Tag Archives: Interviews

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

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

A Chat With : Sea Girls’ Oli Khan

Following the consistent success of radio playlisted singles, critical acclaim and selling out shows across the UK and beyond, Sea Girls have released their highly anticipated debut album ‘Open Up Your Head’ on Polydor. I caught up with drummer Oli Khan last Friday (release day) to see how he’s feeling about the release and talk about the album’s conception as well as his hopes for live shows. 

“I’m good, I’m a bit tired. I guess, you know it feels a bit like Christmas Day. I mean like straight away at midnight there were a lot of people listening to it so it’s been great to see so many positive comments already and I guess it’s gonna be loads more throughout the day, hopefully.“

The band had a live stream chat with fans just before the album was released and got an idea of what fans thought of the album. 

“We just went to Henry’s house and sat on the floor. Just like chatted and vibed and you know got some of the fans involved. You can do a split screen on Instagram and we did that with a few of our bigger fans and yeah it was great.”

Sea Girls have built their songs superbly, creating tracks which are bubbling indie gems and lyrically moving. Tracks such as ‘Do You Really Wanna Know’ lyrically display feelings of self-loathing and uncertainty while the vibrant backdrop makes the track anthemic and infectious.It seems that dealing with these real and raw themes in an upbeat way connects with listeners and makes an impact.

“Yeah, I guess it’s like, we’ve always been a fan of that kind of really upbeat indie music. But we did want to create some sort of like, very personal to us but also you know something people can relate to and I think naturally that’s kind of a timeless thing, you know the sad banger like someone like Robyn who we really love. ‘Call Me Out’ was kind of based around or been inspired by Robyn and it’s that you know, dance through the pain kind of vibe that we really like and strive for in our music as well. We do have happy songs as well.”

The album is a collection of some of Sea Girls’ best tracks from previous EPs and singles and for the band it’s an album that follows the journey of their career and musical growth so far.

“Yeah, I guess because there was never really a point where we were like, ‘All right, now we’re recording our album’. There’s bits where it wrapped up more but essentially we’ve just been making it since we first started recording because it’s got ‘Call Me Out’ which is our first single and that’s on it. I think it was just once we had a good collection of songs, it was just trying to find these 14 songs that all fit together. And I think it was important to have some of these older songs because I think it tells the story, like I said, Call Me Out’ and having ‘All I Want to Hear You Say’ on there. That was definitely like a turning point for us so definitely it felt right to honor that, and also lots of these songs the fans really love, we just wanted to include them for that reason, as well.”

There are so many wonderful moments within each track. Sea Girls move from epic bittersweet guitar refrains to blazing basslines, anthemic drum pulses and even surging rushes on synths. Each track oozes emotion from every anthemic note. It’s the knockout combination of all four members of the band and their influences that creates such passionate and vibrant tracks. However there are some tracks written that didn’t make the cut for the album.

“So normally with the songs either Henry or Rory will come with a full song, and then it’s just like hashing it out in the studio. We’ve been lucky with making the album. Quite a lot of these newer songs, we’ve been able to take our time and do them, and quite a few have gone through different versions. It’s just kind of finding what the vibe is for the song, because we want all the songs to be different and have their own character, and it’s then just plugging away at that and finding, little guitar riffs and little synthesizer parts to make the song shine. But, you know, ultimately its about making that core song as best we can do it. All four of us are really creative so it’s just like throwing everything we can at it to get it to that point. 

There is quite a few songs we did in the same sessions that didn’t make it so maybe they’ll eventually get re-jigged and find the way out but like ‘Shake’ which is on the album, we first played that maybe two years ago, I think, it was just the verse we played in practice and we thought this is really cool and then we never really ended up finishing writing it. Then when it came around to the album we tried it again and we were actually like, okay. I think this could work and with the help of our producer, we fleshed it out into a full song and then recorded it. So yeah it definitely happens and there’s a few songs like that when we’ve been playing them for ages and then finally got them right for the album.”

One track that didn’t make it on the album is in fact the title track of the album, their 2019 song ‘Open Up Your Head’.It’s quite unusual for a band or artist to have a title track that does not appear on the album

“I guess we had the collection of songs before we chose the name….I think with the kind of themes of the album about mental health and you know, exploring, you know just what it means to be in your early 20’s and a little bit lost and I think that Open Up Your Head, the name just kind of spoke to that. It’s also like a little callback for fans who liked that song as well. It seemed fitting and I don’t think they really mind that it wasn’t on there.”

When I first heard the album ‘Closer’ was one that definitely caught my attention with it’s blazing guitar and rapid rolling drums, it hooked me instantly.I wondered if Oli has a particular track he loves on the album.

