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Michal “Wiggles” Wagner is the lead singer of Chapter 2, an acoustic cover band who has been carving out a living for themselves in Tralee pubs for the last two years. Michal and his bandmates all hail from the town of Edenderry, Co. Offaly. They moved to Tralee three years ago to go to college.
1. CKY – 96 Quite Bitter Beings
When I was growing up, I thought I was a little skater dude. So of course I played Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3, where I heard this song. It basically introduced me to music in general – it was the first song that I took any real notice of.
2. Metallica – Motorbreath
This is the first song I heard off Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All – Ryan Hurst, the guitarist from Chapter 2, showed it to me on cassette when I first met him. I had never heard metal before and I was just like [raises fists and makes growling noise]. It was class.
3. The Offspring – Original Prankster
The first song I learned to play fully on guitar. Simple as.
4. Burn Halo – Here With Me
The only song that ever made me cry – and it’s not even a sad song. They were tears of joy, in a weird kinda way, it just made me cry. If you listen to it, it wouldn’t make anyone cry – it was really weird.
5. Trivium – Pull Harder on the Strings
When I was getting into metal, the music channels Scuzz and Kerrang! were the only places you could listen to metal and discover new bands. This song would always come on Scuzz. It was super heavy – it was my first time listening to super heavy music and actually enjoyed it.
6. Limp Bizket – My Generation
This song got me through every set of punishment work I had to do in secondary school. I listened to it literally hundreds of times in the space of months and I just never got sick of it because I associated it with the negative feeling you got when writing punishment work.
7. Foy Vance – Janey
This tune really showed me that acoustic music can be large and ballsy – it doesn’t have to be quiet and reserved.
8. Ed Sheeran – You Need Me, I Don’t Need You
Ed opened my eyes to how rapping can be integrated into acoustic music and given a melody. Before this I only thought it really worked in hip hop and nu metal songs. The 11-minute version of in particular is mental.
• Interview by Oscar Brophy…Chapter 2 play in The Huddle Bar, Tralee every Friday and Saturday from 10 til late.
