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A Chat With, Indie, Interviews, New Music, Singer/Songwriter

A Chat With : Sam Wickens

Photo Credit : Nathan Magee

NI Music Prize Nominee Sam Wickens has recently released his new EP, ‘Watson.’ I caught up with the singer-songwriter to talk about the themes and topics that inspired this emotional EP, how he crafts his sound and the cinematic videos that have pushed him to the extremes in freezing cold weather.

‘Watson’ is a wholly immersing collection of tracks that display a timeline of the darkest and most vulnerable times in Wickens’ life. Within this EP, he describes in great detail his emotional state, his inner thoughts, and how he struggled to keep his head above water. I wondered if this honest delivery made him nervous for the release.

“No, I think I was more nervous when I was releasing the album, the fact that it was so raw to me, it was more of a personal thing for me to release. It wasn’t just like oh these are songs that I think sound amazing, it was just a part of me that I was releasing, so I wasn’t nervous about how people were going to take it. I think everyone, whether it’s music that you listen to normally or something that you would never listen to, when you hear something so raw, you just connect anyway and you respect it, so I wasn’t nervous”

It’s quite a gripping EP. Wickens captures so much anguish and torment through beautiful musicianship and production. Each song is almost like a piece of a puzzle that slots together to talk about his struggle with mental health. The vulnerability and rawness makes each song feel like it was written at the time of Wickens’ suffering. However, in retrospect Wickens realises the scale of what he went through.

“It was looking back in hindsight, that I saw, as you said there was a bit of like, puzzle or a pattern. One of the first thoughts I got when I was listening back after I think it must have been like eight months of writing and recording a lot of the songs, was like when people say the stages of grief, there’s different stages. I started seeing that, each song was like a different stage of… I called it my downfall, into the worst place that I had ever been. So, with some of the songs, it was the first time I had noticed something’s happening here I’m going somewhere, and then it gets into kind of questioning, you know with ‘Murky Waters’, it was that kind of angry, Why has all of this happened?. Why am I constantly being dealt these bad cards?, and then with ‘This War of Mine’ that was the acceptance stage. I’d accepted that I’m not going to get any better, this is going to be the rest of my life, however short, it was going to be at the time, you know, I’d accepted it. Then with ‘Strange’, that’s the afterwards, that kind of awakening of it all just went away. So when we were putting the tracks in order it was even clearer then to see that it was this pattern which was an amazing thing for me to see looking back because you get to see the different types of progress, you know the progress that I was getting more depressed, and it was very evident, looking back, but at the time everyday was the same.”

“ In a horrible way I became externally desensitized to a lot of things, as I said from having traumatic experiences. So, as a songwriter there’s a level of skill where you kind of switch off a little bit and you can analyze it, and I have learned skills in that through psychiatrists and a lot of counseling where you’re able to analyze a situation, especially if it’s inside your own head. But where ‘Murky Waters’ came from, it was just the lines you know I’ve been wading murky waters all alone, and I was so angry when I came up with that line. Because, as you said, the realization hit me, and I was just like, why has this always happened to me. I try my best to be a good person. I try to help anyone I can.Why is it such a struggle for me to just be me and I was just so angry, but when I was writing it, the anger became a bit more because, as you said, you know you’re looking into these things all of a sudden. 3 things that were on my mind that the song was about became 10 became 20. I was thinking about more of these things that had happened growing up and by the time I finished the song it was quite therapeutic because it was like okay some of them things I hadn’t thought of in a while and whenever you finish a song there’s a sense of closure with whatever you’re writing about. It feels like right, I’ve given that time of day, I’ve thought about it,I’ve really fleshed it out and that’s what I love about songwriting anyway.”

Wickens’ lyrics are expressive, well crafted, and poetic. This is especially the case with ‘Watson.’ However my personal favourite track on the EP is arguably ‘This War of Mine’. It is within this song I feel Wickens’ lyrics are at their most potent, evocative and poetic. He sings, “In time ill find some peace of mind. In time, I’ll lose this war of mine” – that line alone is striking. It gives a sense that here within this narrative or this part of the EP’s timeline, Wicken’s gives up or loses hope.

“ When I was first writing the song, I was just sitting playing on piano and how I write a lot of my songs I just kind of go and do an adlib, I’ll just sing whatever comes to my head and then change things up afterwards and stuff, but as I was singing it, I sang the lyric, I’ll lose This War of Mine. I got really emotional just sitting in my studio. I think it was the first time that I had admitted to no one else but myself, by myself that I don’t think this is something I’m going to be able to come through, you know for the first time. Everything else I’ve had an attitude of, I’ll get through it, I’ll fight through it, I’m not going to stop. But this was the first time where I had admitted to myself through music as well which is even closer to me than just me as a person that I wasn’t going to be able to win this time. That just struck me really deep.But also the fact that I was accepting of it, I was like, You know what, I’m going to get some peace of mind, no matter what, I’m either going to lose and none of these problems are going to be here anymore, or, it will leave, and it won’t be here anymore. But at the time of writing it was definitely, I’m going to lose this fight, I didn’t think I’d be around so it was quite tough when I first wrote that lyric.”

This pain is heartbreakingly powerful throughout the EP, but I wondered for Wickens’ family was it difficult for them to hear his pain through this remarkably honest EP.

“My mother always knew. We’ve always been very very close and we’ve always had a very open relationship. I would never hold anything back. So she’s been in the know through everything, especially from when I was a child, she had to be there at all the counseling or GP appointments and stuff so she had witnessed everything from medications to me being tranquilized and put to sleep and stuff. It wasn’t nice, but it was normal and that sounds really weird but because it happened for such a long period of time it was normal for me and my mum to go to a psychiatric hospital or me and my mom to go to my GP to get medication or, you know, go to a substance abuse clinic and all these things. It became quite normal but I wouldn’t let them really listen to the songs at an early stage. So by the time they hear it, it is pretty much with everyone else hearing it. So I think there’s a bit of a shock especially – they hear how I’m saying things from a very vulnerable place and that is me and my music. It’s always very vulnerable. My mom and my dad, they would hear from just a slightly different angle like whenever you are talking to someone you’re almost afraid to say something that could upset them so you sometimes dumb it down a bit, but with music,there’s no limit, you can say what you want. But I do know it was tough for them.”

Wickens’ music doesn’t conform to one genre; it seamlessly flows between electronic, blues, and country to rock. His writing isn’t a forced art. He allows it to flourish and grow organically, sometimes springing off a lyric or melody.

“ If I’m writing lyrics with no music, sometimes, it would be, as you said earlier, poetry. I would write it, and there’s no real musical element. There’s a bit of rhythm to the poetry, how you kind of move the words around and stuff. I see what kind of perks my ears, a little bit. Obviously, with me it’s not really that often a happy sounding song but, yeah with my style of writing I wouldn’t be the type of musician that’s writing every day to improve the skill. Whatever I do write, it’s going to be true, it’s going to be honest and it’s going to be from me, and sometimes that takes a long time. I know one of the lyrics in Murky Waters, “I’ll just drink if I drown” – I wrote that maybe four or five years ago just that one line. I had been sober for six years, and at one really down point, I was like you know what if I feel like I’m drowning in depression I’m just gonna drink. Luckily enough I’ve never done that but I was at a very bad place and I just wrote that lyric down, and, four or something years later, I was writing Murky Waters and remembered that line and was like this makes a lot of sense.”

Wickens once said that ‘Ravens and Crows’ from his ‘All I’ve Seen’ 2019 album was inspired by a bird that flew into his window and it gave him something to ruminate on. I wondered if escaping through his imagination is vital to his song writing.

“Yes, but I find that I need something to kind of startup. Unless it’s like daydreaming, about like what if I could fly, I can imagine that but for storylines and memories, with me and a lot of times my songs, they start off and the first little bit of inspiration is a memory that’s come into my head, and then, that just takes it on. But with Ravens and Crows and other songs that have been quite imagery based – My family always joke I’ve got an insane memory, when it comes to imagery stuff – I just can remember a lot of details. So one small picture- esque memory, I could just draw it in so much detail I could fill an entire song. But yeah, I seem to need that little burst of initial creativity, and then my brain just takes over.”

Another mesmerising quality to Wickens’ songs is his ability to create instrumental backdrops of cinematic quality filled with unique and exciting sounds that reveal themselves on each subsequent listen.

“ That’s the one part I absolutely love about production, the atmosphere and the textures and I think they just add the sense of day to day life, you know, whether it be a wind howling, or something clanging, that’s a big part of my production. It came from whenever I was doing therapy, there’s a form of therapy called EMDR. Whenever I was doing it he’d give me two little controllers and they would vibrate left and right in my hands, and then there would be a beep, left and right and it always made me relaxed. So I started bringing it into the songs and having things go on left and right, and then that kind of evolved into every time I would write a song I would put some kind of atmospheric sound or some kind of textural sound, and it would just distract me enough to allow myself to be creative. I’m just building on that, some sounds are random. In Murky Waters in the introduction of the song, there’s this kind of clicking it almost sounds like some kind of weird bird, but it was actually my drummer, that was taking photos on a camera, and I just heard it, I was like, Oh, we need to record that. In This War of Mine there’s someone hitting a hammer. There’s these weird sounds that I think add some kind of difference to the songs, they’re not all the way through, they’re not, on beat, it’s not even a melody it’s just the sound. But I love that, I love building them up and seeing what you can create with just bits of randomness.”

Wickens has a warm, soulful voice that oozes vulnerability and confidence all at once. There is something quite captivating within his vocals. However, Wickens admits he isn’t a confident singer at all.

“Oh no, I am still not. I never could sing. I would say one of the best things about me being very depressed, was I stopped caring what people thought about me singing and I’m so happy that I’ve managed to keep it up. But I’ve struggled with my confidence, a lot, and when I first started performing, I would never say a word. I would go up when I would perform and I would leave and I would go to the back door, I was a ghost. Then people started liking that, people started talking about the fact that Sam Wickens gets on stage. He doesn’t say anything. He just performs and he leaves and I started to feel quite comfortable in that. But I’ve never really had a lot of confidence, especially within my music, and I’ve seen a lot of people talk about imposter syndrome, where you feel like everything’s a fluke. I felt like that, you know, anytime my manager would say something about my voice and say like, this is quoting him, he would say like, ‘you’ve got one of the best voices about’. I’m like, are you listening to the same person I’m listening to? Because in my mind I think I sound like a drunk 80 year old person that smoked far too much for far too long. But I suppose just getting older, you start to just be okay with yourself. I think that I’m definitely going down that path now which is so much better because you’re able to enjoy it more, you’re not worrying as much.”

Wickens has released a cinematic video for ‘Strange 24’ and ‘Murky Waters’.Both striking in their own way with the running theme of pushing Wickens to his limits physically to create the tension, drama and imagery, recreating visually what Wickens’ mind was fighting through within the themes of these songs and throughout the EP.

