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

A Chat With : Lucy Gaffney

I caught up with Lucy Gaffney. We talked about how she became comfortable as a solo artist, her inspirations and how she wrote and recorded her new single ‘Send Me Away’.

Hailing from Belfast, the now Liverpool based, Irish songwriter has released her new single ‘Send Me Away’, via Frictionless Music.The track was produced by The Coral’s James Skelly, positioning her as a rising artist in the fertile Northern English indie scene. Featuring on the track alongside Lucy is Thom Southern (Electric Guitar, Bass) and Jim Sharrock(Drums).

“The reaction has been amazing, the radio play as well there’s been so much support from radio stations.I only released my first single, back a couple of months ago, and I’m obviously a brand new artist. So coming out with the second single, I wasn’t sure how it was going to play out because for me it’s more of a lo fi track, but everyone seems to be loving it and there’s RTE behind it and Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 6 played it the other day so I’m so chuffed about that as well. So yeah, it’s great.”

The track has a heavier sound with fuzzy guitar, psychedelic soundscapes and dream-pop melodies which is quite different to the sound of Lucy’s other projects Southern and MMODE.

“Well what happened was I was coming out of, one of the previous bands, and I was on tour with The Coral at the time. James Skelly produces a lot of bands and he was just watching us live, you know every night and he said ‘you guys are great, would you ever want to get into the recording studio’. So it was just kind of a natural thing and we didn’t really have any expectations. It just felt right for me to be doing my songs that I’ve had on the shelf for ages and he was really into the vibe that we were getting, it was kind of like Krautrock, kind of shoegaze. Thom, who was in the previous band with me, my brother he creates a lot of guitar sounds and I would write a lot of my melodies on top of that, probably, almost the same way like The Stone Roses would work. It’s very melody orientated with elements of deadpan vocals and a lot of reverb and things. So that’s really what I’m into, and the sound really just developed after doing those two tracks in Parr Street with James so I’ve had them ready to go since last summer.”

“I was just taking the time to do gigs, I went on tour with Bill Ryder-Jones and that was a great learning experience for me because it was the first time I was solo performer, without a band or anything so working with him as well on that tour, gave me that kind of, I don’t know full roundedness that I have in my vision for the music that I do. So yeah, the songs are coming across really well and it’s just a shame I can’t gig them. “

Doing shows on your own can be difficult when you are used to having a band with you. I wondered if the solo transition was daunting.

“Definitely, yeah for sure because it was my first, I had done gigs just kind of one off gigs. My first gig was actually supporting the DMA’s in Belfast which was an amazing first gig and yeah I was super nervous. It’s more the build up to it that you’re nervous about and then when you’re on stage it just comes so naturally, because that’s what you’re good at, and on tour with Bill (Ryder- Jones) was more about learning how to engage the audience and finding your place on stage in terms of, do you want to give a lot of yourself away to the audience, because Bill in particular, he is almost like a comedian on stage. In between the songs he’s telling tales and I’m not really like that you know naturally I’m probably a little bit more of an introvert and I wouldn’t want to give too much of myself away but yeah, so just finding that balance.”

“It was definitely daunting to begin with but it’s like anything, you know, practice makes perfect. Since being in lockdown it’s weird because doing the live gigs online has been really beneficial for me, because I think it’s more daunting to play a gig online for people than it is in real life. I mean it’s like doing faceTime with someone and the camera you have to get your camera angles right and you know there’s all that flack and you’re always worrying is the signal gonna go mid set, whereas live, the freedom that you have to play live is just amazing there’s nothing like it. So yeah, I’m definitely missing that but I’m hoping next year we’ll have some socially distant gigs.”

In her solo career so far, Lucy has already had acclaim from Liam Gallagher (who called her music ‘celestial’), a collaboration with DMA’s and tours with Bill Ryder Jones and She Drew The Gun with support on Radio from BBC Radio 1, as well as BBC Introducing Merseyside and BBC Introducing Ulster. 

“ I’m just launching literally and if anyone tells me they like my song I’m glowing after it. Whatever you get in response to your track it’s just nice for it to resonate with people. I put out the cover of Oasis and I don’t normally do covers but I happen to really like the song ‘Songbird’, by Oasis and obviously, Liam Gallagher is very influenced by John Lennon, and the Beatles and I’ve always been really influenced by, The Beatles and their songwriting and John Lennon in particular, so that’s obviously why I like that song, but I put it up on Twitter and in the few hours it had gone viral and Liam Gallagher caught wind of it and commented on it. So yeah, it’s just amazing, it is mad how the internet works.”

The music industry has changed a lot with streaming and social media and Lucy has managed to keep on top of her social media by putting out a lot of content during lockdown to keep her fans engaged. This is a task artists can find difficult with pressure of finding visually appealing settings etc.

“Yeah definitely, it’s a job in any sense having to do that kind of thing and it’s been a learning curve for a lot of musicians, trying to come to terms with the fact that the only way we can promote ourselves is online. I am a bit of a technophobe, apart from posting photos and stuff and tweets, I would never have been going live on my phone. But you do get the hang of it and it is really nice you know when people tune in and people are lovely. I’ve never had anyone say anything bad, I’ve always had really nice feedback during the gigs and everyone was being really supportive and people love it. In fact the only thing for me that I don’t have at the minute is any merch and a lot of people say to me, do you have any vinyl things since the songs have come out but obviously it’s early days for me so I’ve not had them made”

“The whole experience I think has been really beneficial for me, in particular, as an artist. I think for bands that were touring a lot before the lockdown happened it’s been hard for them. It’s funny and it’s something I have talked to, my friends who are musicians. It’s almost put the power back into the artists hand, and it’s taken a bit of the, I don’t know, control maybe away from the record labels, I mean social media was doing that anyway.  Even my friend who plays drums for me, he is promoting himself online and he gets such a great reaction, people love it. It’s so interesting, even for me, to be able to watch someone online who I admire. I was able to see Beck, who is a bit of a recluse, you know he was never really sitting online chatting and I’ve looked up interviews of him from the 90s and things and there’s so few and to watch him sitting in his living room playing live has been such a novelty. So yeah, it has definitely been a game changer for musicians, I think. “

Lucy’s voice is beautifully sweet over the bubbling instrumentation in ‘Send Me Away’, it creates a lulling sense of calm. I wondered was she always a confident singer

“I definitely wasn’t, just because of my background. As a kid, I sang in the school choir and I was really into female singer songwriters. Like any young girl when I was seven or eight Avril Lavigne was my inspiration and so it was always in my mind to be a songwriter and sing. But because the way I started was in a duo, I started busking with my brother and we were really based around harmonies, so I sang alongside someone else for years, so it does take mental strength to work up the ability to do it completely alone. It’s always a learning experience throughout your musical career to do anything, for example I play a lot of piano, but I’ve never played it live so imagine if I was to have to do it I’d probably be nervous because it’s not something I’ve tried before. But I think now I’m definitely a confident singer, I could sing to anybody on the street I don’t mind.”

“I think it always depends on each song really but my influences in the last few years were bands like the Cocteau Twins and Mazzy Star, so, I was always into that kind of soft, you know, sultry vocal and I love a deadpan vocal. I love Grian Chatten’s voice in Fontaine’s DC. I love how he sings, I love that kind of laziness to it, and even in the last few months I’ve really been listening to a lot more of Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile and that. That is just my kind of vibe, so I think towards next year the songs are going to be maybe less shoegaze, and more, I don’t know, you’ll hear more of my voice, to an extent. Yeah and I’ve definitely got a lot more new material since the lockdown happened. I’m actually working with a couple of producers at the minute for next year. I can’t really say who but the new songs for me are miles ahead of what I’ve done before. It’s gonna be really exciting to put them out, so I’m really looking forward to next year, to be honest.”

So what advice would Lucy have for anyone who wants to start a career in music or as a songwriter.

“ My advice, just from my experiences…You can only ever be yourself in your songwriting. I never liked it when I see someone who’s just regurgitating other artists. I can understand having an influence but I think it’s never good to just rip other artists off, and I think it doesn’t necessarily have longevity. So I think always working at your craft and always having a passion for it, it’s probably the same with any art form. But definitely being honest and making sure you actually like the songs you’re putting out because, I mean, I have spent years putting out things because I think it would fit, it would be something that people would want to hear rather than if it was something that I’d want to hear myself. And I think I’m at a position now after a couple of years of working my craft to know that if I love my song, that’s all I care about.”

Lucy has some exciting plans for the coming months and next year with lots of amazing tunes for us to indulge in

“ So I’m promoting ‘Send Me Away’ at the minute but hopefully I’ll be in a recording studio over in England in a couple of weeks, doing the third and fourth singles and they should maybe out by December or next year. I also have way more recordings and I’m booking in gigs and stuff at the minute for Ireland next year so if everything goes ahead hopefully, you know, lots of tours and lots more music.”

Lucy Gaffney is a compelling artist and talented songwriter, showing strong personal musical growth from her days in Southern and MMode. ‘Send Me Away’ is just a glimpse into her musical prowess and songwriting capabilities. It’s an immersing track laced in rich textures and lush instrumentation which hooks the listener from the start. I’m looking forward to hearing more from Lucy Gaffney in the future.

Stream ‘Send Me Away’ below

Author : Danu

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

A Chat With : N.O.A.H

I caught up with new Irish band N.O.A.H. to talk about their debut single ‘Shine’, their step away from their previous band Electric Shore and the exciting new songs the band have yet to release. 

N.O.A.H is comprised of three lifelong friends, Ryan Hill: Lead Vocalists and Guitarist, Adam Rooney: Bass Guitarist and Ronan Hynes Drummer.The band was formed in January 2020, after they decided to reform their previous musical endeavour, Electric Shore.

Ronan : “ We were doing okay with Electric Shore, as far as how we started and, you know, there was only so many years we could keep on doing the same thing over and over again, and get the same results. Then we came across our manager, who took us on as a new project. We decided what better way to start, then to start, completely fresh again with a brand new idea and leave Electric Shore, where it is. So, it was basically just something new and it worked out best for the three of us anyway because it gave new life into the music that we were doing. So, yeah, it was literally a case that we just decided, new name, new music and see where it takes us.”

“In regards to Electric Shore we were trying to push for that cinematic sound and stuff like that, but as we developed and worked with more synthy stuff, that really helped us along the way. We have our grips now as far as musicianship, you know. We have improved as well on the actual instruments. We have improved on our songwriting as well, I think that really helps. Electric Shore was pushing to go for that but now I think N.O.A.H has nailed that.. on the head “

The band got their name N.O.A.H. from the biblical story of ‘Noah and the Ark’, its not exactly a religious reference but an expression for new beginnings

Adam : “I don’t think we’re religious in the slightest. It was more related to the idea of starting again. Sort of taking stock of what we’ve done and it just felt right and was nice and short. It summarized what we wanted to do.”

