I spoke to Chris Breheny aka Moncrieff last week about his new single ‘PLAYLOUD’. Breheny’s cheery persona and charm set the conversation alight as we banter about the differences since we last spoke a few months earlier – from the craziness in the world at the moment to his new sound. He quizzes me as to my thoughts on the single and we discuss how this budding artist is pushing and removing the boundaries of genre.
“We spoke in the library last year in December didn’t we? Back in much different times.
The song is out so I’m very happy about that. I’m glad that my story is moving forward. During this shit show of a year. What are your thoughts? Be honest. It’s a big move from ‘Early Hurts’. I’m not sure whether I told you at the time but when I was releasing ‘The Early Hurts’ a lot of the songs they’re an early kind of diary for my songwriting but all the while I was kind of writing songs that were like PLAYLOUD and they were down that vein and I was like how the fuck am I going to change it over, it’s just got to be a big switch.”
‘PLAYLOUD’ takes Moncrieff’s sound to a different level boasting deft production and electronic soundscapes blended beneath R&B and pop elements. Even his voice for this track is different. It’s more rebellious with less of that soulful smooth tone that we have come to know him for. I wondered had he been experimenting with his vocals and how he wanted to sing.
“Yeah, I guess it just kind of came out that way. It was one of those days where everything just kind of aligned, the song was written, in like an hour. And then we spent a day just kind of messing around with the production and we knew it sounded different than something we’ve done before, but it was something really exciting and, I think, has to be sung that way in order to get people to wake up to the message of the song. I mean that’s where I want my music to go. I want to be fluent, to kind of talk about and express whatever I’m feeling in whatever way. Obviously I’m not going to go and do some, like Himalayan singing and shit but that’s just the way the song had to be sung. Do you know what I mean?”
He’s fully committed to his new style; he has even dyed his hair blue.
“It is. It all kind of feeds into that, into the kind of.. the ethos. The story of the song is the most important thing for me and so I want everything I do to reflect, where I’m at. So, right now PLAYLOUD is about being frustrated and feeling alienated as a young person in the world that you live. We’re talking Donald Trump is going for re-election and shit and the whole world is going crazy so I kind of want to be a visual. I want my visuals and my own visual persona to line up with what I’m talking about. I don’t want to have blue hair forever, but I think it helps tell the story of the music”
Last time we spoke, Breheny said that his EP ‘The Early Hurts’ is a summary of all the most significant people, places and events that happened to him from moving to London until the age of 22 and PLAYLOUD is the start of a collection of songs telling the next chapter of stories from his life
“I guess so I mean The Early Hurts was a record of how I started, where I came from. This is definitely like the next chapter, It’s definitely not as autobiographical, it’s how I’ve developed and how my voice has developed as to what I want to say. I feel like I obviously want to talk about the stuff I’ve been talking about in PLAYLOUD and I have another track coming out, the track that we’ll be following up on this, is just as loud and it’s quite commentary. But the next chapter also does talk about a lot of personal stuff as well, but it’s just an ongoing story of growing up and coming into adulthood. It never ends.”
Breheny’s debut body of work ‘The Early Hurts’ EP featured lead track ‘Like I Do’, this debut radio single (released in Sept 2019) received extensive airplay across national radio racking up nearly 12 million audience impressions and 5 million streams. The success of the single and EP led to Breheny selling out his first headline show in Dublin in less than 3 hours. However this success didn’t make him feel pressured to create something to match that success
“Obviously you want it to go well, like you want people to like it. At some point, you don’t want everyone to hate it. I knew that releasing this new body of work that I had, I wanted to make a statement that I’m a dynamic artist. I’m not as bound down to genre and stuff. But, yeah, so I was maybe a bit nervous for that but I really like the songs and I’m ready to put out so that kind of superseded that.I think the songs are good. I’m happy to shout about my tunes I got loads of shit songs, like so many. I just trawl through the shit until I find one and I’m like ok this is good, I know this is good.”
A music video for ‘PLAYLOUD’ is something I have been looking forward to and boy it sounds like its going to be wild.
” I think it’s coming out next week.I really like the video. The video is mad, I don’t know how long it’s gonna stay up on YouTube and that’s genuinely a fact. It’s just a series of ridiculous things. I’m not gonna spoil it for you, but I’m really looking forward to getting it out.”
Breheny has been keeping busy during this crazy COVID-19 time. He has turned his energy to creating some amazing limited edition merch which should be available soon
“Bits and bobs. It’s not as easy to just pick up a pen and just start writing when like nothing has happened. I mean I could write about being anxious about the fucking world that I’m in at the minute, I could write so many songs about that but that probably wouldn’t be good for me to constantly feed into that but I’ve written a bit, I’ve been working on other shit.I’ve been working on a clothing line which is coming soon but it takes a lot of time. I’m working on that, I’ve put this video together myself and I’ve been working on new songs as they come. It’s fun. I’m gonna put some pictures up soon. I make them all myself. I’ve been making weird designs from weird things I found on the internet and printing them and stuff. But, yeah, I’m doing it myself. It’s just weird clothes. I’ve just been doing it myself for the last little while. It takes so much time. When you’re doing it yourself there’s a lot of trial and error. A lot of T-shirts get sacrificed, I’ve got two pieces that I think are sick. And then once I’ve like five or six I’ll put them up, and I want every piece to be, super sick and not make a lot of it. I want merch you will wear and that has an interesting story . Every piece will be a once off. Every piece I will probably have made or painted myself. So yeah it’s probably gonna be extremely time consuming, but at least when people buy it, it’s gonna be like, well, there is no other t-shirt like this.“
Breheny is missing live shows and I can imagine with the release of ‘PLAYLOUD’ the live shows he would be doing now would be epic.
“Yeah, big time. A live gig is where I feel I translate best or I can get my message across. And it can make sense to people immediately, live. It’s like I live for playing live.The live version of PLAYLOUD would be such a vibe. Like break it down at the end, everyone’s singing it! .”
So what has Breheny got planned for the coming months.
” More music. I’ve gotta get on a mission to get all these songs out. I’ve got like six songs.
I don’t know whether it’s an EP, but it’s definitely a body of work, PLAYLOUD is the first statement. So I want to try and get at least another three or four out before the years out, and then do some live gigs next year, for the love of God! “
Moncrieff has a tour coming up in September so fingers crossed Breheny can perform ‘PLAYLOUD’ live soon because when he does it’s going to be insane.
Until then check out ‘PLAYLOUD’ on spotify here and keep an eye out for the video which will be released soon!
I had a chat with Colm Slattery sound engineer, graphic designer and founder of FlutterTone. Colm founded FlutterTone in 2018 after completing a masters at Trinity College in Music and Media Technology. He has been involved in the Dublin music scene since his early teens, playing in bands, and being involved with numerous festivals, events, and conferences around the country as an organizer and sound engineer. Running something like FlutterTone is a time consuming task yet Colm organises and hosts events from the weekly singer/songwriter night Monday Club to the new VIRTUAL platform on zoom, it is very ambitious but immensely valuable to artists. When I spoke to Colm I had just seen Rebekah Fitch’s amazing performance on Virtual and I wondered how he finds these amazing artists.
“Yeah, just through connections over the past few years, it’s putting on gigs and networking with musicians in Dublin and John from dootdoot Records in Belfast. He has a lot of connections with them as well so just between me and John we just have a large network of musicians, they’re all great. There’s so much good music, now at the moment I’m sure you’re aware like you feature a lot of it.”
FlutterTone was founded in 2018 when Colm was in college. It’s an events and promotions company that works with artists to give them a platform to grow and develop their skills.He works with his team to provide a great quality service and work with emerging artists to put on successful events and create press packs for the artist.
“2018 /2017 I was in college in Dundalk doing audio music and production. So I did a level 8 degree up there. And then I think, one of my lecturers had this company called Smalltone I think it was. Then I came up with this idea, flutter of echoes is a sound term like you know flutter of echoes in a room and then, FlutterTone and I did that in college and it just stuck.”
“ The team has always usually just been me. I have different people coming in and out that stay for a while and then go off and do certain things. There has been this one girl, Elina Filice she’s really good. She’s been helping me out lately with the PR stuff. We met in BIMM in Dublin and then there’s another girl Rhianna Cannon, she does a lot of photography for us at our events and that’s it. But mostly, a team of one, I would say, solidly. So yeah I’m going all the time, but I just enjoy it so much it’s actually like a life passion, you know, I’m just locked in this little cave here on my computer twenty-four seven.”
“ It’s usually the whole package. They like the fact that we can actually write a press release they don’t understand what a press release is or what it’s for. They don’t understand why they have to have it professionally written in a nice document to tell people about the release, so we just have to inform them what it’s for, why the press like to see these certain press releases. You know they need to know about their bio, their background. If you’re a radio presenter and you’re busy you don’t have time to go research these unknown artists because it takes forever. So, to have a nice bio, information and a nice background about yourself and your music helps get press because it’s just easier.”
FlutterTone host a weekly singer/songwriter night, Monday Club as well as the new VIRTUAL platform on zoom and they are venturing out again for another live project with Dublin Concerts. Keen as ever, Colm had to learn to use zoom and other social media platforms to work and create content. I wondered if it was a learn as you go process.
“Yeah. Did you see the Instagram. So we have Saibh Skelly. She’s only 15 or 16, she’s very very young, but she’s been busking on Grafton Street Dublin, and she’s after building up an audience on Instagram of over 30,000 followers. Yeah, for a 16 year old it’s crazy, but me, and Ross from Dublin Concerts have gotten together, and we’ve created another live event on zoom platform, but it’s not virtual. It’s just slightly different. But that will be next Friday.
“Just learn as we go, zoom isn’t built for music, so we had to adapt to that, but we’re very happy with the zoom platform. We’ve got like stereo audio, we figured how to create two outputs from zoom for headphones so if you’re listening on headphones you get like, I don’t know if you know much about audio but it’s like a delay in your left and right stereo field. Usually we have two to three sound checks with the musicians before the show. Depending how well the musician knows about the audio setup, it can take time, so it’s slightly different each week. Sometimes it can take longer. Sometimes it’s quite quick if the artist knows what to do.”
The skills with audio and navigating livestreams of a high quality is invaluable at the moment and Colm is willing to help any artist having trouble or looking to connect with an audience through this platform
“I would, I’d be open to that if any artists wanted to have me on board and help them do a live stream”.
Colm also organises The Monday Club for singer songwriters and now this has also become a live stream on facebook, however this does have its challenges
“So the Monday club was going on in The Wiley Fox for about three years maybe two years. And then when COVID hit, we moved online. But when we did it online on Facebook, we did the Facebook Lives. We put up a PayPal donation link, nobody seemed to donate any money. So it was really tough for the artist and I felt so bad because we’re putting so much effort into this live stream on Facebook, they’re not getting any recognition or there’s no financial income. So that’s where Virtual kind of came from I think. The whole idea of turning it into an actual live gig, like a real gig, do posters, do promo around it and sell tickets. It’s crazy. It’s like a tip jar thing but they don’t seem to do it. So I think it adds more value if you just create tickets and then as you might have noticed in Virtual people stick around. So, if you buy a ticket for seven quid, you’re invested and you’re more likely to stick around for a show but if you’re on Facebook, something pops up, you’re on Facebook so you’re pretty distracted as is, you know.”
I wondered if an artist wanted to avail of FlutterTone’s service, what would they have to do, what do they need to have already prepared
“They need to have a good song and it needs to be well recorded. Kind of radio quality, and then some sort of background towards the song so that we can work with. We usually don’t just take any song, we’re kind of fussy because we just know that the song has to be of good standard and quality to get press and recognition so that’s it, send us the song, we’ll listen we’ll give good feedback on it. We’d turn around and say, maybe the song is too long..actually…there was a song that was sent in to us, it was five minutes long. We were like, well, if you can cut that down a little bit or take this bit out, you know and he actually did. He came back with a radio edit like two weeks later, which was great. We try to give constructive criticism but it is hard not to offend people as well, like, you know, you’re an artist, you’ve created this product, you’ve like painted this picture that’s taken hours and someone’s telling you, you know, change it.”