“Strange was the first time me and the director Danny Mills had met each other. I’d seen his work on another artist, and there was something about it. Whenever you see a videographer’s work, it’s like you can see through their eyes a little bit, and how they see the world. As soon as I saw his video, it was a song called OMG by John Andrews, fantastic song, I love that song. I saw the video and I just felt like he [Danny Mills] could see darkness in things and if he can see darkness in day to day life, he could almost translate what I feel into video. So, we met up, and he just sat down and was like ‘Tell me your story’ and we just talked for about an hour or two. We were throwing all these concepts back and forth, about the video. I want to go to the extreme for videos. I think it’s a way of almost punishing myself for the music, you know, that kind of old thing. But I wanted it to be extreme. I think I said I want it to be a mixture of the introduction to American Horror Story, and the canal scene out of Willy Wonka. I want it to be that kind of unsettling. Then he texted me one day and he was like, Look, I have found this location that’s an abandoned asylum, it would be pretty cool to make the video almost like a prequel to the song – so the song is about it all just went away, well what went away Sam? so let’s go back there. Obviously, the psychiatric hospital I was in was nothing like the one in the video, but it was an amazing experience for ‘Strange’”

The asylum for ‘Strange 24’ is a harrowing setting I wondered was it as ominous as it looked

“One thing that really made me a bit on edge was there was graffiti on it. Some of the graffiti was very twisted, said some horrible things, and as soon as I read it, I was like, I don’t feel as easy here. I feel like the worst things that happened here happened after it had closed. It was long filming. We were filming from five in the morning and we were finishing about 12 at night. It was about three days, I think, and then obviously the outdoor scenes in the maze which was a task in itself. We had no way to communicate to each other. So, I’m in the middle of a maze and I need to find my way back to figure out what to do next. I had a spray bottle to keep myself wet for the video but a lot of it was just sweat because, you know, I would hear Danny shouting Sam come over I need to talk to you, and it would take me about 25 minutes jogging to get back to him, and that was constant. So it was pretty tough.”

“For Murky Waters, I got sick badly. I used to do crazy stuff growing up…I’ve set my face on fire and stuff for a video when I was a lot younger, and I got stabbed in the arm on camera and this is the first time my mom was like, I don’t think this is such a good idea I’m a bit worried. This was also the first time that I was actually a bit worried because where we were filming was just south of a place called Downpatrick, it was right at the sea edge, and the plan was for me to get into the ocean or into the sea, and I had never been to this location before, but when we got there the edges were just jagged rock face. It wasn’t like a beach. It was the coldest day of the year. It was lashing down. The bath we had, we were filling it up with water from the sea, so it was freezing, also I would need to stay in the same clothes all day. So I was getting a bit worried. We filmed a little bit, but the bath scene where I submerge myself was the first scene that we filmed. So as I went in, it felt like my lung capacity had just shrunk. I was trying to breathe and this waters…freezing cold and it’s freezing outside and it’s so windy… As soon as I went under the water the shock reaction of taking a breath and I took a big breath of water and jumped up coughing and almost threw up all this water at the side of the bath … I was very bad, my body went into a bit of shock and I couldn’t stop shaking. In a lot of the actual frames and scenes in Murky Waters, you can see me shaking and you can see that I’m very blank in the face. That wasn’t acting that was really true. There was a lot of time where I was tunnel vision throughout the day. Where I thought that I was about to pass out because all my clothes were just soaking wet and it was raining and it was windy. It was just constant freezing weather and then the next two days, I was really sick at home. I was really really badly sick. But it made for a great video. I’ve been given instructions from Danny – can you please write a song about sunshine and happiness so he can film in Ibiza or something. I said to him the next thing is gonna involve fire or something warm. One idea that I had for a video was macabre. I wanted to be lying beside myself. Basically, one version of me is alive and one’s dead, and wanted to just lie beside himself, but a few videographers down right were like ‘we’re not doing that, that’s a bit too much’ – this is one of the first questions I asked Danny just to see how he would react. He was like, ‘ definitely’, and I was like, yeah, we’re gonna work together. But I do love working with him and I can’t wait to see what’s next.”

Wickens’ Dublin show has been confirmed in The Workman’s Club for Saturday the 13th of November and Wickens is buzzing to play shows again

“It’s weird I’m just excited. Normally I’m really nervous. Sadly I only got to play one gig. Like, after I took a bit of a break and then I played one gig, that was, you know,a great great gig, it was for a mental health charity. I loved that. I was so scared. But after that, I was like, this is definitely for me, I want to do this again. Then the lockdown happened but I’m just excited. I’m not putting so much expectation on myself. I’m just allowing myself to be myself and enjoy it and Dublin is just amazing for music. The people that go to gigs in Dublin, they just want to listen to music and to be in it and I think after all of this people are gonna want that more than ever.”

I wondered what advice Wickens would give to someone who wants to start a career in music.

“Do it for the right reasons, do it because you want to do it. I see a lot of people, and they’re like 15, 16, and they’re trying to be what they think everyone wants them to be or what TV wants them to be or Simon Cowell and stuff like that. But I think the best thing to do is be yourself or else you’ll end up never happy. I remember listening to a podcast, years ago, and the guy in the podcast said that he was given advice when he was younger to ‘Be yourself’, and he never understood it until he was older and he was like, Oh, it’s not like be a better version of yourself, or be a more theatrical version of yourself, it’s just simply be yourself. I tried to make sure that I took that in a bit earlier than he did. I think that’s what inspired me to be a lot more open about myself because while I was struggling and stuff. I was still pretending. I was pretending I was okay. But I think, just be yourself. there’s always going to be people out there that like who you are and like what you do and there will always be a lot more people that can see through fakeness. I think authenticity gets people’s respect instantly, even if they don’t like your music, they’ll respect that you’re being authentic. I think that’s one of the best things about being a musician is just being yourself.”

I wondered what Sam Wickens has got planned for the coming months.

“I’m not too sure. I know I’ve got a few singles sitting there, but I do like to wait a wee bit between releases. It takes me a long time to debrief and move, mentally on to the next thing. I would like to work on a few more videos, whether it be for new singles that are in the pipeline, or something completely brand new, and just see what we can do live-wise. I do know that in the North, we’re late, they released the roadmap, but no dates and stuff so we’re still in the unknown, but I would definitely like to do something, I love small gigs so if there’s a possibility of a very small, intimate socially distant, whatever it may be, kind of a gig would be lovely especially coming into the summer, you know, nice, bright nights outside somewhere would be an absolute gift, so fingers crossed.”

Wickens is a passionate performer and exceptional instrumentalist; his heartfelt songs and deft musical prowess is something to be admired. Within his songs, there are immaculate moments of heightened emotion and striking, poetic lyrical depth that takes your breath away. With each release, Wickens creates a world of his own where the listener is immersed within his story as he depicts emotion like no other. Sam Wickens is a songwriter to treasure.

Stream ‘Watson’ below


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Alt Rock, Indie, indie rock, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With : N.O.A.H’s Ronan Hynes

Dublin trio N.O.A.H have released their new single ‘Darkest Hour’. I caught up with drummer Ronan Hynes to chat about the new single, their collaboration with Booka Brass, and how they create their energetic sound. 

N.O.A.H. have taken their time releasing their sophomore single, letting their anthemic debut single ‘Shine’ breathe a little while keeping us all in suspense as to what we can expect next. 

“Initially, we were hoping to have the track out by January but obviously as soon as Christmas time was over and we went back into a longer period of lockdown we felt that it wasn’t the right time, that it would probably get drowned out by all of the news and negativity.So we decided that we’d hold off for a few weeks and see if that would have any effect and thankfully, it’s worked out in our favor. We released this at the very start of February instead of January and it’s been received quite well at the moment so we’re really happy with that”

‘Shine’ received extensive airplay across national and regional radio and was featured as 2FM’s Breakfast with Doireann & Eoghan’s Track of the Week – alongside N.O.A.H making their international debut with a featured live performance on Laura Whitmore’s BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast show. During a difficult time for musicians, the band managed to create a fantastic number to charm all our hearts. The band collaborated with Booka Brass for their new single, ‘Darkest Hour’. The collaboration elevates the song to new heights and adds a new dimension to N.O.A.H’s already dynamic sound. 

“It’s amazing when you actually think about it. It’s certainly something that we don’t think about enough. It’s very easy to get lost in these times, and expect things to be like they used to be but it’s nice to take a step back every now and then and see what we have achieved with the obstacles that have been in our way. To be honest, we thought ‘Shine’ was a great song, but we weren’t expecting the positivity that it got during such a negative time, then we were thinking, how do we beat ‘Shine’ or what comes next. I suppose we went with a different direction this time. We wanted to give our rock roots a bit more freedom than the more commercial pop side of things and we were delighted to be able to express that. Even to have the lads from Booka Brass, that was great as well to have such cool lads feature on the track too. “

“It happened while we were writing the track. We had done everything pretty much remotely. The drums had been recorded in a studio back in, I think it was June or something, and then the rest of the time was spent in our different houses sending emails back and forth. We were kind of struggling to find a certain element that was missing, you know, it was a good idea as a song, but we wanted to make it great. It was our manager that said, you know, it’d be very cool to have brass involved there. We were big fans of Booka Brass anyway because they’re so unique and it just so happened that our producer, Phil Hayes had actually worked with them before. So he reached out to them and from there, we created an email thread to get it all sorted because we haven’t met them before, we haven’t even spoken to them properly. So it’s quite interesting when you listen to the track and realize that, the chemistry is a bit strange, but it still works out”

‘Darkest Hour’ shows a more raw side to N.O.A.H‘s sound. It has a spiraling soundscape that conveys mental health in an extraordinarily intense and evocative way and feels as if both lyrically and instrumentally, the band dig deep in an attempt to explain or describe the vast emotions one experiences. Ronan explained to me how the band achieved this through the space created by remote writing.  

“Yeah, it’s a tough one, when you’re speaking about things that are close to you. I suppose that side of things is close to all three of us. So when you’re being, even a small bit open…,I suppose you feel a bit apprehensive to do it. But the lyrics display the emotion, and the music is kind of the armor around it. Sometimes if you listen to the lyrics, then you’ll get the idea. But then you’re almost distracted by the music going on as well. So it’s not so much focused on it. I think we’ve done a good job at that. It’s not something we were ready to dive into completely yet but it is a very important topic that we did want to cover”

“With the song talking about the whole getting into your head, it’s just yourself, battling yourself. So, to be honest, when you’re by yourself, and you’re recording this kind of style of music and having that deep thought in the back of your head, I think it almost motivated you to do the best take that you can do and ultimately, I think, it’s made the song even better.”

‘Shine’ and ‘Darkest Hour’ are a fine display of musical prowess. N.O.A.H are becoming pros at writing big melodic hooks that evoke images of arena-worthy shows. Their catchy choruses and energetic soundscapes have made plenty of people hungry for live performances. The band automatically puts that image in people’s heads of what to expect when live shows come back, and it’s getting people excited. This alone is a fantastic way to entice people and gather the masses for live shows when they return. Ronan discussed with me how they write these catchy hooks and melodies and how they are prepping for the return of live shows 

“It’s certainly something that changes from time to time. But, there is plenty, of situations where, say, Adam or Ryan could come in with a little idea or melody, and we will expand on that. Then other times, it would be, moments when we’d be playing together, through jamming, it would just come organically. So it’s not something that’s consistently the same formula, we’re lucky enough that there’s times where we could just come across a really nice melody, or it could be a case where we’re just really into a jam and something cool comes out, just like ‘Shine’ did.”