Ronan :  “I suppose, when you put it in imagery, Electric Shore was the flood and we wanted to get away from it and start again. So, I suppose that ties in as well.”

N.O.A.H have released their new single ‘Shine’. It’s a powerful adrenaline-inducing number which races with an urgency reminiscent of The Killers with blistering guitars, driving bass and punchy drums. The band recorded the track during lockdown.

Adam : “ We wrote the song in probably about February or March, which is like the first few weeks in lockdown and as we were saying, we developed new ways of writing so, as the nature of lockdown was, we weren’t together in the same rooms, we weren’t writing the way we would have. So, a lot of it was sending stuff back and forwards and then from there we recorded it in July and, yeah, that was that. “

Ronan : “I found that when it came down to the lyric writing as well I think for all of us it was so strange because you’re obviously, in lockdown, all on your own, but then, it’s mad, even through our rough demos they illustrate the idea of freedom and stuff like that and coming away from the isolation side of things. So it had a big impact on the actual lyric writing as well you know.”

I wondered with the new style and name did the band approach their songwriting and composition process differently

Ronan: “It generally depends on the song really. There’s some songs where the music is formed well beforehand, and then there’s others where we sit down and try to work out a melody or one of us comes up with a melody to use and we take it from there.“

Adam: “ Yeah the way we write music is generally sporadic and we don’t like to put too much pressure on it so whatever happens happens, just once a good song is produced in the end ”

The band have all been to college and studied music which has helped them with the theory side of the music industry however they don’t consider it essential for an artist to do.  

Ryan “ Well for myself I went to BIMM. It’s hard to tell, they do a lot of stuff. I think to be honest, and this is me speaking from my own point of view. I do think that we probably learned more from the three of us working together then, like I said, I’ve probably learned in college. But I suppose when it comes to the performance side of things, playing live and stuff, it did give you that extra confidence from studying in college and doing performance and the overall being comfortable with your instruments and stuff like that. I just think I’d probably learn more being with the two lads, you know, “

Ronan : “ Yeah I don’t think anyone can teach you how to be creative, or they can’t teach you how to be friends in a band or anything like that. So that’s self taught, and as Ryan said to implementing certain techniques, or theoretical things can help “

I wondered what the band have in store for us as they unleash their new tunes into the world

Adam ; “ They’re all a little bit different, different sounds and that. That was the beauty about lockdown as well, it was a case that you wouldn’t get a song like ‘Shine’ if we weren’t separated but it just allowed us to experiment a lot more with different ways of doing stuff and helped us adapt basically to a pretty awkward situation. But yeah, every song we make is always trying to push ourselves a bit further in our own sounds. So, hopefully, anything that we release in the future will show that, you know, you might get a more rocky guitar vibe off some songs, a more dancey vibe off others and then atmospheric and cinematic with others. We do try hard to not pigeon hole ourselves into one specific genre or sound. “

Ronan : “Yeah, we’re planning on doing freshers weeks throughout the rest of 2020 so it’s more of an online stream, just to help the student bodies within each university around the country and engage with the students and it’d be a good way to, I suppose, create an audience because we are a brand new band so we’re still trying to push our name out there, so right now that’s it and then for the new year, it’s very hard to say. We’ve been in contact with multiple bookers in different venues and we’ve had gigs that were planned and unfortunately were not able to go ahead. It’s just the nature of the lockdown itself. But all we can do now is look a month to two months ahead, and plan for what we can and try not to get too lost in next year because it’s all up in the air.”

Ryan : “ We have an official video, being setup at the moment so it all depends on how far the actual song goes on its own, and then we’ll decide which way, we’re going to work the video or what day to release the videos as well “

‘Shine’ is an ambitious new single boasting arena sized choruses, dynamic energy and a tight blistering wall of sound. N.O.A.H have created a powerful sound brimming with energy which showcases their deft musicianship and musical growth. I’m looking forward to future releases, if ‘Shine’ is anything to go by, then we are all in for a treat. Talking to the guys it is easy to see how much passion they have for their craft. They are ones to keep an eye on for sure. 

Stream ‘Shine’ below


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With : Wild Youth

I caught up with Wild Youth’s David Whelan and Conor O’Donohoe this week to chat about their infectious new single ‘Next To You’, the ups and downs of writing and how the support of the band and their close family-like relationship with one another helps with the more difficult side of being in the public eye as well as the very groovy dance in the video for ‘Next To You’. 

‘Next To You’ is a funky indie pop number with an 80’s pop sheen. The I’ll do anything for “the one” lyrics are quite witty and the song boasts the upbeat catchy sound that people have come to know and love Wild Youth for, while taking their sound to a more groovy 80’s-esque dimension.

Conor : “The song came from a writing session a while ago, just came from a good kind of guitar loop, then the chorus melody came and then we finished the song. We brought it into production and into that upbeat Wild Youth sound that people have come to know. Yeah, and we’re really happy with how it turned out. We feel it’s been a nice progression for us and a very natural progression from our first EP. We’re delighted that people like it because we love it without sounding big headed in any way. I think it’s (80’s style) something that we’ve definitely always been into. If we sit in a room together or in a dressing room before we play a show you’d hear a lot of Prince, Michael Jackson, The Beach Boys, Frankie Valli and then if you look at modern music, it will be Tame Impala and The Weeknd, so it’s always been sounds that we like. We didn’t make a conscious decision to make it sound like that, I think it’s just what you listen to and what you’re inspired by, it starts to show in your music. It’s just us pouring ourselves into a production and into a song. If someone was to say to me, put all Wild Youth’s inspirations into one song, I think that’s exactly what ‘Next To You’ is.”

There is something more sparkly about this track and seen as Wild Youth are constantly refining their sound they tell me what their upcoming releases will have in store. 

Conor : “There’s lots of different elements, lots of different sides to Wild Youth you’ll see on our new tracks, people will see a lot more diversity. There’s going to be ballads, there’s going to be more upbeat songs, there’s going to be slightly edgier songs. So yeah, it’s definitely in and around the world of where our new music is gonna sit, but people are gonna see a lot more diversity, with our new songs.”

When listening to the track I noticed a few tweaks to the vocals in the chorus of ‘Next To You’. I wondered how the band stumbled on that effect or was it an idea they had when writing the track

Conor : “That was just a cool vocoder effect that was used on a demo that we fell in love with. To be honest, the first demo was super rough so it’s just Dave through a vocoder because it was a handheld mic in the studio and it just kind of came about. It was like this almost high pitched vocoder-y vocal but, we fell in love with it and we thought it was super unique and catchy. So then, Dave obviously did his natural vocal and then he layered up his natural vocal. We kept his vocal through the vocoder just sitting slightly on top of that which gave a really cool effect for the chorus and we thought it just felt right.”

‘Next To You’ features another catchy melody hook. The band constantly release radio ready earworm melodies that appear so effortless and can appeal to all.

Conor : “It’s just how the melodies come out, we never overthink about how to write the catchiest melody. I think we are drawn towards catchy melodies and it’s naturally what comes out. Normally the melody will come quite quickly and we don’t overthink it. Let’s say if the chorus comes like “I don’t smoke cigarettes”. We’re like, okay, that’s the chorus and we don’t say ‘how can we make that catchier’. We just love that vibe and we put that vibe down and then we live with it and if there’s any natural tweaks that we want to make after we’ve got the demo, or re-listening to it, we make those little tweaks. But it’s never to try and make it super catchy, it’s just naturally what comes out.”

As it’s a natural process I wondered if the guys ever feel the pressure of writing. This natural process is elusive at times there is no real formula. I wondered if the process is daunting for them if the melody doesn’t come to them easily

Connor : “Yeah, all the time. There’s so many ups and downs of writing. There are days when you could sit down at a piano and you feel like you’ve never written a song in your life and then there’s another day where you could sit down at the piano and you could play one chord and write 17 different melodies. It comes and goes all the time. I remember last year there was one week in particular, we were writing in LA and a huge bulk of probably our new material came from that time. You just sometimes get those magic weeks where everything feels right and it all sits in and comes together. Then you can also get three or four weeks where you could be in studio every day where you don’t get a song that might sit right or might feel like a Wild Youth track. But that’s why you just got to lock yourself away and write for as long as you can and write as many songs as you can. So last year maybe we wrote 50 songs and you whittle that down to maybe let’s say, six or seven new songs that we have ready to put out over the next couple of months.”

The backdrop of ‘Next To You’ is vibrant, exuding rich percussion, shimmering keys and a funky bass line. The bands image with this track mirrors the songs swagger, particularly in the video where the band are sporting a swaggering 70’s/80’s-esque style with flared trousers and slicked hair along with some pretty swanky dance moves to match. Wild Youth are very much involved with their visuals, colour themes and how they present the overall package from the merch to stage lighting.

Conor : “Yeah, I think so. I think Dave would agree with me too. We find that we always try and make a certain time period of our music. Our first EP, everything, all our visuals had like a baby pink backdrop and that transcended into our live show. We had pink lighting and we used the color pink a lot. So now for the new phase, we wanted to tip our hat to the psychedelic era that we loved and were inspired by and bring a little more color and fun into it. We try and make the music match up with the vibe of whatever it is that we’re feeling at that time and whatever we think brings it all together, like our Merch we’ll tie in with all the vibrant colors that we’ve used in the video and our artwork will tie in with the vibrant colors. If we were to do shows now, we would have had a lot of that imagery and visuals and that colored lighting. We can’t do shows at the moment but when the time is right we will do it. When you combine them all in your show and it’s like songs from our first EP, the lighting for the show could be pink and then it could move to the more vibrant colors for our newer stuff. So we always try and keep a theme and stick in and around that because we are very hands on as a band in terms of how we want the visual to be, how we want the videos to be, how we want our lighting to be and that’s as important to us as the music, you know. We look at it as a big collection of art, almost, if that makes sense.”

“We were quite lucky in a way. We recorded a lot of our new music in January and February in London. Then, obviously, everywhere went into lockdown. So, like everyone else we locked ourselves away but we spent all that time putting together a full creative plan and a visual image of how we wanted this phase to look, critiquing the music, the songs, the production and adding elements of how we wanted it to sound and kind of going through it with a fine comb. Dave is obviously an amazing dancer and he came up with a dance for the video which is a side to us that people haven’t seen on the video and you know we’re very hands on with everything that we do. We’re very lucky we have an amazing team of people that work with us. We will feed all the ideas of how we want everything to go and then, with those teams we combine our ideas and we put it all together, and that creates the final product.”

