Interview with Rob Hennebry, musician

"In the past people were finding meaning in the music and these days people have lost the ability to find meaning anywhere."

Who are “proFESSional,” and what kind of music do you make?

proFESSional are Mani Waldner, Rob Hennebry, Paul Fifield, Marco Gaspari and Jonny Brister. We are a “making real music for real people in a world that has seemingly lost its mind”.

Rob Hennebry in the studio

This isn’t your first gig—what’s your experience in the music world?

No, not our first gig. Mani is an experienced poet, Rob and Paul and Marco are experienced musicians and Jonny is one of the countries best known session drummers. Mani collected us together to realise an idea he had in his head.

Is it an idea you could share with us?

For sure. Mani started to write songs as an exercise in his writing. Having spoken to a couple of other pals of his about the formatting of songs, he almost immediately had 10 or 12 songs ready, but no real idea of how they might sound. He knew, then, that the demo process was next and that’s where Mani and I met. A chance meeting in Mani’s physical therapy office, where I went to get my shoulder fixed. Mani remembered me from a house call a year earlier and I was wearing a Jimi Hendrix shirt (Mani and Jimi have the same birthday) so Mani asked, “Hey, are you free for a session tomorrow…. and I played what Mani was humming from memory. 

When is your album coming out?

So far we are looking at a January 2026 release, but next up is our 5th single "Kill Them All" this May. 

It sounds very “Metallica”, is it a coincidence?

Total coincidence. There is a Metallica album and song called Kill ‘em All but ours has almost completely the opposite meaning. Kill them All is about purging your mind of the negative things that bring you down and ridding your life of those influences.

I love your video for the song “In the City”—how was the filming process?

It was an interesting process for the band because we are not actors or film makers. Luckily we recruited Sebastian Monk who is quite literally the best in the game. Mani gave him the idea and we just let him run with it. The rest is history.

You’re originally from Ireland, a country that has given us many great names in music. How do you see the music scene in London?

That’s such an interesting questions. I feel like the industry / scene in London is such a big melting pot of people and genres, if you’ll excuse the cheesy metaphor. It’s impossible not to find something good, if you just look in the right places. I think the difference between that and where I come from is that in Ireland it’s embedded in us from such a young age that in certain families it’s just what you do. 

Are young kids in Ireland encourage to learn to play an instrument? Was it your case?

Very much in my case. I think it’s a mixture of influences. Some people do it from a family tradition perspective and some people go to it from an academic perspective. Sometimes, without influence from parents or home, a kid just gets inspired by something they hear, and it turns them on, wakes them up to that feeling, and off they go. In my case it was always there but when I turned 13 my mind exploded with the possibilities when I started to discover music for myself outside of the things I was being fed.

Do you think the changes in society over the last few decades are also reflected in music? Has rock become stuck in the past?

Actually, no. The problem is that in the past people were finding meaning in the music and these days people have lost the ability to find meaning anywhere. That’s the root of it.

When we are young, music is such a powerful thing that permeates everything we do. Do you still feel the same? 

Yes. And actually sometimes it makes me feel slightly immature because of they way it makes me look at the world. Mostly, though, I feel quite lucky. I can’t remember who said it but I love to think of the quote that “If pictures are how we decorate space then music is how we decorate time”.

That idea keeps me passionate about it. To me, it’s as necessary as food, water and air.

Have your taste in music evolved over time or is it still very similar to when you started?

That’s a great questions because the knee-jerk reaction is to say “of course it has changed”, and thats true in the sense that it has grown and evolved; however, I still feel a great sense of nostalgia for the music I first started listening to. Even though I don’t regularly listen to it anymore, I rate it in a different way to the way I judge music now. I rate it in terms of gratitude…. I think. Happiness for it showing me the way to where I am now, I suppose.

The five members of the band

Rock has gone from being the most popular genre to almost being marginalized today. What happened? Why don’t young people seem as interested in rock anymore?

I’m not entirely sure that’s true, its swings and roundabouts. If you look at music simply as an art form ,you’ll see that it goes through phases like fashion. Sometimes, things are in and, sometimes, they are out. What we are seeing with the likes of Fontaines D.C. and their ilk is that young people are returning to enjoying bands over manufactured feelings. 

Traditionally, rock has been seen as a form of rebellion and protest. Could it be that young people today don’t have much to rebel against? Are they too comfortable?

I think that young people today are confused. Everything is in flux and the changes are so fast that the chance to rebel is gone before the rebellion raises its head. One thing we reject, however, is that young people are comfortable. They face starker and starker financial futures with almost no prospect of home ownership and increasingly seem to be getting blamed for the consequences of decisions taken by those in power.

Well, historically that is fertile ground for rock music, don’t you think? Maybe you are right, rock sound will come back again with a vengeance. 

I agree. It actually never goes away. It just gets rediscovered from time to time, when young people need to be aggressive with the points they make, because the motivation will never change, and humans seem destined to repeat themselves. The situation that causes social rebellion seems like a safe bet for the future. 

On the other hand, is there something older musicians can learn from younger generations? They’re undoubtedly better at self-promotion.

Yes. Everybody can learn from everybody. I think the notion of self promotion is massively accelerated because of the internet but I think it's only true that each generation exploits the channels most available to them. 

Which musicians have influenced your guitar-playing style?

I grew up on the classics but my personal style was influenced most by Rory Gallagher. I was always trying to figure out songs and melodies but he was the one that made me stop and think "what the hell was that?” and start looking at techniques and tones. 

He is often considered a “musician’s musician”, would you agree?

Yes. Although there is a whole festival for him in Donegal. It’s only when you speak to another guitarist that the name alone draws a wry smile. I think it’s because he was one of the first, and it was just the Strat, and a vox AC30 and the sound of his soul.

Humor plays an important role in your music, doesn’t it?

No. The music we make is serious and we stand by the messages which can be misconstrued as jokes because the subject matter is often laughable in its base.

I was thinking about some of your ways of promoting your songs, like when you offered free pizza in central London for your single “Pizza for breakfast”.

Yeah, this is the PR end of things. We have no problem doing the things that it takes to draw attention to our music. Sometimes, that is tongue in cheek and sometimes is not. The reality is though, that we are in an extremely crowded space, so to stand out, you have to think a little outside the box.