Picture This say they will release new music before end of year at photo exhibit launch

Ellen O'Donoghue

Kildare-based band Picture This, known for hits such as Take My Hand, Get on My Love, and Never Change, say they will release new music “before the year’s out”.

They also revealed there may be more Christmas music to come, but singer Ryan Hennessy was quick to add, “don’t hold me to that,” after letting it slip.

The band were speaking at an event in Dublin launching a two-day photo exhibition in partnership with CEWE, after fans submitted photos inspired by the Picture This song Let’s Try Love.

Several fan photos were selected to be displayed at the exhibition, alongside other Irish entries to the world’s largest free photography award, the CEWE Photo Award.

Jimmy Rainsford, the band's guitarist, said the number of submissions by fans was “hard to fathom”.

“I think it’s just strange that that many people would be interested in our band in the first place to do that, so we’re always a bit shocked by how many people are interested,” he said.

Hennessy said it was “amazing to see” the entries, and added that when he writes song lyrics, he always tries to be as visual as he can be.

“I have to be able to imagine it in my head, it always comes from a real-life scenario, but I’m the one who experienced it, and then I have to kind of paint that back as best as I can for people”.

“So to see people connecting photography with our music is, and it sounds a bit cringe, but it’s an honour to have that,” he said.

Rainsford agreed with Q&A host Cassie Stokes when she said music and photography naturally connect.

“Anyone who has any kind of artistic expression, it’s all expression at the end of the day, whether it be music, photos, or film or video, whatever it is. I think they all go hand in hand,” he said.

“There’s no ceiling to art, really, and photos and music are the perfect combination."

The band are looking forward to getting back to “the energy of an Irish crowd,” after having played across Europe for most of the summer, according to Hennessy, who discussed their upcoming shows in Dublin, Co Mayo, and Belfast.

“In Ireland, it’s just crazy, I love the energy of walking out on stage in Ireland and just being taken over by the crowd, and people always ask me, because I’m quite energetic onstage, like ‘how do you do it?’ and it’s literally the crowd," Hennessy said.

“You can’t help but feed off that kind of adrenaline and energy, and anyone who’s been to a Picture This show knows that the crowd are as much involved in the show as we are, as a communal thing.”

When it came to advising the attendees who had successfully submitted their photos to the exhibition, Rainsford said there are no rules to expressionism.

“It’s very easy for someone to give you limitations. I think when you’re trying to be an artist or do any kind of expressionism, the first thing people usually do is tell you how bad it is, or what your ceiling is, or what you’re capable of doing”.

He disagreed with that sentiment, saying that there are no rules.

“It’s your interpretation of the world, and that’s what people want to find, at least, the ideology, it’s yours.”

Hennessy added that the band’s song Go Gently has resonated with him a lot lately, as “it’s a reminder to oneself to be gentle with oneself whenever you can”.

“I think that if anybody can remember that at any time of the day, it’s a good mantra to go back to, and people really connected with that song, sometimes songs just connect to people that bit extra”.

Rainsford, however, has said he feels close to the song that catapulted Picture This to fame in 2016, Take My Hand.

He recently got married, and his wife is pregnant, and he says his life “has gone a way that I never thought it would go”.

“Because of that song, I’m in an extremely privileged position, even to be in a band with the boys, to be doing this crazy lifestyle, and I keep thinking about that song – how there was nothing, and then there was that song, and my life is completely different.”

Cliff added that bringing their families on stage on their most recent tour is a moment that stuck out to him, because it made him realise that it’s not normal being in a band and playing to 5,000 or 6,000 people a night.

“Because we’re pure rockstars, so we have it the whole time,” he laughed.

Hennessy also said that he hopes people “can see the joy in us” when seeing the photos at the exhibition.

“It’s always the biggest compliment, actually, that we get a lot, is when people say you can tell how much fun you’re all having on stage”.

“We are four friends who can’t believe we’re in the position we’re in, and we’re so grateful for it,” he said.

“It always feels like a lads' holiday, and it’s just amazing, we’re so lucky.”