The bands songs showcase deep lyrical content and are a joy to listen to. However they also create music for people to dance to and escape the madness of life and to enjoy. 

Conor : “We always try and write from our own life experiences and make the lyrics as real to us as possible. We are quite emotional people. So our lyrics sometimes can be emotional, but also we want our shows and our music to be an escape for people. Because, you know, the social media world and online can be a scary place and the world can be a scary place. People go through a lot of mental health issues as we do, and have good days and bad days and we want people when they listen to our music, that they’re not just listening to us talking about how our hearts have been broken by girls. We’ve always tried to disguise emotional lyrics with upbeat music for people who just want to dance around their house or walk down the road and just escape or even when they come to our shows, be able to just have lots of fun for like an hour or an hour and a half, whatever the show is and just escape from all the troubles and difficulties that are going on in the world.”

Living the life of a musician can be difficult and challenging. The world can seem like a very harsh place filled with overwhelming pressures from peers, media, critics etc. I wondered how the band deal with all of this.

Conor : “I think, you know, I’m probably not as good at that as Dave. He preps me a lot for things like that because sometimes that stuff, kind of hits me a lot more and Dave will pull me aside and be like, ‘Look, it’s the world that we live in’. Unfortunately if you put yourself out there, you’re also putting yourself out there to ..”

Dave “ Yeah to be criticized”

Conor : “ Yeah you’re putting yourself out there and if you’re walking down the road and you’re having a bad morning someone might approach and want to talk to you. But it’s all part of our job you know, we’re so lucky to do what we do and we can never give out about what we do and obviously there is some stuff that can be said online which can be incredibly hurtful but I think you just have to try, and Dave is teaching me more and more every day, and you just kind of have to block it out.”

“I think once we stay together as a family, and as best friends as a band and we know that we’ve always got each other, all the rest of the stuff, the negativity and stuff you just block that out. Then when it comes to anything else like attention, we always welcome anyone to come over and talk to us and we’re so grateful that people take the time to listen to our music or love our music and we always love to talk to those people. When people are kind online we’ll always engage with them, we’ll always respond and we just ignore the negativity and put that shield up, which can be hard some days. It’s easier than others and some days it’s really hard and can really affect you but we try and just you know, block it out and stay as positive as we can and make it all about the music and nothing else.”

I wondered if they themselves were their own worst critic

Dave : “Yeah.That’s like a natural human trait as well. I think everybody does that. For us it’s a strange business in a strange world that we’re in where everybody can scrutinize you. You’re in people’s faces a lot, so then think about that natural self criticism everyone has and then multiply that by 10. That’s what you can feel sometimes. I think what Conor said, we just try our hardest to separate it you know, just to realize that we do have a very special job that we get to do that some people would literally kill to do and we got to do it. So we have to take the positive and then sometimes shield from the negative, because we do get to do what we love, you know,”

Conor : “ I actually saw something brilliant online yesterday someone tweeted, and it was something like ‘you can be as mean to me as you want, but don’t worry I overthink so no one’s gonna be meaner than myself’

I thought that was incredible, because, you know, the shit that people say online, like, I’m way harder on myself than you can ever be so it’s fine. I just thought that was kind of a cool thing that I saw online, even though it’s not cool that that girl feels that she has to tweet that but, yeah, you find coping mechanisms, I think.”

Wild Youth have become known for their energetic live shows which has seen them share the stage with the likes of Mumford and Sons, Niall Horan, The Script, Kodaline and Zara Larsson on arena-sized shows as well as selling out the Olympia. The band feel a bit lost without the energy from live shows since Covid-19. Most artists felt they needed to write during lockdown, interestingly the band did not feel pressure to do so.

Conor : “As a band that’s one of our favorite aspects to do, live shows and to meet our fans and a feeling that we get from doing the gig so yeah it’s been definitely tough. Especially because we don’t know when there’s gonna be a start to it again and what are the requirements for it to happen and stuff like that. So you do feel a bit lost in it but we’re lucky that we got to release this new single ‘Next To You’. It’s the first time we’ve done it where we haven’t been able to play gigs. So none of our fans or no one’s heard ‘Next To You’, and then we released it so it was a different kind of excitement, it was a different buzz, it was a different energy off this one. We were very lucky that we got to do this otherwise I think I would have gone clinically insane with no gigs.This whole lockdown has made us take a different outlook on life you know, try to find the positives among the negative. Everyone’s going through shit right now, everyone’s going through hard times and you have to just find the light in it, to make yourself feel good. So, I think ‘Next To You’ has been a godsend for us.”

“At the beginning we did a few (live streams) for ChildLine, they needed to raise funds, and we’ve been asked alongside a stream of other amazing Irish acts to do a live stream and we did it, and we loved it, we had great fun with it. It’s kind of hard sometimes, because I think for us as a band we are quite energetic on stage, and we feed off energy so sometimes we do and I’m not gonna lie, we’ll be honest, we find that hard when there’s that separation. It’s just us on a camera sitting there and we get a little bit awkward, you’re looking at yourself on camera and your dad is commenting ‘hey, I’m in the next room turn it down’. But, yeah, we’re looking at loads of different options and keeping our ear to the ground with when we can do something and maybe if people are responsible and they wear their masks and they socially distance, maybe we might be able to do some socially distance gigs. We’re always looking for innovative ways to do different things. But, yeah, who knows we might totally eat our words and be on a live stream on Instagram in two weeks”.

“We didn’t feel pressure to write because we were quite lucky as I said, we had recorded a bunch of new music in January and February that was gonna be our music to come out this year. We had all those songs ready to go and then, we finished them through lockdown and so it wasn’t like, ‘oh god we need a load of new songs’. So we actually had a lot of fun writing through this lockdown because we had all these unreleased songs ready to go, that everyone was really happy with, so it allowed us to go back and do things, like write a ballad, or do things where we write an edgier song or to try different things because the pressure was off a little bit, and it’s actually led to some of our favorite material that we’ve ever written because I suppose we didn’t overthink it. We didn’t put pressure on ourselves and we just had fun with it.”

“Some of the songs for me anyway and I don’t know about you Dave, but I absolutely love some of the stuff that we wrote during lockdown. So it’s great, it’s exciting and we’re just going to continue to do that. We’ve new music kind of ready, to go up probably the summer next year so we’re just having fun now and we’re in the studio and writing as much music as possible and trying different things and just having fun with it. Don’t get me wrong we had some bad days”

Dave : “Yeah we have and our biggest hit was the shows like everybody else who’s in this industry. We were pretty lucky our cards were lined up though, that we had all these songs written in January, which made that side of the process much more enjoyable.”

I asked the guys if they had any advice for anyone wanting to start a band or a career in music?

Conor : “Just do it for the love of music, don’t get into it to be famous, don’t get into it to make it straight away and be patient.“

Dave : “Work hard“

Conor : “Work really, really hard, hone in on your craft and just write thousands and thousands of songs because no matter what, shit is fertilizer and the good will come.You know, we did it, we wrote thousands of songs”

Dave : “Terrible songs” 

Conor : “So just be patient, make it all about the music and the song and discover who you want to be because you only get one opportunity to come out and establish yourself as a band so make sure that you love your name. Make sure that you’ve got the sound that you’ll still be happy to play, because if you have a song that works you will be playing it in 10 years time. Just make sure you’re proud of everything, and have fun with it. Because it can be hard but it can also be the best job in the world.” 

Wild Youth plan on providing us with a lot of tunes over the coming months until their much desired live shows return

Conor : “To be honest, for us, because we don’t know with shows, we just want to put out a bunch of new music and we’ve taken about a year to get everything together since our last release. Now we’ve got a bunch of songs that we’re super proud of and we want to feed as much music to the world as possible, continue to write, get back in the studio. We want to have our third and fourth EP’s done by probably the end of the year too and maybe that could even be an album, we don’t know. But now that we’ve got all this time, we just want to write loads more music on top of what we already have ready to go and continue to put out new music until the time is right to play shows again.”

Wild Youth are growing and expanding their sound. Their hook-laden, infectious songwriting coupled with disco glimmers and an insatiable groove which drives all their tracks showcases the bands skill for writing catchy earnest tunes. With ‘Next To You’ embracing their 80’s synth side, Wild Youth have provided a tantalizing taste of what’s to come from them over the coming months. This infectious gem and the bands upcoming tunes will ensure we have some pretty slick tunes to bop to until the band are allowed to grace the stage again and provide us all with the smiles, energy and good vibes we most definitely need.

Watch the video for ‘Next To You’ below 


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Interviews, New Music

A chat With : Angie McMahon

Photo Credit : Caitlin Reilly

I caught up with Australian singer songwriter Angie McMahon who has announced the release of ‘Piano Salt’ on October 2nd on AWAL. ‘Piano Salt’ is a riveting, stripped-down companion piece to last year’s debut album ‘Salt’. The new collection finds McMahon re-imagining five fan favorites from her debut album ‘Salt’, a record The FADER called “a perfect showcase of her gifts as a songwriter and vocalist,” as well as stunning piano covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “The River” and Lana Del Rey’s “Born To Die.”

 You are set to release ‘Piano Salt’ on October 2nd. It’s an absorbing collection of tracks. What sparked your decision to release this stripped down album? 

“That is very kind thank you! It feels like a simple and gentle follow up to Salt, which took a lot of learning and ruminating to come into existence. This one was easier, it was a phone conversation with my dear manager Charlotte, after I’d sent her some demos of me playing the songs on piano for fun, and I just said why don’t we record this as an EP while we’re isolating, and she was like, yeah! So that was that. It was a fun project to work on while the world slowed down.”


2019 was an amazing breakout year for you. It saw you win the Grulke Prize at SXSW for Best Developing International Act (previously won by Courtney Barnett, CHVRCHES and Jade Bird), release your debut album ‘Salt’ and open Hozier’s massive US tour that must have been quite the rollercoaster experience. I bet 2020’s Covid craziness was a bit of a shock. How have you coped with the lack of shows and I’m sure, restriction on the plans you had for this year? 

