By ALEX QUILL

ALTHOUGH they are still a relatively young band in musical terms, Cobh-based The Empire Lights are preparing to hit the world stage after their performance at this year’s Indiependence Festival.

Hailing from Cobh, Knockraha near Glanmire  and Australia, band members Sarah Star, Ronan McCormick, and Barry O’Brien have dreams of making it big on the world stage over the next year.

The band have spent the last year recording the material for their new album, having released the debut single  Momentum  in April, which reached phenomenal success reaching number 12 in the iTunes charts, getting into the Top 50 Irish Singles Charts and getting more than 40,000 hits online.

Still reeling from the success of the song, Ronan said that the band now hope to take their sound to the global stage and plan to set off for greener pastures and wider opportunities over the coming year, as they prepare to spread their wings abroad.

“We have a recording studio here in Cobh and while it is great, you are never going to meet the head of Sony while having a coffee in Cobh. I would like the band to be at the centre of a music hub. We don’t know where we will go yet or what we will do, but there is something on the horizon for us.

“We are going to go into the Indiependence Festival with all guns blazing to have a great time and we will give it our best shot and hopefully get some new fans as well.”

Ronan said that after Indiependence, the band will be retreating behind closed doors to put their heads down as they put the finishing touches on the album.

Bass player Barry O’Brien said that over the next few months, the band will be working on the material they have to make sure that every song is tweaked and adjusted to meet the highest recording and performance standards.

“As we are in the studios fine tuning the songs, we are noticing little developments with each song, so we are still working on them to make sure that they are perfect.”

For the Indiependence Festival, the band will be bringing an extra three rolling band members along to vamp up the sound and give each song a bigger, bolder effect.

He said that they will be playing many of their new songs and may also test out some brand new creations, which have only been played in the studio two or three times.

See a full preview of the festival in Downtown, free with Thursday’s Cork Evening Echo