“Yeah, funnily enough, we’ve had conversations throughout the week, just saying, you know, imagine when we play this,live, how is it going to be received? And, it’s cool to think, even the “Oh oh “ parts, if it was blasted back at you, but at the moment, we’re still writing. So our main focus is to make sure that anything that we do translates to a nice energetic field for live, because we know in the back of our minds that as soon as gigs come back, as you said, People are dying to go to them. So it’s going to be a case that we need to be ready. We need to have the arsenal behind us to give that energy back to the people. So it certainly is exciting when you listen to it, and you imagine, but It’s a bit sad, because you’re just waiting to get that out during uncertain times.”

N.O.A.H released a cinematic and impressive music video for ‘Shine.’ It has a Stranger Things vibe, and I wondered if we can expect another equally captivating video for ‘Darkest Hour.’

“We hooked up with this up and coming director, Mark, JD Smyth. He’s just a really cool, really creative guy. We basically just let him have free rein on the idea that we gave him, the themes that we wanted to be covered and we gave him a rough idea of how we wanted it to be. Then from there, he just went wild. So yeah, it was really cool and definitely had an 80s kind of Stranger Things vibe to it. We have a great team around us that keeps our feet on the ground. I think, if it was just left to the three of us, we’d be throwing music out every week. You know that’s the way we see things. So it’s important that we have a team around us that make us think logically about things as opposed to just sporadically throwing things out there.”

“We were discussing it to see if we were going to do a video but I think this time around what we’re trying to do is just connect with people through our social media as opposed to just throw out a video on YouTube and ask people to watch it. So we’re doing different things with ‘Darkest Hour’. I think at the moment, we have a TikTok video that is in three parts, and it’s explaining what all three of us do in our mundane days. It’s a day in the life of kind of a thing. So we’re trying to be a little bit more creative and a little bit more DIY with what we’re doing at the moment.  We don’t have any plans for any major blockbuster videos for ‘Darkest Hour’ at the moment, but who knows? something could change next week, and we could think, let’s go for it.”

Like many artists now, the band has taken to social media to engage with their audience and release content to showcase their style. N.O.A.H have done a fantastic job once again with this; pacing their content and giving something fun, engaging, and fresh to their audience each and every time.

“ I think bands strive to make their name from a live point of view. It’s all very well and good listening to us on streaming platforms and stuff like that. But the real raw emotion and vibe that you get from a band comes from live. So to be a band that’s come into the music world without that element, it’s I think, tougher for us to gain the trust of people. It’s like what do we have for them to follow us kind of a thing. It pushes us to think, what do we have to offer? What can we give to people in order for them to give back to us? So I think it’s tough. It certainly is something that we’re wrecking our heads around every day, and trying to think of new things. But it keeps us on our toes trying to think of content, and not necessarily be musical. It certainly gives us a bit of adventure during the days to think about.”

The band are pacing their songs well, leaving us hungry fans on a hook and craving for more music. However, Ronan reassured me we will be getting a steady stream of new music from the band this year. 

“At the moment we’re just writing so much. We’re focusing on getting a few new songs out before the end of the year. So hopefully, we’ll have three or four more singles planned before the year is out. That’s basically what we’re doing at the moment, we’re just figuring out obviously, the songs, whether it be one that we write tomorrow or one that we’ve written last week. Then from there, the logistics of it, when we’re going to release it, how much time it gives us between them because at the end of the day we don’t want to jump too quickly from one single to the next one. As you said previously it’s a case that we need to let ‘Darkest Hour’ breathe a bit and kind of settle in, and then move on in the background, after a month or two and see where we can go from there. So our plan is certainly to release more singles. The dates for them are to be confirmed, but we’re certainly not looking to slow down”

N.O.A.H are a promising and talented band with a powerful, refined sound well beyond their years. Their confidence and musical knowledge allow them to create exhilarating tunes which exude deft lyrical content and mind-spinning rock soundscapes. Watch out, these guys are locked, loaded, and ready for some well-deserved world domination.

Stream ‘Darkest Hour’ below 


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Indie, Interviews, New Music, Pop Punk

A Chat With : Dara Quilty of Apella

Apella have released their much-anticipated debut album ‘1963’. I had a chat with frontman Dara Quilty to discuss the details of creating the album, his love of producing and crafting songs as well as the lengths he went to in order to create the right atmosphere within one of the songs.

‘1963’ is an album Quilty has been working on for quite some time. The album kicks off with Apella’s debut track ‘We Met At A Party’ which was released in 2016 and ends with ‘Point Of View’ last year’s release (with singles ‘Graceful Dancer’ 2016, logic 2017, City Limits 2018 in between). It’s a passionate album depicting Quilty’s journey since Apella’s debut. During this time Quilty’s love for production blossomed allowing him to experiment, hone his craft, and become comfortable with his style in order to create the compelling and dynamic collection of tracks within ‘1963’

“It feels wonderful to have it out there. Obviously, the circumstances in which it has been released are different. Usually, you would release the album, with a good PR campaign, a tour straight off the back of the album with a radio station tour and a press tour, and none of that happened. I’ve been in studios, pretty much my entire, well not my entire life but I started recording professionally, probably with my first band Fox Avenue. I would have been maybe 20 years old. Even at that time I remember when we were in the studio I was glued to Joe Egan, he’s the engineer who I’ve continued to work with all the way up and through Apella. He owns The Nutshed in Clara County Offaly. Joe and I have become really close friends and he’s sort of been my mentor in the studio in many ways because his musical ear is just astonishing so when we were doing Fox Avenue I was glued to Joe’s shoulder, I never left the control room. I wasn’t the lead singer of Fox Avenue, so [ with Apella ] I knew I needed to be the lead singer, purely not to have to rely on another person, if that makes sense. So I did vocal coaching for four years. Sinéad Flynn is my vocal coach and she is astonishing. Actually doing vocal coaching is like therapy. Sinéad Flynn encouraged me to do these exams and now I have a distinction in musical theater and performance from the University of West London. I’m not a musical theater person. I didn’t grow up in musical theater, I have no background in it. But I was learning all these songs, and she helped me to sing and get better at singing because some people are naturally gifted singers like Gavin James. I’ve recorded Gavin James several times in radio stations. He is a beautiful singer. I’m not that.”

“The reason I went with Sinead’s plan to do these musical theater exams…. because…it was so far outside of my comfort zone. The exams are, you in a room with a man who is 110 years old wearing a jet black suit. He is pale as the sheet of paper in front of him on his table and he sits there at this desk with all these sheets, you’ve paid piano accompaniment 50 euro so he plays for you for the day. Then you have to perform, whatever six or eight pieces. There is nothing more uncomfortable in the world than being alone in this room. You’ve got to act out the scene of each piece and you’ve got to introduce the song, discuss the composer and discuss the meaning of the song, the characters, all this kind of stuff and he’s just looking at you. He doesn’t have any expression. Then after you’re finished describing, he goes. ‘Thank you’ and then the piano guy starts playing. One song I did was, “Oh, Why am I Moody and Sad?” from Ruddigore, which was Gilbert and Sullivan from like 1890 something. The point is, it’s so far out of my comfort zone….people have fears about public speaking, people have fears of flying. When I was younger, my biggest fear was singing publicly. I think the most vulnerable a person could be is to sing in front of people. I don’t know why. I just think it’s such a vulnerable thing and I was never a great singer, so I worked hard on my vocals.”

“Over the course of this record I could have used autotune and just sound like Kanye West, but I was doing the voice training and I was learning how to produce properly and use ProTools and the more I learned the more everything made sense. Ronan Nolan my drummer is perfect. He is the best at his instrument, and I have realized the importance of that now with my knowledge of production, ProTools, and creating a song, whereas when I was 21, I had no idea. When you go to record a song there’s an assigned tempo. Then there’s the loudest beeping noise out of the speaker and you have to play perfectly in time. You think you’re doing a good job and then the engineer says ‘no timing, go back to the start again’ and you’re like what!. I didn’t realize until I learned how to do it where you can literally see on the screen, Oh god that’s way out of time. So, I guess it was, probably a four-year journey. ‘We Met at a Party’ came out in 2016. The album was done by 2018, for sure, then it sat on my phone for two years and did nothing because I had this fear because I put all my own money into it, I paid for everything, independently. I won’t disclose the amount of money that I paid, but I could have put a deposit on a house…”

“I’ve had the great generosity of the Irish artists and community like Andrew Holohan, who has directed ‘We Met at a Party’, ‘City Limits’ and ‘Point of View’, even though we did it on a collaborative basis, but even still, you gotta rent cameras, lights, spaces… it was just so much time and investment. When it was finished, ‘We Met at a Party’ came out and that did well ‘Graceful Dancer’ came out that did better on radio. Then I was like, if I release this album, and I don’t become Brandon Flowers of The Killers overnight, I’ve failed, which is absolutely delusional. I think it’s just because I knew how much work I put into it but I didn’t do anything with it. We released another single, we did all the festivals, we toured Ireland, the UK, and all this stuff.”

“Obviously, now I’ve come forward. I had all this personal stuff going on in the background of my life. My perspective has just changed. I was in New York and my friend Aidan Cunningham runs a studio at there called Empire Underground and we reopened the album, and basically remastered the entire thing. Everything just sounded better and I made a decision… to put this out. All I want is this to exist. What is the point, If it doesn’t exist. There was a comedian I spoke to Mark Normand, he was a guest on my podcast and he said hey life is a catalog just keep adding to the catalog. Make a big interesting catalog and then die at the end. I thought God, he’s right, so I just wanted the album to exist. We completed the post-production in Brooklyn, and then I decided, with things going on with my mom, that maybe I can use this to help, or I don’t know maybe there’s something I can do or give it a meaning, or something like that. “

The album is named after the birth year of Quilty’s mother, who lives with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer. Apella have decided to give 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the album to The Marie Keating Foundation specifically to help fund the outstanding support services they provide to women affected by Breast Cancer. It’s a really moving gesture as Quilty funded the making and recording of the album himself 

“It’s the money of the sales and it’s important to be very specific with this because Spotify pay 0.00437 cents per stream. So I think you need to listen to ‘Point of View’ 250 times for me to make $1.00. I wouldn’t have got CDs or vinyls made if I didn’t partner with the Marie Keating foundation.”

“It’s my art. I was doing the album before my mom got diagnosed with cancer. This is all happening anyway. So, the reason that I’ve decided to go for 100% of the sales is because there would be no sales if it wasn’t for the Marie Keating foundation so it’s only right to do it this way. And it’s also, you know, it’s not a cancer album.”

‘1963’ is an exhilarating pop-punk album filled with wonderful indie nuggets and electronic blends especially in tracks such as ‘Buried You’. Quilty has a knack for creating catchy hook-filled melodies that ooze pop sensibilities and easy on the ear charm while packing in oodles of emotion. With Ronan Nolan laying down the deft drumming foundation notably in ‘New Things Get Old’ the album is jam-packed with rich vibrant tunes. This album is by no means a soppy, sad collection of tracks; instead, it is a refined display of instrumental prowess and meticulous musicianship.