“Ah, changes all the time. I really like ‘Transplant’ which is the first song. I think as soon as we did our first play through in the studio we were like okay this is something really special for us. I feel like it showcases all of us at our best, but there’s a song called ‘Weight In Gold’ which I also really like. I think that was one when we weren’t really sure what people were going to think of it but so far that seems to be one that stands out to the fans so far, so that makes me like it even more even though maybe it shouldn’t ”

Sea Girls are renowned for their frenetic, sweat-drenched sold-out live shows and they have planned to kick off their rescheduled April UK dates by upgrading the venues to play their biggest headline shows to date in November 2020 – which sold out in minutes. It will also see the guys play a career defining night at London’s legendary O2 Brixton Academy on 6th November. Oli is grateful and surprised that people still are supporting them even though their is so much uncertainty with live shows at the moment. It shows just how dedicated and loyal their fans are.

“Yeah, definitely because it’s been months of doing no shows. There has been moments where you think ‘oh is this falling apart or like are people going to lose interest’ but yeah having the fact that when we get back, Brixton Academy in London, is gonna be one of our first shows back, and it’s gonna be the biggest show we’ve ever played by far, that’s really exciting and then like you said, even though people don’t necessarily know or are sure its going to come back it’s amazing that they’re still buying tickets because they know eventually they’re going to be able to see us.”

Brixton Academy in London is a big first show back and it is a little nerve racking but Oli is excited to get back on stage

“Yeah, definitely. I mean we did our first practice a couple weeks ago and we didn’t sound very good, there’s gonna be a lot of re-remembering the songs. I think everyone’s so up for a gig like us and fans and stuff it’s just gonna be so cathartic when it finally happens, it’s gonna be such a release of energy and, you know, coming out playing that first song I think it’s gonna feel crazy, something I’ve never felt before I reckon, just amazing.”

Touring and gigging all the time sets the band up for some bizarre experiences and as we sat chatting about shows Oli chuckles as he reminisces on one particular odd experience the band had early on.

“We played a venue in London, one of our earliest London shows but then, because when you go off the stage you have to go onto the street before we go into the dressing room and there was just some random lady walking past, she was like ‘oh what’s going on in there’ and we said ‘there’s a gig’ and she was like, ‘oh ok who’s gig’ and we were like ‘oh ours’. We just come off the stage, and we opened the door and you can hear everyone screaming one more song and she goes ‘oh Ok’. And then we went back on stage and as we’re playing the last song I turned around and she had let herself in the back and was just standing on the side of the stage watching us.”

The band are keeping busy during this crazy time, creating songs and they might even have their next album underway already. I wondered what the next album would sound like and if these new songs were in keeping with the bands dynamic style.

“ I guess we’ve already just started writing the next one. Naturally when we have all this free time you just end up gravitating back towards writing so hopefully we can get a load of songs written while we’ve got this downtime. But yeah, ultimately, we’ve got some shows for November so fingers crossed they can go ahead. But, you know, it might be, unfortunately a bit of waiting around. 

“I mean at the moment we’re just kind of filling out new songs and just trying everything but you can kind of hear from the last few songs that we recorded for this album which was, I think ‘Lie To Me’ and ‘Moving On’, they’re already quite different, and I think we definitely want to try. It’s like we’ve established what we do and now it’s time to kind of mess with that a bit and try and do some more interesting stuff. So definitely, I think there’s gonna be some kind of progression there, although too early to say exactly what. Probably not gonna be, you know, jazz or any surprises like that but you know definitely some more influences.”

There are talks of socially distance gigs and I wondered if this was something that Sea Girls could do especially with the frenetic energy they bring with their shows or if shows could even go back to the way they were

“I hope so I mean, eventually, I think. Like I saw Sam Fender did his socially distanced show but I don’t know if that’s the kind of vibe for us because for our shows and such [we are] like a community, the crowd is all part of the show. Having everyone in little pods, or spread apart I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about that. It definitely strips away some of what our shows are known for. I think if we can’t give the fans the real experience I don’t want them to feel like they have missed out on that but hopefully smaller shows can come back as normal sooner, that will be really great. I think some places in Europe are already starting to have, a few hundred capacity shows so that would be nice.

For us playing Brixton, that’s like 5000 people who would have to distance. We’d have to do like 10 nights or something. Obviously that sounds cool but it’s not ideal really. “

The song I have been recommending to people who ask me about Sea Girls is ‘All I Want To Hear You Say’. The track is incredibly catchy, hook-filled and well written but Oli has a different song he would suggest.

“ Yeah ‘All I Want To Hear You Say’ is a good one. I’d say start with ‘Call Me Out’, it’s like our first single, and it’s just kind of everything that we do. It’s like big guitars, bittersweet lyrics but with a catchy chorus for everyone to kind of sing along to, and you know just release those emotions. That was the first one we’d written, we’re like okay this is what we want to sound like this is definitely the start of something.So people should start with that.”

There is something extremely absorbing about Sea Girls’ songs. Their ability to capture and harness raw emotion and express feelings in catchy and relatable earworms is impressive. Through clever lyrical content ‘Open Up Your Head’ deals with difficult emotions through heartwarming and explosive musicianship. Sea Girls are expanding their music with each release.This debut album marks an important point in this fantastic bands musical journey. Check it out and enjoy.