“There were so many experiences in that year, so much moving and yeah it actually was a rollercoaster! I am hugely grateful for last year, and in many ways grateful for this year too, because I am slow to reflect on things and process them, so the shut down gave me time I didn’t think I’d have. There hasn’t really been any other option but to adapt to the restrictions, and put everyone’s health first, so I’ve just taken it as a chance to work on all my shit and hope that things are able to safely pick up again at some point. “


Your song writing is extremely mature and mesmerising. You are in your 20’s and have the maturity and poetic flair to capture true depth in your songwriting, expressing emotion; whether it’s the pain of heartbreak in “Missing Me” or the empowerment of womanhood in “And I Am a Woman,” how do you craft your songwriting and develop it into the touching and poetic style it is today? 

“This is too generous, I think it’s just learnt from obsessing over other songwriters and the way they allow us to access our feelings. Thank you for saying those lovely things! The thing is that for any song which is well-written, there are a bunch written alongside it which are total poop. I’m trying to stay dedicated to writing a lot as often as possible and pushing through the blocks, and that’s the only way I know how to craft and develop the skill. “


What ignites the inspiration for your songs? 

“It is so therapeutic to write, so it’s the swarm of feelings and thoughts that I have no other way to sort through. In whatever form, I think the fuel is usually, or always, love.”

How did your love for music and songwriting begin ?

“I don’t really remember a time when it wasn’t there…I think it crystallised as a pre-teen, staring out the car window with whatever music was playing as we drove along, imagining what it was to be loud, free, articulate, expressive, the things I could hear in songs by Van Morrison, Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, so many others.”


Do you strive to be a great lyricist and capture real feelings and emotions within your tracks that connect with your listeners? 

“Um simply, yes, that is what I love as a music fan and that is what I want to be as a writer too! I don’t think I would have made any sense of the world or existing in it without great lyrics coming into my life. It is through beautiful and honest lyrics that I found meaning I think, so I just strive to contribute to that deep pool of meaning for anyone who is listening.”


The songs on ‘Salt’ come to life through your refined guitar performances and arrangement yet ‘Piano Salt’ strips this back and takes your songs to another new level. We get a glimpse of this with the piano version of ‘Slow Mover’, you have recently released, do you find that you can show a different side to both you and your songs through this piano version as if giving a fresh perspective or deeper meaning to the songs? 

“Well it’s hard to know if anyone will find deeper meaning with a new arrangement, that would be sweet though! It is presenting a slightly different side of me, which I guess feels kind of ego-based, like hey look I can do this piano thing too! But that’s okay, it’s been a quiet year and I wanted something to do that just felt simple and joyful, and making this EP felt like that. I feel like it highlights how the Salt record and performances are so amplified and energised by the beautiful friends who usually join me in the band, so it’s nice to have that reminder and contrast, and it also pulls me back to the way I started making music without anybody else, just sitting at the piano and simply singing because it felt pure and free. “


This new version of ‘Slow Mover’ comes in conjunction with the news that you have received a Levi’s Music Prize, aimed to help promising artists stay afloat through the pandemic. That must feel pretty amazing? 

“It’s incredible, yeah, anytime an organisation steps up to support artists, that is one of the bigger sources of hope. I’m very grateful for that.”

You have a striking vocal ability with rich depth and sweet coos. Were you always a confident singer or did it take you time to be comfortable with your voice and find what worked for you? 

“It took lots of time and a family home where I was allowed to yell and warble whenever I felt like it and I rarely got shut down for it, which in retrospect is lovely. I have always been free to practice singing, and I always loved singing. I have tried to sing like a little gentle folk elf, and I have tried to belt like Kelly Clarkson and Beyonce, and I have tried jazz, and classical, and I’m bad at all those things, especially technique-wise. But over the years I just found what felt good somewhere in the middle, or maybe I just discovered rock music actually, where you can get away with whatever you want as long as you’re confident. “

You are out there in the world creating music that I’m sure means a lot to you. Was it daunting putting your tunes out there initially. The anxiety and worry if people will like it can be overwhelming or did you take the approach of “right I’m happy with my music and if other people aren’t that’s up to them” ? 

“Ohh good question, it is definitely daunting, but before releasing Salt I’d played all the songs live so many times, so I had a gauge of what people responded well to. I think this is more something that I’m struggling with now, writing new things, where it’s harder to know what people will like and if it has to be compared to the first record.”

What advice would you give to someone who is an aspiring songwriter or musician? 

“The advice that I find helpful is to read a lot, to write a lot, to surround yourself with a good community and people with good energy as much as you can, and to work hard on whatever it is that your heart is pulling you towards. I have so much to learn still, but I think as a general rule, the world needs people who believe in the magic of art and music, and it is worth working hard on those things. No matter what your definition of success is and how that changes, to keep finding the joy in it.”


What’s next for you?

“I’m trying to write my second album. It’s going slow!“

Angie McMahon is an artist to keep an eye on. Her music exudes such passion and depth it is difficult not to be spell-bound and mesmerised by her talent. ‘Piano Salt’ is set for release on October 2nd until then check out Angie McMahon‘s Piano Performance of ‘Slow Mover’ below


Author ; Danu

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

A Chat With : Isaac Butler

I caught up with Dublin singer songwriter Isaac Butler to talk about his new single ‘Change The Past’, how he brought the track which was originally written on piano to the cinematic single we hear today, his experience working with producer Philip Magee and what he has been up to during the last few months as well as his upcoming show in The Sound House. 

Butler is one of the most pleasant artists to chat to; his cheery and positive outlook is infectious. We banter about past interviews I have had with him as well as living in a full house with our families over lockdown. Last time we spoke Butler told me he had many songs ready to go and he was deciding which track he was going to pick for his next release, ‘Change The Past’ came up trumps. 

“ I kind of thought it was smart if I say so myself in terms of, I wish we could change the past in terms of all this kind of stuff (covid- 19) and prevent all that kind of thing.I just thought even sonically it’s moving towards where I eventually want to end up. It’s like that big anthemic band sound and I kind of touched on it with ‘Young Forever’ and with ‘Paranoid’. I took a bit of a detour which is fine, I mean, I love that song and I think it’s great and it’s opened a lot of doors…‘Change The Past’ I feel it’s just like the most kind of Isaac Butler song to date.“

Once again Butler is discussing a relatable theme in his new release. He is looking back on a relationship and thinking ‘what if I had done this differently’ and the nostalgic melody and cinematic soundscape reflect this beautifully. This sonically lush track has elements of synths and a full anthemic sound however it began much simpler

“I wrote the song on piano, so obviously there’s a bit of piano in there but the piano only features in the first verse. We’ve talked about this before, I try to write a song around a hook that people can sing. First and foremost, I write a song about something that’s important to me, but I just love the feeling in a room where you can teach something to somebody if they haven’t heard it before, and they can sing it back straight away. I’ve done it in every song pretty much to date like ‘Young Forever’ we had the chant, ‘Paranoid’ you have that funny kind of hook noise, and here again we have this big anthemic chant, and even the chorus it’s a two line chorus “I wish I could change the past. I thought we were gonna last” and in between that we have that big hook. So, I suppose, I wrote the song as a small acoustic song on a piano but the second I came up with a chorus I knew this was going to be a big sounding full band, kind of unifying people, singing along and I think it’s so relatable. I think it ties in nicely to that hook where people can sing along because people have all experienced in some way, shape or form wanting to change something in their past.”

The release comes hot on the heels of recent radio hit ‘Paranoid’ which has racked up 4.86M impressions to date and broke into the Top 50 of the Overall Airplay Chart – at the time the only self released single in not only the Top 50 but the only self release in the Top 100 – as well as climbing to 13 in the Top 20 of the Irish Airplay Charts.’

If that isn’t impressive enough, Paranoid was also chosen as ‘Song of the Week’ on 2FM’s Breakfast with Doireann and Eoghan and as the Select Irish ‘Track of the Month’ for June. Last time I spoke with Butler, he had just released ‘Paranoid’ and he was wondering how well the song would do and how long it would be before it would take off but it was pretty quick to get recognition. I wondered did that give him comfort with the release of ‘Change The Past’ or did he feel just as nervous.

“ For sure, yeah. It’s funny because it should really bring comfort but I mean they are so different and obviously for me it’s all about the stories I tell because they’re all personal stories and the vocal, so it’s always going to be a consistent Isaac Butler sound because of the vocal and because of those themes that I write about. Production wise we went on a completely different direction, so it was like okay, ‘Paranoid’ has open loads of doors, but do we release another song that is similar to that or do we go with a more authentic-y pop rock sound?’

I just had to go with my gut really I mean this is the music that I love and it’s the music that I want to make more of, so yeah that’s really how picked it. It was just my favorite one really of the bunch and I thought I had the ears of people after ‘Paranoid’ so I thought why not show them me”

Butler worked with producer Philip Magee (Kodaline, The Script, The Academic), for this release and he’s become quite the mentor to Butler. Philip Magee is such a diverse producer and seems to bring out the best in the artists he works with and Butler considers Magee’s input important vital to his music’s growth

“ Yeah, 100%. I had a lot of ideas myself, I was involved in the production as well.. for me it’s striking a balance of someone that can give ideas but also take what I want and how I am. Myself and Phil just click in terms of vision for songs because I’ve produced tracks with loads of different producers, and I’ve never clicked with someone in terms of vision so well. He’s just so open minded and he is always respectful, he always listens. It’s a team effort which I love. I mean I’ve experienced things where it hasn’t been a team effort and it just really takes the wind out of your sails and it takes away from it for sure when people put their own stamp on it. Phil puts his own stamp on it but he makes sure the artist comes through and I’m forever grateful for that.”

“Yeah I think the right producer is just super important. You can literally make an acoustic song sound like anything now, it’s just finding out what production is best for me as an artist but also what compliments the song as much as possible. I think we really hit a sweet spot here, there’s a lot of real elements, there’s lots of electric guitars and real drums and all that and obviously it’s very vocal heavy, which I love. I mean, all the music I listened to growing up is all like that, acts like The Killers, Sam Fenders they do a great job at bringing those real sounds back, The Academic as well, all real sounds.. doing an amazing job and just paving the way again for that authentic sound to come through again. I think, with this, we’ve gotten the perfect mix in terms of those nice electronic sounds, but also the real elements, because I’m a live act, I’m an artist that flourishes live. I think that’s just so important and yeah I’m really happy with how it came out” 

Again live shows come up in our conversation or the lack thereof and although Butler was gutted when he heard he couldn’t do any shows for a while he is beginning to enjoy life outside of the live circuit.

“ It was super tough to take at the start. I had worked so hard for a good couple years, and for the first time, I had numerous festivals signed on for them and I had a Kodaline support slot in The Olympia, with my headline coming up in October, so it was a really nice moving summer and then for that to be kind of taken away was obviously really not great, but, it really is about just finding the silver linings. I’ve been traveling a lot across Ireland the last few months with my girlfriend and doing things that I wouldn’t have done had Covid not happened. As terrible as Covid is and as terrible as it has been for lots of people it really has allowed me to focus on other areas that I neglected a little bit and it’s allowed me to grow in a sense as well.”