“Yeah, it’s not written about sadness. All I wanted was it to exist in the world, and I guess if you can do something with it, why not and if this flops on its ass that’s okay. I’m comfortable with that now. Whereas three years ago, I would have had so much anxiety. But if this flops on its ass then it flops on its ass because nobody can take it off Spotify and Apple Music nobody can take the body of work away from me because it exists. But on Friday when it came, just seeing Apella ‘1963’ on Spotify and Apple Music I was so excited.  When it was published to Apple Music and you could see it but all the songs are grayed out and it said coming January 29th, I thought that was the coolest thing. I get excited by the nerdiest stuff. I mean I posted today, a behind the scenes video, like the recording of ‘New Things Get Old’ and it’s just Ronan and I in the studio. I love the creation of a song. My entire childhood, even now, I just love watching the creation of music when you produce a mix or you know how production works, you don’t listen to music the same way as a person who doesn’t. Much like a classically trained musician experiences music differently to someone like me who would be a contemporary musician…which is fascinating. So I put up this video because, technically you go into the studio, a Pro Tools session starts empty. Silence, and then layer by layer you fill that silence with instruments and you can do whatever you want. There are no rules, yes there are rules in music but technically you can do whatever you want.”

“For Apella, I started with music. There are some new songs that I’ve written. I’ve started with an idea or a concept, or an emotion and I’ve taken that to the instrument. So I’m going to the instrument with the emotion. I’ve never done that before. It’s a new way of writing like let’s say you’ve been through a breakup. I know it’s the cliche hit song. But you go to the song with the idea of the broken heart. This is what I’m writing about and that will have a different result. But with Apella, I would compose everything. There are co-writes and stuff on the album not that many two or three songs I co-wrote with other people. But yeah I would do it all in my home studio, there’d be MIDI drums on there and I’d record all the vocals and guitars and come to the studio with a session. Then, Joe Egan, who co-produced this record with me, his musical ear is unbelievable and because it was mostly Joe and I in the studio and Ronan there was never any arguments, tension or ego. It was like, if you can imagine a whiteboard and everybody’s trying to solve a puzzle and it’s whatever’s best for the whiteboard. Doesn’t matter who said it or who came up with it but if it’s the best thing for the board. It goes on the board. That’s what we applied to this record. I might have a part in and Joe would say, that’s not right, I think you can do something better. That happened for ‘Little Bit Less’, track 11. The middle section of that song was totally different then Joe said, This just isn’t right. I think you have something better, and he sent me home for the weekend. He gave me a U87, and I went home and rewrote the middle section and recorded the vocals, with the U87 in my closet. I came back to him with that idea… Actually, we never ended up re-recording. The whole middle section of ‘Little Bit Less’ wasn’t done in the studio… the vocals and everything were recorded in my bedroom.”

“There are ideas or something I didn’t like on a track like an idea Joe would come up with and I was like I don’t know if I like that. We’d all listen and Ronan would say I think, that adds a lot to the song and whatever was best for the song went on the song. Ronan is the most positive person to be around. He’s so funny and he lights up every room he goes into. There were days where Joe and I were doing vocal mixes or recording guitars, but you know they can be 12 hour days, some days, we would literally call Ronan, because he gets all his drums done in one take and a second take for alternative parts, he’s so good. But he would come down and just be funny and kick chairs over and tell us we’re pricks. Ronan actually sings an awful lot on this record. All the high stuff, all the falsetto. There’s a song ‘Deja You’ and if you really listen closely in the chorus, you’ll hear Ronan, way up in the octaves or the intro of ‘New Things Get Old’. All the high stuff is Ronan he’s a great singer. He’s an angel. He’s a choirboy, but then he provides a contrast because I do all the other harmony so it’s good to have contrast and vocal because the texture is different. My voice layered five times, it’s gonna have a similar texture, no matter how you treat it so Ronan singing adds something different.”

There’s a lot of heartfelt emotion within ‘1963’. ‘Graceful Dancer’,’Buried You’, and ‘Point Of View’ exude heart-stopping melodies and meaningful lyrics. However, for me, it’s ‘Shadows Of My Personality’ that is the standout tune. This snappy glistening 80’s-hued track shimmers like a radiant glitter ball with sparkling electronics and zesty guitar flirtations providing an uplifting bounce through jazz-esque keys and hearty production. Quilty discussed with me the influences behind these songs and the interpretation of lyrics.

“They are personal songs for me and everything is authentic. The thing about music and I’m not the first person to say this, but lyrics are open to interpretation and you find solace in them. I’m sure you have your go-to songs for when you have a sad day or when you’re going out or before a date because that song means something to you and you sort of applied the lyrics to your life.‘Shadows of My Personality’ was a big one for me. I didn’t realize I was writing that song about anxiety, until after it was finished. That song was actually called 80‘s song. That was the name of the session. Each song on the record I hadn’t had an idea of how I wanted to approach it from a production point of view. ‘Point of View’ and ‘Graceful Dancer’ are clearly balanced. There is room in the songs, the songs can breathe. ‘We Met at a Party’ and ‘New Things Get Old’, they are clearly, punk sounding, from my influences from Blink-182, Green Day, and ‘Deja You’ is indie ‘Buried You’ was quite The Killers, so there’s a lot of influence on the record and for ‘Shadows of My Personality’, I was like I want to write an 80’s song. I love The Cure and The Police so it’s literally a juxtaposition of those two artists. My favorite bit of the whole record at the moment is the pre-chorus of ‘Shadows of My Personality’ because of the guitar riff because it sounds so Andy Summers and I really liked it. I was writing about anxiety, and that was when we decided to put the breathing in. That song opens with breaths, that are to represent the panic and the panic attack. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to breathe in time to a metronome. It’s a lot harder than you think it is. It’s very strange but that was fun to do. You can hear it in the track now and that’s kind of an acknowledgment to ‘Close To Me’ by The Cure, because Robert Smith does a similar thing in ‘Close To Me’. I think it’s nice to pay homage to your musical influences, and it just made sense with the song. So no I’m not afraid. I think it’s important that the songs are real. If somebody interprets, a song completely incorrectly that’s their interpretation of it and that’s okay. “

After touring all over the country – opening for Twenty One Pilots, appearing at all major Irish music festivals including Electric Picnic, Indiependence, Castlepalooza and Sea Sessions, accompanied by UK tours with Keywest and Don Broco, Quilty moved to New York City to work further on his career. 

“I needed to get out of my comfort zone. You know, 13 years on air, very grateful, loved my whole career, Ireland, I love this country. It’s small, and the fact that it’s small, it’s amazing. You can get to know so many people you can gain experience. I have pretty much done every stage from the Three Arena to the Olympia, to the Academy to upstairs in Whelan’s, to the big outdoor stage at Oxygen. But I was always the guy from the radio. People always start out saying you’re on the radio, must be easy for you to get your songs on the radio. It’s actually the complete opposite, because I was on the radio people go we’re not playing him he’s on another station. Then personally I wanted to expand and actually see was I good. I’ve had success in radio sure I got awards but that’s in Ireland am I actually good. So, let’s go to New York where there’s 8.5 million people. New York’s unfortunately been hit so hard by COVID that every venue is closed and everything has stopped but I was lucky that I had a studio that I built that I was able to work out of and Aiden Cunningham, and his studio in Brooklyn, that we were able to continue our work together over there, which is great. It took a lot of consideration. There was obviously a huge amount of work for the visa and everything, but it was right.”

With ‘1963’ released Quilty tells me he has other exciting projects in the pipeline this year.  

“ I’m back in Ireland for a while, we’ll head back to New York soon. I’ve still got so much to do over there. I have a new show with MTV, that’s out now called Stan vs. Stan, which is pretty cool. They’ve made it the header of the MTV YouTube channel over in the US, and that was all done in the pandemic. Eight episodes of that show and thanks to my ProTools and production knowledge, I was able to do the voiceover, do the comedy and stuff and provide them with broadcast standard audio from my studio. I’m pretty proud of that. Stan vs. Stan you can watch right now on youtube.com/MTV. It’s their main push at the moment which is just pretty cool. They all exist together – music, radio and production it’s all in the one sphere.”

Apella have created a sublime, engaging and energetic album filled with fantastic anthemic pop punk bangers.The effort and love Quilty has for music oozes from each song and his crisp production, passionate songwriting and melody wizardry makes ‘1963’ a satisfying listening experience.

100% of the proceeds from this album bought on apellamusic.com will go directly to The Marie Keating Foundation’s Positive Living support group. 

Check out the Apella behind the scenes video for ‘New Things Get Old’ here https://twitter.com/i/status/1356197080704950274


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With : Still Corners

Still Corners have released their fifth studio album ‘The Last Exit.’ I caught up with songwriter/producer Greg Hughes and vocalist Tessa Murray to discuss the new album, getting lost in the desert, and how The Good the Bad and the Ugly helped them hone their focus when they struggled to achieve their acquired vibe in the studio.

Photo Credit : Bernard Burmin

Still Cornors are a unique treasure. Their inspiration can come from anything and everything, and their free-spirited nature seeps into their songs, creating an intoxicating and luring sound that conjures a world of its own.

‘The Last Exit’ follows the hypnotic desert noir sound we have come to know Still Corners for; however, there is something more mystical about this album that completely consumes the listener into a world created entirely by Still Corners. This world is isolated, calm, and filled with subtle wild elements expressed through a unique and intriguing lens.

“We came up with most of these song ideas when we were in the desert.  We had a guitar and pen and paper and just wrote songs.  We drove around a lot, going down little roads, seeing where they went.  There are old buildings in ruins, old gas stations from the 50s with big signs falling down.  Strange sounds at night.  We love all that stuff so we wove it into an album.”

Talking about the inspiration behind the album Sill Corners explain: 

“We call it “desert fever”, it’s not a medical condition, it’s the sudden need to leave the city and go to the desert, it’s a desire for isolation.  This was the main inspiration behind the album.  The air, the animals, the heat, the ghosts, they all influenced this record.”

The atmosphere within the tracks feel vast and spacious. The pristine guitar, shimmering keys, and soft drums all seem to compliment this vast lonely space.

“A lot of ideas for the songs we thought of when we were out in the desert.  But we had to take that atmosphere back to the studio.  So I took a lot of photos and pasted them all over the wall to remind us of the feeling there.  Also if we were stuck for a part we would project on a big wall the Good the Bad and the Ugly and mute it and play music over it to help us zero in on the vibe.”

Not only are the musical arrangements mesmerising, but Still Corners are also known to have a sublime knack for creating suspenseful and mystical stories through their lyrics. In ‘The Last Exit,’ lyrics such as “I’ve been driving through the darkness, Got no destination in mind. And it’s a shame that I had to disappear. The last exit” is exceptionally impactful. The mystery and chilling loneliness in just these lines alone is superb. I wondered if they spend a long time crafting the lyrics to have that impact, or does it just come in a flow of inspiration

“Thank you.  It’s really a bit of both.  Sometimes I’ll be strumming guitar with Tessa singing over it and something will come out fully formed.  Other times we get stuck on a word or phrase.  When that happens you just leave it, it will come eventually.  Often the answer pops into your head while you’re busy doing something else, like walking or watering plants.  Your brain likes to overthink things, by doing a mundane task you can quiet it down a bit so you can access the reservoir of creativity better.”

The duo initially had the album written and ready to go but Covid changed a lot, including how it turned out. The pair found new inspiration resulting in this captivating version we hear today.  