Stream ‘Open Up Your Head’ below 


Author : Danu

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

A Chat With : Moncrieff

I spoke to Chris Breheny aka Moncrieff last week about his new single ‘PLAYLOUD’. Breheny’s cheery persona and charm set the conversation alight as we banter about the differences since we last spoke a few months earlier – from the craziness in the world at the moment to his new sound. He quizzes me as to my thoughts on the single and we discuss how this budding artist is pushing and removing the boundaries of genre.

“We spoke in the library last year in December didn’t we? Back in much different times.

The song is out so I’m very happy about that. I’m glad that my story is moving forward. During this shit show of a year. What are your thoughts? Be honest. It’s a big move from ‘Early Hurts’. I’m not sure whether I told you at the time but when I was releasing ‘The Early Hurts’ a lot of the songs they’re an early kind of diary for my songwriting but all the while I was kind of writing songs that were like PLAYLOUD and they were down that vein and I was like how the fuck am I going to change it over, it’s just got to be a big switch.”

‘PLAYLOUD’ takes Moncrieff’s sound to a different level boasting deft production and electronic soundscapes blended beneath R&B and pop elements. Even his voice for this track is different. It’s more rebellious with less of that soulful smooth tone that we have come to know him for. I wondered had he been experimenting with his vocals and how he wanted to sing.

“Yeah, I guess it just kind of came out that way. It was one of those days where everything just kind of aligned, the song was written, in like an hour. And then we spent a day just kind of messing around with the production and we knew it sounded different than something we’ve done before, but it was something really exciting and, I think, has to be sung that way in order to get people to wake up to the message of the song. I mean that’s where I want my music to go. I want to be fluent, to kind of talk about and express whatever I’m feeling in whatever way. Obviously I’m not going to go and do some, like Himalayan singing and shit but that’s just the way the song had to be sung. Do you know what I mean?”

He’s fully committed to his new style; he has even dyed his hair blue.

“It is. It all kind of feeds into that, into the kind of.. the ethos. The story of the song is the most important thing for me and so I want everything I do to reflect, where I’m at. So, right now PLAYLOUD is about being frustrated and feeling alienated as a young person in the world that you live. We’re talking Donald Trump is going for re-election and shit and the whole world is going crazy so I kind of want to be a visual. I want my visuals and my own visual persona to line up with what I’m talking about. I don’t want to have blue hair forever, but I think it helps tell the story of the music”

Last time we spoke, Breheny said that his EP ‘The Early Hurts’ is a summary of all the most significant people, places and events that happened to him from moving to London until the age of 22 and PLAYLOUD is the start of a collection of songs telling the next chapter of stories from his life

“I guess so I mean The Early Hurts was a record of how I started, where I came from. This is definitely like the next chapter, It’s definitely not as autobiographical, it’s how I’ve developed and how my voice has developed as to what I want to say. I feel like I obviously want to talk about the stuff I’ve been talking about in PLAYLOUD and I have another track coming out, the track that we’ll be following up on this, is just as loud and it’s quite commentary. But the next chapter also does talk about a lot of personal stuff as well, but it’s just an ongoing story of growing up and coming into adulthood. It never ends.”

Breheny’s debut body of work ‘The Early Hurts’ EP featured lead track ‘Like I Do’, this debut radio single (released in Sept 2019) received extensive airplay across national radio racking up nearly 12 million audience impressions and 5 million streams. The success of the single and EP led to Breheny selling out his first headline show in Dublin in less than 3 hours. However this success didn’t make him feel pressured to create something to match that success

“Obviously you want it to go well, like you want people to like it. At some point, you don’t want everyone to hate it. I knew that releasing this new body of work that I had, I wanted to make a statement that I’m a dynamic artist. I’m not as bound down to genre and stuff. But, yeah, so I was maybe a bit nervous for that but I really like the songs and I’m ready to put out so that kind of superseded that.I think the songs are good. I’m happy to shout about my tunes I got loads of shit songs, like so many. I just trawl through the shit until I find one and I’m like ok this is good, I know this is good.”

A music video for ‘PLAYLOUD’ is something I have been looking forward to and boy it sounds like its going to be wild.

” I think it’s coming out next week.I really like the video. The video is mad,  I don’t know how long it’s gonna stay up on YouTube and that’s genuinely a fact. It’s just a series of ridiculous things. I’m not gonna spoil it for you, but I’m really looking forward to getting it out.”