“Everything was moving quite fast and it allowed me to stop and say ‘oh well this is what you’ve done and this is how you can make it better’. I’ve finally come to terms with it, and it’s taken obviously a long time but, yeah, it’s just trying to be as positive as I can really and I’m the eldest of five kids and there was seven of us in our house, it was challenging for sure but we had such a nice time you know. We spent so much time together.”

Butler did an impressive music video for ‘Paranoid’. Mustering his creative genius during the Covid-19 lockdown, he sprang into action and filmed the video completely in isolation. I wondered what he had in mind for the video for ‘Change The Past’ 

“So, yeah, well, I want to give this song, video wise,  as much justice as I can. So for the moment, I posted a lyric video the day it came out. I have a really nice acoustic video that I shot a couple of weeks ago, just in my garden. So I’m using those two at the minute but I’m going to give the track time to breathe. It takes time to get picked up by numerous people so I’m hoping that happens and then I’m hoping in a couple of weeks to bring out a video but I’m thinking kind of like my previous music videos but just a bit more cinematic..it’s gonna be cool though.”

Butler has been busy with his social media content – with the lockdown and covid we have discussed before about how social media has been helpful with connecting with artists and with keeping people sane and connected, but before this, social media was sometimes considered a source of anxiety for people and Butler did feel that pressure to keep visible and to keep content out there for a while.

“I certainly did. I definitely did at the start, and I would find myself almost not posting for the sake of that. I think that’s where anxiety stems from…there’s not a huge amount going on, there’s only so much acoustic videos you can post and only so much live streaming you can do and all that. I suppose in recent weeks I’ve kind of taken, not a break, I’ve definitely taken my foot off the pedal in terms of social media. Honestly that’s just to give me a break really, and yeah you’re right I mean when there’s not much going on in terms of getting out and doing things live and stuff like that, I think that’s just where the pressure starts when you think ‘oh God I need to post I need to post’ but you really don’t. At the end of the day, I’m a musician and I like promoting and I like interacting but it’s not the main focus for me at all. You know what I mean?, I do love the interaction and I reply to messages all the time. I’ve never not replied to a message and I love doing it and I love the comments and all that kind of stuff, positive or negative, by the way. I think you’re right, you’d just be kind of clutching at straws in terms of what to post.”

Butler’s show in The Sound House is now rescheduled to the 11th of March next year. Our conversation moved on to whether or not he felt this was going to go ahead.

“It’s crazy to say but yeah..there is obviously always a little niggle in your head to say ‘oh, that it won’t be on’ but I’m preparing for it to be on the 11th of March. It’s all I’m really preparing for at the moment so I have the setlist. I’m just gonna basically make that show the best that it could possibly be. I’ve got, probably a half a new set as well which is great.”

Butler has plenty of songs ready to go and singles he is really proud of. Hopefully we get to hear them later in the year.

“Yeah, so I have a lot of songs that are literally ready to go. I’m in two minds about an EP or singles, but I think again just singles. I have so many songs so I just want them all to see the light of day. I’m thinking if I go the singles root, there’s just no way all of them will be released, you know, but then I’m just battling with should I release an EP and then do some of them get lost? It’s a good problem to have a lot of songs. I just have to decide how I’m going to approach releasing them but the focus now is on ‘Change The Past’ so I’m going to give that the best go and then I’ll decide what the next move is after that.”

Isaac Butler is constantly building and crafting his songwriting skills and tunes to create a sound that reflects his versatility and ambition as an artist. Each track he releases shows a different and intriguing side to his passionate musicianship while also giving us a catchy hook and sweet earworm melody soaked in emotion to indulge in. His songs are already set for arenas and mass sing-alongs and this artist is only getting started. It is fantastic news to hear Isaac Butler has more music ready to go. I’m looking forward to his future releases.

Stream ‘Change The Past’ below and enjoy

Author : Danu

A Chat With, Interviews

A Chat With : David Anthony Curley From The Clinic Recording Studios

Otherkin band member and producer David Anthony Curley has opened a new premium recording studio in Dublin called ‘The Clinic’. Situated only 5 mins from Dublin City Centre, the studio specialises in recording, mixing, production and songwriting services with a focus on analogue electronics.

I caught up with David to talk about his new venture, why the studio has already attracted the likes of James Vincent McMorrow, Sorcha Richardson, Royal Yellow, Denise Chaila and Blood Donor and how he decided on the name ‘The Clinic’.

“I’m good, tired, it’s my first day off in eight days so just relaxing. It’s been super busy. August was fully booked and this month is pretty much fully booked now. So, yeah. It’s going great. I mean I had Alex Gough in the last four days and before that I had Mark O’Brien, Royal Yellow in for a day and then James Vincent McMorrow, Sorcha Richardson and a few other people were in. It’s been crazy.”

“I studied in Royal College of Surgeons, my degree is in medicine and I was going to go back to that and I was like, I’m sure my folks would be happy if I worked at a clinic or had my own clinic and one day I just thought, The Clinic.“

One of the most exciting live bands in the country, OTHERKIN’s debut album ‘OK’ was one of the most hotly anticipated Irish rock albums of the year and hit Number 2 in the Official Irish Charts in 2017 – alongside being nominated for Choice Prize Album of the Year. Channelling the ferocity of their music into their shows, the band performed at some of the biggest festivals across Europe including Download, Reading/Leeds Festival, Electric Picnic as well as supporting Guns N’ Roses at Slane Castle. Their six-track mini-album called ‘Electric Dream’ would be their parting release for fans in 2019. I found out it is the experience David had recording the bands tracks which sparked his decision to start up his own studio

“When we were in Otherkin, we were recording the last songs that would become ‘Electric Dream’. We were in this place called The Toy Rooms in Brighton with a producer called Steve Dub. Steve Dub was the mixer for The Chemical Brothers so he produced our first couple of albums. We were in this studio called The Toy Rooms with the guy who owned it. It’s this guy Pablo, he is in a UK dance act called, Uncle and they call the studio “shabby road” because it’s like in bits, but it’s got loads of vintage and bespoke synths and drum machines and some crazy stuff, so the whole time we were there it just set off this thing in me. I just found what it was that I’ve always been looking for in terms of sound and making music and was reflective in the more electronic stuff that ended up on our last few songs.”

“I fell down a rabbit hole then and I thought ‘God I’d love to have access to these kind of synths and drum machines’ and wouldn’t it be amazing if there was a space in Dublin, that just had these sort of things that are prohibitively expensive for anyone to ever personally own but if a business owed them, and then they were run like a studio then, anyone can have access to this sound. Basically that’s what got me into it. That’s how it all began. Just the idea of making a space that’s friendly for any sort of home producer or band to come in and it doesn’t look too alien to them… you want to be able to go into a place and use the gear they have be it like outboard, enhancers and different things like compressors and hardware, the hardware versions of the software they’re using anyway, and then synths and drum machines.”

“It just went from there. It’s aimed at the producer, but I’ve recorded a lot of bands in here and you can just come in and beef up your sounds and just take it to the next level. So many people self-record and self-release and it’s great that people are able to do that but a lot of the time it means that the quality of what they’re doing is just less, it’s not competing with stuff on Radio One but let’s say, Royal Yellow – Mark O’Brien. One of the first big things I did in studio. It was myself and a guy called James Eager we produced Mark O’Brien’s last single which is called ‘May the First’ and we got that premiered on Annie Mac on Radio One on the BBC in the UK and that was for the premiere of the track!, which is you know, that’s as big a premiere as you can get in Ireland or the UK. That was a great first thing to get but we’ve got a lot of stuff with Mark coming out. The COVID thing has pushed back a lot. People are rethinking when they’re gonna release stuff. So there’s big releases like that, coming up, that would have been done in the studio. We did a lot of stuff with Luke from Blood Donor and we’re doing more of that later in the year.”

“James Vincent McMorrow has been in loads. He’s a big supporter of the studio, he gave me a big shout out on Instagram even just saying it’s the only place he uses in the city now. Sorcha Richardson has been in, Denise Chaila, Connor (Adams) from All Tvvins, some of the guys from Kodaline. So, it has just been great to get really good early support from people who spent time in massive studios. James Vincent McMorrow would spend his time in studios in LA, and there’s certain bits of equipment that I would have that they don’t. Recording is now all about chains. So if you want to record vocals you need a certain mic, a certain compressor and that’d be the chain like a vocal chain and let’s say the CL1 B, tube tech compressor, but I just did my research on it to get that. The LA vocal chain is a certain mic on that, but I think I’m the only studio in the country that has it.”

“When you are running a business that’s got high setup costs you don’t want to be replacing your gear all the time. So a lot of other studios, what they have is just what they’ve had for the last 15/20 years. I think I’m just coming at it with a different approach and I’m lucky enough that I’ve been in Otherkin, working in various studios throughout Ireland and the UK and some in Germany and I just have a network of people and friends now, who I’ve been able to call on for advice and setting this whole thing up which just led me to do it at the highest possible level. So rather than spending like 200 grand on a desk, a mixing desk. I’ve spent the money on everything else that you need, so you don’t need the desk anymore, in my mind. It would be amazing if I had a world class studio but obviously, you’d love to have that but you don’t need it to produce and bring things to the highest quality anymore, especially the way people make music nowadays so it’s just the new approach.I don’t think it’s that revolutionary. I think it’s just a new, more focused approach to help people make music.”

David has essentially set up a business due to following his passion for production and creating music. I wondered was it daunting taking on the business aspects or did he always have a business head. 

“Yeah, I’d say I definitely have, Connor from Otherkin always said I should definitely just get into business if we packed it in. But it’s one of those things where I didn’t realize until I was in way too deep. You know, it only seemed to be daunting when it was too late. So at that point, it’s just like, ‘Well, I better just get on with it’. I definitely have days where I’m just looking at the calendar or I’ve had times when it was getting put together and I was like ‘oh shit! I hope this all works out’ but it’s been amazing to do it and it’s definitely been daunting, it’s been really challenging but it hasn’t really felt like work, you know. Today’s my first day off in eight days. I woke up and I went straight back to sleep, I passed out because I’m just exhausted but it’s been amazing to be able to do what I want to do.”

