Chasing Abbey brings the ceilidh to the rave [Video]

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If you’re sitting in a pub in Tullamore, you might just run into one of Ireland’s buzziest pop acts working on its next big thing. 

“Every few months, we have a traditional Irish session in one of the pubs where we’re from—Tullamore, County Offaly,” says Jonathan Byrne, better known as Bee, and one of the three members of trad house trailblazers Chasing Abbey. “We always take one song from each night that went down really well, that lifted the energy in the room…and we usually try it the next day in the studio.”

Chasing Abbey—the three-piece of Ronan Bell (Ro), Ted Conway (TeddyC), and Jonathan Byrne (Bee)—has been making waves in its home country by fusing upbeat dance with classic Irish instruments. All three musicians grew up playing banjo in traditional Irish bands, and the trio spent several years “gigging around many, many pubs” before deciding to shift into more …