Breheny has been keeping busy during this crazy COVID-19 time. He has turned his energy to creating some amazing limited edition merch which should be available soon

“Bits and bobs. It’s not as easy to just pick up a pen and just start writing when like nothing has happened.  I mean I could write about being anxious about the fucking world that I’m in at the minute, I could write so many songs about that but that probably wouldn’t be good for me to constantly feed into that but I’ve written a bit, I’ve been working on other shit.I’ve been working on a clothing line which is coming soon but it takes a lot of time. I’m working on that, I’ve put this video together myself and I’ve been working on new songs as they come. It’s fun. I’m gonna put some pictures up soon. I make them all myself. I’ve been making weird designs from weird things I found on the internet and printing them and stuff. But, yeah, I’m doing it myself. It’s just weird clothes. I’ve just been doing it myself for the last little while. It takes so much time. When you’re doing it yourself there’s  a lot of trial and error. A lot of T-shirts get sacrificed, I’ve got two pieces that I think are sick. And then once I’ve like five or six I’ll put them up, and I want every piece to be, super sick and not make a lot of it. I want merch you will wear and that has an interesting story . Every piece will be a once off. Every piece I will probably have made or painted myself. So yeah it’s probably gonna be extremely time consuming, but at least when people buy it, it’s gonna be like, well, there is no other t-shirt like this.“

Breheny is missing live shows and I can imagine with the release of ‘PLAYLOUD’ the live shows he would be doing now would be epic.

“Yeah, big time. A live gig is where I feel I translate best or I can get my message across. And it can make sense to people immediately, live. It’s like I live for playing live.The live version of PLAYLOUD would be such a vibe. Like break it down at the end, everyone’s singing it! .”

So what has Breheny got planned for the coming months.

” More music. I’ve gotta get on a mission to get all these songs out. I’ve got like six songs.

I don’t know whether it’s an EP, but it’s definitely a body of work, PLAYLOUD is the first statement. So I want to try and get at least another three or four out before the years out, and then do some live gigs next year, for the love of God! “

Moncrieff has a tour coming up in September so fingers crossed Breheny can perform ‘PLAYLOUD’ live soon because when he does it’s going to be insane.

Until then check out ‘PLAYLOUD’ on spotify here and keep an eye out for the video which will be released soon!


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Interviews

A Chat With : Colm Slattery From Fluttertone

I had a chat with Colm Slattery sound engineer, graphic designer and founder of FlutterTone. Colm founded FlutterTone in 2018 after completing a masters at Trinity College in Music and Media Technology. He has been involved in the Dublin music scene since his early teens, playing in bands, and being involved with numerous festivals, events, and conferences around the country as an organizer and sound engineer. Running something like FlutterTone is a time consuming task yet Colm organises and hosts events from the weekly singer/songwriter night Monday Club to the new VIRTUAL platform on zoom, it is very ambitious but immensely valuable to artists. When I spoke to Colm I had just seen Rebekah Fitch’s amazing performance on Virtual and I wondered how he finds these amazing artists.

“Yeah, just through connections over the past few years, it’s putting on gigs and networking with musicians in Dublin and John from dootdoot Records in Belfast. He has a lot of connections with them as well so just between me and John we just have a large network of musicians, they’re all great. There’s so much good music, now at the moment I’m sure you’re aware like you feature a lot of it.”

FlutterTone was founded in 2018 when Colm was in college. It’s an events and promotions company that works with artists to give them a platform to grow and develop their skills.He works with his team to provide a great quality service and work with emerging artists to put on successful events and create press packs for the artist.

“2018 /2017 I was in college in Dundalk doing audio music and production. So I did a level 8 degree up there. And then I think, one of my lecturers had this company called Smalltone I think it was. Then I came up with this idea, flutter of echoes is a sound term like you know flutter of echoes in a room and then, FlutterTone and I did that in college and it just stuck.”

“ The team has always usually just been me. I have different people coming in and out that stay for a while and then go off and do certain things. There has been this one girl, Elina Filice she’s really good. She’s been helping me out lately with the PR stuff. We met in BIMM in Dublin and then there’s another girl Rhianna Cannon, she does a lot of photography for us at our events and that’s it. But mostly, a team of one, I would say, solidly. So yeah I’m going all the time, but I just enjoy it so much it’s actually like a life passion, you know, I’m just locked in this little cave here on my computer twenty-four seven.”

“ It’s usually the whole package. They like the fact that we can actually write a press release they don’t understand what a press release is or what it’s for. They don’t understand why they have to have it professionally written in a nice document to tell people about the release, so we just have to inform them what it’s for, why the press like to see these certain press releases. You know they need to know about their bio, their background. If you’re a radio presenter and you’re busy you don’t have time to go research these unknown artists because it takes forever. So, to have a nice bio, information and a nice background about yourself and your music helps get press because it’s just easier.”

FlutterTone host a weekly singer/songwriter night, Monday Club as well as the new VIRTUAL platform on zoom and they are venturing out again for another live project with Dublin Concerts. Keen as ever, Colm had to learn to use zoom and other social media platforms to work and create content. I wondered if it was a learn as you go process.  