“We trashed half the record and wrote 5 new songs.  The other songs were good but the pandemic laser-focused us and we were able to bring more to the table.  It made the album better.”

Tessa has a wonderfully smoky and haunting tone to her voice. I wondered if her vocal style was something that she had to develop to suit the band’s sound, or was it something that just came naturally to her?

“Thank you, I just sing and let whatever comes out come out, I’ve worked on it over the years, experimenting with various techniques but mostly it’s just a natural flow.”

‘The Last Exit’ blends various genres into Still Corners’ sound, adding new exciting facets and sounds for the listener to devour as each track unfolds. ‘The Mystery’ marks a more indie-pop tone in the album. It provides a lighter texture which boasts excellent jangly guitar and upbeat rhythms accompanied by chilling haunting elements while also showcasing the duo’s constantly evolving sound.

“We’re always trying new things and different ways to inspire.  We were driving around the Mojave desert and decided to deliberately get lost on a road.  I don’t recommend this to anyone by the way!  We thought if we couldn’t find our way back we’d just turn on our computer navigation to guide us back.  Well, we were out there for a few hours and thought yes, we are now suitably lost.  We had a sandwich and a drink and enjoyed the view.  When we got back into the car and turned our phones on, no signal.  We drove around a bit, no signal.  Now we’re getting a little worried.  It wasn’t until dark and a few hours later that we got back, it was scary as hell but we made it and thought let’s write a song about it!

The album draws to a close with ‘Old Arcade,’ a mellow track laced in lush, delicate instrumentation and rich, warm textures. I always find the last track interesting on an album. It can bring a journey to an end or provide a cliff-hanging glimpse of what’s to come. This song seems to take you off into the sunset on a nostalgic trip. I wondered what made the duo choose to close the album on ‘Old Arcade’ and was it a difficult task selecting the last song? 

“We had written the whole album but knew we needed something that would bookmark the journey the album took you on.  It had to have a certain vibe and feeling.  One day I was strumming and Tessa came over and was lying down on the carpet looking at some photos we had taken and there was one of an old pinball machine.  She just started singing over my chords, it was amazing really.  We recorded it and the next day when we were listening back to it we knew that should be the last song.”

Besides not getting lost in a desert, the duo gave some words of wisdom for anyone who wishes to start a career in music.

“There’s a saying that goes “that person worked 10 years straight and then they were an overnight success!”.  I think that sums up an artist’s typical career path.  It’s not always like that but most of the time when you look into someone who’s had some form of success you find they’ve been doing it for ages.  So you have to work hard but it’s fun work.  They say music chooses you, it’s really more a vocation or a calling than a job.”

For anyone who is utterly enamoured and obsessed with ‘The Last Exit,’ you will be happy to know Still Corners’ creative flow never stops, and they are already working on more music.

“We’re very excited to have this new album out and we have a tour planned in Oct 2021 so hopefully that will get pulled off.  We’re working on new music too”

Stream ‘The Last Exit’ below 


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Indie, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With : Keelan O’Reilly From Post-Party

If you’re looking for a feel-good indie band with a sound bursting from the seams with vigor, youthful adrenaline and lush melodies then Post-Party are going to be your next fix. By a chance meeting that completed the dynamic line up Post-Party formed in late 2018 in Dublin and have since built a reputation for their energetic live performances playing in various well-known venues across Ireland and the UK. 

I caught up with frontman Keelan O’Reilly to talk about the blazing new single ‘Being Honest’, the band’s writing process, and how dressing up as a female singer for a secondary school musical helped him overcome his stage fright.

“I guess, me and three of the guys have been playing music together for years. We went to school together and it wasn’t until we went to college that I met Matthew who was the final member of the band to join. Me and Matthew were in a class together and they were doing the roll call, and my full name is Keelan Anthony O’Reilly, and they called out on the roll, Matthew Anthony O’Reilly, and it turned out that me and Matthew had the same middle name and surname, and after class, I was confused about the situation so I approached him about it and we just started chatting. It was such a weird coincidence. After that we were like yeah we have to do something with this. This is a sure sign”

Post-Party have become known for their vibrant sound. Guitar and melody hooks seem to be an instantly recognisable factor in their songs and their high-energy indie is unsurprisingly blowing minds and gaining them fans with each show they play. New single ‘Being Honest’ follows this infectious recipe.

“ ‘Being Honest’, stemmed from a different song we had for years. I had been working on a song with the three lads, just working it through, practicing together. It came from a place of personal experience. It’s about the silly fickle arguments and things that happen when you’re in a relationship with someone. When Matthew joined we decided to rewrite it, and just finish the ideas that we had started on. When we got into the session together on the first day it became what ‘Being Honest’ is today.”

“ I guess a lot of the time the first melody you come up with is often quite strong and a lot of the time it does come organically. Sometimes things have to be reconsidered, and that’s all part of the process of writing the song but the first melody we come up with is often the one we stick with, and after that we get some feedback from people we trust, and see how we feel about it if it needs to be changed. We’re not gonna be too personally involved, we’re all able to be professional and decide if this works or if this doesn’t. So, yeah, that’s kind of the process.”

“You kind of build this bank of lyrics, and melodies, and it’s all in your head when you write a song. Then you decide maybe I’m not fully happy with this song, but you enjoy a certain part of the song, you’re going to keep that and you’re going to store that in your head. That’s where these organic melodies come from because you’ve come up with a melody, and maybe it doesn’t get used, and then in three weeks time you’re writing another song, and it finds its place and it just really fulfills that song, much more than it had in the original idea. “

The band have worked hard developing their music and building a fanbase through the live circuit. It is in the live scene where they bounce songs off the crowd to see how a song would translate with fans before they release it. This practice not only gains them new fans but also gives them confidence and helps the band hone their sound. So naturally with the lack of shows 2020 brought, it was a difficult time for Post-Party as they had to navigate through social media to find other ways of connecting with their audience. 

“Yeah, our favorite part of this whole thing is the live scene, and that’s been from day one.We just love playing music together in front of a crowd and an audience. It’s really thrilling, and just so exciting. That was one thing that we wanted to maintain when we are writing. So we always consider ‘how can we make this full of energy, how can we make this something that a crowd would enjoy’. It’s become very central to our sound, because we focus on making our songs youthful and dancey”

“ We started writing songs and playing shows before we recorded anything. So, we released ‘Love You Everyday’ in 2019. We had a full year of just playing shows before that. It was looking at the reactions from the audience to our sound, that would enhance our ideas on what was good and what wasn’t. That’s where the feedback comes from on the writing, you can tell straight away if a song is working once you play a live show. It was a perfect opportunity to be able to hone in on sounds, and energies, especially for that first single ‘Love You Everyday’. That’s something that’s been super important to us.”

“We see a lot of familiar faces. We have really supportive friends and extended kind of Post-Party family so it’s really cool. That’s one of the best feelings in the world and especially when you haven’t released a song and people are recognizing it from being at other shows and stuff, that shows that people actually really enjoy what you’re doing and engage with what you’re doing.”

“ It was upsetting to lose the live side of everything because it’s very motivating being able to play in front of a crowd and have an audience listen to your music. So it even takes away an aspect towards the writing of the music as well. But, especially, with the loss of live music, you know we would have hopefully been playing a lot of festivals over the summer had COVID not been around, but unfortunately now, we didn’t get that opportunity. But we’re optimistic for the new year, we’re optimistic for 2021 and we’re just gonna have to push the music without the live. It’s gonna be very different. It’s a different scenario. And it’s challenging but I think it’s achievable.”

“ We definitely had to take a different approach. I was chatting to Matthew, our guitar player in Post-Party about this and we were saying, after releasing ‘Being Honest’, we would have played a live show, to launch this single. So…we definitely had to reconsider how we went about promoting the song. Last year TikTok was the platform that really took off over lockdown, and even setting up a TikTok page, which we just did two weeks ago,to help promote the single because there’s a lot of organic growth on the social media platforms with everyone being at home. So we really had to consider how to engage people through social media, rather than through the live scene. It just takes a lot of thought and processing how you can achieve something like that. “

“It’s definitely a learning curve, and it was something that we hadn’t really expressed ourselves in enough probably. Last year gave us the opportunity to learn how to use the platforms that are available to us”

“It’s quite a competitive marketplace. You’re competing with your peers. I love all the bands that I follow on Instagram or Facebook or whatever, but you’re essentially competing with those artists. There’s only so much music that can get heard by so many people. It’s a challenge, it is very daunting but I think last year a lot of people have learned how to navigate it.”

Post-Party have taken the uncertainty in their stride and created cracking tunes and an impressive music video during this time. The music video for ‘Being Honest’ sees the band performing the track while some bullies set their sights on terrorising a teenager. Featuring a heroic janitor and a nail biting badminton game, the band provide an entertaining visual (along with some fun bloopers on their facebook page).

“Yeah, it was a very cool concept and our bass player Colin actually came up with the idea. He directed, acted, edited, he did everything possible to contribute to the video. He really knocked it out of the park. We tried to capture that energetic, fun feeling that we strive towards, and I think the ideas that Colin formed were perfect for capturing that energy and vibe.

“ If you’ve seen the bloopers. There are about 1000 takes of the guys laughing at each other. It was so hard. I think one of the bloopers Colin literally says in the background that it’s impossible…but yeah, at the same time, it was so fun and that’s the main thing”

Being the frontman of a band can be a daunting task. You have to express the song’s emotions as well as carry the band’s message. However Keelan does this with a confidence and charisma that highlights his passionate velvety vocals. Keelan explained to me the moment he found his confidence.

“Yeah, it’s definitely something that I’ve learned. I remember the first time I played in front of an audience, and it was the scariest thing ever. I had really bad stage fright when I was younger, I did a musical in my secondary school, and I performed as a female singer. I had to get dressed up in a dress and high heels and everything. It really just put me in the spotlight and I had to adapt. I think that was the moment where I realized,I don’t actually have to be afraid of stepping out in front of an audience and being myself or whatever, even though in that particular moment I wasn’t.”

“It was a great experience. I really enjoyed it and it gave me an idea of what it was like to perform and the enjoyment you can have on stage.”

Post- Party have played venues such as the Roisin Dubh in Galway, sold-out headline Dublin shows, toured Ireland, performed at Electric Picnic and Indiependence as well as  supported the likes of Miles Kane and The Sherlocks.The band soaked up as much of the experience to see how they can improve their own shows.

“You learn stuff, yeah 100% you learn stuff from every live show you go to. So going to any concert as a musician and as an artist you’re constantly taking mental notes in your head about what you enjoyed about the performance, or what that certain act did that blew you away. We never got any advice from Miles or The Sherlocks or any of the lads. They told us they loved the music, so that was a good thing. I guess just watching Miles Kane, he’s an amazing performer. He just pulls the crowd in and they are in the palm of his hand for the whole concert. As an artist, you would be analyzing what he’s doing to make the crowd so engaged. I myself went and saw The 1975 in 2019 and one of the things I really loved about the show was the lights aspect and the actual stage setup. It was something that we were really motivated by. It’s something that we’d love to do in the future. It was an insight into what the possibilities are for live shows, etc.”