Colm has done some promo videos for the Virtual shows and for promotion and this is something he is passionate about and loves to create.
“Yeah, I did a master’s in Trinity College about two years ago. But in that, I learned after effects, so it’s like Adobe program. And I really enjoy it. It’s cool, it’s creative. So, I enjoy making the videos.”
Colm also has some advice to help give artists an edge in the music industry.
“For advice, know that you’re going to have to push it yourself. Don’t just fully rely on the PR company, kind of have your audience there and build your audience. So I believe an artist needs to actually have a grasp of their fan base themselves and have a little bit of research there. I think that stands well for them, especially if they’re getting reviews that they write back to the reviews that they’re getting and say thank you and give feedback to people as well.”
Sometimes once an artist uses PR, and learns what to do they decide to continue to do it themselves after. I wondered if that was something Colm has dealt with or is it really an issue at all.
“Yeah that is the thing. I suppose if they are knowledgeable enough and they’ve made the contacts they can go off themselves. Usually, we have a blind CRM, and then we have a CRM with emails in it because as you know your contacts are kind of all you really have in PR and that kind of relationship you build up. So, yeah, we usually ask the artists if they want, you know, to see emails or not.”
There were a lot of shows booked for early August that have now been cancelled and Colm has seen some shows he planned be rescheduled. However there are some events still planned to go ahead ( for the moment anyway ) as well as the weekly Virtual shows. Also when all this Covid madness is over Colm has plans for the Virtual platform to continue
“We had a gig booked into the Wild Duck for the 20th of August and now we’ve been pushed back again to I think 24th of September. I’m not entirely sure if it will go ahead, we’re just kind of hanging in there. And then, Bow Lane was on to me. So Jeff from Bow Lane was on to me recently, and he’s trying to book me in to do a gig. Pretty soon, actually I think it’s like the 21st of August. He’s gonna have food. It’s limited to the amount of people and that and I’m kind of a little bit anxious about that and how it goes but he seems keen on keeping it going. But yeah I’d like to keep Virtual going maybe as a more intimate Q&A thing or something.”
Colm and his team have been working tirelessly supporting Irish music offering PR services for new releases, continuing their Monday Club and Virtual shows through a weekly live stream as well as a series of playlists to support Irish music. They are a friendly and fun bunch to work with and strive to create professional and high quality work for their artists as well as helping us all discover some of the wonderfully talented Musicians we have in Ireland today. When I asked Colm if there was anything he wanted to add at the end of the interview he asked to mention and thank
“Thank Rhianna Cannon for helping organize events and taking pictures. Also, Elina Filice for being an important part of the FlutterTone team PR for writing professional press releases and giving great release strategies to the artists”
I caught up with The Coronas frontman Danny O’Reilly to talk about their new album ‘True Love Waits’ which is set for release on July 31st. We talked about the new direction of the album, its intricate production, and missing the buzz of live shows as well as his collaboration with Gabrielle Aplin,the pressures of previous success and much more.
A quartet for 13 years, last summer The Coronas became a trio when guitarist Dave McPhillips unexpectedly left. Briefly they questioned whether to continue but, once the shock had subsided, something dawned on the Dubliners. If they weren’t the band they used to be, why make music as they always had? – the result is The Coronas’ new album ‘True Love Waits’. The album is set for release on July 31st and Danny is eager to let fans hear the album and see what they think.
“ Yeah absolutely I mean we finished the album in January, early February we signed off on everything and we are really proud of it. We have released four or five songs off it already and it’s getting a great reaction so yeah we are really excited about getting it out. Initially with the lockdown we postponed the release just by a couple of months then we weren’t sure when gigs were going to come back and as we saw that they weren’t going to come back any time soon we said alright there is no point in delaying it any longer, lets just put it out there. I think there’s an appetite there for new music and we can see a serious engagement from our followers online so it felt right to get it out and then we will wait for gigs to come back, hopefully it won’t take too long.”
The band have taken a different approach with this album.They have some brass and a lot more keys and sonically the album takes a cleaner less band heavy approach.This was a natural evolution for the band as they experimented with what their sound is without their guitarist Dave McPhillips who left last year.
“Yeah it’s sort of organic for us usually we tend not to talk about those things too much we let the songs lead us and if it suits the song to be a bit more guitar -y or if it suits the song to be a bit more synth- y we will try and do it that way but it was really working with our producer George Murphy in London. We had worked with him before and he’s brilliant he knows the band he knows our strengths and when we sent him the bunch of demos the reply he had to each song was so bang on.We were just getting excited at his email, I forwarded on his email to our bass player, I was like George listened to the demos, look what he has to say in each song and it was just crazy how much he was in our heads. We had the same ideas even though I had just sent the demos I didn’t really say anything about them, his comments on them and where we should go with them was exactly what we were thinking so straight away we knew it was good.
We did work with two other producers as well Rob Kirwan in LA for the first batch of songs. Rob was brilliant as well, but it just made more sense to us financially as well as everything- we couldn’t get back to LA to finish it off and George was great and then we worked with a great Irish producer called Cormac Butler as well and then George sort of put the whole thing together and again we didn’t overthink it. We wanted it to sound cohesive we wanted it to sound like one piece of music and I think with Dave leaving last year as well that sort of led us to evolve without even trying too hard.We knew the album was going to sound different with a guitar player leaving who always had a good input in the songs so in a way that sort of took the pressure off. We could just follow our instincts and try and do what we thought was best for each song.”
The album still has the massive choruses, melodic hooks and passion that The Coronas are known for however the backdrop is tighter, perhaps more refreshing as the band grow their sound, softening the guitar and rhythm driven backdrops we have come to know from them and opting for a more spacious, relaxed and well paced sound. For instance in ‘Haunted’ there is a light beat and delicate electronic element between the soft keys and sweet desert rock guitar melody. But the band don’t belt out all these elements together; they take each part and allow it to flourish and grow at a steady pace to create a wonderful and expressive atmosphere in a delicate and subtle way. I wondered if this was what the songs and songwriting warranted or something they actively tried to achieve in the studio.
“ I think it was a bit of both. We definitely had ideas from even the initial demos and for the first time we actually ended up keeping some of our demos and some of the sounds on the demos because often when you write a song it has a little magic and if you try and change it and redo it you can almost make it worse. I think when Dave left the band last summer I opened out my song writing to loads of different friends as opposed to taking on the burden of just being the main writer myself. I started writing with different friends of mine and opening out some of my ideas and I think that all came into play as well and the songs started taking different shapes.You’re right though these subtle sounds and stuff, again we didn’t spend forever it was organic in the studio and thankfully we were all on the same page.”
Title track ‘True Love Waits’ is the first song on the album. The track epitomises the theme The Coronas wanted to portray.
“I think we knew it was going to be the first track on the album and Knoxy our bass player suggested it as the name for the album even though that’s probably the only I’d say love song on the album but it has a bit of positivity. A lot of my lyrics I think thematically on the album are sort of about self improvements and the journey, trying to get somewhere, trying to be the best person you can be, the best brother you can be the best band mate you can be and a lot of the lyrics have that sort of thing.I think ‘True Love Waits’ had that as well. In a way it’s like you’re trying to get somewhere and you’re being optimistic that you will get there and it will all work out in the end sort of thing and it seemed to be a nice little phrase to encapsulate the mood of the album in a way. “
‘Lost in The Thick Of It’ is one of the album’s highlights, a beautiful duet with Gabrielle Aplin, written in Brighton with Gabrielle and her partner Alfie Hudson-Taylor. I wondered how that collaboration came about.
“ Gabrielle is a friend of ours so I literally went over to stay in her house in Brighton. Her and her partner Alfie Hudson-Taylor invited me over just to hang out last summer. We have sang with them before but we have never actually sat down, well I’ve written with the Hudson Taylor lads before but myself, Gabrielle and Alfie have never written together.
We didn’t put too much pressure on it we went just to hang out, chill and then we took the guitars out in the afternoon and ‘Lost in The Thick Of It’ came so easily and that’s how it happens, it’s a good sign I suppose when the good songs come quicker. Straight away I was really excited about it and it was just one of those natural things.We worked out the chords and the little piano riff and I brought it to the guys and Gabrielle is such a talented melody writer as well and she straight away started singing the chorus and I was like ‘oh my God this is great!’ It came together very easy. I did a good bit of work on the lyrics afterwards and based the lyrics around the sort of sounds Gabrielle had been making in the original demo which was her just sort of mumbling words that didn’t really say anything but I was hearing little lines come out of them.
Often that’s how I write lyrics. When I’m writing melodies myself I just mumble words that sort of fit around it and then all of a sudden, oh thats a line!, maybe the song is about that and it will sort of lead me in that direction.That’s the way it came together it was great and we are so happy to have her feature on the album as well because initially we were just writing the song as a co-write and I was writing for Coronas stuff but then it sounded so good with her voice we were like you have to sing on this and thankfully she did and hopefully we will get to do it together live sometime.”
It can be important for artists to collaborate with other artists, to bring diversity to their writing style or sound and Danny really enjoys the opportunity to see what other artists bring to his songs.
“I think it is great, you know in general the Irish music scene is very strong and I’ve definitely seen it grow and the support that is there is amazing. When we started out I didn’t do many co-writes at all. I used to write all the songs myself. It’s only in the last couple of years really. I think co-writing can be difficult. It’s such a personal thing there is a lot of ego involved.
I think collaborations in general are great and we had lots of people playing on our album. We had Larry Kaye from All Tvvins who played guitar, Dave our old guitar player played some guitar as well, Cian (MacSweeny) from True Tides played some guitar and did some backing vocals and my sister Róisin did some backing vocals and we just sort of opened it out and had lots of different people involved.
That was just good for us after Dave left as well. It just made sense to open up the family a little bit as opposed to ok just the three of us are going to be here doing it. I think if it’s beneficial for everyone it’s only a good thing but co-writing can be a tricky thing and I’ve only gotten a bit more comfortable with it in the last few years.
Also the other thing I find about co-writing is when you write a good idea if your messing around yourself and you write something yourself you want to finish that song straight away and then the little bits that you bring to a writing session usually are the leftover ones that didn’t excite you as much but what I’ve tried to do in the last couple of years is when I write something that I think is really good I’ll sort of bank it and not finish it off myself and bring it to friends of mine so everyone is excited about it and they are like ‘oh that’s really cool’ and then we start from scratch with that sort of enthusiasm.
That’s what I did with ‘Lost in The Thick Of It’ and with a lot of the songs on the album even ‘Light Me Up’ our new single. I had the chorus written and I brought it to Cian and he was like ‘ah the chorus is cool man’ and we just started working on it. So I think not using up your good nuggets is important if you’re co-writing with people and also writing with talented people that you are comfortable with, as I say, we are lucky that we know a lot of them.”
The Coronas have had quite the career, their thirteen-year journey has definitely been unique with a handful of multi-platinum selling albums and a huge fan base in Ireland and abroad. However the bands previous success does not weigh heavy on Danny. He doesn’t feel pressure to match his previous work
“ I think the longer we do it the more I appreciate that it is actually something to be proud of that we have been together for so long. When we first came on the scene we were a young student band getting loads of radio play and there was a slightly older generation like the Frames and BellX1 and stuff that I loved you know, Republic of Loose and we were the new kids on the block. Now I feel we are at that stage and there is a whole new wave of bands coming through you know the likes of Picture This, Wild Youth and The Academic with just amazing music. So to be honest I don’t feel pressure.
We always put pressure on ourselves to try and write good albums, to try and write good songs. The only time I felt pressure was when we moved back from London before ‘Trust The Wire’ came out. We had a bunch of songs that I thought were good but I really didn’t think we had enough and usually writing under pressure isn’t good, for me anyway. I like to have a bit of time and space but thankfully right at the end of that process I wrote ‘We Couldn’t Fake It’ and ‘Give Me A Minute’ which became two of the big songs on ‘Trust The Wire’ – actually no – ‘Give Me A Minute’ in fairness was earlier, but it was ‘We Couldn’t Fake It’ and something else towards the end, I think it might have been ‘Gut Feeling’ or ..yeah, I can’t remember what song it was but I definitely remember writing two or three songs right at the end and I was like oh thank God we needed them, we needed an album starter and ‘We Couldn’t Fake It’ was it.So I felt a little bit of pressure that time.