“Yeah. Did you see the Instagram. So we have Saibh Skelly. She’s only 15 or 16, she’s very very young, but she’s been busking on Grafton Street Dublin, and she’s after building up an audience on Instagram of over 30,000 followers. Yeah, for a 16 year old it’s crazy, but me, and Ross from Dublin Concerts have gotten together, and we’ve created another live event on zoom platform, but it’s not virtual. It’s just slightly different. But that will be next Friday. 

“Just learn as we go, zoom isn’t built for music, so we had to adapt to that, but we’re very happy with the zoom platform. We’ve got like stereo audio, we figured how to create two outputs from zoom for headphones so if you’re listening on headphones you get like, I don’t know if you know much about audio but it’s like a delay in your left and right stereo field. Usually we have two to three sound checks with the musicians before the show. Depending how well the musician knows about the audio setup, it can take time, so it’s slightly different each week. Sometimes it can take longer. Sometimes it’s quite quick if the artist knows what to do.”

The skills with audio and navigating livestreams of a high quality is invaluable at the moment and Colm is willing to help any artist having trouble or looking to connect with an audience through this platform 

“I would, I’d be open to that if any artists wanted to have me on board and help them do a live stream”.

Colm also organises The Monday Club for singer songwriters and now this has also become a live stream on facebook, however this does have its challenges

“So the Monday club was going on in The Wiley Fox for about three years maybe two years. And then when COVID hit, we moved online. But when we did it online on Facebook, we did the Facebook Lives. We put up a PayPal donation link, nobody seemed to donate any money. So it was really tough for the artist and I felt so bad because we’re putting so much effort into this live stream on Facebook, they’re not getting any recognition or there’s no financial income. So that’s where Virtual kind of came from I think. The whole idea of turning it into an actual live gig, like a real gig, do posters, do promo around it and sell tickets. It’s crazy. It’s like a tip jar thing but they don’t seem to do it. So I think it adds more value if you just create tickets and then as you might have noticed in Virtual people stick around. So, if you buy a ticket for seven quid, you’re invested and you’re more likely to stick around for a show but if you’re on Facebook, something pops up, you’re on Facebook so you’re pretty distracted as is, you know.”

I wondered if an artist wanted to avail of FlutterTone’s service, what would they have to do, what do they need to have already prepared

“They need to have a good song and it needs to be well recorded. Kind of radio quality, and then some sort of background towards the song so that we can work with. We usually don’t just take any song, we’re kind of fussy because we just know that the song has to be of good standard and quality to get press and recognition so that’s it, send us the song, we’ll listen we’ll give good feedback on it. We’d turn around and say, maybe the song is too long..actually…there was a song that was sent in to us, it was five minutes long. We were like, well, if you can cut that down a little bit or take this bit out, you know and he actually did. He came back with a radio edit like two weeks later, which was great. We try to give constructive criticism but it is hard not to offend people as well, like, you know, you’re an artist, you’ve created this product, you’ve like painted this picture that’s taken hours and someone’s telling you, you know, change it.”

Colm has done some promo videos for the Virtual shows and for promotion and this is something he is passionate about and loves to create.

“Yeah, I did a master’s in Trinity College about two years ago. But in that, I learned after effects, so it’s like Adobe program. And I really enjoy it. It’s cool, it’s creative. So, I enjoy making the videos.”

Colm also has some advice to help give artists an edge in the music industry.

“For advice, know that you’re going to have to push it yourself. Don’t just fully rely on the PR company, kind of have your audience there and build your audience. So I believe an artist needs to actually have a grasp of their fan base themselves and have a little bit of research there. I think that stands well for them, especially if they’re getting reviews that they write back to the reviews that they’re getting and say thank you and give feedback to people as well.”

Sometimes once an artist uses PR, and learns what to do they decide to continue to do it themselves after. I wondered if that was something Colm has dealt with or is it really an issue at all.

“Yeah that is the thing. I suppose if they are knowledgeable enough and they’ve made the contacts they can go off themselves. Usually, we have a blind CRM, and then we have a CRM with emails in it because as you know your contacts are kind of all you really have in PR and that kind of relationship you build up. So, yeah, we usually ask the artists if they want, you know, to see emails or not.”

There were a lot of shows booked for early August that have now been cancelled and Colm has seen some shows he planned be rescheduled. However there are some events still planned to go ahead ( for the moment anyway ) as well as the weekly Virtual shows. Also when all this Covid madness is over Colm has plans for the Virtual platform to continue

“We had a gig booked into the Wild Duck for the 20th of August and now we’ve been pushed back again to I think 24th of September. I’m not entirely sure if it will go ahead, we’re just kind of hanging in there. And then, Bow Lane was on to me. So Jeff from Bow Lane was on to me recently, and he’s trying to book me in to do a gig. Pretty soon, actually I think it’s like the 21st of August. He’s gonna have food. It’s limited to the amount of people and that and I’m kind of a little bit anxious about that and how it goes but he seems keen on keeping it going. But yeah I’d like to keep Virtual going maybe as a more intimate Q&A thing or something.”