Post-Party has set the bar high.‘Being Honest’ is a great track to start the year. I wondered what the band has planned to tantalize our ears for the rest of the year. 

“We spent the last year writing, so we have loads of new material. We’re super excited about it. We’ve got some new tunes in the pipeline, and we’re hoping to see if maybe at the end of the year shows come back. It’s all playing it by ear at the moment. We’ve got some stuff we’re really excited to share. For the moment we’re just focusing on ‘Being Honest’, promoting the song, and we’ll see what happens in the next few months.”

Post-Party is a band to keep an eye on.Their heartfelt energetic tunes are irresistible and laced in emotive feel good indie.Teamed with deft lyrics and guitar hooks flying at you from all angles, it’s difficult to resist this band’s infectious sound. From strong bass lines, blood pumping drums and blazing guitar lines to warm vocals and sweet melodies Post- Party are charming the ears of all who hear them. 

You can follow Post-Party on their socials below

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Post.Party.Music/

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/postpartyband/?hl=en

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/PostPartyBand

Stream ‘Being Honest’ below


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Indie, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With : World’s First Cinema

Following on from the unveiling of their singles ‘Can’t Feel Anything’ and ‘Red Run Cold’ in late 2020, fast-rising duo World’s First Cinema tease what’s to come from their debut EP with their new offering ‘Cold Sets In.’

I caught up with the band to chat about the new single, their brave decision to start a band in the middle of a pandemic, and what we can look forward to from the EP. 

Fil Thorpe and John Sinclair began releasing music as World’s First Cinema last year in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. This difficult task meant the band had to engage with their audience differently, considering live shows were not an option anymore, and live streams can be challenging to arrange. 

“It’s so hard to say for sure, but it’s tough not to imagine what it would’ve been like to release in a world, not under a pandemic. I don’t think it helped as much as it harmed our release. In our opinion, live streams are a really, really tough venue to force people into. They are killer for established artists, but we’re in these critical moments of building our project from scratch and establishing a very specific theme. It just hasn’t felt right for a live stream yet.”

The duo combines expressive orchestration with melodic pop vocals and unique rock production to create an utterly compelling and emotive sound. Within their tracks, the band creates incredible cinematic builds filled with explosive hair raising crescendos and sublime melodic flows. It is no surprise the inspiration that sparked the duos sound is movies.

“Thank you! We work hard to get that sound out of each and every cut. We originally met to make music for film, but it was immediately clear that we had something more on our hands. It was so fun working together that things really just spiraled out of control. We want to put the theater back into popular music. That’s where that explosive energy comes from. We both have such different backgrounds, but they combine in that unique way. A lot of soul-inspired vocals and orchestral strings, blending with Fil’s completely epic rock/EDM production. We both play heavy parts in writing and production, so the two halves blend almost completely. “

A remarkable aspect of World’s First Cinema is the band’s use of strings which glide and swoosh through the tracks with an elegance that highlights the surging and sometimes dark electronics. A wonderful example of this is ‘Red Run Cold.’ The violin has become a vital element in the duo’s songs

“Strings just fit too well with the sweeping, cinematic palette we wanted to work with. And John plays violin. So it was a natural fit. “

World’s First Cinema recently released their new single ‘Cold Sets In,’ a tender track showcasing clean cinematic production and refined heartfelt musicianship. The song’s emotion can carry you away into a world entirely created by the duo as they discuss emotional themes through the medium of majestic arrangements.

“Cold Sets In” is inspired by shared turmoil. The song explores how such heartache can bring you closer to loved ones. Through the lens of pain, we watch how starting over can become the most impactful part of a relationship. Strife can shepherd in both meaning and perspective as its silver lining.

One of the coolest things about our process is that we start every cut with a pretty open mindset. It could go anywhere – we know what we like, and what fits in the world of World’s First Cinema, but each song gets to sort of write itself. Love that.”

The track follows on from World’s First Cinema’s singles ‘Can’t Feel Anything’ and ‘Red Run Cold,’ which were released in late 2020, and have since amassed more than a million streams, with the latter topping the billing on Spotify’s Pop Rock Shot playlist since their release. Excitingly the duo have an EP planned for this year

“We do – can’t say too much, but it’s coming in a matter of weeks. It’s meant to lay a foundation – setting the stage for what’s to come from World’s First Cinema. “

Both Fil and John have a lot of experience in the music industry. Fil was a founding member of Neck Deep, the multi-award-winning rock outfit that also cracked the #2 spot on the US album charts. John (alternatively known as Saint Claire) has previously collaborated with Macklemore on his 2017 single ‘Excavate’.I asked them for some words of wisdom for an emerging songwriter and producer who wishes to pursue a career in music

“Don’t be afraid to pivot and change. You really have no clue what can come next, if you let it.”

World’s First Cinema are a genre-defying and exciting duo to keep an eye on. The deft musicianship, skillful production, and emotion they pour into their songs is impressive and makes for one hair-raising listening experience. I’m looking forward to this mysterious EP they have planned to release this year.

You can stream their new single ‘Cold Sets In’ below


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Desert Rock, Indie, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With :The Howlers

Since forming a little over a year ago, London’s desert-rockers The Howlers have quickly identified themselves as one of the UK’s must-see live acts. I caught up with frontman Adam Young to discuss the release of their upcoming EP and their UK tour set for the Spring.

The London-based three-piece have become known for their old school, gritty, desert sound reminiscent of Spaghetti Westerns. Their tracks feel like they could be the soundtrack to a Sergio Leone movie with an indie rock twist. Even their fashion sense reflects their musical style. An impressive impact to have for such a young band and movies is where this sound originated from.

“I don’t think it was a decision we made, it was natural to us. It was something that we were drawn to. We were all drawn to the iconography of the fashion and things like the 60s and 70s, and you know, spaghetti westerns are just comical and hilarious. It’s just the pageantry. When you watch a film like that, you know, that was filmed in the 60s and 70s, and it’s badly synced up with how the audio and the film is, and the story is rubbish. It’s almost like a parody of life. We really like the film scores from those movies, you know, Sergio Leone movies and Ennio Morricone soundtracks. They are just so emotive and we, as a band use our music to express how we’re emotionally feeling. We try and stay away from politics as much as possible because we think, every band at the moment thinks that to be a musician, you’ve got to be angry at the government. We’re all angry at the government, but people need a little bit of hope. So singing about, how we deal with our mental health or how we’ve gone through some of the most horrendous things we would never wish on anybody, I think is a refreshing take on it and so I guess it naturally falls into a sound that no one else is doing. Plus it’s pretty cool, to create an atmosphere on stage is a very hard thing to do. Everyone can go up there and jump around like they are at Wembley Stadium, but to create something that is emotive… bands like The Murder Capital, they do it amazingly well. They get on stage and express emotion in a very visceral way and I guess we’re trying to do that in a slightly different way.”

Snugly wrapped within this western – esque indie rock sound is the band’s emotive lyrics. The listener gets a glimpse of the pain and emotion Adam is working through. In particular ‘In My Apologies’ captures this perfectly.

“When it came to writing lyrics. Up until the more recent tunes that we’ve written which haven’t been released yet, they are being released in a couple of weeks, couple of months. I used to write by myself, I’m on the autistic spectrum, I have dyslexia and so how my brain works is a complete mess. I use songs as a way of expressing how my mind is just absolutely crushed or, you know, it’s quite a lonely place to be sometimes, and the boys often say that I pulled songs like ‘My Apologies’ and ‘County Lines’ out my ass. They just come out of nowhere but I just sort of walk into a room and go, what do you think of this I wrote this last night, and it was just one of those things.”

“Our songwriting, especially now, for the new material, we’ve taken the songwriting I had and was doing, and the rest of the boys have got involved as well and now it represents all of us and it is miles better. So, with ‘My Apologies’, I wrote that song the day before we recorded it in the studio and, I recorded it in one take. The lyrics came from a time in my life where I was realizing that I wasn’t happy and I met someone that changed my perspective of it and I gambled everything to chase that feeling. I wanted it to be quite raw. There’s a track that we’ve recorded that is as dark but I don’t know, sometimes I find it really hard to talk about my songwriting and art. I like for people to be able to just listen to it, feel moved in their own way. I think that’s quite important to let people understand our music differently.”

The Howlers have gained widespread praise from radio royalty, including BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, KEXP’s Cheryl Waters, and BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, Sophie K, and  Huw Stephens. In under 10 months, all 3 of their singles debuted on BBC Radio 1. It’s a fantastic achievement for an unsigned band to get such recognition. However, it wasn’t easy. The band had a tough time and a lot of fast learning to do within the industry.

“Yeah, unfortunately, because we had a bit of success that obviously attracts the more horrible people in the industry and we’ve been through a lot. People took advantage of that and we’ve just recently got back to ourselves. We built a team around us now, the most amazing individuals. The achievements we have with no major label backing, you know, it is amazing, but we’re always striving for the next thing. We’re not egotistical, we don’t go ‘yeah we’ve had this, we’ve made it’. It’s almost like, ‘we’ve got it that’s good, let’s go bigger.’ We will put in a good show and we’ll come offstage and we’ll beat ourselves up for like 10 minutes going ‘Nah that’s rubbish’ and that’s how we keep moving forward. Some of the best shows we’ve ever played, some of the shows where we got some of the best opportunities we’ve ever had, we came off stage and were depressed for like 10 or 15 minutes. It was just one of those things where I think as a band we appreciate everyone’s time. We want to keep giving people something that they appreciate and the same with radio and stuff, it’s nice to have that recognition. “

Since the beginning of 2020, The Howlers have been working on a series of records with Theo Verney (Traams, Fur, Egyption Blue, Pip Blom) and Tarek Musa (Spring King) producing and mixing as well as Third Man Records (The Black Keys, YAK, Jack White) conducting the Mastering. This collection of tracks sees the band deal with some heavy topics through the wonderfully expressive musicianship the band is known for. 

“To understand it a little better. I lost a family member to COVID-19. We dealt with it the only way we knew how to, which was to lock ourselves away in a North London factory, a windowless room and we just spent 9,10 hours a day in that room just writing music together expressing the grief and the emotion and helping us go through that period. It just happened to be at the same time that the Black Lives Matter protest was going on. So, we would go to and from the studio every day to sirens and chanting and people queuing outside shops in masks. It was this time when we realized we were going to be who we want to be and we just tore up everything and went ‘let’s be ourselves, let’s get back to being who we are’. We were already close anyway we’re unbelievably tight both as musicians and more like family than friends, we’re like brothers to each other, and the new tunes represent that. It is the first time that Cam helped with songwriting in terms of lyrical content. He writes poetry and I said let’s use some of your poetry. Let’s get it in there. It’s the first time that we worked on every bit of a song together. We are unbelievably proud of what we’ve done.”

“It follows the same line, what we’ve done before, same sort of sound, that desert-y sound. It has gone a little bit more, West Coast. So, you know bands like the Allah-Las, Night Beats, Black Keys, things like that. We’ve just gone, ‘you know what, f*ck it let’s just do our thing’ and from the demos that we created, we managed to get this team around us, which is unbelievable. I still pinch myself and go how the bloody hell did we get there. The tracks were mastered and worked on by Third Man Records in America and it was the same guy who did Jack White’s debut album, The Black Keys’ albums, The Kills and he’s working on our records and that’s amazing. So yeah, I think people are gonna like it. It is miles better than what we’ve done before. So if you like what we did before you can’t, not like it.”