I think it was the closest I’ve ever been to have a little bit of writer’s block or something… I mean in my early twenties I used to write a song in a day no problem and I’d just move on and I thought that was just an age thing but this year I’ve been writing a lot more and even late last year when I wrote 70% of the new album since last summer. I was definitely going through a creative burst. I think it can come in waves and you just have to be aware of it but that’s the only pressure we put on ourselves really.
One thing we didn’t put pressure on ourselves with this album was we were trying not to write pop radio singles like we used to. There was not much point in us trying to compete with the likes of Wild Youth and Picture This and try to get student radio when our followers have grown with us. We’ve been around for 10 years and the people who come to our shows are of all ages. We’re not just trying to get on daytime radio anymore we are trying to evolve.
I think as we get older we are grateful that we still do it and thankfully touch wood up until now we’ve managed to keep selling tickets which is the most important thing really.Fingers crossed that continues to happen when gigs come back.”
‘LA at Night’ is a perfect closing song. It’s very evocative and beautiful. The trio dabble quite heavily into the electronic pop scene with beat machine pulses. Danny discussed how he wrote the track and how its simple arrangement transformed into something quite special on the album
“That was one of those songs that came together very quickly. I wrote it in Dingle County Kerry. We toured America in probably November, end of 2018 and we finished up in LA and I was really tired after a long tour.I’d just been through a break up and was emotionally drained and we were meant to fly home and a friend of mine who I was hanging out with in LA was like why don’t you change your flights and stay for a few days and I just had a really lovely few days in LA. She showed me around. It was really nice and I came home then and I felt like I needed that.
I went to Kerry and I wrote the song very quickly. It’s one thing that the guys, George and myself did well I think because I wrote it on piano it was a pure ballad and we didn’t really want to change it or for the production to get in the way because it was a nice song, but we didn’t want it to be just me and a piano and strings. We wanted it to fit into the album as you say. I was really happy with the production that George did on that song in particular because if it was just piano and vocals I think it might have been borderline cheesy you now, like a lot of my songs. But that one it’s got a simple message about if your wrecked or tired you can have something that will just make you feel better, you can have a couple of days with a friend or whatever it is and then all of a sudden you realise that its going to be ok.”
Like many bands and artists The Coronas have had to cancel shows this year. As a band who are popular for their live shows and energetic performances Danny is experiencing some withdrawal symptoms from lack of gigs.
“Oh my God so much.You have no idea.For us gigging is the centre point of what we do. It’s my favourite thing in the world to do.We are praying that it’s going to come back. We have thought about possibly doing social distancing gigs or even drive in gigs or whatever and it just doesn’t really sit right with us. You just don’t know how they are going to go.At the moment we are just trying to bide our time and wait for it to come back and hope that it comes back fully and properly.
It’s one of the things we are missing immensely. We’ve been putting stuff online and we recorded the full album in a studio, played everything live and filmed it as well so we will be putting that on our Youtube channel as a sort of launch I suppose for the album but thats all we can do. Usually we are doing a lot of promo at this time, then you’ve got a big gig that you are looking forward to as well. It’s strange but I think it will hit me when all the promo is done and the album is out, like a week later it’s going to hit me like a ton of bricks, like oh my God I’m not going to get the payoff of having a few amazing gigs.
We had some big festivals lined up and big gigs so anyway we will get on with it. We are luckier than most and we should be able to ride it out. Hopefully gigs will be back next year and there will be as much if not more of a demand than ever. “
Also, just like the rest of us Danny is spending this crazy time sharpening his culinary skills and binge watching TV
“I’m watching a lot of Netflix. I got a dog yesterday… Jess is amazing. She’s a mixture between a Collie and a little bit of Rottweiler but she is beautiful and I got her in the DSPCA and she is the best. Yeah I’m baking and cooking and 5ks so I’m a total cliche”
The Coronas have had a lot of success and experienced every aspect of the music industry ( labels, learning about production and improving songwriting) along the way. I wondered what advice Danny would give to his 18 year old self now that he can look back on a significant, interesting and successful career.
“I would say enjoy it. Enjoy your twenties appreciate it a bit more maybe. Not that I didn’t appreciate it but definitely, I’ve been thinking wow we are so lucky. In our early twenties we were sort of going with it and having fun. I don’t have any regrets. I wouldn’t have too much I would change.There is always a bit of, what if we signed to a label at a certain time would we have gotten bigger but there is no guarantee. I think the most important thing is we have a great career, we are doing music and I’m happy. We could be in a bigger band, you could be Chris Martin and still be miserable.There is no guarantee that if you have success you will be happy..You put your happiness on things if you say oh if only this happens then I’ll be happy and if only I get this I’ll be happy.
You know when we started out all we wanted to do was play Whelan’s and some stage at an Oxegen festival. The goal post continued to change and that’s good. It’s good to be ambitious but I think you can put your happiness on that. Some people equate their ambition with success but you have to enjoy the journey. You also need to be able to pat yourself on the back sometimes and say you’re doing alright. I’d say to my 18 year old self Danny you’re in for a good life you’re lucky.”
Hopefully The Coronas can tour the new album soon. It’s a cohesive well paced album that flows seamlessly as a whole. The bands mature and evolving sound definitely makes for a chilled and emotive listening experience with some catchy tunes on there too.
‘True Love Waits’ is set for release on July 31st until then check out The Coronas’ latest single ‘Light Me Up’ below
I caught up with Dublin singer songwriter Miles Graham to talk about his new EP ‘All The Right Things’. We discussed how he wrote the EP, his break in 2018 and how much he is missing gigging.
Miles Graham released his new EP ‘All The Right Things’ via Peer Music on the 10th of July.The EP was recorded in London with producer Paul Herman(Emeli Sandé, Dido, Corinne Bailey Rae), with string arrangements from the renowned Sally Herbert(Plan B, Usher, Duffy,Ellie Goulding, Florence + The Machine).The EP showcases his soul-baring songwriting and top-quality sound: a genre-blurring blend of retro-soul and fresh yet timeless pop.When I spoke to Graham last, he expressed he was nervous for the release and having the EP out there now is still quite a scary thing.
“ yeah it’s still terrifying, since the last time I was talking to you nothing has changed. I’m excited about it. When you release music it can take a while for things to pick up, nothing happens overnight. It’s really busy at the moment with promo and there’s not a lot we can do gigs-wise so I’m still missing that dynamic of going out and getting energy from gigs and connecting with people, so it’s a weird balance. It’s like you’re stood still but kind of promoting this body of work but you’re not getting that energy back at you from the crowd which is a bit strange.It’s just missing something but I think we are all missing something no matter what you are up to theses days.
It’s all very surreal especially in the music industry and in the entertainment industry and any entertainment that gathers crowds it’s just all uncertain.For single people who are meeting up, how does that work now?. It’s just creating a bit of distrust with people and you don’t know their background and where they are coming from or whether they have covid 19 or not and they probably don’t even know themselves. I don’t like the way it creates that distance. Before, people greeted each other with a hug whereas we came from you know a good few years ago it was just a hand shake. You know you’d have no more than a hand shake now and that will be that and then we became more friendly with a hug and we have gone from that to no, you can’t do that.“
‘All The Right Things’ is a soulful EP with deep grooves, intricate soundscapes and mellow guitar lines. Each track warrants its own space on the EP and has a special timeless quality. It’s difficult to pick a favourite and Graham is proud of them all but Sunbeam, the intricately textured and heart-melting tribute to his daughter is a special track for him.
“ I’m proud of all the tracks on it. It’s very hard to pick one. It’s like if you have young kids you can’t pick your favourite one, they are just all the same, but I suppose I love the groove in ‘Sunbeam’, I love the vibe in ‘Sunbeam’ and there is a nice dynamic there. It has some surprises in it with the vocal dynamic and the guitar solo and stuff. I just love the vibe and the change in melodies as the song progresses, but that’s just me being a music nerd, but then again the single ‘Give It Up Now’ I love the strings that Sally Herbert arranged and I just loved the intimacy of it. I love ballads that reach out to people as well in a different way. But yeah I vibe off ‘Sunbeam’.
When I wrote Sunbeam it was just a moment I had. I was going through a tough time in the form of a break up and my daughter, she was like my sunshine, my sunbeam and helped keep me positive and I just had a moment, I can visualise it now. My daughter hugged me in my living room and there was that Sunday morning sun just coming in the window and the curtains were barely open and you know that kind of dust that settles in the air and that sunbeam through the curtains. It was just a beautiful moment. I suppose the whole kind of vibe in that song is in the verses basically just saying that everything is going to be ok as long as we have that sunshine in our lives. She’s a twin to my son and now he’s a bit jealous. He wants me to write a song about him so I’ll have to get working on that.”
The EP as a whole flows smoothly and is perfect for relaxing to. This wasn’t Graham’s intention but just what appears to happen when he writes
“ I’ve been into that vibe. I’m not sure whether it’s my voice or not, maybe it is. I actually just got an email from a label I was working with in Australia, a dance label and they said we’d love that smooth vibe on this track and I was thinking does everyone just want to fall asleep to my music or what’s the story? It’s all the laid back type of vibe but I think there is a lot of soul in it. When I say soul I mean from the heart. Especially in the EP there is more of a connection, but no I don’t aim to be that way I think that’s probably the way I am.”
The arrangements throughout the EP are simply outstanding; Graham delicately blends bubbling rhythms with subtle explosions of melodic counterpoints to create a cohesive and charming body of work. Graham likes to be precise with his production but still manages to capture emotion within his tracks.
“Thanks very much, that’s a lovely description. I’m not sure whether it was purposely done but I do focus a lot on the dynamic within a song. From its first lyric to bringing people on a journey and in the production of a song and the lyrics and melody.I do focus on that journey and I’m conscious of that when I write, that the first line has to get people interested. It’s like writing a novel or a book, I am conscious of that and also the build up in the production.I would be quite finicky with that kind of stuff you know it has to have the right dynamic and have the feeling and accomplish the hairs on the back of the neck moment. For me that’s what music is about.”
Graham took time out to focus on family in 2018 – which was a brave decision. When you get into something like the music industry it’s easy to develop a mindset that makes you want to keep reminding people you are there for fear of them losing interest.I wondered if he was worried about this when he made his decision to take a break.
“No I didn’t worry about that.It was just something I had to do at the time and I had the right reasons obviously. I had a young family and that’s my priority and music is always second to that.Family is first.That was always the case even when I started out on my music career. I work really hard even when the kids were really young, you know changing nappies at two in the morning and sending emails at three for the next day and that’s just how it works.
It is a different thing when you have a young family and are trying to work a music career. I remember the late Terry Wogan saying that to me. I had some success in the UK in 2015 and he said Miles that’s a tough challenge and I wish you all the best with it. He knew that I had a young family and at the time I thought ‘ah he’s a nice man saying that’ but it was the years that followed that made me realise that he was very right. For me it’s worked. If you’re out touring, if you’re hugely successful and you’re out touring for months it’s different.Whereas I was going out and I was doing, like I did a tour in the UK and it was 2 weeks and I played loads of lovely venues and then I was back home again and that was fine.In 2018 it all just built up to a certain point and I went through a relationship breakup and I just had to re-focus. It’s a huge change in anybody’s life so I just needed time to re-calibrate myself and focus on family.
So I wasn’t worried about what the industry was doing, that didn’t come into my head.It was just focus on the family and then I started writing again after a few months just as therapy and I’ve learnt a lot about myself as well and how music is apart of me no matter what. Even if I don’t release music. I mean I probably have about 3 or 4 albums worth of songs that haven’t been released, that I hope to release someday but I don’t see the point unless there is a reason to put music out. I’m happy to be putting music out now. It feels right.”