Colm and his team have been working tirelessly supporting Irish music offering PR services for new releases, continuing their Monday Club and Virtual shows through a weekly live stream as well as a series of playlists to support Irish music. They are a friendly and fun bunch to work with and strive to create professional and high quality work for their artists as well as helping us all discover some of the wonderfully talented Musicians we have in Ireland today. When I asked Colm if there was anything he wanted to add at the end of the interview he asked to mention and thank

“Thank Rhianna Cannon for helping organize events and taking pictures. Also, Elina Filice for being an important part of the FlutterTone team PR for writing professional press releases and giving great release strategies to the artists”

Check out Fluttertone and all they have to offer on their website here https://www.fluttertone.com/

Or on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/fluttertone/


Author : Danu

Album Release, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With : The Coronas


I caught up with The Coronas frontman Danny O’Reilly to talk about their new album ‘True Love Waits’ which is set for release on July 31st. We talked about the new direction of the album, its intricate production, and missing the buzz of live shows as well as his collaboration with Gabrielle Aplin,the pressures of previous success and much more.

A quartet for 13 years, last summer The Coronas became a trio when guitarist Dave McPhillips unexpectedly left. Briefly they questioned whether to continue but, once the shock had subsided, something dawned on the Dubliners. If they weren’t the band they used to be, why make music as they always had? – the result is The Coronas’ new album ‘True Love Waits’. The album is set for release on July 31st and Danny is eager to let fans hear the album and see what they think.

“ Yeah absolutely I mean we finished the album in January, early February we signed off on everything and we are really proud of it. We have released four or five songs off it already and it’s getting a great reaction so yeah we are really excited about getting it out. Initially with the lockdown we postponed the release just by a couple of months then we weren’t sure when gigs were going to come back and as we saw that they weren’t going to come back any time soon we said alright there is no point in delaying it any longer, lets just put it out there. I think there’s an appetite there for new music and we can see a serious engagement from our followers online so it felt right to get it out and then we will wait for gigs to come back, hopefully it won’t take too long.”

The band have taken a different approach with this album.They have some brass and a lot more keys and sonically the album takes a cleaner less band heavy approach.This was a natural evolution for the band as they experimented with what their sound is without their guitarist Dave McPhillips who left last year.

“Yeah it’s sort of organic for us usually we tend not to talk about those things too much we let the songs lead us and if it suits the song to be a bit more guitar -y or if it suits the song to be a bit more synth- y we will try and do it that way but it was really working with our producer George Murphy in London. We had worked with him before and he’s brilliant he knows the band he knows our strengths and when we sent him the bunch of demos the reply he had to each song was so bang on.We were just getting excited at his email, I forwarded on his email to our bass player, I was like George listened to the demos, look what he has to say in each song and it was just crazy how much he was in our heads. We had the same ideas even though I had just sent the demos I didn’t really say anything about them, his comments on them and where we should go with them was exactly what we were thinking so straight away we knew it was good.

We did work with two other producers as well Rob Kirwan in LA for the first batch of songs. Rob was brilliant as well, but it just made more sense to us financially as well as everything- we couldn’t get back to LA to finish it off and George was great and then we worked with a great Irish producer called Cormac Butler as well and then George sort of put the whole thing together and again we didn’t overthink it. We wanted it to sound cohesive we wanted it to sound like one piece of music and I think with Dave leaving last year as well that sort of led us to evolve without even trying too hard.We knew the album was going to sound different with a guitar player leaving who always had a good input in the songs so in a way that sort of took the pressure off. We could just follow our instincts and try and do what we thought was best for each song.”

The album still has the massive choruses, melodic hooks and passion that The Coronas are known for however the backdrop is tighter, perhaps more refreshing as the band grow their sound, softening the guitar and rhythm driven backdrops we have come to know from them and opting for a more spacious, relaxed and well paced sound. For instance in ‘Haunted’ there is a light beat and delicate electronic element between the soft keys and sweet desert rock guitar melody. But the band don’t belt out all these elements together; they take each part and allow it to flourish and grow at a steady pace to create a wonderful and expressive atmosphere in a delicate and subtle way. I wondered if this was what the songs and songwriting warranted or something they actively tried to achieve in the studio.

“ I think it was a bit of both. We definitely had ideas from even the initial demos and for the first time we actually ended up keeping some of our demos and some of the sounds on the demos because often when you write a song it has a little magic and if you try and change it and redo it you can almost make it worse. I think when Dave left the band last summer I opened out my song writing to loads of different friends as opposed to taking on the burden of just being the main writer myself. I started writing with different friends of mine and opening out some of my ideas and I think that all came into play as well and the songs started taking different shapes.You’re right though these subtle sounds and stuff, again we didn’t spend forever it was organic in the studio and thankfully we were all on the same page.”

