49th & Main: The biggest Irish band you've never heard of
There, slowly but surely, the Kilkenny duo started to become the clear-eyed, genre-bending guerrilla duo they are today. Six years later, the project has largely succeeded: a sold-out North American tour, dates for Australia, a buzzy debut album, and a stage presence most would kill for, the pair have travelled far on razor-sharp bars and dreamy, harmonising beats.
Despite this, the band almost wasn't. Just before Christmas of that year, O'Sullivan was running for the bus when he fell, injuring his head and hands. He seemed fine, but blood continued to pour.
Doctors diagnosed aplastic anaemia, an ultra-rare hematologic condition in which the body fails to make blood cells in sufficient numbers.
The disorder, as doctors would later tell him, leads to chronic fatigue and a high propensity to infections. He spent the next 18 months isolating for a bone marrow transplant. When the pandemic came around, he was relieved, but busy.
'Music was a saviour [during that time],' he says. He and King would regularly send files back and forth, suggesting ideas and planting seeds. 'I got out of the hospital and was finally able to live a semi-normal life,' he says.
'Then we got to do our first shows, and that was just crazy.'
Festival audiences will largely recognise 49th & Main, given organisers' penchant for billing them during long, hazy summer sets. 'We were told we had sunshine music once,' O'Sullivan smiles. 'Whatever that means.'
A specific genre was never the plan, which is why labels and journalists alike fumble over up to five when describing them. The reality is a mix of O'Sullivan's electronic and dance beats and King's indie songwriting, a combination that liberally pulls from the musical spectrum to keep folks dancing. It's a method that works, and one that's seen them shift the goalposts repeatedly to keep up with demand.
'The dream at the beginning was to get 1,000 people to listen to our music, then it was Whelans, then Electric Picnic…' O'Sullivan smiles. 'Now, every couple of months, the dream keeps changing.'
'I guess at this stage, it's stadiums?' King interjects. 'That's… more of a worry,' O'Sullivan laughs.
The pair's fascinating, composite, dancefloor-friendly songs made an impact right away. To date, they've played some of the best respected stages in the world: Coachella, Glastonbury, Amsterdam's Paradiso and the O2 Forum Kentish Town among them.
After their debut EP Neon Palm Trees secured them a deal with Counter Records, 2022's follow-up, 'Must Be Nice', saw their sound and style build to allow justifiable comparisons to Fred again.. Jamie xx. 'We've had no viral moments,' King says. 'It's just been a natural growth.'
Self-promotion is a struggle, both agree. 'It's a whole other job, one that kind of makes you doubt certain things,' O'Sullivan shares. 'It makes you kind of view the tracks differently. And then you see other artists backstage after a set, filming and whatever, and you're just like, should we be doing that?'
Are they at the stage where they can look at their faces back on a video and not cringe? 'Not at all,' King laughs. 'We might never be there.'
Today, as they sit and enjoy the days following their long-awaited debut album, Happy Tears, they look poised to celebrate the present moment. The album took close to 15 months to finalise, with nostalgic clips and soundbites from friends and family intertwined to create a piece built for the heart and wise beyond its years. The theme of the album led them there, they say. That, and The Office.
'You know when Andy Bernard says, 'I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them'?' O'Sullivan says.
'That was the initial brief. I think people are plagued with looking back and thinking that the grass was greener in the past, but we were so set on celebrating the present with this record. Because we're going to look back on it someday. Like, I'm definitely going to want this time back, so why not appreciate that now?'
Their album
Happy Tears is out now.
49th & Main play across the UK from September 2 and have dates in Ireland in early 2026. See 49thandmain.bandcamp.com
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