Graham’s latest track ‘Don’t Change’ resulted in him performing the single live on BBC Radio 5 and a stunning version of Dido’s Thank You, and picking up further airplay from BBC Introducing.I wondered is all that support a comforting confirmation he was doing something right with his tunes
“ Totally consider myself very fortunate to get any airplay or backing from radio play from Laura Whitmore or people that like the music but it’s a really difficult business.It doesn’t come easy. It comes from hard work.Those radio plays they come from hard work from promoting and even creating the music from scratch. There is so much good music out there as well and even with lockdown, you mentioned BBC Introducing I think had like thirty or forty thousand songs uploaded to their system within lockdown and their policy is they listen to everything and perhaps they might get played on local BBC radio or whatever so you can imagine the influx of that they are getting as well so to get any plays amongst the bunches is definitely great. It is a little bit luck of the draw as well you know. No matter how good you are there is that element of luck there. You always hear musicians saying you know I consider myself very lucky but I know for a fact they work really hard.”
Graham’s plans for the rest of the year are unsure however there is a gig that will hopefully go ahead and some surprises to keep an eye out for.
“EP is out I want to promote it as best I can. There have been really positive vibes back about it so far. It’s hard to plan really but I have one gig booked in London for the 19th November and fingers crossed that will go ahead.It would be great to get out and gig the songs live.Thats the best way to experience them I think.It’s a different experience for people to come and see me live with the band and I’d love to give people that experience.For one thing I’m really tall. I’m like six foot four so that would be the first thing ‘oh he’s really tall’. I love performing so hopeful a few gigs will come about.There are things happening in the background with the music that you might hear very soon.That I just can’t say at the moment.I’m also shooting a music video this weekend in Dublin for the single ‘Give It Up Now’. We are shooting it around Merrion Square so that should be good. “
Miles Graham’s new EP ‘All The Right Things’ is a timeless collection of tracks. His delicate and emotive vocals, lush harmonies and raw tender moments build in to the tracks groove infested underbelly making each song an engaging and spell-binding listening experience. He is a rare talent and the EP is a must listen.
I had a chat with UK alternative pop 4-piece Alvarez Kings last week about the bands new single ‘Words I Couldn’t Say’, their upcoming album and touring.
Four lads from South Yorkshire, UK who gleefully share their moniker with an infamous old school South American gang, Alvarez Kings summon pop power through timeless analog synth and guitar magic. The quartet—brothers Simon [vocals, guitar] and Paul Thompson [bass, keys, backup vocals], Aidan Thompson [guitar, keys, production], and Richard Walker [drums, samples, pads] have quietly built up an international buzz since their 2012 formation.
You guys have just released a new single titled “Words I Couldn’t Say” tell us about that track and how you wrote it?
“It was a song that as soon as we created the idea of it we knew that we had to finish it. Simon had the initial idea of it when making his spare room into his baby daughters nursery. He said when the room was empty, he found the acoustics awesome and he started firing voice memos over. And yes, the acoustics did sound great! The song is a story of an uncontrollable collision course of self-destruction from drug and alcohol abuse. We like to think of it as the desolation of a failed relationship, and self-blame.”
Your tracks have vibrant and rich soundscapes with synths and luscious rhythmic textures. Did you always plan to bring synths into your sound or was it something you discovered worked when you were experimenting?
“It has been something we have developed over time. We like to push the boundaries of production and our overall sound. We also try not to do an Oasis and release the same sounding record every time.”
How do you guys tackle the production of your songs do you get a producer in to help or is it something you tackle yourselves?
“On our ‘Somewhere Between’ album we worked with producer Carlos de la Garza who was outstanding, however with the new album and us not being able to travel to LA we have kept it all within the band. From writing and recording to mixing and mastering. We had a lot tracks already recorded before COVID hit so luckily we could mix from home. Through lockdown our group chat has constantly been lit up with new mixes and new songs. “
How do you write your songs, do you write elements separately and bring them together to work on or does the magic happen when you guys are all together?
“It all happens when inspiration strikes really. When we are on tour we always like to play backstage on new song starts together, be that a guitar riff, melody ideas or some bass lines. Then when we come home, we like to focus and finish writing them up.“
Up until 2018, you toured your debut album extensively, playing sold-out headline shows across Europe, UK and the United States along with some of your biggest festival appearances to date including Firefly and Summerfest. How do you find touring ? and how do you deal with the challenges that come from being on the road all the time?
“We like to see touring as the success of all the hard work and long hours we put into our music. Its great how we can see how our music effects people lives and we love that we can meet friends and fans along the way. The main challenges are being away from home. You can hear this on a lot of the lyrical content from us. From sending ‘Postcards from Berlin’ to ‘Sleepwalking PT I’“
I bet you guys have had some crazy experiences while on tour or onstage what is the most bizarre thing to happen while you were on tour?
“One that sticks out the most was in 2018, we were playing a show in Atlanta and a mosh Pitt started. One young guy was being really rowdy and starting fighting with people in the front row and tried to get on stage but got met by the headstock of Pauls bass guitar. Everyone cheered and the bouncers took the guy out. “
You have experienced both performing as a main act and a support act with the likes of Melanie Martinez, PVRIS, and Echosmith – two very different experiences for artists. With a support slot you have to appeal to fans who might not be yours yet and win them over and with a headline slot it’s almost like a party with people who love and appreciate your music. Do you find the support slots daunting?
“Yes you’re right. They are both different. Sometimes we prefer the support slot -mainly away from home as we can go on stage, deliver energy for 30-35 minutes and have time to talk to fans after. If your headlining sometimes it’s hard to make time for that sort of thing. “
Do you get nervous before shows and if so how do you deal with nerves?
“We used to in the early days but not so much anymore. We have a beer and do our pre show routine. “
You guys are currently working on your second studio album, which is currently anticipated for a 2020 release. What can we expect from the album?
“You can expect lots of exciting new sounds/songs but still staying loyal with some classic Alvarez Easter eggs. “
Has the writing or forming of these tracks been different to how you created your debut album ‘Somewhere Between’?
“With the addition of Aidan we have been doing a lot of writing with him. A lot of the songs on the previous album were written over 5 years ago, so it’s been awesome writing fresh songs but our process has still remained the same. “
How have you guys been keeping busy during this crazy covid- 19 time?
“We’ve been busy with a new addition to our Alvarez family – baby Pippa. Also we’ve been writing back and forth through WhatsApp and voice memos. We’ve been doing a lot of live-streams and have some great ones coming up, so keep your eyes peeled for those! “
What advice would you give someone who wants to start a band or career in music?
“Practice, play and write as much as you can. “
What’s next for you guys?
“We will be back touring and playing shows whenever it is safe to do so. We also have lots of new music coming your way!“
I had a chat with Luke Thomas last week about his new project Butler and his eagerly awaited second single, Colours Of Love. Butler is the brainchild of award winning singer/performer Luke Thomas, whose electrifying new project has allowed him to explore his more commercially creative side. Already known as the front man for the band The Swing Cats, Thomas wanted to try something different with Butler.
Thomas recently released the sensational summer anthem ‘Colours Of Love’, with Afro/Irish singer J Bols. We talked about the differences between the two projects and the birth of Butler.
“ Well I’m in a band at the moment called The Swing Cats and I just wanted to get back to being more creative and explore more radio friendly songs and projects.I started this maybe two years ago just working with Irish producers just to be more current with one eye on radio play and stuff like that. I released a song last year which did quite well, it was played on most national stations and I just wanted to follow up with something summer-y and something to make people happy. I hooked up with an Afro Irish artist called J Bols and he had a song called Colours Of Love and we just rewrote parts of it and arranged it and it is what it is now. So I’m delighted and excited that people can finally hear it.
I started as a solo artist when I was a teenager, that’s going back maybe 13 years now at this stage and it was always my idea to do dance/hip hop/pop sort of music. That’s what I started off doing and I fell into The Swing Cats by accident and that was kind of my main identity – like with that band I’ve sold out a lot of venues, The Concert Hall, The Olympia, Vicar Street and it was always in my head that I wanted to return to the pop/dance element. That was the creative side, the song writing side so to speak. So I said it’s now or never, that’s how it came about. It really helps the creative side but it’s fun as well. It’s fun to hear people’s reaction to a song that you have written on the radio.”
The Swing Cats are a six piece collective which has performed for President Micheal D Higgins, appeared on The Late Late Show and enjoyed two number 1 iTunes albums. However Butler gives Thomas more freedom.
“Absolutely, I’ve gone to a point now with The Swing Cats where I feel quite comfortable and people know me from that so I’m able to explore other avenues and it really shows another dimension to what I do. At the end of the day I would describe myself as a performer without being conformed to a genre. I know a lot of bigger artists, not to compare but you look at bigger artists, like, Lady GaGa would obviously do her big dance pop numbers but at the same time she can collaborate with someone, an iconic figure like Tony Bennett who is the closest thing we have right now to a Frank Sinatra. Tony Bennett is 90 something years of age. He was around those days, in Vegas in the 60’s and 70’s. He’s won Grammys doing that style of music and there’s countless other examples of people who have switched genres so I suppose it’s just to explore it. I would never forgive myself if I didn’t give it ago. Thankfully people like it and thankfully it has been received very well.”
Colours Of Love is a vibrant and fun track – perfect for summer. I love how Thomas blends rich elements of guitar with electronics and afro beats. I wondered if he had the full idea of the song before he went into production or was it a case of messing around in the studio to get the right sounds and energy. Although he had help on elements of the song it was challenging to cut the track into a 3 minute song.
“ It was a lot longer there was another minute and a half on the song and I felt it just needed to get to the point quicker and that’s where I brought my experience on that side of things to the table and the guys were gracious enough to work with me. A lot of times if you have come up with a creative piece you don’t want people picking at it or changing it to much so it was a great partnership where we worked together to get the best out of the song and it’s turned out really well. “
Butler’s previous releases ‘Forever Young’ and ‘Applause’ have that night club dance floor feel although ‘Applause’ is more of a cool pop tune. Thomas enjoys the collaboration experience with other artists as they bring different elements and knowledge into his projects
“I like to work with a lot of different people and I suppose you always lean when you work with different people.The last song (with Butler) I worked with Lo Cutz. He is an Irish DJ as well and a producer. He was coming up with the music and the beats behind the last single and that worked well. It brings other elements as opposed to me saying I’m able to do everything because I’m not, so when you are dealing with different genres it’s great to have other experts in their field add to it and make it better. To build the best possible product. So yeah 100% I would love to continue with that and collaborate as much as possible.
The next one will probably be with Lo Cutz again. We held it back, we felt the summer vibe of ‘Colours of Love’ suited the time and the next song is more darker, an evening night time sort of song. So we are going to keep that one and maybe release that later in the year. Again it’s kind of pop dance-y with a little bit of synth in there. Just to try and build on the foundation of this style that seems to be getting a good reaction.When you release something it’s out of your control it’s down to people’s reaction whether it’s going to work or not so it’s always a nervous time.“
Ireland has a vibrant and budding music scene at the moment especially in the dance and hip hop genre. Butler believes that the great quality content of artists and how they are mastering their craft is making each genre’s scene strong
“It is, and a lot of hip hop and different genres which is great. Its great to see Irish artists coming up to the mark and delivering international level content. I know its always a sticky point for Irish artists with airplay and with getting support but I feel now that a lot of artists are at the level where it warrants the right amount of airplay and its always going to be tough no matter whether your Irish or International to get some sort of airplay particularly if you are independent, so it’s great to see the quality there. They can’t take that away from the artist anymore.The quality is there and people are getting so much better at production levels and stuff like that. It’s great to see.”
Thomas hopes to be able to do live shows as Butler and see what that set up would bring. Seen as Butler is a more dance-infused project it will be a different experience than the live band aesthetic he is used to.
“That was the plan and just get a vibe or a band together just to see what it would look like live, because I actually haven’t gigged with this project and it would be exciting because there is a lot of great young musicians and it would be interesting to see what way the physical side to things would turn out. You know, would I go with keyboards and samples or would I go with the full live band. I’m actually quite interested to see how that pans out so I suppose there is no plans just yet, obviously it’s going to come down to the current situation lifting and various things like that, so I would imagine it could be early next year before Butler will be performing fully live.But I do look forward to that and getting a few more songs and having a decent enough set to perform. “
Thomas has experienced the industry from many different aspects.Through hIs band The Swing Cats, he has worked with different people and now Butler. I wondered what advice he would give to someone who wanted to start a career in music.