With no live gigs 2020 was a challenging year. However, The Howlers have scheduled a UK tour this Spring. The prospect of seeing The Howlers live I’m sure has excited many, considering the band is at their most raw and compelling in a live setting. Although it’s difficult for Adam to be hopeful for the shows to go ahead.

“I mean, it’s definitely getting postponed. So, yeah, it WILL happen. When it will happen I don’t know, it’s probably gonna get postponed to the end of the year. All the tickets will remain valid because I think it’s right to honor the people that supported us when we really needed them to, but we’ll see. We are known as a live band and I’m buzzing to get back to it”

Adam explained the difficult times the band had within the industry with people mistreating them. It is a scary journey sometimes for a new band to find their feet. Budding artists don’t know much about management or the industry and that does leave them open to people taking advantage. From his experience, Adam gave advice for anyone who might like to pursue a career in the music industry.

“As a band, we’re not stupid. We’ve all studied music and we’re very clued on. Unfortunately, we have been through some stuff that made us very vulnerable and people took advantage of that and as a result, we’ve got ourselves out of those situations and now we’re back to what is important… us. My advice for an artist is, you don’t always need to have the big goals that people strive for like a label or a publisher or anything like that sometimes you can do things on your own. We’re very fortunate that we’ve got a really good publisher behind us and that’s all we need really at the moment. Be prepared for it to be shit. You know, we’re sold this Hollywood dream that it’s champagne and cocaine and it’s more like pot noodles and cans of coke. That’s literally it, it’s one of those things, but it’s the best experience you’ll ever have and it’s the best job in the world. I’m very fortunate. It comes with tears and breakdowns and unbelievable happiness and frustration, but at the same time, I wouldn’t change it for the world. So, yeah, I just advise people to know what they’re entering into, realistically.“

The Howlers create intoxicating tunes bursting from the seams with emotion. Blood, sweat, and tears go into every song to make the blistering, infectious desert-soaked sound we have come to love from the band. The upcoming EP is no exception. After listening, I was blown away by the band’s proficient musicianship. Keep an eye out for the upcoming EP. It’s a doozy.

Hopefully, the bands live dates can go ahead if so you can catch The Howlers Live at 

MARCH

18 – YES – Manchester

19 – Rough Trade – Bristol

20 – The Lexington – London

27 – The Rossi Bar – Brighton

APRIL

01 – Edge Of The Wedge – Portsmouth

03 – The Sunflower Lounge – Birmingham

06 – Oporto – Leeds


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Interviews, New Music, Singer/Songwriter

A Chat With : Shiv

I caught up with Kildare-raised singer-songwriter Shiv to talk about her recently released debut EP ‘Me 2 Me’. Shiv who is now back in Ireland for Christmas tells me how she crafts her songs, what sparked her to venture into a career in music and her new found joy for the family chaos Christmas brings.

“I think everyone’s really looking forward to the craziness because it’s been such a dead year, and coming up to Christmas you have time to relax, but it can also be fairly stressful and busy but I think it’s a welcome busyness this time around for a lot of people.”

Shiv has released her debut EP ‘Me 2 Me’. She wrote, produced and recorded her six-track debut EP during a year of self-discovery. However for Shiv the crafting and sculpting of this EP was more nerve-racking than the process of releasing it into the world.

“I think I had all my nerves when I was making it, if that makes sense. While I was doing it I was really apprehensive and really anxious and overthinking every lyric, every chord. But once I made the decision to release it and once I had the first single out of the way, I was happy. I’m happy with the EP and, obviously, I want people to like it but I was comfortable in the fact that I was happy with it myself. So I think that really helped, taking the time to sit with it way before the release.”

The EP is a great collection of tracks saturated in R&B and Soul with tropical elements peppered on top. Shiv explained being exposed to various genres has helped craft her sound.

“My dad used to play such a variety of stuff when we were growing up so I think that’s where the influence comes from musically. In terms of songwriting process. I like to come up with lyrics first.I try to write poetry as much as I can and then sometimes those poems turn into songs, but usually if I have an idea I want to get down or if I hear a word that I think will be really cool or phrase that I think would be really nice in a song I try flesh it out. Then I get down to the piano, play a few chords, see what sits right, see what melodies come out. From there then, it kind of flows. I’m lucky enough that I do have an idea of production and it’s easy enough to translate the ideas that I have in my head into a real song so yeah that’s usually the way it goes.”

Shiv shows her deft lyrical capabilities within this EP. She presents intimate and honest, accounts on a variety of themes from anxiety and longing to loneliness. I wondered if this feels exposing, releasing these personal thoughts into the public and are these feelings and emotions just as raw performing the songs now.

“Yeah, absolutely. I think that was part of the struggle as well being so vulnerable and so honest is quite a scary thing. You’re letting people into your mind and letting people see your flaws and your insecurities. I suppose it’s just part of being human as well. I feel that’s the best way to connect with people, if you are your most authentic self that translates and that’s what makes people connect to whatever you’re doing, people can sense the authenticity. But yeah, it’s definitely a nerve-racking experience especially during the writing process. More than post writing. It can get easy being caught up in your head and be like, oh, should I really be saying this should I really be exposing this part of myself. But all in all it’s such a rewarding thing and such a freeing experience because you know you are being true to yourself and expressing yourself in the most honest way that you can.”

“I guess it’s a processing thing I suppose. If you write a song about something and sing about something it is kind of, a relief. It’s like you’ve freed yourself from that in a sense, and obviously it’s never going to be perfect and the emotions are still going to come up but I guess it’s a way of processing the emotions so they’re not as raw. You know when you’re kind of anxious about something or overthinking something and it’s always in the back of your mind and it’s never really resolved, I feel writing and releasing songs, for me anyway gives things like that a sense of resolve. Then performing them afterwards, I think it’s easy to go back into that frame of mind. I can put myself back to how I was feeling but it’s not something that is overwhelming it’s not bringing me down or bringing me back to that point. I can still feel free.”

The instrumentation Shiv uses is light, bright and almost bouncy which creates a wonderful contrast to the emotive lyrical content. Shiv’s songs unfold and blossom almost naturally.

“I find it hard to picture in my head, what exactly I want something to sound like. I follow a feeling, when I’m producing stuff so even from lyrics, that shapes what chords I’m gonna play. The chords shape the melody and then the melody shapes everything else, so it fits in together, not necessarily all at once. Each song encompasses the whole feeling of my emotion, if that makes sense. Each song is a representation of whatever feeling I was trying to convey, just in my own way.”

Shiv has a degree in psychology which has helped her understand her feelings and emotions. This has aided her to express a true and organic version of herself within her songs.

“Yeah I did. I was going into educational psychology and then when I didn’t use my degree I thought it was a waste, but psychology is one of those things… it’s people you know what I mean and that’s a lot of what life is about. It’s aided me in that sense for sure. I’m definitely, for being able to process emotions, being self aware and being able to be real with myself and talk through things with myself…which is what songwriting is for me, it’s the talking through things. That background in psychology has helped me understand feelings more and be able to translate them from just a vague abstract feeling in my brain to a physical manifestation of it via lyrics and music.”

I wondered if the change in career from psychology to music was a difficult decision. There is so much uncertainty within a career in music and to take that jump is a brave decision.

“It was a process. Music has always been a part of my life. Like I said, my dad used to play so much music for us growing up and my mom used to sing with my sister and I a lot. I sang all the way up through school, I was in choirs and I sang with a couple of my friends. It was always something that I had and something that I always came back to, but I never really thought of it seriously as a career, just because it seemed unattainable. It was one of those things that you know, only one in a million really makes it but I guess the model changed for the music industry and it became more of an achievable goal. I’m so lucky and grateful that I have a family that really does support,they are so supportive. It just made it easy then to see that goal as something that I could possibly slide into.”

“How I really got started was my sister was getting married, and I was her maid of honour. I was meant to make a speech for the wedding. Public speaking is just not really my thing. I was not very good at it so I said instead of that,I can write a song maybe and see how it goes. So I wrote her song, which I posted on YouTube and I ended up getting scouted by this management agency in Dublin. That gave me the drive to start seeing it as more of a concrete possibility. I started off timidly and I approached it as though it’s still a hobby and slowly it began becoming more real and more solid as I progressed and transitioned into being a full time musician, which is something I never really thought I would be doing. So it was just a process, it was something that’s always been with me and then just ended becoming more and more of a theme in my life .”

Shiv explains it wasn’t an automatic or spontaneous decision to change career and because of this, the change in career was easier to process.

“Exactly, yeah, it made it easier to digest and be serious about it and get used to the idea in my head that, I’m a singer now, you know. If I just made the switch I don’t think I would have been able to have as much time to figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. I possibly would have ended up giving up before I could even get ahead because I wouldn’t have been secure in what I was doing.”

Choosing to sing at a wedding rather than deliver a speech is not the decision most people would make but Shiv was always comfortable with her own voice.

“It was something I always did. I was…I don’t know eight or nine, and there was this scene in my town it was called Shepherds Watch and it was basically a Christmas Carols sort of thing. I was singing, as part of a choir and then one of the organisers came up to me at the end of practice and was like ‘oh you should do the solo’. I was like what !, obviously I always enjoyed singing, my mom used to sing with us, as I said, and it was just something that I always had but I didn’t really think I was talented at. After I did that solo and I loved it so much, I loved the performance aspect of it. It developed into something more serious for me.I could recognise that it was something that I was good at and something that I really enjoyed doing.”

I was interested to know of Shiv’s experience with DJing and how this aided her production skills. She explains how DJing gave her the foundation she needed to produce her own songs.

“Yeah, absolutely. I did DJing for a while as it was a great way to make money. It was also a lovely way to be able to express myself in a musical form that’s not necessarily singing because I didn’t think that was a real option. So it was a really nice way to get a sideways door into the music world and made me feel I could teach myself or learn how to produce because that falls on the more technical end of music, I just played instruments, but I didn’t really know that much about production. DJing was definitely a nice stepping stone”

Shiv has also travelled quite a lot while she was creating this EP, travelling from Paris to Mozambique and this travel gave her the space and time she required to tap into her creativity. 

“Yeah I think so, when I went to Mozambique…my parents live over there and it was just around the time when I was starting to consider taking music seriously. I had written one or two songs but there was nothing that I felt confident enough to release. I was in Dublin and I was working as a waitress and doing the mid 20s thing of you know; working, going out and kind of the same thing over and over. So, my parents said take a break from work come stay with us and see what happens, give yourself six weeks, completely immerse yourself in music and just see what comes out. So I had the six week period of just writing…it wasn’t even necessarily a case of wanting to experience Mozambique or particularly to do with the country or where I was, but it was just the opportunity to get familiar with how I wanted to represent myself I guess musically. So yeah, that was that and then Paris. Yeah, Paris has definitely been an influence. I moved there last year and just having different environments and seeing different things and being around different people. It makes your brain, see things in a different way and think about things in a different way as well. I think it’s really important to take yourself out of your usual environment because it allows you to let different things come out. So yeah, I feel travelling definitely was an influence and driving factor”

The ‘Me 2 Me’ EP discusses anxiety, especially ‘Letting You Go’. It’s a personal note to Shiv to release the overwhelming grip of deep-rooted anxiety. I wondered if she had that anxiety travelling, and how she overcame it. 