“There was a point last year where the section of the roof opened up and I had to replace the roof. So, that was pretty terrifying but otherwise, the structure is sound as can be now everything’s built to the highest standards of soundproofing so I don’t think any sort of, well unless there’s some crazy act of God, I don’t think that’s going to happen again. It’s hard enough to make a living in the music industry but it’s been amazing to try and give it a go and like I said hasn’t felt like work. Although there has been times where it’s felt really full on I just remind myself that I’m lucky enough to have a job even at the moment, considering the economy. But yeah, I just got on with it. “

When David planned to open The Clinic the country went into lockdown and the whole world did also. I thought the COVID ordeal would have halted the launch. However David saw this as a brilliant opportunity. 

“Yeah, well I actually had everything ready to go, originally for a release or for a launch in March and then Covid was a blessing in disguise because I ended up changing a lot of things in the studio and if I hadn’t made those changes I don’t think I would have had early supporters like James (Vincent McMorrow). I don’t think the studio would have had the same impact on these people, as it ended up having.”

“But yeah it’s been good that it just let me have better control on the comings and goings of it because it is a small business and it’s still, teething, trying to figure out how its all going to run. So the fact that I have to take time between the sessions to to clean it and I’ve had to invest into different cleaning technologies and UVC light, there are these little machines we used to clean the microphones and it’s just allowed, maybe more focused care on it, or reinforced the fact that you have to be more focused in your care between these things.”

“Like any other business that’s still able to operate it’s just following to the letter of the law, and reminding people when they come in. I have some sort of hospitality document, and it’s just ensuring that everyone reads it, and is comfortable with our practices. My main thing is just to make sure that everyone coming in is comfortable with our practices you know, that they’re aware of what I need them to do and what they have to do themselves.”

“Because my background is in medicine I definitely have a better understanding of the risks than the average person although at this stage in the world we are all pretty aware of viral transmission and cleaning and this kind of carry on. So, yeah, its definitely a scary time to be opening a business…so, all we can do is follow things to the letter of the law and exercise as much caution as we can until, hopefully next year, things are a bit more normal and we can have some big celebration in the studio or something.” 

“I’ve had a lot of support from other independent businesses like The Porterhouse brewery. So we’re hoping to link up and do something next year but at the moment we’re running like a charity initiative together. So they’ve given stock and a fridge that they’ve set up in the studio, and then the bands that come in can just have a beer and then make a donation and every time we raise like 500 Euro or 1000 Euro we’re going to give it to a charity of the band’s choosing. We will just get recommendations from everyone, and then say okay like this is MASI or some sort of Dublin homeless charity, because we are like a Northside Dublin business and the homelessness crisis in the cities is pretty outrageous so we’re just trying to work with bands and other people to raise awareness for these things and as two independent businesses, myself and Porterhouse brewing. So, yeah, it’s just trying to get on with it as well until things can, you know, turn to normal.”

Starting up a business in these times can be very challenging and David has no team with him. When you book with The Clinic, or look for songwriting sessions or production it is all David at the helm

“It’s just myself. I’ve had a lot of support, my brother is an architect, he helped me with all the design and that kind of thing. Rob from Otherkin did the logo and the website and then another pal of mine is another designer, Aaron McGrath is his name he used to be in a band called Wounds years ago, they’re like a hardcore punk band. He’s helped out with the design as well so had a lot of support in that sense but no it’s just one of those things where, even as I was crunching the numbers like myself and Luke ( Reilly) talked about doing a little bit of work and it was still just coming together, before it was a business and before I had invested too much in it and it was just not going to be viable and make a viable income for a team. I’m at a disadvantage there in that the buck stops with me. There’s positives and negatives to that, if I’m like, ‘oh who messed this up’, well, the answer is ‘me’. But it also means I can do things my way… but I’ve had amazing help from friends and family to get it this far.”

Sometimes when an artist approaches a studio or producer they can be afraid that they take over and not listen to the artists need. David described how The Clinic works and what he does according to the artists needs

“Yeah, so there is a couple of things that are going on with the studio, my main angle is to be producing with artists like in the case of Royal Yellow. Someone who’s coming in like that, I think the goal of the producer is to, create that person’s vision and to pull their best version of their vision out of their head.”

“The whole goal has to be, like you said, if someone shows me a song like ‘oh well what do you think of this’ and try and bounce back ideas and pull out what they want from it and then help them to get that, you know, to reach that goal. But if along that way, I make a suggestion that doesn’t fly, that’s of no loss to me whatsoever. I just want to get anyone coming in.. to the place that’s in their head. Reach their goal. So, yeah….you just have to leave your ego at the door, you know. We’re all here to help make this project, the best thing it can be and whoever comes in, whether that’s an electronic act or it’s a band or a pop singer, I think just parking your ego at the door is the most important thing in any creative process like that.“

“I’m sure there’ll be times where it’s gonna be difficult to know ‘oh shit hang on am I overstepping the line here’ but..if I’m showing a band something, or we’re working on something, I’m gonna, obviously have techniques and pieces of equipment I use because it’s the whole model of studio, it’s analog equipment. So I’m going to be way more up to speed with how that stuff works and then, because a lot of the pieces will have very distinct like harmonically rich character from it being analog, being full of valve tubes and specific transistors and stuff so I think eventually you know, even if I’m not trying to imprint a sound, the sound of the studio is going to hopefully become evident on tracks that come out from Irish artists who go through, but even if it’s not me, producing the track there’s certain sounds that are just gonna be like ‘oh there’s a depth to these releases that came from The Clinic’.”

So what would an artist have to do, or what do they need if they want to record in The Clinic? 

“Just songs, That’s it, that’s the main thing. If you’re going to go into the studio, it’s just about making sure that you’re happy with the songs and they’re good and not rushing it. Because it is still expensive to go into studio I’m trying to make it not prohibitively expensive but studio time is still precious at the end of the day. If I’m working with an artist, we’re going to do pre-production we’ll do an evening, or a day of just going through the song and be like okay, ‘what’s this maybe can we chop this’. They just need to make sure that they’re coming at it with an open mind because if you’re presenting something to me, or presenting to a producer, the odds are they haven’t heard this art before even if you’ve spent three or four months working on this thing. It’s their first time hearing it.”

“So, yeah, if you come in to work at The Clinic or you’re presenting something to me specifically because obviously the facilities are available for hire to other acts and producers, I’m the only person running the facility so my aim is to be working with bands and acts in production all the time but a lot of the businesses also facilitate in assisting on other projects. So, if a band is coming to me personally I would say just park your ego at the door and come out with an open mind.”

“Because you can get attached to a song and demo – we definitely had that in Otherkin where you’d spent so long on it and as you go into work on it you’re like, oh, it doesn’t sound as good as the demo, but the demo doesn’t sound good you know, you just liked the demo.Your demo is super low fi and they’re not gonna play that on Radio One.”

“It’s meant to be an open creative space. That’s the whole idea behind it that it’s a positive open creative space where we can hopefully push the boundaries of good Irish music, because there’s a lot of really, really good acts in the country. I want to facilitate the creation and hopefully be a part of the creation of the next wave of really sick tunes.”

David has a few artists he’s looking forward to working with and some exciting things happening with The Clinic in the coming months. I wondered who he is most looking forward to working with.

“Happyalone are coming in, they’re great.They’re crazy I met them. They used to be in this band years ago called Blaming Hannah…they’re coming down later in the month, Sorcha Richardson and James Vincent McMorrow are coming back in. I like to work with Denise Chaila. I had Denise in for this songwriting camp with Faction Records and James Vincent McMorrow and we are working on some tunes. She’s just amazing. She’s gonna be an absolute star, so I’d love to work with Denise again.I like to work with up and coming artists to create something new and make something truly great between the relationship of me and the artist. So, yeah that’s it, just looking forward to discovering new music and hopefully just pushing it out there into the world and breathe new life into it”

The Clinic is looking like quite the exciting new addition to our Dublin studios and David’s ambition and goal to create and deliver a high quality service is admirable and already gaining attention from some amazing artists here in Ireland. I’m looking forward to hearing more of his work as the artists he works with releases their music. If you want to contact David, you can though his contact page on his website here https://www.theclinicrecordingstudios.com/

Author : Danu

Alt Rock, Indie, Indie Punk, indie rock, New Music

A Chat With : James McGregor From The Clockworks

I caught up with frontman James McGregor from Galway quartet The Clockworks to talk about the band’s new single ‘Can I Speak to A Manager?’, their move to London as well as how they prep for live shows. 

Written in 2018 while the band were still living in their hometown of Galway, McGregor found himself taking refuge from the drudgery of his 9-5 in a number of café’s and pubs during his lunch break. Infuriated by the plastic world around him and nauseous with the monotony of a rat-run routine, his paranoid thoughts and pent-up rage spilled into a song that dares to point out the failings of an ailing society. Inspired by the straight-up social commentary of lyrical icons like John Cooper Clarke, Mike Skinner, and Ray Davies of The Kinks, ‘Can I Speak To Manager?’ sees McGregor exercising his songwriting abilities with a similar no-nonsense and observational approach.

“Initially I had the idea of the first verse, so the idea of a really specific story of something just happening like a really mundane story and trying to make it sort of dramatic. That’s why, the first line is like “my god what a palava” because it’s just so mundane and you expect it to do with something crazy and dramatic, but it’s not. And then from there I wanted to see where I could go with that and the feeling of everything is kind of broken was sort of on my mind and came out through that. That’s the inspiration for it anyway, that’s sort of how it started. It was sort of written nearly in order. It was the first verse and a really particular story and then trying to make it, I guess…a more universal idea.”

I wondered when he was writing the track did he think of the vocal melody as well and how he was going to sing it, or was it just mostly words and getting it to flow.

“Oh that’s a good question, I haven’t been asked that before. The very first lines I had, so like that first line “my god what a palava” and the “Wrong model and no charger” and then, “Now at a loss, I’m sitting”, I had that straight away, it was the first thing that came to me and then the rest I guess was more rhythmical and then the melody followed.”

There is a sublime build in this track especially how the band venture from a hypnotic rhythm and then lead into a blasting crescendo.The band definitely enhance the instrumental backdrop to match and highlight the lyrical content to create something quite cinematic

“Yeah, we usually try to make the instrumental music reflect the lyrics in a way that maybe a soundtrack might, and so that song is about something that’s quite ridiculous and maybe light hearted, finding who you are. You could say it’s light hearted or not but something ridiculous that becomes crazy and the whole thing is, like, “when I become a cynical”, it’s one of the lines and it’s all about the descent into cynicism, that you might get from something as simple as your laptop breaking might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and send you into that frenzy toward the end where you think that everyone is all out to get you. Obviously I don’t want to dictate how anyone would listen to that song but for me, that was kind of the impetus. It was that something simple happens that isn’t really a big deal. You know, you’re not going to remember it five minutes later maybe or five days later, for sure, but at the time it just sends you off.”