“I would say first of all you have to decide what you want to get out of music. I know that sounds a little clinical but do you want to be a gigging musician, do you want to be a recording artist, do you want to be a producer because I think in this day and age sometimes when you are releasing a song it’s like buying a lottery ticket. There are so many talented people out there and you need the infrastructure around you to get the results you’re looking for. So I would say first of all decide what kind of area of music you want to be in and then you will be able to streamline your plan. You need a plan, you need to know what you want out of something. I know obviously a lot of people do it for the love and that is absolutely brilliant. I do it for the love as well but you still need to know what you want out of it because I know a lot of people that would gig around and it might be more of a past time to them or life takes over and they have to get a full time job so again it’s around sustainability, it’s around having a plan and finding out what you want from it. I feel there is a lot of talented people not just in Ireland but around the world but there are a lot of talented people in Ireland and some don’t have the tools to know what the next steps are. Unfortunately there is only a handful of top managers so you have to, for want of a better expression, die on the cross before someone comes and picks you up or saves you. Gigging yourself to the top is not always the best option. If you’ve got a particular sound, you hone in on the sound, you try and make yourself somewhat original or somewhat better.It comes down to having that product and then you need the infrastructure around you. So if you have a product you then look for people that might be able to provide the infrastructure – I call them plugins as opposed to trying to do everything yourself. So ok I might need someone that can promote songs to radio, I might need someone that can help produce things to a better level, things like that and you will get plugins along the way.
As the saying goes youth is wasted on the young. If knew when I was 17 or 18 what I know now it would be a different world for me.But that’s the way it is. You do have to learn and you do have to try and make these decisions, particularly with a new band, there’s no rush no one is waiting for you to release your song, no one is banging down the door well for most new bands, so take your time, get it right. Get your songs right, your content, get what your sound is right, listen to what’s out there on the radio. Have a listen to the top 20 songs out there and if you have songs that you’re writing, fair enough their original but have a listen to what the current taste is in music and be clever about it. Maybe you could tweak a song that you have and you know might be slightly sounding a different way and just tweek it into the area it needs to be for radio for example. If a song is too long, to short, you have to think of it like that, which allows you to get to the next level. “
Thomas is building up his writing and tunes for a potential EP next year and hopefully a tour. Things are unsure at the moment but he’s busy planning and putting all the pieces together for his next release.
“The plan would be to release one more single this year and then early next year bring out an EP and maybe a small tour that would be the ultimate plan at the moment. I suppose the climate at the moment is about having the next song ready to go and thats what people want. They want instant gratification on the music side where they won’t necessarily take the time to listen to an album. What I don’t want to do is spend a lot of time and effort in a big album and something like that for it not to get the proper exposure.So at the moment my plan is to continue to release singles until something catches on to a level where people’s ears are open and then I can bring out a more comprehensive piece of work. That is the way music has gone, certainly for Butler anyway. That may change but that seems to be the way people are consuming music. So what’s next for me is a load more promo and a load more writing. I’ve been working on this next song. I’ve been doing it remotely at the moment but hopefully with the slight changes with four people being aloud in a room I’ll be able to go and actually work on the song face to face and trying to start building the next campaign as well. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will have some acoustic songs up online as well just to get people’s feedback on it. That’s what I’m up to at the moment.“
Butler is an ambitious and fun project with infectious tunes that make you want to instantly dance. Thomas has clearly put a lot of planning and effort into creating and honing his craft to provide lush, well textured and melodies tunes ready for everyone to enjoy. I’m looking forward to what tunes the coming months bring and also to that all important live show as soon as Thomas can organise one.
Thumper – Photography by Ruth Medjber @ruthlessimagery www.ruthlessimagerry.com
I spoke to Oisín Leahy-Furlong frontman of Dublin noise pop band THUMPER last week. We talked about the band’s new single ‘Topher Grace’, their abrasive sound and how they approach their kinetic live shows. The guys are at the forefront of a thriving music scene alongside bands like Bitch Falcon, Fontaines DC, the Murder Capital and Pillow Queens and we discuss this along with the effects streaming has on artists at present.
THUMPER are set to release their new single ‘Topher Grace’ on the 26th June. It’s an intense and blistering track with the verses taking on a Blur feel. Oisín ruminates on unhealthy and quite destructive behaviour throughout the track
“It was written over the course of a couple of months which is sort of different for me, normally these things are written in bursts. I suppose the song makes several allusions to a culture which is fairly present, in Ireland anyway of airing your problems in public with a pint in your hand rather than in a friends sitting room. I guess its about the idea that maybe you are going through destruction or by unraveling yourself you will find some sort of ultimate truth or something. Which of course is bullshit but I suppose the deeper you are into that lifestyle the easier it is to convince yourself that its the way for you.”
With ‘Topher Grace’ Oisín decided to take a different song writing approach. Avoiding the usual way of writing such as structure and melody he replaced them with a more considered approach to lyric writing and performance. This resulted in a lengthy and interesting writing process. I wondered if this was a way of trying to hone in on his lyrical content and refine it, to become more of a lyricist perhaps. I also wondered was the view in the song a personal insight or was it Oisín watching this behaviour from afar.
“ I suppose I was and I wasn’t. In a way I was trying to strike a more conversational tone, even in the delivery its devoid of melody and things I would lean on and just normal pillars of song writing. But the reason its written that way is because I couldn’t play it on guitar and sing it at the same time. So I had to write it and then just talk it in my kitchen or whatever and it wasn’t until I was actually able to sit down and get a demo going that I was actually able to see how it all slotted together so all the pieces, all the lyrics, all the sections were sort of written in separate vacuums and at a later point were stitched together. So I guess that meant that because I wasn’t tied to melody and stuff like that there was a tendency to go back to it and as you say refine it and I suppose a lot of it would have been written in the thick of it, like in a smoking area of somewhere or in a strangers bathroom or whatever. So a lot of it did need to be refined because it didn’t make a lot of sense but I got there in the end.”
“It was definitely more of an insular thing. I don’t think the song is prescribing any kind of answers or anything like that. It’s more like just ruminating on how I was feeling in the moment or even the morning after the moment. As much as I did go back and refine it, it was definitely more of an instant reaction to how I was feeling. Little snapshots of different moments and how they all piece together to form a period in your life. I think it’s only in retrospect that you notice patterns in your behaviour. At the time you think you have full control over your own choices. But yeah it’s definitely a first person kind of view.”
‘Topher Grace’ was cut from just over 6 and a half minutes to a neat 4 minute cut for radio. Reading the full lyrics to the track I felt there was plenty of golden and witty lyrical content cut out for the radio version. Doing these cuts is not easy for an artist when they have put so much time into crafting the track
“ Absolutely yeah, I had to do it with one hand over an eye you know. It was like sending your kid to school without lunch or something.It’s pretty heartbreaking.But it’s the nature of the beast. I normally slave over these edits forever but I didn’t even think the song would get any radio play to begin with for so many reasons so I was able to lash that thing together and go ‘right there you go, there’s your castrated radio edit version’ “
THUMPER have a unique sound in the sense they pack in something for everyone within each tune. They have the abrasive post punk or rock instrumentation with rumbling elastic bass slaps and grooves behind the crashing majestic guitar-burns while the smooth vocals bounce along the sometimes bubblegum or pop melody.Oisín always knew that’s what he wanted to achieve with his music and with the band
“ Yeah, from the outset it was sort of a plan because it started off as more of a solo thing for me. I was putting out tapes under the name THUMPER for a couple of years. Real lo fi kind of gnarly sounding things and just the basic idea was to see how far in the direction of noise and abrasiveness I could push it whilst retaining that sort of pop sensibility. Then of course as the band developed and more people got involved, you know there is 6 of us in the band, so it’s sort of natural enough that everyone else’s tastes and individual styles go into the mix.We listen to lots of different types of music so it’s no wonder that there is different elements going on.”
I asked Oisín when he started with THUMPER was he always confident bringing his songs to the rest of the band or was there an initial ‘oh god what if they slate it’ especially if it’s about something personal?
“Yeah it’s like when you first meet someone you don’t tell them your life story.You sort of gradually get there over time. When you feel comfortable enough to share pieces of yourself until eventually they know the whole you. It’s not too different with songwriting.It’s definitely nerve-racking.Certainly with this song it was the first time I was nervous to bring something to the band in a long time because there is nothing really to hide behind. It’s almost entirely spoken word and it’s just got me screaming and yelping for 7 minutes. Also it’s the first song I’ve written where I haven’t been able to play it myself. I need the band behind me to do it and pull it off. Definitely the demos that I wrote sound so different to what the finished product is. So I guess this trust is inherent in that and you build it up over time and grow a, well not necessarily a thicker skin, it’s just there is a tenderness to it and people recognise that over time. Ultimately it was really rewarding and it’s not an easy place to tap into but it’s something I would like to return to and also I have an entire verse where I don’t have to play guitar. I’m only doing one thing at a time. There are definitely benefits to that.”
Like other bands of this generation THUMPER have the power and influence of streaming platforms which gives artists huge exposure however it doesn’t really make them money. It’s a paradox in the sense you can reach more people but don’t reap the benefits as much as you would with album sales and touring. I wondered does this play on Oisín’s mind or is it just part and parcel of the job
“In one sense it weeds out anyone who is doing it for the wrong reasons.That said I have absolutely no issue with some people who say if you are trying to make money in this you are in the wrong game or whatever. I would love to make a living doing this, I would love to be able to keep making music for people who want to hear it. You do worry that when you are doing it for so long and making so little cash that at a certain point life will catch up and you literally won’t be able to do it anymore even though there is a demand for it and that’s a real threat for a lot of bands. Especially now as you said I’m not paying my rent with my Spotify streams but I might have been off the months of festival touring that we would have been doing which is all cancelled now. I think the only thing you can do is look forward, work on the music as hard as you can and don’t be an imbecile but also don’t worry about too much because it’s supposed to be fun. You’re supposed to enjoy it.Times are bizarre and strange at the minute but I’m sure that enjoyment and happiness will come back again eventually.There is an amazing song called Everything Is Free which talks about this. Its a fucking depressing song because its so on the nose but it is true. You are expected to work for free. I know personally, friends in bands who are very successful and are living with their parents. It’s bizarre but the whole world is morphing and shifting before our very eyes these days so maybe now that people are faced with the reality of having no one to talk to except for records and movies for the last 13 weeks maybe a different importance will be put on that but I’m not holding my breath. “
The music scene in Ireland and Dublin particularly is very vibrant lately – there are so many amazing acts gigging and making a name for themselves from The Murder Cpaital and Fontains DC to Fangclub and Bitch Falcon. Oisín doesn’t see this as competition or that it’s an overload of bands fighting for the attention of listeners.
“I think it’s great, there has always been a healthy competition,whether there has been an eye on Dublin or not that has existed the whole time.I think the bands that you mentioned are all very different and all being influenced by each other. I think the broader the spectrum of creativity is, the more there is to be influenced by. No I don’t see it as a negative at all and definitely those bands are a big influence on us and I know them all and they have all gone through a million different iterations of what it is they do presumably because of the music that is being made around them and the attitudes and all that sort of stuff. I feel like all of us, we are making music anyway it’s just that now there’s I guess more attention although its difficult to see when your so deep in it.”
I saw THUMPER perform a few years ago supporting Fangclub and it was quite a wild performance. I would say there was no one left without whiplash after their set, my ears were ringing for sure. The guys manage to keep their live shows fresh and engaging but they don’t plan any of the antics
“No we don’t plan any of that. We never even talk about it. We just like playing the music and I don’t know its just a combination of different personalities in the band and that’s how we act at other peoples gigs as well to a certain extent.Its not for everyone, certainly when your touring and your doing it every single night there will be nights where you can barely stand because you are so exhausted but something happens when you step on that stage man. I think the bottom line is when we rehearse, we rehearse a lot and we get the songs as tight as we can possible make them.Which means that when we actually get on stage we don’t have to think about too much, we can tear around the place, smash stuff up and the idea being that we’re kind of such a tight unit it will be able to snap back into place when it needs to.I think maybe when you saw us we were more on the side of chaos than anything else maybe but certainly that’s the thinking now.It’s just rehearse the songs and write them and respect the craft and then by the time you get to the stage you have earned a bit of fun like I think the time you saw us was in Whelan’s “
At that show bassist Joey (who was performing his last show with the band) smashed his bass off the stage and the crowd took every piece.
