Juniper were an Irish rock band from County Kildare, most widely known today as a precursor to Damien Rice and Bell X1.
The band consisted of Rice (under the pseudonym Dodi Ma), Paul Noonan, Brian Crosby, Dominic Phillips and David Geraghty.
Juniper were founded in 1991 by Damien Rice, Paul Noonan, Dominic Phillips and Brian Crosby whilst they were students attending Salesian College secondary school in Celbridge.
[citation needed] Juniper's first television appearance was on Irish talent show Go For It where they performed a song called "Pillars of Society".
[citation needed] In 1994 the band recorded and independently released an EP entitled The J-Plane and began performing in local bars, including The Kildrought Lounge in Celbridge.
Despite the positive chart standings and unprecedented live popularity,[12] the critical response to the singles was quite poor in some quarters.
[8][13] Rice later claimed in an interview with Yahoo that he had hoped to release fan-favourite "Eskimo" as the second single but that he had been effectively overruled by the label.
[14] Bootleg material suggests that a studio version of "Eskimo" was recorded during Juniper's Windmill Lane sessions along with a work in progress called "Volcano".
[4] "Eskimo", written during his last days with Juniper and recorded with the band at Windmill Lane Studios, was the final track on that album.