Not only does the band provide powerful punk rock and an abrasive wall of sound they pack in some serious themes and lyrical depth. Themes of isolation, paranoia, and helplessness all glimmer through their songs and hit hard through their lyrical content.This is something McGregor strives to achieve when crafting the tracks, that all important connection with the listeners.

“For us personally it’s important. I’m not gonna speak for how I think every musician should be. Because I think everyone plays music for different reasons or writes songs for different reasons. But for us, it’s expressing a feeling, or an emotion and hoping that the message,I guess is that, this is something we feel, you know, this is something that we maybe think about, do you? I’ve always been fascinated with the fact that maybe if you’re feeling nostalgic you might listen to one song. You might listen to, I don’t know, Frank Sinatra, you might listen to maybe the early indie music or The Beatles or something if you’re feeling like getting back to the music you listened to when you were a child or something. Then if you’re feeling heartbroken you might listen to Damien Rice and these people speak to you in ways that they wouldn’t normally. I remember one of the lads, saying to me before that they’d never got Sam Smith, until they were heartbroken and then suddenly Sam Smith makes sense. I think it’s like, these people are putting an emotion out there, or, an observation or something that you could relate to, and it takes maybe a certain situation or turn of events to relate to that. That really fascinates me. It’s not something that I would think about all the time but it’s definitely something that we try to do across the songs. I would try to have different songs for different times, different songs for different rooms in your mind, that you might need to go to.”

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The Clockworks relocated to London last year and the quartet signed to Alan McGee’s new record label ‘Creation23’ almost overnight. We discussed the advantages of moving to London for artists

“I think there are definitely more opportunities here than in Galway, I can only speak for living in Galway. I don’t think that’s any fault of Galway, as a place. I think firstly, there’s a slightly different cultural relationship to music or maybe our type of music, or rock music or contemporary music…and I feel people generally feel like it’s more of a young person’s thing to maybe go to gigs loads and stuff. I think secondly, obviously, it’s just the music industry itself, it’s all here. If we play, you know, here somewhere, we’ve had plenty of gigs where people who didn’t know us have turned up and they’ve been this person or that person in the music industry, you know,”

Like other bands of his generation The Clockworks have the power and influence of streaming platforms which gives artists huge exposure however it doesn’t make them money. They have the opportunity to reach more people but don’t reap the benefits as much as an artist would with album sales and touring. However McGregor doesn’t think it has bothered the band that much

“ I think we’re lucky enough as it’s all we know. So I think maybe if you’ve come from, the age where buying albums and making money from people buying your albums was the norm it would be a lot more shocking and maybe more overwhelming. For us we don’t expect people to have paid to listen to our music. So I guess it doesn’t affect us as much. I definitely do understand what you mean about like, you can see, Spotify plays, you can see Facebook likes, Instagram followers. All these numbers and then you see like, zero pounds or euros. Or you might have this many followers, and play a gig in Whelan’s to nobody. You know, in the past, especially when we sort of didn’t know how things worked as well, we would support a band, and be like ‘oh this band has this many followers. This is gonna be a packed gig. This is gonna be huge’ and then we’d be playing to nobody and they may be playing to a handful of people, and it never made sense to us. But because of the fact that we were post that change we have always played in the Spotify age, I guess, we are lucky because we don’t know any better. Sort of blissfully ignorant.”

The music scene in the UK and Ireland is very vibrant lately – there are so many amazing acts gigging and producing great music.I wondered is there competition between the bands and does McGregor feel pressure to fit into the scene.

“I think its cool. I think it’s good. Galway again, because its not Dublin it’s so far removed from 90% of music in Ireland, but it was great for us because we were just, the opposite to the thing you’re talking about, there was a handful of bands, a lot of singer songwriters or, you know, singers or instrumental musicians or whatever, who sort of all supported each other and there was no clique per se, so that was great. We were able to just do our own thing and we came over to London and I think we’ve carried that with us so we’re not too worried about trying to jostle through other bands in the same venue to be, like the cool band in this group of bands. We’ve never done that and I think, historically it always works out better if you just support other bands and make friends where you can and apart from that keep your head down and just get on with it. Again, I think we’re also lucky because we moved to Northwest London, which is the equivalent of Galway, London-wise. There’s no bands that we know of around us. Most of the bands are in South London, that we know. The bands that we know would be in South London, East London or West London or different parts of North London but Northwest London we’re kind of removed, so again there’s no scene here, there’s no scene where we are. It’s nice because we can sort of not worry about fitting into it.”

I saw The Clockworks perform a few years ago in The Workmans Club supporting BLESS. and SISTERAY. The intense energy they had and expression through their music was impressive. It’s no surprise they have had slots at festivals including Eurosonic and Electric Picnic. The band have also performed to a huge crowd at Sefton Park in Liverpool in support of Kings of Leon. Preparation is the key to a good live show but the band don’t overthink it.

“oh yeah and I burst in ( on Indie Buddie’s interview with SISTERAY at the time).We go in and play but we do give ourselves a little pep talk before we go on. We’ve always done that just, sort of like, jump up and down and say, you know, ‘this is it’ kind of thing.I think it’s especially important when there’s three people in the room and back in the day you know when you play maybe, Róisín Dubh for the 40th time. Some days would be busy sometimes it wouldn’t and we were lucky to be able to play there so much and really practice. Obviously you have to  apply yourself in a certain way, when you’re playing to three people, you know, because you’re not playing to sold out crowd singing back your words at you and we’ve always thought that those three people are worth as much, every person is worth as much as every other person in the room, regardless of how many there are, of course. Just because there’s more people in the room you shouldn’t give them more of yourself. You should try and give everything to any gig because, what are you on the stage for if you’re not gonna do your best. So I guess we go in with the mindset of just giving everything we can. Every time and just before we go on, I guess we say that, but we’re not actors and it’s not like ‘alright, let’s go into costume and change character now’ it’s not like that, which is fine if you are like, David Bowie, he literally got into costume and changed his name.But that’s just not what we do. “

With live shows cancelled it’s easy to see how bands and artists can become overwhelmed with the pressure of making the most of their spare time and McGregor did fall pray to this at first.

“ I think I put pressure on it. Because, obviously, everyone was immediately super productive, you were just seeing people everywhere immediately like fit and healthy and taken up four new languages and cleaned their house and had done everything they have ever wanted to do. That isn’t what happened but that’s how you felt. Everyone was being super productive and for the first few weeks.”

“What I usually do is write lyrics in pubs, or cafes. I don’t know why, but I like to be that little bit removed from home.I haven’t quite worked out exactly why but maybe I don’t want to ask myself too much because I don’t want to ruin it if I find out the answer. But obviously without being able to do that sort of thing at home I found it a bit stifling for lack of a better word.”

“Once I got used to that it was alright. It was good. We got some good writing done. We got a few new songs on the go and because obviously it was so extended, initially we thought it could be a couple of weeks and for the first few weeks it was like, ‘Yeah,  I can wait to go back to the pub or whatever to get some writing done again’. Then once you were like ‘no we’re in this for the long haul’ I sort of, had to surrender to it, and go right, ‘well if you don’t write them, what are you gonna do’…just because you technically have more time because you’re not, you know, going into work every day. It was, it was a stressful time. I think everyone, regardless of what, personally happened to you or your family, with this I think it was stressful for everyone at least a little bit and still is for a lot of people.”

The Clockworks have been touring and releasing music for a few years. From McGregor’s experience of the Irish and UK music scene and life as a band in general I wondered what advice  he would give to someone who wants to start a band. His answer imparted words of wisdom which any budding artist should take onboard.

“Industry-wise I think everyone says it but then it is so true. I would say just write, write as much as you can and read as well. Or, take in stuff as well, listen to music, read books, watch films, whatever it is that you do to build your imagination and write as much as you can, because it’s like turning on an old tap that hasn’t been used. It’s like you have to run the water until it stops being brown. I think it’s easy to turn the tap off again. If you don’t write for a while. Personally I find if I don’t write for a while it takes me a while to get back into it, like I just said over the summer, so I stopped for a couple of weeks and then suddenly you know you get back into it again. Write as much as you can. You can have the worst gig ever, you can have terrible reviews, you can have every label, manager, agent in the world, turn you down. But as long as you’re still writing music, if you can still write music and enjoy doing that. Then, you know, all is not lost. You’re still doing the thing that’s the most fundamental thing and I think it’s very easy to get caught up in the peripheral things like reviews or bad reviews or bad comments from someone or someone turning you down or a gig that you don’t get or whatever it is. So I guess maybe for both industry and creatively, I think, to focus on the fact that writing is THE THING , and everything else is peripheral.”

“I can’t remember who said this, I read it the other day and I can’t remember – this could be anyone from like Oscar Wilde to like a gossip magazine. Someone said ‘Don’t take on criticism from someone you wouldn’t be prepared to take advice from’ which I thought was a great quote. It’s really difficult and a lot of people get very anxious about it. I think that’s what I was getting at with being in Galway and being now in North London is that we’ve tried to make sure that we don’t feel like we have to conform to a sound that’s been dictated to us by someone else musically, you know, or dress a certain way or whatever, You can’t be restricted by it because you end up running around chasing other people’s expectations and that can be very dangerous. To chase other peoples expectations of you, is probably impossible.”

The bands previous single ‘The Future Is Not What It Was’ was praised at radio by BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac on her “New Names” showcase, BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq on his ‘Recommends’ show. The track received day-time radio play on RTÉ 2FM, and even impressed the legendary Rodney Bingenheimer show in the States on Sirius XM. The band are keeping the momentum going with their new single ‘Can I Speak to A Manager?’ as well as writing and building for when live shows finally do return.

“Definitely writing, we’re writing a lot at the moment and recording as well at the moment. We’re trying to next year, consolidate the gigs that we weren’t doing this year and see what we can do.Hopefully, everything is good to go by then. It’s quite a weird thing to be booking gigs, that you’ve already cancelled that you may have to cancel again.It’s strange, but that’s what we’re trying to do and it’s good to try. So, that’s it, just writing loads because that’s the fundamental, that’s the important thing. We’re doing everything else we can too. We have loads of time, we’re not playing gigs. The first thing we have to do is write and record music and then after that it’s everything we can try and get gigs, do interviews like this, meet people as we can, you know zoom meetings and all that.”