“ yeah that was very funny. That was my bass! His name is Joey Gavin he is living in Berlin now. He is making his own music and bringing out singles this year. He is great. “
With touring on hold, THUMPER have spent their time in the studio writing and recording, as well as hosting live streams on social media for their fans and this week they are planning a live stream to promote their new single.
“ They are fairly nerve-racking to be honest. Much more so than getting on a stage because although on one side of it, the side other people see looks like a performance and all that, on my side I’m just a man screaming in my kitchen at the back wall. With no one to tell me whether I sound good or bad or if the connection is there or whatever.But it’s been nice to keep in contact with the fan base and play some tunes and wet people’s appetite that way. We are doing a proper full band, full production live stream the day after the single is release.So the 27th June on our Youtube and that will be pretty much our first and only gig of the whole summer. That should more closely resemble the old Thumper experience more than anything we have done before. So I’m looking forward to that. “
THUMPER have been touring and releasing music for a few years. From his experience of the Irish music scene and life in a band in general, Oisín has a few words of wisdom for budding new musicians?
“ Just worry about the songs first because there’s no point being an amazing band or getting amazing festival slots or whatever unless you have got good songs that you have take care of, nursed and all that sort of stuff.They don’t have to be your best songs you probably could be ripping someone else off at the beginning but that attention to the craft straight off the bat is just going to earn you fans, listeners and people who respect you. You’re not going to be great at the beginning and people are going to watch you even if you can’t play your instrument very well and you can’t really sing too well.Which is definitely what I was like and still am like to a certain extent. If you clearly have put passion and effort into the songwriting and the writing in general. Then that’s more than a decent jumping off point. “
Though it’s difficult to plan for the coming months THUMPER have some exciting plans ahead
“Good question! we are recording and writing a good bit. We have got more music coming out this year and believe it or not we do have one or two gigs lined up that we should hopefully be able to announce soon but we are just going to channel all the energy that we would have been putting into the road straight back into the studio. Yeah we have some big plans coming up and we are looking forward to sharing that with people. “
THUMPER are a band to keep an eye on. These guys slowly and delicately build their songs adding a new layer and dimension each time until their tunes are an all out mouth-frothing whack of psychedelic noise rock.Their ability to create a frenzied euphoria throughout their tracks while packing in some punch is what makes their sound so infectious.
The band are holding a live stream to support the release of ‘Topher Grace’ on the 27th of June check it out through this link
After some small technical difficulties and discussions of which mode of contact would be best due to Johnston’s phone’s decision to pack in, I sat down to have a chat with singer-songwriter Sion Hill (Nate Johnston) last week. A lot has happened since our last chat. The world went into lockdown, Johnston’s shows were postponed and he released a new single ‘Speak Up’. Given the fact that everyone now is living a new way of life due to covid-19, the track has been released at the perfect time as it discusses mustering the courage to tell your surroundings how you really feel. ‘Speak Up’ is an infectious, upbeat and utterly radiant tune. It’s quite the ray of sunshine on a miserable day and for Johnson it speaks about his anxiety through a natural upbeat and melodious medium.
“I think I wrote it about a year ago. I suppose a lot of people are thinking nowadays about technology, social media and everything else. I suffer a lot from anxiety and I don’t know where it’s brought on. I’ve always kind of had it but I think there has always been a stigma with talking about that. People are getting up and speaking about mental health issues in the last few years and I think it’s a great thing. With the walk into light and that, a lot more people are aware of it.Especially guys, who are just not very good at talking about their emotions in general. It’s still taking a while but I think people are better at it now, you know at least calling up a friend. In all my tunes I just try and keep a pretty positive upbeat melody and the music is always upbeat but I still try to say something that has some meaning. I mean most of the songs I hear coming out are just the same old story so I’m trying to say something but also keep it upbeat and hopefully that inspires people.”
Johnston slips into country/ traditional folk territory with this track especially with the perky fiddle melody. However it wasn’t his original vision for the track. In fact it was almost different tune altogether.
“ I actually listened back to the original demo I did for the song which is like five munites long.There’s two verses in it and a completely different chorus and its much slower. Its just electric guitar and voice. It was never really intended to go anywhere. It was just something I wrote for myself and I played it for a producer I work with in Hamburg and a couple of lads from another band that were there at the time. There was a fiddle player and we just started jamming and we sped it up slowly because there was a few people around and we were having some beers and we were kind of in a party mood. So we sped the thing up and it worked really well in this more upbeat faster tempo and then the fiddle player started playing this thing. He was actually German so we had to tell him how to change the notes in a way that would give it that Irish feel.
He was a seriously good violin player but it was more in the classical style so we had to get him to venture into this Irish thing.It wasn’t the intention of the song, it just went in that direction and it was cool. I mean the producer I work with, he is just insane with producing beats and finding new melodies and soundscapes so it was just a collaborative thing really the way it developed. The original song is completely different.
It’s really funny, sometimes going back and listening to the old demo, it was a different name on the computer and I was just listening to some old tracks for inspiration. Sometimes I go back to old songs and listen to them again and see if there is something there, you know, why did I stop working on this track, did I work it into something else or can I re-work it into something else and this was one of these tunes. I was looking through stuff and I heard it. I thought how on earth did that become this. It’s interesting how that happens sometimes. Its really cool when you see the end result and go back to the beginning and see how far it came. Sometimes it doesn’t change at all which is also pretty nice. “
Johnston recently represented Ireland performing his new single ‘Speak Up’ in the Free European Song Contest in front of a TV audience of 4 million viewers, finishing in the Top 10. The Free European Song Contest is a music competition in the Eurovision format that aired on German, Austrian and Swiss TV, organised by the German broadcaster ProSiebenSat Media and Stefan Raabs production company Brainpool TV. It served as an alternative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, which was planned to be held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A surreal experience!
“Its really funny that whole thing. I was probably the first unofficially elected Irish representative for the fake Eurovision. But yeah it’s a shame the actual Eurovision was cancelled. I haven’t been a big supporter of it since Dustin the Turkey was our rep. I just thought after that it kind of went a little bit downhill. There was a couple of nice entries the last few years, the whole thing is just such a big spectacle now but it has a really loyal fanbase.
There is so many people that love that and were really missing it this year. There’s this guy, Stefan Raab and when he heard it was cancelled he was like I want to try and do something along the same lines as the Eurovision. He has a production company and he is a huge German talk show host. He’s actually retired for 2 years but his production company only runs Germany, Austria and Switzerland so he was like look that’s kind of the best I can do, so it was only open for live viewing if you were in those countries unfortunately. So that meant back home people couldn’t actually watch it live or tune in to vote.It was more of a German Eurovision style but it was on the same level. I think there were 4 million people watching and Conchita Wurst presented it. It was still a huge production and a massive audience but its not really the Eurovision at the end of the day. They knew that and they made a tongue in cheek version and they made fun of a lot of the countries but in a nice way before everyone went on.
It was also terrifying with the social distancing, that was still going on over there although Germany is pretty much opened up now at this stage but they were still wearing masks going in between backstage and onto the stage.There was perspex glass everywhere and people were dressed up in these ghostbuster outfits with visors, but it was a pretty surreal experience. It was cool to be able to perform after 2 months without playing a gig. Even though it was only 1 song, it’s still nice to get to stand up on a stage and perform.”
It’s a tricky time to release music as bands and artists can’t tour to promote their tracks. However, Johnston has already broken into the Billboard Top 100 songs in Germany and the Shazam Top 200 charts for ‘Speak Up’
“ Yeah its good, I’ve signed with Warner Brother Music but we released this with an independent label. Actually I think it was meant to come out this weekend but we brought it out early…I think a lot of people were shazaming it and it’s got a lot of radio play in Germany at the moment so we will see how it goes. I think it’s really difficult right now to release music. I’ve seen a lot of bands that normally would release an album then do a tour and have postponed the album release so that they can tour it but then some of them have just gone ahead with it. Yeah it’s such a weird time to release music you have so many battles with trying to get things into playlists you just can’t promote the song without playing it live. It’s doing alright though, I think in Germany its doing great. Hopefully it picks up a little bit in Ireland. “
The music video for ‘Speak Up’ was shot in Berlin.However this was not the original plan for the video but Johnston has had to improvise to get the shots he needed including creating fake rain.
“Originally I was meant to film it in Ireland.But that was cancelled obviously so when I went over to Berlin to do this competition. I had to quarantine in Berlin for 2 weeks and then I had to quarantine here for 2 week when I came back to Ireland. So that was 4 weeks for a 3 minute and 21 second performance its ridiculous! but we were just there and originally I filmed myself with a webcam playing the song and lots of different clips. I put it together and it was pretty cool but the label were like we want an actual video so I put all that work in and had to scrap it.
I called up some friends who work with a band in Germany called Giant Rooks and Milky Chance and they go around with them and do these live videos and photography and stuff. They came over to the apartment and I said let’s just walk around and film. I like their style I like their vibe its quite personal and sometimes that’s nice just the personal introspective look at the artist. I went for a walk and they came to the house, played the song a few times, went out, walked around the streets, drove through Berlin for a bit and that was it. Nothing major but sometimes its nice to just have a look at the artist just walking around singing the song.
Actually we used the film directors car. He had an old Mercedes Hatchback from like the late 80’s or early 90’s or something.It was quite a cool car to drive, the gears are really sticky and it actually has some decent acceleration on it as well. It was meant to rain that evening and it didn’t so we went down to this sort of car park old petrol pump place. It’s in the video, you can see me walking around there where I parked up. [We] tried to mimic the rain and the lights. [We] basically just put all these random things into the car and then just got one of those car wash spray things and sprayed water over the car. There was a girl who had to hold this, I don’t even know what she was doing. I think she had to hold a light and she had a massive rain coat on and she just got soaked by this thing for 10 minutes. You do what you gotta do to get the shot but its pretty fun being on these sets sometimes.”
Johnston always looks confident and at home in his videos.I wondered was he always confident in front of the camera or is it just something he has had to get used to.
“ Oh I’m not confident in front of the camera at all. I hate it but you have to do it. At the beginning, one of the first tracks I released we did a video that wasn’t released [ for it ]. It was with some directors that wanted a group of people, a few of them were dancers and I’m rubbish at dancing and they were like just do some dancing while your walking toward the camera. I was like, what! get me a choreographer, I’m not a dancer. It was the first music video I had done, the first video I had done since I was a kid when we just filmed things with little cameras running around the place playing Lord of The Rings, but now I’m more comfortable with it. I kind of know how it works.
I have a good few friends who are filmmakers and photographers so I chat with them a lot about how it works. Obviously it’s pretty interesting to hear about it first hand and to be honest I’ve done it enough times so it’s fine.I just prefer being behind the camera but in the end its difficult to convince the label guys and the management that I shouldn’t be in the video. Although I’d love to be able to film a story and maybe have a cameo or something or just not be in the video at all but they want you to be in the video unless you are like an indie rock band.
It’s a brand in the end and you have to represent the brand, but then, Ed Sheeran, I think his first video, The A Team song, he’s only in like one clip, Hozier’s not in Take Me To Church. There are so many videos like that in the pop realms, because obviously when you go down into indie territory, rock music it’s often just a story. You’re not always going to have the band or the artist in the video.Sometimes it doesn’t matter, it is just an artists thing anyway. In the pop industry it’s rare that you don’t have the artist and it’s rare that they are not singing to the camera as well. I always find that a bit strange because it’s more of a hip hop style to actually sing to the lens. The hardest thing when you are on film or recording your own voice is listening back to it, especially with other people but once you do it and put it out there you get so much encouragement from people and you realise that people really appreciate when you do that because it’s not easy. Most people know it’s not easy. It gives you a confidence boost for the very first time you do it. It’s just the first initial get up and go that’s difficult. It’s like anything, like going for a run. Once you get out there you’re grand but initiating the run is horrific.”