“Yeah I did. I guess I’ve always been an anxious person. I do feel as a general rule our fast paced way of living doesn’t allow for you not to be anxious. After I’d released my first couple of songs, I hadn’t really been expecting anything to come from them and I was just excited and was like I just need someone else to hear them. They surprisingly got a really good reception, and that was amazing. But in another sense it was also crippling because before I was just writing for myself and I didn’t have any expectations. Whatever I put out was what I put out and it didn’t really matter because if no one heard it I’d be in the exact same position that I was before. But after I put out my first couple of tracks I felt a bit more pressure and I felt I had something to prove and that’s where it came out, when I tried to create….because I didn’t feel as free as I did before. I felt a bit more in my head about things and oh you know if I make this then it’s not really like this song that people seem to like, maybe I need to make more of that. So yeah, that’s where that came from. Writing the songs helped me work through that because I guess that’s what a lot of them are like, the EP is essentially a diary entry from me to me.”

I asked when we can finally get back to doing shows again, what can people expect from Shiv’s live performances.

“I’m still working on what I want to do. I do want to incorporate some live looping and stuff like that into my shows but at the moment, my setup is with the live band, which is great. It’s so lovely to have other people to bounce energy off as well.”

Shiv’s path to music is an intruiging one which has allowed her to indulge in her creativity and experience different countries and cultures. I wondered what advice she would give to anyone who wants to pursue a career in music.

“Take the time to familiarise yourself with the different technologies that exist. It’s so much more accessible now than it used to be a couple of years ago. Get familiar with GarageBand and that kind of production stuff, so that you can support yourself and move yourself through music without having to rely or depend on anyone else. Invest in a microphone so you can get your own demos going and mess around with stuff and just feel free to create. Also just be patient with yourself, that’s a big thing that I’ve taken away from this last year. Just be prepared that possibly not everything is going to be perfect, not everything is going to be amazing and that’s just part of the process. Be comfortable with failure and expect the failure and not to judge too much… try not to judge it and allow what’s going to come out, come out.”

Shiv has some exciting thing coming up next year so stay tuned to her socials

“Next year I have my first headline show, that’s going to be in April. I’m really looking forward to that and then I’m hoping for an album, that’s my aim. I’d love to have an album before the end of 2021. Hopefully when things get back to normal I’d love to be performing and possibly a tour but, who knows it’s difficult to say for sure what’s gonna happen in the next few months.”

Shiv creates deeply emotive and passionate tracks surrounded in lush tender soundscapes. Her ability to touch the soul with her silken voice and heartfelt lyrics is mesmerising and marks her as an artist to keep an eye on. Along with her charming persona and magnificent production skills there is something very special about Shiv. 

Stream ‘Me 2 Me’ below


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With : Mal Tuohy from The Riptide Movement

I caught up with Mal Tuohy from The Riptide Movement to talk about their latest release ‘Turn on the Lights’ which is featured on the current Guinness campaign #KeepTheLightsOn. After some chat about our preparations for Christmas and the new vaccines being rolled out we discuss how the track was written and what brought about its use for the #KeepTheLightsOn campaign. 

‘‘We got contacted by someone from Guinness, they were telling us about the campaign that they had planned and that our song was perfect for it. They talked us through the campaign highlighting all the pubs and in particular the family pubs around the country that have been affected by the COVID restrictions and have been closed down.They wanted to do a campaign that was uplifting and they thought our song was perfect for it really, which we agreed with. The song itself, taps into that feeling that everybody has had this year where everything has been shut down and everybody’s at home and haven’t got to see their families and stuff and I think that whole message of turn on the lights, is a really uplifting message that was perfect for the Guinness campaign and perfect for the times we are in. It’s funny because we recorded that song four years ago and we released it this time four years ago. We all thought it would be a great Christmas song and it never really took off when we released it, not like other songs on that album, ‘Elephant In The Room’ really took off but ‘Turn On The Lights’ didn’t. I’m a big believer in timing and this song is more relevant today than it ever was, even the video for it is as well. The video was made around Christmas time four years ago. This time four years ago, it was shot around Dublin, and it highlights Dublin at Christmas in pre-COVID times. So it’s nostalgic to look at it now and it actually makes more sense now in a mad way than it did four years ago,”

The fact that ‘Turn on the Lights’ featured as part of the 2016 ‘Ghosts’ album shows how timeless the track is, as well as showcasing sometimes, all a great song needs is time to grow legs.  

“Definitely, yeah, and the great thing with that song is the journey it took as well because with the song there’s a few other writers involved, it was not only just the band. I was on a writer’s retreat five years ago with an English writer who invited me to it, Kat Williams ( Kathryn Williams ). Basically songwriters spend a week together and write songs and one of the songs Kat was showing me was this song called ‘Turn On The Lights’ and she was showing it to me on the phone. It was actually called ‘Same Time Every Year’, I think that was the original song and I thought it was great. We had kind of forgotten about it and then she came over to support us for a few gigs in Whelan’s back in December 2015 just before we went to Texas to record ‘Ghosts’. She showed us the song again and all the lads in the band loved it as well. When we were doing the album out in Texas, we were putting all our ideas together and the whole album was taking shape. Ted ( Ted Hutt ), our producer, asked us, had we any other ideas that could tie into the whole feel of the album, and we said we’ve got a song that was written by three other writers that we like. We showed him the phone recording, and he loved it. So what we did then is we rearranged it, and we added our own bit to it as well. So we kind of wrote it as well with them. So, all in all, there’s actually eight writers on the song. It’s brilliant, and it’s great because we’ve never done that before, had so many writers on one song, and it just happened organically and we had the Suso Gospel Choir sing on it. We recorded it all in Texas, and we got the choir to sing on it in Windmill Lane Studios when we got back from Texas. We put out the song four years ago and there was no real interest in it. Here we are four years later and it’s used in a Guinness ad. It’s great.”

The Riptide Movement are pretty good at Christmas songwriting. Last year the band released ‘All I Ever Wanted’, a heartfelt Christmas tune laced with luscious melodies. It’s not easy to write a Christmas song. It can be difficult to create the right recipe of atmosphere, heartwarming feeling, sense of sad/jolly undertones and inner reflection. However the band have achieved this. I wondered if they find it easy to write a Christmas song.

“No, not at all. With “Turn On The Lights”, it was definitely a Christmas song. The first original version of that song from the phone recording that was the idea – trying to make it home for Christmas because there’s a line ‘There was a place for me, an empty chair waiting for me to take it’ – so it’s that idea of trying to make it back for Christmas and if you don’t, there’s going to be an empty chair around the table at Christmas and then it’s that idea as well when we lose loved ones there’s always an empty chair around the table where, that loved one used to sit for Christmas dinner. That song was always like a Christmas song. We have to give credit for the lyrics to Kat Williams, Joel Sarakula and Josh Kumra, brilliant songwriters in their own right. They are singer songwriters so their craft is lyrics and they wrote a majority of the lyrics for the song.”

‘All I Ever Wanted’ it’s like a day in the life, kind of a song. It just happened to be on Christmas Eve on Grafton Street, it wasn’t set out to be a Christmas song. It was just depicting the day if that makes sense and it happened to be Christmas Eve. So we didn’t actually sit down to write Christmas songs, it just happens”

Everyone finds something different that hooks them into a song, whether it’s a melody, riff or beat and for me, with ‘Turn on the Lights’ it was how the band ended each line in the verse with a sort of dramatic dum dum part in the instrumentation.

” It was actually one of the toughest songs to record. When we were doing the whole album it took the most time because of the timing, it’s not a 4/4 timing, it’s an off beat time. Even where the vocals start and where they end, they come in at times where, for me anyway, where I would normally put the phrasing in, if that makes sense. A lot of that would come down to Ted, the producer because he had a vision for the way it should sound, and I think Ted should really take credit for the way it sounds and that’s really cool that your ear was drawn to that so he’s gonna be delighted to hear that.”

I wondered did Mal find it difficult to sing ‘Turn on the Lights’ considering the arrangement is not what he is used to.

” Usually a lot of our songs I would write them, so the phrasing, and where the vocal comes in and goes out would be my natural rhythm. The way I just naturally sing it or naturally come in at certain parts where it feels right. So, this song was a real challenge for me because it was on a different timing and it was the way Ted envisioned that it should be. When I was in the studio trying to drop the vocals it took a long time for me to drop them because my instincts were telling me to come in at different parts, and I had to restrain myself from doing it. I suppose when you’re making an album, writing an album, and recording it, you don’t really have the benefit of having played it live for three months or six months… so it did. The songs are new, and it takes time to find the flow of where everything is supposed to bed in.”

Last time I spoke to Mal he mentioned that next year will mark The Riptide Movement’s 15th year as a band. I was delighted to hear they have some big plans ahead with or without a vaccine.

“We’ll probably start planning for shows later in the summer, I imagine. In terms of playing live we have to base it around the vaccine being rolled out so we will probably play it by ear next year and see how that pans out instead of booking and that might not go ahead. But that’s only one part of it. We’re doing stuff with the National Symphony Orchestra so we’re gonna be releasing some of that next year…We’ve some cool ideas around the 15 year anniversary of the band being together.. As I say, we’ve done some stuff with the National Symphony Orchestra which sounds really cool and can’t wait for people to hear that. We’ve done two songs with them so far and they’re rearrangements of our songs with the Orchestra, it just sounds beautiful. So it’s stuff like that and releasing behind the scenes stuff from albums that we made over the years. It’s gonna be a lot of focus on that for next year. In terms of gigs that will come secondary based around how things are going to roll out next year and if we’re allowed to go back to the way gigs were.” 

We are all looking forward to the return of live shows but I couldn’t help but think there must be some consequences or casualties to this year. I asked Mal if he thought the industry will actually come back to the same level as it was pre- Covid. Will we have the same venues we had in previous years or will a few talented bands and artists not survive the strain of this year. 

“I’d say there will be to be honest, some bands and some artists might move out of the industry because it’s a tough industry to make a living in anyway. But in saying that you are always going to have art and you are always going to have artists and you are always going to have musicians that want to play, and want to release albums and the same for venues. I think the idea of a venue is going to change from this whole COVID experience. It’s not just going to be your standard venue – a stage, a large room and a bar. I think people want something more. I can see gigs moving into nice spaces like churches and heritage buildings and different venues that are exciting for the punter as well. But I imagine some venues won’t be here after all this, but other ones will open up and it will be an evolution of the whole industry.”

” I think once COVID goes away it will definitely go back to normal, go back to mosh pits and full rooms, there’d be no reason not to because there’d be no threat of people getting sick. I imagine next year, they’d be just rolling out the vaccines and we will still be practicing social distancing until we get past COVID but I reckon, maybe 2022 will be a throwback to the oldest type of gigs with packed rooms and mosh pits.”

‘Turn on the Lights’ is a heart-warming and passionate single that seems to have been written ahead of its time. It’s uplifting and tender message expressed through evocative lyrics makes the track a timeless Christmas gem.

Watch the video for ‘Turn on the Lights’ below


Author : Danu