The Academic

The Academic were formed, when Fitzgerald, Gavin and the Murtagh brothers were all attending St Joseph's Secondary School, Rochfortbridge.[1]

Such was the reaction to the release of their debut EP, Loose Friends, in October 2015, that the band sold out their first show at Dublin venue Vicar Street.

In January 2016, the band were selected by RTÉ 2FM to represent Ireland at Eurosonic Noorderslag in Groningen, which resulted in numerous festival bookings and extensive radio airplay across Europe that year.

The band garnered further media interest in July 2017 with the release of "Bear Claws", an anthemic track which was likened in style to The Strokes.[2][3][4] The track received further attention after the premiere of their first-of-a-kind and world's first live looper music video. The video, which was performed live on a Facebook video stream, utilized the delay in the stream to create a musical loop, to which they gradually added vocals and instruments. It was a viral hit and reached over 1 million views on YouTube in 48 hours.[5]

The band announced on 26 October 2017 that their debut LP, Tales from the Backseat, would be released on 12 January 2018.[6] The album was released to critical acclaim, entering the Irish Albums Chart at number one.[7][8]

Their biggest headline show to date took place at the Iveagh Gardens, Dublin, on 20 July 2018, before they embarked upon a US, European, UK and Ireland tour for the autumn of 2018.[9]

The album was nominated for Album of the Year at the Choice Music Prize in January 2019.[10]

The band signed to Capitol Records in May 2020.[1] They released their second album, Sitting Pretty, on 10 February 2023.[11] It debuted atop the Irish Albums Chart on 17 February 2023.

Upon finishing their U.S. headliner tour to promote the album, The Academic were one of the openers for English singer-songwriter Louis Tomlinson on the North America leg of his Faith in the Future World Tour.[12]