Athlone man presents new alternative music series on RTE

An Athlone man has made a national television breakthrough as the presenter of a new indie - alternative music series on RTE. Elton Mullally, a native of Auburn Heights, is the co-host of 'When Under Ether' which airs on RTE Two on Tuesday nights. The second episode of the six-part series, named after a PJ Harvey song, was broadcast this week. On Monday, Elton discussed the new series as well as a lifelong involvement in music which included a lengthy spell fronting the band Brando. A son of Paddy and Eileen - who are still based in Auburn Heights - Elton was surrounded by music from a young age. "My Dad was a musician in the Army band, and my own involvement in music began at an early stage," he said. "As a teenager I played bass in several loud, crap garage bands which had really bad names - names that would make you quiver at the thought of them now." After completing his second-level education in the Marist College, he went on to study Arts in Galway. "When I was in college there I sang in a band and that's when I got the bug and decided I wanted to pursue a career in music," he said. For "most of (his) twenties" Elton was the lead singer, songwriter and bass player with the band Brando. A four-piece pop-rock outfit, Brando achieved some notoriety in Ireland and abroad during the late '90s and early '00s. "Being involved in Brando was a heartbreaking and wonderful experience," said Elton. "We did quite well. We toured abroad in the US and Europe, played a lot of big gigs, and had a single which reached the top 20 in the charts. It was absolutely brilliant at the time. I have a lot of wonderful memories from it and I wish the band was still together." The family and relationship commitments of the band members contributed to the splitting up of Brando over five years ago. "We had been working really hard at the time," Elton said of the split. "We'd gone through a number of different managers and had come very close to signing record deals. We were quite jaded. We decided we'd take a break from it and we just never got back together after that." His own musical appearances have continued since then, as he has played bass with Dublin band Autamata and singer-songwriter Mark Geary, among others. However, in recent months his time had been heavily occupied by work on the 'When Under Ether' series. His path to working in television was one he came upon "quite accidentally." "I knew the producer of the music series, 'Nightshift' on Channel 6, and when it started she wanted somebody to come in and do some research for the show. I started working on that and within a few months I was writing scripts for the show." Elton went on to produce 'Nightshift' for a year and a half. "It was a high-pressure job, real deep-end stuff, but I learned a lot from it," he said. The role came to an end when Channel 6's new owner, TV3 cancelled the 'Nightshift' series and let the production team go in January of this year. Along with some colleagues he worked with at Channel 6, Elton formed a production company, Tusk Productions, and met with RTE in July to discuss the possible creation of a new indie - alternative music series. Elton and his colleagues initially came up with an idea for a series to be presented by (former 'Nightshift' host) Michelle Doherty. He had some experience hosting interviews and other segments for 'Nightshift', and was drafted in as her co-host after RTE said it was interested in a show that would be presented by a male and a female presenter. After shooting a pilot episode for the national broadcaster, with the aim of securing a series in 2010, the group was called in for meeting a couple of weeks later. The pilot episode was discussed, certain changes were suggested, and the production team was then told that RTE would commission a six-episode series. "We were over the moon, for about 20 seconds, until we were told that a slot had become vacant in the schedules and that the series would be airing before Christmas," he recalled. "Since then things have been absolutely crazy. For a lot of the time we've been working seven days a week, for 12 hours a day." The show offers a mixture of news, views and videos, featuring artists such as Bjork, Jamie Lidell, Fight Like Apes and The Dead Weather. The first episode was aired on November 10 and Elton said, "I was quite happy with it. I wasn't cringing at myself when I watched it, and I thought the music content came across well. So I was very proud of it." 'When Under Ether' follows in the tradition of past series' such as No Disco, and the initial reviews have been favourable. "Because it's being aired by the national broadcaster, the number of people who get to see it is massive, and the response from critics, music journalists and people posting on internet message boards has been really positive," he commented. "We want to highlight some excellent bands that people might not have heard of, but we also don't want to be pretentious or come across as saying that our taste in music is better than anybody else's. We just want to create a show that's really entertaining." Elton said the music he's been enjoying in particular in recent times has come from The Dead Weather (the new band featuring Jack White of The White Stripes), Elbow, The Kills and PJ Harvey. He is hopeful that an extended series of 'When Under Ether' will be commissioned by RTE in the new year, and his production company is also planning to start making its own music videos in the not-too-distant future. "We're looking forward to expanding our career in television and music video production in the new year," he said. "Once I can do that, and get to play a lot of music as I go along, I'll be happy." * 'When Under Ether' airs on RTÉ Two on Tuesdays at 11.45pm.