Last time we spoke Johnston told me he had a new album in the works. Thankfully the lockdown has not slowed the progress of the album too much, although he has had to do a lot of remote collaboration with his band to lay down the drums etc.
“Yeah it did but it’s almost finished. I had one more session left to do that was cancelled..the ones I have done… my drummer, he’s got a studio in his house. So I sent him the tracks, he recorded some stuff, I sent some stuff to a violin player to put some things on, I sent some stuff to another guy who plays keys. Most of it was finished, half the songs are actually done.The rest of it, a lot of it has been done remotely and it’s really interesting sending it because when you are in the studio you can influence what happens and tell them what you want but when you just send something over to a drummer and say, yeah play on it and send it back. It’s going to be pretty cool to hear what they try and do to it. It’s coming along. I think it should be finished by the end of July. We have a session set up for mid July. I don’t know when it will come out but it’s nearly done.”
Johnston was due to perform at a number of music festivals and had the Last Minute Tour postponed which opened up his schedule a little. He has made the most of his time and has a few things planned for the coming months
“It’s not the worst thing, I think when I spoke to you last I was in Hungary. Those were the last gigs I played and around that time they were saying things were closing down and my tour was sort of being postponed around then so I knew it was coming. That was early March. I don’t know, you just have to make the most of it. I’ve been just writing songs. I think that’s been better for me right now. Just having time for myself, I think most people have benefited from this if you have a garden or an outdoor area. The weather has been nice so you have time to go out in the garden and get healthy. That’s sort of what I’ve been doing. I think tour life is not the healthiest so I probably saved myself a couple of years in this last few months.
It’s still quite busy though, I mean I went to Germany and I did that and you have to get up in the morning you can’t just be lying around the place. For me I just tried to get fit, start eating healthier, focus on myself and spend a couple of hours a day just writing. There is a lot of crap that comes out of it. After a while you kinda think yeah I need to travel and I need to meet people and go out in public and see things to find inspiration. I find it gimmicky writing from things you see online.I want to get back into the world. I think a lot of people need that. Writers, artists, musicians especially if you are writing lyrics you need to go out in public there is only so much you can do from your bedroom.
I’m doing a couple of these street music festival things. There is a couple around mainland Europe, in the Netherlands, one in Hungary again. I don’t know, they seem to like me over there, they keep asking me to come back. Which is nice I really like it there it’s beautiful.So I’m doing a street festival where they have a couple of small stages and they limit the amount of people that can come in and watch. Apart from that we are rescheduling some dates for September/October but I don’t know we will see what happens. I think things are opening up a little bit but it’s just hard to actually make a plan.I know loads of people have already set out tour dates but I’d be afraid of it being cancelled again and it’s just a nightmare when that happens.”
Sion Hill as an artist is gaining traction and his new single ‘Speak Up’ is a delight to the ears. He is developing his sound allowing the beautiful soulful tones of his debut album ‘Elephant’ flourish and blossom as he adds catchy pop elements and warm folk hues into the mix. Each of his releases have been tight, vibrant earworms. Johnston’s knack for sweet melodies make his tracks dangerously addictive. If his velvety tone, passionate vocals and swaggered personality alone don’t pique your interest then the upbeat sunny glows that surround his tunes, rich musicianship and irresistible hooks will get you for sure.
I had a chat with Alfie from Hudson Taylor last week about their new single ‘Favourite Song’, their music writing process and how they create those perfect harmonies. Between a little banter about the lull in the sunny weather and the shock of a bird flying into Alfie’s window during our conversation which was apparently “the most exciting thing to happen in a while” Alfie explained how he has been spending his time on lockdown as well as his inspiration for ‘Favourite Song’.
Five years have passed since the release of their debut ‘Singing For Strangers’ – which charted at number three in Ireland – and in that time the brothers have been hard at work crafting the songs which make up “Loving Everywhere I Go”. The album, which was recorded in Seattle, Nashville and Dublin. It features the hits ‘Feel It Again’, ‘Run With Me’, ‘Back To You’, ‘What Do You Mean?’ as well as current single ‘Favourite Song’ and went straight to number one on the Irish album chart. Hudson Taylor are also the first Irish artists to top the charts in the new decade.The duo put a lot of work into the album and were chuffed with how it all payed off.
“ Yeah it felt absolutely amazing. We worked hard on this album for the best of three and a half years, it took us all over the world and lots of our friends and family are involved in making the album and the whole campaign and lead up to the release of it was just amazing. We got to meet so many people that were listening to our music. We went around and promoted it all over Ireland. So yeah the two of us were so delighted on the day we found out.”
Hudson Taylor have taken their time releasing their tracks and although they have plenty of music and EP’s out there ‘Loving Everywhere I Go’ is the duo’s second album. They don’t try to rush their music but allow it to be created at a pace that is right for them.
“We had released a lot of EP’s in between our albums. So we have two albums out and I would say technically three albums out and then about eight EP’s which would amount to, if you counted up all the songs and you had ten songs on each album, I think we’d have six albums out by now. So that’s what we did to bridge the gap. Our label chose to do that while we were out touring in other countries, so we could delay the album so we could play to more people and release more music in the meantime before committing fully to an album. I think that was the idea but I think there is no right or wrong way to do it really. Some people may write very fast and might write an album in a year and they might have the visual concept ready and their music and everything else ready and they can do that.Other artists I think, yeah sometimes it does take time. If I was to say what are we going to do with our next album?, I would say yeah it’s not going to happen in a year.It could be another three years or something like that. I haven’t even thought about that yet.”
‘Loving Everywhere I Go’ is an energetic rich album brimming with vibrant passionate musicianship, utter joy and hope. Their new single ‘Favourite Song’ encapsulates this perfectly
“Well, the chorus was just in my head. I dont know why Favourite Song came into my head. ” you are like my favourite song” ( lyric ), .. maybe I heard it in passing or maybe I said it but it just came into my head.Then I put that to a little tune and wrote the rest of the chorus. Harry was due to come over, we were due to do a bit of writing with some friends of ours in the UK and just before we got into the studio I sang it to Harry and said hey what do you think of this idea, its called Favourite Song. He loved it and said yeah lets work on it with the lads. So we got in, the lads started making up a track and I wrote down a couple of the verses, the boys helped me a little bit and that was it. We sat on it for about 9 months and when we came to looking at recording and putting together our second album that song came into play and then recording it was a whole different beast.”
‘Favourite Song’ is quite the contender to be everyone’s favourite song this summer. The duo released it at a time when everyone was on lockdown and it was the fun golden ray of sunshine we all needed.
“We released ‘What Do You Mean’ prior to this that came out when our album did around February and we were due to release another single before we started gigging again in the summer but obviously that didn’t happen. I always thought Favourite Song would be a good song to release in the summer because it’s got that certain thing about it. So I was happy that everybody else agreed that it would be a good song to go with and then this happened. I think we delayed it a little bit just because we didn’t know what was going on and we wanted to give it the best and as much time as we possibly could. Other than that we kind of planned to release it anyway and it just so happens that it is upbeat. Hopefully it is what people do appreciate at this time and help people for a brief moment forget about what’s going on and maybe move around.”
There is plenty happening in the world at present and some artists feel compelled to write about the topics in the news. Alfie takes a personal and perhaps emotional approach to world events
“ Well, the personal experiences, kind of is new as well for me. I could write a song about what happened to me on a day where some world event happened and I’ll feel a certain way because of that world event and that will inspire my writing. I love talk radio, I love hearing people’s stories and telling my own stories. There would be lines in the album that were inspired by something that happened on that day or a big world event. I think all that stuff, if you’re tuned in and listen to the news it will affect you. It’s dark or moving in whatever way, shape or form and it will influence your life. I tend to write about things that influence my life so it does creep in, absolutely. Now, I have not been able to get Coronavirus into a song nor will I try. Really it will be more the effect it has on us all and myself and my surroundings.”
Music has the ability to relate to and move people. One song can evoke and connect with people in so many different ways allowing the listener to express their feelings through someone else’s words. Hudson Taylor fans bellow out their lyrics at the top of their lungs and I wondered what were Alfies thoughts on how his lyrics reach people and how they connect with the duo’s songs.
“ I think with most of our songs, certainly the lyrics I write have to mean something to me otherwise there isn’t really a point in doing it. Unless of course it’s a fun song and you’re trying to write something meaningless then that’s different. If it is a song that’s about something affecting you well, it has to mean something to you and if it means something to you it most likely means something to someone else. So I try and be as honest as possible without obviously telling everyone what I had for breakfast. Being straight up with emotions I think helps me to write songs and I just think what’s the simplest way to describe how I’m feeling now and often the simplest thing is the best way.“
With the gigs, I love hearing people say they relate to a tune because often it’s completely different to why I wrote the song. They have taken on their own meaning and getting their own story and I think that’s what it’s all about. I really like that a song I wrote about my partner could be someone’s wedding song and it means something completely different to them.I love that and I love hearing other people stories and connections.It’s something that is quite special with music “
This is only their second album but it feels like Hudson Taylor have been a household staple forever. In the twelve years since they began their journey they have gained a steady and dedicated following. But Alfie doesn’t feel pressure to follow up previous successes with each release
“ Some maybe yeah, I try not to. I try to write music that I like to hear. Often if I think about what’s on the radio or if you try to write a song that would sound good for this and that it doesn’t work, for me anyway. For some people it might work. I just try to write catchy melodies or catchy lyrics that I want to hear or that Harry might go, oh that’s nice. It’s just following your instincts really, thats usually where it all comes from. So in that extent I suppose we are able to know from the songs we have released what songs get played on the radio and what songs don’t. We are lucky enough to know that and that gives us a little bit of an indication. But then of course there’s trends all the time and you can be just lost in making music for the radio.
It’s pretty hard to do, if it was easy everyone would be doing it. So we just try and write music we like, that means stuff to us and then hopefully it will mean something to our audience and if our audience like it enough then the radio might pick up on it and if the radio pick up on it, it might get exposed to more people. I still like to think our music is word of mouth and that a good song will hopefully get heard. I tend not to think about it too much but I feel very lucky to get played. I just learn from what we have done so far and take that into account.”
Hudson Taylor have been doing a live stream each week which has been a great way to give people a taste of that live vibe. However they are no strangers to this medium of performance. They were doing this nearly 10 years ago to reach a larger audience.
“Yeah we started very early. In 2008 / 2009 we were doing live streams from our family home in Dublin, performing to all sorts of people all over the world and then we stopped using all that stuff as we got more busy with gigs. So now we are finding ourselves back on it. Obviously everything has changed but we have an idea of what to do and we have a load of songs to play and loads of different ways to play them and they have been really fun.
We have been asking people to request songs and we are doing it for everybody who has been supporting our album and would have been seeing us at gigs. It’s just something that we are enjoying doing and it’s just keeping us engaged in music and hopefully keeping other people engaged and giving people something to watch during these mad times.Its quality over quantity like how much do you go on and how good is it.
We have discovered that we both can’t play on Instagram, it will just be one of us so that will be more relaxed. Its like busking, I like it. The YouTube stuff is a little bit more organised.I think about them as if it was a show or if it was something I was watching on a TV show. The beauty of it is its live and its not too over thought but still a high quality thing.
I’ve learnt loads in the process. I’ve learnt with recording myself at home, like I’m so used to having an audience so now I’m just singing into a camera, no ones there and its the weirdest thing ever.I’m starting to get the hang of it now. I don’t take many selfies and I’m not like that or used to that so its been weird getting used to it. But we got there in the end. Harry has been amazing; he edits it all together and makes it so slick. But its been fun.”
Hudson Taylor have beautiful harmonies that no matter the circumstance they can provide an amazing show and their perfect blend has been something the duo have had all along.
