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Fresh List
Ticketmaster Fresh List 2026: The Wran
We went on the road hunting The Wran and came home with stories about learning from your heroes, the excitement of chaotic gigs, and being in a band of brothers.
Can you introduce yourselves?
Tommy: How we getting on? We’re The Wran. I’m Tommy.
Stephen: I’m Stephen.
Danny: I’m Danny, and we are the Ticketmaster Fresh List Artist for the month.
How did the band start?
Tommy: So the band started in this room that we’re in right now. It was Christmas two years ago, and our dad asked us why we actually never jammed together as brothers. There’s one brother missing today, actually Seán, and we came in here and just made some music and went from there.
What’s it like to be in a band with your family?
Stephen: It’s interesting. I mean, a lot of things that come to mind, we just say straight away, because there’s usually no filter between us anyway. If someone has a problem with something, like music wise, or anything, it’ll be said straight out. There’s no secrets.
How would you describe your music?
Danny: I’d describe our music as traditional with maybe an experimental element to it.
Yeah, who are your influences?
Tommy: We’re influenced by a lot of folk artists and a lot of different genres here and there. Mine, at the moment, would be Lankum, in terms of folk, and I like progressive rock music as well, so, Tool.
Stephen: I would say we’re also influenced by the likes of Planxty and The Pogues as well.
Tommy: For def, yeah,
Danny: Another artist that I’d be hugely influenced by would be Ben Howard.
How did you get your name?
Tommy: Jeez, we give Danny this question now.
Danny: Um, so the name we were pondering a name for a while, and I think it was at Christmas we were rehearsing, and we needed a name, and St. Stephen’s Day is called – it used to be called Wren Day. It’s still called that in rural places like Dingle and stuff, but when you go out hunting the Wren, it was a pagan tradition. It was called going on the Wran, and our grandfather used to call it the Wran as well, so we thought it was a cool name, so we stuck with The Wran.
What would be your dream venue to play?
Tommy: Oh, I’d say Barrowlands in Glasgow is definitely one that we’d like to play in sometime.
Do you have any backstage rituals?
Stephen: Backstage, we usually just take some time to chill and not get too hyped up or psyched out for a gig, so some quiet time.
What is your most memorable line experience?
Danny: We were on tour with The Scratch for their UK leg of their world tour, and their final gig was in The Electric Ballroom in London, and the amount of people there was actually crazy, and during their set, Stephen came up, and he, he played “Cheeky Bastard” with them, and me and Tommy and Stephen jumped out into the crowd, then afterwards, and did a bit of crowd surfing, so that was a deadly gig.
Who would be on your dream festival lineup?
Tommy: Okay, um let’s say. Okay, let’s top off the festival, bring someone back from the dead. We’ll start with Thin Lizzy.
Stephen: Good shout. I would say prime Horslips.
Danny: I’d say Biffy Clyro. Oh, who’s that mad band that you like?
Tommy: That I like? Oh, Primus?
Danny: Primus! Keep forgetting their name. Who else?
Tommy: Put uhh…
Danny: Planxty on it?
Tommy: Yeah, and Christy Moore as well. So many bands, let’s stick Lankum on the bill as well.
Danny: That’s tricky.
Stephen: We could be here for days, yeah.
Tommy: And yeah, we’d love to play too. The Wran! Put The Wran on the bill!
How do you approach songwriting?
Tommy: We generally pack ourselves into this room, don’t we?
Danny: Yeah, we just, we set up the equipment and see what happens. Someone has some bit of a melody or a rhythm or an idea, and we roll with it and try and add on to that, and something happens.
Tommy: Yeah, the best songs come out of when we’re generally all here. That’s how we wrote the likes of, well, like put together “The Devil is Dead” and our version of “Sullivan’s John”, and yeah, someone finds a song or a tune, and we construct it.
Stephen: Yeah, a lot of the time we kind of come away from practice, and we come back with an idea, or an idea of a song, or an old song, and we try and rework it ourselves, and we just bring it to, well, one of us would bring it to the other three lads.
Who would your dream collaboration be?
Stephen: I think a collab with John Francis Flynn would be really cool.
Danny: I’d like to collab with Junior Brother, he’s deadly.
Tommy: I think it would be sick to get Martin Hayes on a track as well.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Tommy: Didn’t Paddy Casey give you some advice years ago Danny?
Danny: Yeah, he said, “fuck the begrudgers”.
What would be the key track of yours that you recommend people listen to?
Stephen: I would say listen to “Some Say The Devil Is Dead”. It’s probably the best representation of our music.
What is your career highlight to date?
Tommy: Oh, well, for me personally was playing at the literature festival. It was a 600 seated gig, and by the end of it, there wasn’t one person sitting down at the end of our set. It was, we were all on stage smiling from ear to ear, and we’re usually, you know, dark and mysterious on stage, but we were just weren’t able to hide the joy that day. It was amazing to see.
Stephen: One we’ve already mentioned, but definitely The Electric Ballroom supporting The Scratch in London was absolutely amazing, and taking that five foot leap from the stage into the crowd was pretty cool as well so.
Danny: We played a cool gig the first kind of year we started touring, we happened to get a slot at Glastonbury, which is amazing. And we played a gig in the underground piano bar. A woman called Ammo runs that, and it’s like it runs all night, and you have to peel a potato to get into the actual place itself. We did an acoustic set in there, it’s like an underground pit dug out with tiered seating, and yeah, the atmosphere in there was just crazy, because people were there to see you, they were just really engrossed in what was happening, and whoever was playing, so definitely a highlight.
Did you have to peel potatoes?
Danny: No, we didn’t have to, we actually skipped that part. See, we went in the wrong entrance. There was one entrance for, like, public and one entrance for artists. We didn’t know where to go, so we went through the public entrance, and everyone was like giving out to us, “you shouldn’t be here!”, like, and we’re just like, “No, we’re supposed to be playing!” . Everyone thought we were just, I don’t know…
Tommy: I was carrying a full drum kit through the crowd.. yeah, that was.. yeah, that was something.
Danny: So it’s all part of the highlight, I guess.
Where can fans see you next?
Tommy: We’re supporting The Wolf Tones in the 3arena on the 3 & 4 July, which is going to be amazing.
Stephen: We’ve got a tour in October. We’re doing an Irish tour on the back of our debut album release. We’ve got shows in Dublin, Limerick, Cork & Belfast.
What are your plans for the next year?
Danny: We’re doing a load of festivals this year. We’re doing our own tour this year. Got our album The Stone Man coming out. We’re also going on a trip up the west of Ireland, surfing and swimming. So, apart from the music, that’s what we’re doing.
Tommy: We’ll be down at the Willie Clancy festival.
Danny: Yeah, in Miltown Malbay. Really looking forward to that. We might do a few sessions here and there. Yeah, living life. And then our debut album The Stone Man is coming out on 9 October!
The Wran play The Workman’s Club, Dublin on 9 & 13 October, Upstairs at Dolans, Limerick on 10 October, Cyprus Avenue, Cork on 15 October, and Ulster Sports Club, Belfast on 16 October. You can buy tickets here.
Artists can submit themselves for consideration for the Fresh List here.