Title track ‘True Love Waits’ is the first song on the album. The track epitomises the theme The Coronas wanted to portray.

“I think we knew it was going to be the first track on the album and Knoxy our bass player suggested it as the name for the album even though that’s probably the only I’d say love song on the album but it has a bit of positivity. A lot of my lyrics I think thematically on the album are sort of about self improvements and the journey, trying to get somewhere, trying to be the best person you can be, the best brother you can be the best band mate you can be and a lot of the lyrics have that sort of thing.I think ‘True Love Waits’ had that as well. In a way it’s like you’re trying to get somewhere and you’re being optimistic that you will get there and it will all work out in the end sort of thing and it seemed to be a nice little phrase to encapsulate the mood of the album in a way. “

‘Lost in The Thick Of It’ is one of the album’s highlights, a beautiful duet with Gabrielle Aplin, written in Brighton with Gabrielle and her partner Alfie Hudson-Taylor. I wondered how that collaboration came about.

“ Gabrielle is a friend of ours so I literally went over to stay in her house in Brighton. Her and her partner Alfie Hudson-Taylor invited me over just to hang out last summer. We have sang with them before but we have never actually sat down, well I’ve written with the Hudson Taylor lads before but myself, Gabrielle and Alfie have never written together.

We didn’t put too much pressure on it we went just to hang out, chill and then we took the guitars out in the afternoon and ‘Lost in The Thick Of It’ came so easily and that’s how it happens, it’s a good sign I suppose when the good songs come quicker. Straight away I was really excited about it and it was just one of those natural things.We worked out the chords and the little piano riff and I brought it to the guys and Gabrielle is such a talented melody writer as well and she straight away started singing the chorus and I was like ‘oh my God this is great!’ It came together very easy. I did a good bit of work on the lyrics afterwards and based the lyrics around the sort of sounds Gabrielle had been making in the original demo which was her just sort of mumbling words that didn’t really say anything but I was hearing little lines come out of them.

Often that’s how I write lyrics. When I’m writing melodies myself I just mumble words that sort of fit around it and then all of a sudden, oh thats a line!, maybe the song is about that and it will sort of lead me in that direction.That’s the way it came together it was great and we are so happy to have her feature on the album as well because initially we were just writing the song as a co-write and I was writing for Coronas stuff but then it sounded so good with her voice we were like you have to sing on this and thankfully she did and hopefully we will get to do it together live sometime.”

It can be important for artists to collaborate with other artists, to bring diversity to their writing style or sound and Danny really enjoys the opportunity to see what other artists bring to his songs.

“I think it is great, you know in general the Irish music scene is very strong and I’ve definitely seen it grow and the support that is there is amazing. When we started out I didn’t do many co-writes at all. I used to write all the songs myself. It’s only in the last couple of years really. I think co-writing can be difficult. It’s such a personal thing there is a lot of ego involved.

I think collaborations in general are great and we had lots of people playing on our album. We had Larry Kaye from All Tvvins who played guitar, Dave our old guitar player played some guitar as well, Cian (MacSweeny) from True Tides played some guitar and did some backing vocals and my sister Róisin did some backing vocals and we just sort of opened it out and had lots of different people involved.

That was just good for us after Dave left as well. It just made sense to open up the family a little bit as opposed to ok just the three of us are going to be here doing it. I think if it’s beneficial for everyone it’s only a good thing but co-writing can be a tricky thing and I’ve only gotten a bit more comfortable with it in the last few years.

Also the other thing I find about co-writing is when you write a good idea if your messing around yourself and you write something yourself you want to finish that song straight away and then the little bits that you bring to a writing session usually are the leftover ones that didn’t excite you as much but what I’ve tried to do in the last couple of years is when I write something that I think is really good I’ll sort of bank it and not finish it off myself and bring it to friends of mine so everyone is excited about it and they are like ‘oh that’s really cool’ and then we start from scratch with that sort of enthusiasm.

That’s what I did with ‘Lost in The Thick Of It’ and with a lot of the songs on the album even ‘Light Me Up’ our new single. I had the chorus written and I brought it to Cian and he was like ‘ah the chorus is cool man’ and we just started working on it. So I think not using up your good nuggets is important  if you’re co-writing with people and also writing with talented people that you are comfortable with, as I say, we are lucky that we know a lot of them.”

The Coronas have had quite the career, their thirteen-year journey has definitely been unique with a handful of multi-platinum selling albums and a huge fan base in Ireland and abroad. However the bands previous success does not weigh heavy on Danny. He doesn’t feel pressure to match his previous work

“ I think the longer we do it the more I appreciate that it is actually something to be proud of that we have been together for so long. When we first came on the scene we were a young student band getting loads of radio play and there was a slightly older generation like the Frames and BellX1 and stuff that I loved you know, Republic of Loose and we were the new kids on the block. Now I feel we are at that stage and there is a whole new wave of bands coming through you know the likes of Picture This, Wild Youth and The Academic with just amazing music. So to be honest I don’t feel pressure.

