Amble's accidental manifesto

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While their childhoods were similar, as they grew older they were more swept up in sports than chasing any musical dream. After school they’d each go on to pursue different careers: McCaffrey became a data scientist for Pfizer, Cunningham a primary school teacher, and McNerney taught secondary school.

ursuing music on the side, McNerney followed the trad path, immersing himself in Ireland's communal folk music heritage while McCaffrey spent his time writing songs while dabbling in an outfit with his girlfriend; Cunningham was singing in various amateur capacities. Working in Dublin, Cunningham and McCaffrey met in 2022 under the guise of simply playing trad songs in pubs for a laugh, but it was reaching out to McNerney on social media later that year that they’d wind up creating something life-changing.

When I speak to the band – each in various locales around Dublin – they're preparing for a show in Wexford, two hours south of the capital, to 3000 people. A gig like this is a far cry from three years ago, as McCaffrey recalls: “When myself, Ross and Robbie met, I remember I could barely look Ross in the eye. I didn't know him from Adam,” he laughs. “And yet, we were with each other in a room for an evening, it was solely music, very little conversation, and in a way, I think that a lot of my life has been like that. It's a great way of connecting with people, if that makes sense. It's a very Irish way to be honest.”

Their first-ever gig as a trio was a support slot in front of 90 people but won them a standing ovation. Playing all original songs, this moment resurfaced on the day they celebrated their 2024 debut album – Reverie – which hit number one in Ireland. Sharing the WhatsApp chat on Instagram, it showed McNerney urging his bandmates to go all in on Amble, steering the pub-corner act towards their budding success that continues to grow. “The minute Ross put in that voice note, I was like, Okay, I'm in a band! My whole life, I wanted to be in a band,” Cunningham beams. “I was like, right, I'm going to do anything to make this work. That was it.”

The crux of Amble's ascent lies here: everything is laid bare, from the sentiment that warmly glows in their offerings to the creaking chairs and frets that can be heard like audible treasures in their songs. What you see is what you get: "It's so non-produced that people feel that it's honest,” Cunningham nods.

In a world increasingly devoid of human connection in favour of digital hellscapes, there’s certainly been an upswing in the more approachable and tangible sense that comes with a strong narrative in music – and it's a perfect time for Amble to find their spot. “There definitely is a moment in the world for that kind of music with like Zach Bryan and people like that, where it's storytelling, and it's just a guitar and a voice,” says Cunningham. This timelessness resides at the heart of Amble.

With lyrics that play out with scenes – rich in detail and bricks and mortar – to the intricate instrumentation, and the simple melding of harmonies, with tracks that harness the wistful, sepia-toned nature of reflective longing ("Schoolyard Days", "Lonely Island"), grief ("Ode to John"), hope ("Always Feel Better When It Rains") to the kind of love-lorn yearning that runs immovably deep ("Mariner Boy", "Mary's Pub"), Amble offer up exposition and emotion in abundance. It's a remarkable feat given their stripped-back nature. “It's just a couple of mics, a performance, a voice, a story, and one or two instruments, and that was it,” Cunningham tells me, “and I think, globally, that has become popular in the last two, three, four years. It is lucky as well, the timing of us coming out.”

The traditional sounds of Ireland at the heart of their sound thrive in intimate spaces – kitchens, pubs, family gatherings – where stories are regaled without pretence. But holding this so dear, for a major label act on increasingly bigger stages, means they holding on to their fragility. “If my instrument doesn't come out, that's it,” laughs McNerney. “There's no wall of sound behind us to protect us, and the vulnerability is real. But I think that's what connects with people. They feel it. They can tell that we are just being who we are and telling our stories.”

With their heads down – gigging hard, as each show upped in capacity and tickets sales – the band they found themselves in LA. Signing to Warner Records, looking back now, Cunningham recalls shaking his head, “Those couple of months were some of the most exciting but confusing months of my life,” he says. “I was still teaching, we had brought out about three songs, and had barely played a couple of gigs, and all of a sudden, there were huge discussions with a label in America, thinking back now, it's crazy. I’d barely sung into a mic in front of people, and suddenly this was going on! I was so confused. I was like, Does this happen to every band, or are we very good?”

“I don't think I put faith in music. I think I put faith in the two boys more than that,” he says, of his bandmates. “I think when we met, I was like, I have faith in this and this friendship and the three of us doing what we want to do.”

Having been in and out of music in an amateur capacity, “you just don't know what's going to happen," adds Cunningham. "And that's fine. It's so unknown. But I knew how I got on with these two boys and what we were doing...it was like, let's go!”

But, as McCaffrey recalls, music has always beeb a shining beacon in their lives. “One thing I thought in life that was a bit of magic was music and songs,” he says. “And I guess at some point, when I was 15 or 16, the music I was listening to, I thought it was the most magical thing fucking in my life, to be honest. And I would have loved to just take a piece of it.”

As with all successful endeavours, it's the perfect mix of luck and timing, combined with a well-earned amount of skill and hard work. For the Amble boys, that gut feeling they felt three years ago was the start of something that continues the timeless and borderless work of their ancestors over hundreds of years, and they're set to take it further than they could ever have imagined, thanks to an inimitable bond rooted in tradition.