it differently. They would say better, I’d just say differently.
Nick Bradshaw
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