The Original Rudeboys

The three bandmates grew up together in the same neighbourhood in the North Inner City of Dublin. They became friends around the ages of 7 or 8.[4][5] They each wrote and performed music individually before coming together as "The Original Rudeboys". A lot of the songs on their debut album were written two to three years before they became a band.[4]

The Original Rudeboys first became a band in March 2011[5] after having met at the home of a mutual friend. They decided to come together and write a song after a couple of drinks. This impromptu session was recorded and uploaded to YouTube where it first gained recognition. This song, "Stars in My Eyes", went on to become the band's first official single. According to the group they had no intention of becoming a band but after seeing the views on their videos rise they decided to take on the music industry.[6] The band's name came about from a T-shirt bearing the words "The Original Rudeboys" that Arkins wore to a band appearance.[7] Jokingly claiming the shirt to be part of the band's merchandise, the band adopted the phrase as their official name.

After one month, the band gained the interest of the Irish media and were invited onto a chat show on TV3.[8] From this appearance they received invitations from many more media outlets such as national radio stations and also an appearance on RTÉ's The Saturday Night Show.[9] The band then went on to put on their first headline show in Dublin's Academy 2 where they sold out three shows.

Based on their single YouTube video, the band quickly gained attention, earning festival appearances and gigs in both Ireland and England. They decided to write some more songs and record videos for each. These videos ("Live Your Life", "Sunny Days" and "Bringing Me Down") each went viral in their own right. The video for "Sunny Days" is a dedication to a friend of the group who died due to suicide. It features the band having a barbecue with their friends and touches on the issue of suicide awareness.[3]

In Ireland The Original Rudeboys joined up with UB40, The Coronas and The Rubberbandits at the inaugural Strawberry Fest in Wexford in June[10] and 50 Cent and Faithless at the first ever Waterford Music Festival in July.[11]

The band also played the Oxegen Festival on the Vodafone stage in July.[12] They played to a crowd of 5,000 where they were spotted by a BBC reporter and were subsequently invited to play the Introducing Stage at both Leeds Festival and Reading Festival in August. Among the crowd at the Reading Festival was producer Jake Gosling who approached the band after their set and asked if they would like to work with him.[13] After the festival they joined him in his studio and recorded some tracks, including the official version of "Stars in My Eyes", that were collected and release as the Travelling Man EP. The band later returned to Sticky Studios to record their first full album, This Life.

During the winter of 2011 the band returned to the UK to complete their first album, This Life, which includes ten original tracks and re-recordings of the previously self-recorded YouTube tracks. The band returned from the UK to release their first official single, "Stars in My Eyes", which was released on 14 October 2011 and peaked at No. 2 in the Irish iTunes charts and No. 18 on the Irish Singles Chart.[1][14] The album was released on 23 March 2012 and debuted at No. 1 on the Irish iTunes charts, No. 1 on The Independent Charts and No. 3 on the Irish Albums Chart.[7] Their second single, "Travelling Man", went straight to No. 1 on the Irish iTunes chart and peaked at No. 23 on the Irish Singles Chart.[13][15]

Off the back of this success the band went to travel the country playing gigs in some of Ireland's most prestigious venues. They supported international artists such as US rapper The Game and English rapper Professor Green as well as Irish artists Sinéad O'Connor and Damien Dempsey at their headline shows.[7] In December 2012 it was announced The Original Rudeboys would be supporting fellow Irish band The Script on the European dates of their 2013 world tour.[16] The album This Life has officially gone platinum since 12/12/13.