Monaghan man Marty Mone is currently enjoying huge success with his second hit single ‘Slip the Clutch’, a follow-up to the phenomenally popular ‘Hit the Diff’, which has now garnered close to 3 million views on YouTube. Becoming a viral sensation has meant that the last few months have been a whirlwind for the country musician from the small town of Castleblayney.
“Even after getting the first million at the time, since that it’s just been crazy, the amount of gigs I’ve done is unbelievable. The second song ‘Slip the Clutch’, is only 150,000 views off a million as well, so if that makes a million views it will be great to see the second song off the ‘Hit the Diff’ album make a million views on YouTube as well. It would be crazy,” says Marty, who’s now embarking on a tour of Ireland to celebrate the launch of his debut album, also called ‘Hit the Diff’.
With lines like ‘O give me a yoke with plenty of poke and a can of Easy Start and 1,500 acres hauling 40 tonne of grass’, the single which shot Marty to national stardom isn’t your average chart topper, but its popularity has seen Marty play to thousands in Croke Park, and at the hallowed grounds of the Ploughing Championships.
When asked why he thinks a song about trucks and tractors has proven such a hit, he says, “I suppose it’s because I’m a driver myself, it could be a bit of a market, there wouldn’t be that many songs about trucks or driving tractors. I don’t really know, maybe the fact that I recorded it myself. It wouldn’t be done in a big professional studio. People have told me that if I might have done it in a professional studio it mightn’t have done so well. It’s hard to know. The young people have really pushed it. But I’ve seen there in the last few months it’s a mix of all ages really, it’s hard to work out what it exactly is about it,” says Marty, adding that the song has blown his career opportunities wide open.
“There’s a lot of options now at the minute. ‘Hit the Diff’ is very big in England and the trucking scene. I’m going out to Edinburgh and there’s lots of opportunities for gigs all over England so I will try to get a few of them in,” he says, adding that he’s also going to be hitting the States for a few shows in New York. He just hopes he’ll be able to fit it all in.
Along with ‘Hit the Diff’ and ‘Slip the Clutch’, the new album features a variety of new songs and Marty is looking forward to seeing how fans react. “There is other songs on that album starting to creep out now. People are using the songs for weddings and actually one of them was used for a funeral as well! There’s people starting to look into those songs too.”
The best way to showcase these tunes is, of course, live on stage and Marty has big plans for his tour, which hits Galway next month. “It’s going to be a big five piece band with big sound production. I used to play in bands and wedding bands all the time. We’re going to go for the bigger show, bigger lights show. It’s going to be a mix of everything I suppose, really and truly. There’s going to be a poppy kind of feel to it too. So we’re just going to try and put on that big sound, big show with backup singing and all that kind of craic. The songs seem to go down better live than when we have them recorded so it will be great to see that!”