The Clockworks have created a unique and intense sound all their own. Their ability to craft songs which blend moody punk with frantic rock outbursts is impressive and the lyrical content carries depth and masterful poetic insight. I can not wait to hear more from them. THE CLOCKWORKS are definitely a band to keep an eye on.

Stream ‘Can I Speak to A Manager?’ below

Author : Danu

A Chat With, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With : Malachy Tuohy From The Riptide Movement

Photo credit: Ian Smith

Dublin four-piece The Riptide Movement are back with their eagerly anticipated new single ‘Fall a Little More in Love’ which was co-produced in Attica Studios with Tommy McLoughlin (Villagers, SOAK).Hailing from Lucan, The Riptide Movement’s music has taken them all over the world from Main Stage at Electric Picnic to Glastonbury and Benicàssim. Their extensive recent ‘Something Special’ tour included a blistering headline performance at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre. From busking on their native Grafton street to playing with the BBC Orchestra, Neil Young and The Rolling Stones, music has taken the band from Lucan to India, America, Russia, Australia and everywhere in between.

I caught up with frontman Malachy Tuohy to talk about the new single, the changes in music promotion due to covid-19 and how the bands sound is growing as well as what they have planned for the coming months and next year. 

I spoke with Tuohy and John Dalton last year before their fantastic show at The Olympia Theatre Dublin when the usual format for Indie Buddie was a video interview. However this time due to Covid-19 it is by phone. We began comparing the changes from video to phone interviews for me and that a lot of Tuohy’s interviews are by phone now and this has made promotion a bit easier for him.

“Do you prefer the video interviews? From our own perspective, some of it’s kind of better in some ways for the interviews, because some of the radio ones we would be driving around a lot. I remember last year when we were doing ‘Something Special’ and the fun going around doing all the radio interviews, but you could be driving from say Wexford, Waterford or up to Kilkenny and you’re trying to beat the clock the whole time to get to each interview.So it’s a bit more relaxed. If you’re doing them over the phone it’s more relaxed not to be racing from one part of the country to the other. It’s definitely got some positives anyway. In saying that it would be nice to have a mix, maybe.”

With six critically-acclaimed studio records to their name – most notably The RTÉ Choice Music Prize nominated, Gold selling, Number 1 Album “Getting Through” – The Riptide Movement are renowned for their energetic live shows and soaring, guitar driven anthems. But live shows are something artists can not do at the moment. However the band have put up live streams on their socials as a way of reaching out to their fans and maintaining that buzz.

“Yeah, definitely. It’s a great way of connecting with people, I think, particularly during the lockdown anyway when people were stuck inside their house and you weren’t really allowed out. That was a great outlet for people, to be able to go on the couch, nine times out of ten during that lockdown, a band or an artist, that you like would be going live that evening. I know some of the sound quality would be better than others but if you had a good Facebook Live stream or YouTube stream that had good sound quality it was great, it was the next best thing to being at a gig. Obviously not near as good as going to a gig but, I think to still have that interaction is great”

“We did a couple of the facebook live streams from the house. And one thing I noticed was a lot of people that would be watching us were kind of talking amongst themselves on the stream. So it was a community kind of, a bit of a vibe going on as well, which I thought was interesting. It’s definitely a positive, but it’s not a replacement for live gigs. It will be nice to keep an element of that when things do eventually get back to some kind of normal”

The new single ‘Fall a Little More in Love’ is out now. It is a feel good anthem brimming with earworm melodies heartfelt instrumentation and good vibes and the fans are really enjoying this surprise release

“Yeah, it’s been really positive. It went out on Friday, all the feedback on our social media has been really positive. With radio, as well, we started getting some radio play with it already. It’s been really positive. We’re really happy with it.I think it’s time to release it now because we were holding back releasing the song. We were going to release it next year but we felt now was the right time to put it out. Just with everything that’s happening, and just that it’s a light hearted kind of love song as well, it’s not too serious or too dark so it’s the right kind of energy to put out in these times anyway.”

When I saw the band perform last year in the Olympia Theatre they played ‘Fall a Little More in Love’ as it was a part of the vinyl version on the album. I wondered had they planned to release it as a single.

“Yeah that’s right. Actually it was just on the vinyl because we never released ‘Fall A Little More In Love’ digitally, so it was only on the vinyl. We only sold them at that gig because they were a limited edition.What we are doing now is we are selling signed copies with Golden Disc for record store day this Friday and there’s a special on them as well so anyone that buys it online gets a signed copy, and it includes the new single ‘Fall A Little More In Love’ so kind of worked out well holding that song back.”

It feels like this track blends plenty of the lovable elements in their previous albums – the ‘Ghost’ album was quite keys or synth based then ‘Something Special’ was indie based with sharp guitar elements and ‘Getting Through’ was an anthemic-oriented album. ‘Fall a Little More in Love’ seems to take the best aspects of those albums and expand on this. This was a natural result of the bands progression and not intentional.

“ I think it’s just something that came organically. I think when you’re producing it, you’re just going to come up with all different ideas and stuff but it wouldn’t be a conscious thing where we go. Okay, what’s the best elements of the band and maybe put them together but actually that’s a really good way of looking at it maybe that’s something that we might try and think about when we’re writing newer songs ; what’s actually the best elements of the band and try and put all that into one song. I never actually thought about it like that before. You’re after planting a seed in my own brain now, that’s a really good idea. Yeah, that’s after hitting me for six there, good stuff.”

Tuohy misses the touring which comes with promoting new material. However he has found the break revitalising as The Riptide Movement have been touring for over 10 years, so time to do normal things is refreshing. 

“Yeah, definitely. Usually you’d have a tour or something to coincide with this or a few live dates. So this time around everything’s very much online and then, even with that, because with the new restrictions that came in again. We were hoping maybe to do a full band Facebook Live session but last week the new restrictions brought in where you can’t have any more than a certain amount in the one place and from three different households so it’s kind of hard to perform as a band and put it out online as well, so it’s kind of just trying to figure out other ways of doing it”

“What we have done has worked well. On a few videos we’ve done it remotely, where, I’d play the guitar and sing and then I send the video on to the lads and they add their individual parts to it. Then we’d mix it all together, and edit it up as a video. So that works pretty well as well. I suppose you just have to find ways of doing it remotely. I’m looking forward to when gigs do eventually come back and get back playing. We have done a lot of touring, over the last 10 years. It’s unheard of, like, even just take Saturday night like a Saturday night in August. I can’t remember. it’s probably 10 years since the last time I ever had a weekend off, anytime during the summer. I’m enjoying it at the moment. It’s nice to have these weekends back and be able to get to live a normal life I suppose”

“I’m definitely looking forward to going back gigging. I’ll probably enjoy gigging even more now, because it’s been taken away from us for a while. As I said we have toured intensely the past 10 years or so, so it is nice to get some time away from it. The one thing I’ve learned myself throughout the lockdown is just appreciating the simple things really, as opposed to, I’ve found, I’ve always been so busy so it’s just been moving on to the next project and next thing. So the last six months feels like, even though we were still releasing stuff and writing it’s just everything has slowed down a bit. I’m just enjoying the downtime, really, to be honest and definitely feeling the benefit from it”

Artists have had to learn new skills to connect with fans such as navigating through platforms such as Zoom. The Riptide Movement have been editing their own videos and putting their own content online themselves but this wasn’t too much of an ordeal for Tuohy

“Last year I would have got into a lot of the edits and we started making the bands videos last year, and then the content for online and I was learning that as I was going last year so that’s come in very useful this year, because it makes it easier and quicker to get things up online, or to do these little videos remotely with the band. But that would be more so editing in terms of Zoom and stuff like that, I’m still trying to get my head around it. I suppose it just takes some getting used to. But everyone’s in the same boat aren’t they? Everyone’s trying to catch up on how all of this works.”

I wondered if Tuohy felt pressure to write during this time or is he just allowing his creative flair to decide when a song will come to fruition.

“I have been writing and some of it has been good and some of it has been bad and that’s just the way it is. You just have to keep at it, and I always write anyway. I suppose I’m not putting too much pressure on myself. At the start I thought, I’m going to write like a couple albums here. And that wasn’t happening, and I was thinking I don’t really want to put this kind of pressure on. So, for now I’m just writing as I go, and some of its good and some of it’s bad. Then when it comes time to start on an album which probably will be next year. I’ll start putting a little bit more pressure on myself because, pressure seems to work for me a little bit, if I’ve got a deadline or a timeline that I have to get something finished by”

“So it’s nice to have a lot of ideas in the can and some songs finished, some kind of half finished, and then to approach an album with a timeline. It makes you have to finish it then because there’s a definite deadline. Sometimes you can leave a song unfinished for years, which is no good because the longer you leave the song unfinished, the harder it is to finish it because you’re always trying to make it perfect, maybe, putting too much time into it as opposed to just letting it flow naturally. You can lose the whole essence of the song or that little spark that drives the song or that it’s built around, but then, other times, it can work the other way. You might have a really cool melody or riff and you’ve written a song to that, and you listen back to it and you actually go “no there’s nothing in that song that’s really that interesting or that good” and then you can re-write it into something else.That happened with one of our biggest songs ‘Changeling’ because that was a completely different song before we went into the studio and it came out a completely different song. It wrote itself really in the studio, so it does happen. I think with songs, they find their own way onto the albums.”

“It’s just trusting the process I suppose. In a mad way even though that sounds really all over the place. It kind of works and it tends to work for us when we’re in the studio. We have the songs and the ideas and the ones that make the album are always the ones that made themselves, because you could have 15 or 20 songs when you start the pre-production on an album and you bring that down usually to around 10 or 12 songs, and you’d be surprised the ones that always find a way on to it. It’s a mad way to think about it but they always find their own way and you just have to trust that process. “

The Riptide Movement will be celebrating 15 years as a band next year and they have something special planned.

“ I’d say this will probably be our only release this year and then next year, the band is together 15 years, believe it or not, which is Mad ! but we’re going to plan something special for that to celebrate 15 years together as a band. So, we have a couple of ideas with an orchestra, and we’re going to put out something next year. Then we’re going to be working on another new album, which we will probably bring out the year after. We’ve lots of ideas in the pipeline. It would be cool to have some sort of party or a concert with other bands, maybe for us to do something like that would be cool.”

What better way to mark 15 years as a band then another phenomenal live show from The Riptide Movement. With the bands soaring, guitar driven tracks and vibrant energy it would be the perfect thing to look forward to after all this Covid craziness ends. Seen as the band are always evolving and refining their sound, if ’Fall a Little More in Love’ is anything to go by the next album is going to be another smasher. I can not wait !

Stream ’Fall a Little More in Love’ below 

Author : Danu