Mullingar band The Academic have been on my radar since December 2013 and the release of ‘Bear Claws’ . Things took off for the four lads with the release of ‘Different’ earlier this year which was picked up by radio nationwide and in the UK too, meaning there are many more ears trained on what’s coming next.
‘Northern Boy’ is the that next impressive single for the band – a melodic guitar track that swells with a buildup of sonics and backing vocals that matches its message of encouragement in love.
Upcoming tour dates for The Academic in the Uk and Ireland.

Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
Did the engineers or band or producer or manager or ANYONE not think that this sounds exactly like a rip off of a kodaline song.. or any Kodaline song
They have similar vocals but that’s about it, I didn’t even notice the similarity until you mentioned it tbh.