“That’s our thing you know, the vocals and then us being brothers and what we both individually bring to the project.That’s our thing.We grew up listening to a lot of music with harmony in it you know Simon & Garfunkel,The Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys,The Beatles. Harry was in a lot of choirs and I was in a few choirs as a kid. Harry has always been the harmoniser. I picked it up over the years and I can now sing harmony but it took me a long time to learn it.The blend has always been there from the very beginning. When we started singing songs together I start singing the melody and boom Harry was in on the harmony. It was always natural and then when we went into our own songs, you know we can write a song thats good to sing harmonies too and a song that isn’t good to sing harmonies too that takes a lot of experimentation. But its something that we are very lucky to have.From the first time we started singing together that was the story. Harry has been great at it really , He has such an understanding of harmonies. Since I can remember you could be any situation and a song comes on the radio and Harry’s there singing the harmony. It’s embarrassing at times but its served him well.”
It was quite a shock at first finding out all the gigs planned have been cancelled however Alfie is enjoying the time he now has and making the most of it.
“ Absolutely, at first I was watching everything happen and I was in the UK. Things were going on in the UK and everything had shut down in Ireland. It was just a really confusing time, I was in a complete freak. I was told, yeah you’re going to be going… you’re not going to be going.We were due to go to Denmark and tour all over Europe. I was really worried about it and now in hindsight I just don’t look at the gigs I missed. I just don’t look at the festivals that are happening this weekend or whatever. But I’m enjoying it in whatever way I can. I haven’t spent this much time in one place in 10 years and thats been really nice. I’m with my partner and my dogs. I’ve never had this much time to think about what we have done. We are all grounded. For now we are going to keep on doing these live streams, gonna keep making noise about Favourite Song without leaving the house.I hope to be writing more songs and getting lots of inspiration and doing other things while I can’t be on the road. My friend owns a cafe I might jump in and help out with that. I really like the atmosphere there. I think it might be good for me and something a bit different. He plays great tunes as well. We are keeping ourselves busy with the live streams and that.”
Hudson Taylor have the deft ability to create pop tunes that are sure to put a spring in your step and a smile on your face. They blend emotive songwriting and lush harmonies to make enjoyable and rich songs that exude energy and passion. Whether it’s a live stream or a sell out show they are definitely worth checking out.
I caught up with Dublin singer-songwriter Isaac Butler to chat about his recently released new single ‘Paranoid’ and how he’s keeping busy during lockdown.
‘Paranoid’ is a great track filled with summer vibes, rich instrumentation and Butler’s sweet musicianship however the lyrics have a melancholic tone that candidly details the breakdown of a romantic relationship. Hindsight gave Butler an easier perspective on the tracks theme providing him with the ability to take an upbeat stance musically on the topic
“It wasn’t a difficult song to write, no. I think it’s because it is brutally honest. I wrote it in like half an hour. I wrote it on an acoustic guitar.It’s a really simple song structurally.It’s brutally honest so I mean I wasn’t really looking for places to take the lyrics from and Its probably the most personal song I’ve released so far. Definitely the most honest. I wrote it about something that was so far back in my past so I wasn’t still personally affected by it. It was a nice song to write because it was so autobiographical.
I’ve listened to so many interviews of great songwriters and artists that I love. Brandon Flowers of The Killers is one of them and he says that something happens to him and then he has to take time to almost process it. Like say something happens the day before and you write a song, maybe sometimes that happens for some people but it doesn’t for me. An event might happen in my life or to a friend or to me and I would come back to that like six months later and that’s when the song seems to come because you write it from a place of hindsight. It’s not like you’re really happy about something that happened yesterday or you’re really sad and you write a super happy song or a super sad song, you have that time to reflect and get every angle into it. It’s funny because you listen to the song first and you think ‘oh ! It’s a happy summer song‘ but if you put it under the microscope and listen to the words and take away the production and stuff it’s actually really cynical which I love about it.
My favourite songs are the songs that are angry or sad songs that sound happy. You know the Shawn Mendes song ‘My Blood’, it’s super upbeat and even production wise there’s big guitar parts and it’s quite rocky with a festival feel but it’s a song about anxiety you know, it’s a dark song and it sounds great. The 1975 are so good at it.A lot of their songs sound really happy but their lyrics are actually almost shocking at times which I think is really interesting.That’s kind of what I try to do.I think it went well.”
‘Paranoid’ has an insanely catchy, electronic vocal hook that just sticks in your head all day. Butler told me how he came up with the hook and the process of making the features the track pivots around
“The day I wrote the song I demoed it up with Robert Grace, he produced the song.He also helped me write it. From the get go we had that hook, the do do do do and that’s actually just me talking into a mic and he kinda messed with it on the computer and we built the entire song around that. I like to call it catchy but I think it’s getting quite annoying for people.I think it’s one of these songs that doesn’t leave your head so people are loving it at the moment but I’m gonna fear for my email and my messages in like 10 months when people are sick of it and want me to shut up.Its funny but I love it. The electronic production was definitely a decision we made early on “
This isn’t Butler’s first time writing a vocal hook or melody that sticks firmly in your head. His knack with earworm melodies feature in nearly all his releases in some shape or form and he clearly has a talent for writing tracks that appeal to his listeners considering his previous releases ‘Moon Song’, ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘Young Forever’ have together racked up over 1 million streams on Spotify so far.
“ I really love having a hook. As of late I tend to write songs around a melodic hook or a chant. When we spoke last, when I released ‘Young Forever’ we talked about the ‘oh oh oh’ and I started with that for that song and I have another song coming out called We Were Alone and I wrote it around a line that said and ‘we were alone oh oh oh oh’, you know I love writing around a chant. For me the whole thing about doing this is doing it for the live show. Which is a bit bleak because there are no live shows now but I love creating that atmosphere in a room or at a festival or wherever, so people can hear something and by the time the second chorus comes around they know it.For me going to gigs, that’s what I love. Just being able to sing along. I don’t always do it and I don’t feel like I have to put in something like that but if I can I do like to do it.”
Even with the covid-19 lockdown Butler has still managed to record a music video for ‘Paranoid’. It hasn’t been easy for artists trying to create content and learning new IT skills while dealing with cancelled shows and festivals this summer. Butler’s headline show at The Sound House is now rescheduled to 9th October 2020, with all original tickets valid for the new date. It’s a difficult time to navigate through but Butler has taken it in his stride.
“ Well normally I would have my good friend Peter Barnes who has done every video so far, but I can’t meet him now unfortunately. So I shot it yesterday in my room. I won’t give too much away but it’s me in my room and there’s gonna be three of me in the video. It’s like three little Isaac’s interactions with each other. It could be dangerous but no it’s good. It’s fun and I shot it on my iphone and I did it myself with help from my family.It’s funny the Covid thing has forced me to learn how to do some of the stuff on my own. I would have alway gone to Peter, let’s say and he’s still editing the video for me but I shot it myself. Even all the graphics for ‘Paranoid’ and the promo graphics for before the song came out I did myself and that was just because I was forced to learn how to do it, which is great!
I felt kind of terrible about things at the start of this because I had to postpone a headline show and had all my festivals cancelled, I had a Kodaline support slot lined up for June for one of their Olympia shows. It would have been amazing, it would have been my first time in the Olympia in front of a sold out crowd. You know it’s a similar kind of music, I think the crowd would have enjoyed it, I would have loved it obviously. So that was a bit of a kick in the teeth but listen everyones in the same boat and I’m in no way complaining but it was definitely a bit of a blow because I’ve spent the last two years building and then when things finally started to happen I’m swept under my feet a bit and that was tough to take but I’ve been productive in other areas. The live shows are gone but I’ve been writing loads, creating content and figuring things out. I’ve got a new logo made , I did my first brand collaboration with River Island and that was really cool. I did some live streams with you guys. I did one with Hot Press. I’m keeping busy you know but I’m buzzing to get back out playing live. I’m excited because all of these new songs I just want to test them out.”
So here we all are in a crazy lockdown pandemic and Butler is whacking out wonderful live and acoustic versions of his tracks on his social media with a sublime Ukulele version of Paranoid most recently. He is becoming quite the tech savvy pro at it at this stage. His content is to a very high standard with wonderful background settings.
“Oh I’m not tech savvy at all. I should be but really I’m not. I’m living at home and I’m the eldest of five so I have two sisters and two brothers and I’ve got my mum and dad here so they are all keen to help.It gets them off the couch.We’ve got a little stone sort out-house thing at the back and it’s really lovely for the live streams. It’s nice for me and keeps the content fresh so I’m not just in my room or whatever. It’s nice especially in the long evenings when the sun goes in a bit and I put up fairy lights and candles and it creates a nice little atmosphere.”
One perk to being able to do the live streams is that fans still get to hear some exclusive unreleased songs. There are a lot of comments from fans during Butler’s live streams asking what songs he will release next. At the moment Butler is focusing on Paranoid but is thinking of which of his many unreleased tunes is next to be released.
“ It’s tricky. I mean ‘Paranoid’ came out about three weeks ago.I’m still going to let that one breathe. It’s funny because you put in so much effort for the pre-promotion for a song and then you put it out and it’s out and you have to then keep going after it. As in let’s say for my first release ‘Moon Song’ nothing really happened for 3 or 4 months and then it got picked up by a TV show so there is all that kind of stuff, especially because in the initial push on ‘Paranoid’, people seem to like it and radio really like it which is great. It got 2fm track of the week with Eoghan McDermott and Doireann which was amazing and it also got selected for FM104 Select Irish for the whole month of June so that also kicks in next week.So I’m just going to see how that goes and ride that little wave for a little while.The video is going to be out hopefully next Friday, if not the Friday after, so that will be an extra little push.
I’m going to let Paranoid breathe a bit. Yeah I have songs ready, it’s just about picking which one. People seem to like ‘Good Enough’. See this is where it’s tricky for someone trying to establish themself..do I put out another song that’s like Paranoid or do I put out another song that I love, it’s tricky to know. There’s loads of new people liking Paranoid so do I stick to that style for the next one? To be honest, I think no. I think I’ll put out the music that I love and that I think is great. It’s quite difficult now to really establish yourself with the whole streaming world. You know the way people are releasing singles instead of albums and EP’s. I think that is great because you can play around with different sounds like what I have done with Paranoid.
Paranoid is a really different song to Young Forever. It’s nice though it leaves doors open.It means I can mess around with things. I was always thinking do I have to be confined to one particular sound or genre and I just don’t think you do anymore. With the singles I think you can bring out two completely different songs and it not be weird. I write lots of different types of songs and I don’t think I should suppress that. If I write a pop song I shouldn’t be afraid to put synths behind that or if I write a band song like Young Forever I’m not afraid to put out a song like that.You can do it all live so why not? You do run the risk of confusing people but I don’t really think it’s an issue. If I think about it too much I will freak myself out. But it’s going really well and I’m going to just keep going.
So what has Isaac Butler got planned for the rest of lockdown?
“Well the rest of the never ending lockdown, I dont know. I’m going to keep going with the Paranoid stuff. I’m doing a couple of writing sessions a week whether its myself or with other people just to keep building my live reel of songs so when I need them they are there.I don’t think I’ll ever be scrambling for songs because I have spent the last three years writing and I do have a lot of songs that I believe in and I think will see the light of day eventually but yeah I think my plans for now are just keep going as I am and look towards maybe doing some sort of gig like a social distance kind of Covid gig in September/October. Have you seen the Gavin James Drive In thing he is doing? Obviously Gavin has that massive audience and he is like super established and I’m a huge Gavin fan so I’ll probably go to that but I think I’m definitely toying with the idea of that but to a smaller scale.There are people who want to come to a show so I want to do one. Even if it’s like 20 cars in a car park. Something like that could be cool.So I’m putting my attention to that.So basically, keep the Paranoid dream alive,then the follow up song figure that out and sort the campaign for that and then maybe look towards doing an outdoor gig somewhere”
Isaac Butler is a singer songwriter who writes catchy, heartfelt tracks and it’s great to see his live streams present his wonderful tunes through the perfect medium that is his voice and guitar (or Ukulele at times). I’m sure when everything is back to normal his live shows are going to be hot topics of discussion. If he pulls off that drive in show I will be there for sure!
Stream Isaac Butler’s new single ‘Paranoid’ below
Author : Danu
Indie: (n) an obscure form of rock which you only learn about from someone slightly more hip than yourself.