We always put pressure on ourselves to try and write good albums, to try and write good songs. The only time I felt pressure was when we moved back from London before ‘Trust The Wire’ came out. We had a bunch of songs that I thought were good but I really didn’t think we had enough and usually writing under pressure isn’t good, for me anyway. I like to have a bit of time and space but thankfully right at the end of that process I wrote ‘We Couldn’t Fake It’ and ‘Give Me A Minute’ which became two of the big songs on ‘Trust The Wire’ – actually no – ‘Give Me A Minute’ in fairness was earlier, but it was ‘We Couldn’t Fake It’ and something else towards the end, I think it might have been ‘Gut Feeling’ or ..yeah, I can’t remember what song it was but I definitely remember writing two or three songs right at the end and I was like oh thank God we needed them, we needed an album starter and ‘We Couldn’t Fake It’ was it.So I felt a little bit of pressure that time.

I think it was the closest I’ve ever been to have a little bit of writer’s block or something… I mean in my early twenties I used to write a song in a day no problem and I’d just move on and I thought that was just an age thing but this year I’ve been writing a lot more and even late last year when I wrote 70% of the new album since last summer. I was definitely going through a creative burst. I think it can come in waves and you just have to be aware of it but that’s the only pressure we put on ourselves really.

One thing we didn’t put pressure on ourselves with this album was we were trying not to write pop radio singles like we used to. There was not much point in us trying to compete with the likes of Wild Youth and Picture This and try to get student radio when our followers have grown with us. We’ve been around for 10 years and the people who come to our shows are of all ages. We’re not just trying to get on daytime radio anymore we are trying to evolve.

I think as we get older we are grateful that we still do it and thankfully touch wood up until now we’ve managed to keep selling tickets which is the most important thing really.Fingers crossed that continues to happen when gigs come back.”

‘LA at Night’ is a perfect closing song. It’s very evocative and beautiful. The trio dabble quite heavily into the electronic pop scene with beat machine pulses. Danny discussed how he wrote the track and how its simple arrangement transformed into something quite special on the album

“That was one of those songs that came together very quickly. I wrote it in Dingle County Kerry. We toured America in probably November, end of 2018 and we finished up in LA and I was really tired after a long tour.I’d just been through a break up and was emotionally drained and we were meant to fly home and a friend of mine who I was hanging out with in LA was like why don’t you change your flights and stay for a few days and I just had a really lovely few days in LA. She showed me around. It was really nice and I came home then and I felt like I needed that.

I went to Kerry and I wrote the song very quickly. It’s one thing that the guys, George and myself did well I think because I wrote it on piano it was a pure ballad and we didn’t really want to change it or for the production to get in the way because it was a nice song, but we didn’t want it to be just me and a piano and strings. We wanted it to fit into the album as you say. I was really happy with the production that George did on that song in particular because if it was just piano and vocals I think it might have been borderline cheesy you now, like a lot of my songs. But that one it’s got a simple message about if your wrecked or tired you can have something that will just make you feel better, you can have a couple of days with a friend or whatever it is and then all of a sudden you realise that its going to be ok.”

Like many bands and artists The Coronas have had to cancel shows this year. As a band who are popular for their live shows and energetic performances Danny is experiencing some withdrawal symptoms from lack of gigs.

“Oh my God so much.You have no idea.For us gigging is the centre point of what we do. It’s my favourite thing in the world to do.We are praying that it’s going to come back. We have thought about possibly doing social distancing gigs or even drive in gigs or whatever and it just doesn’t really sit right with us. You just don’t know how they are going to go.At the moment we are just trying to bide our time and wait for it to come back and hope that it comes back fully and properly.

It’s one of the things we are missing immensely. We’ve been putting stuff online and we recorded the full album in a studio, played everything live and filmed it as well so we will be putting that on our Youtube channel as a sort of launch I suppose for the album but thats all we can do. Usually we are doing a lot of promo at this time, then you’ve got a big gig that you are looking forward to as well. It’s strange but I think it will hit me when all the promo is done and the album is out, like a week later it’s going to hit me like a ton of bricks, like oh my God I’m not going to get the payoff of having a few amazing gigs.

We had some big festivals lined up and big gigs so anyway we will get on with it. We are luckier than most and we should be able to ride it out. Hopefully gigs will be back next year and there will be as much if not more of a demand than ever. “

Also, just like the rest of us Danny is spending this crazy time sharpening his culinary skills and binge watching TV

“I’m watching a lot of Netflix. I got a dog yesterday… Jess is amazing. She’s a mixture between a Collie and a little bit of Rottweiler but she is beautiful and I got her in the DSPCA and she is the best. Yeah I’m baking and cooking and 5ks so I’m a total cliche”

The Coronas have had a lot of success and experienced every aspect of the music industry ( labels, learning about production and improving songwriting) along the way. I wondered what advice Danny would give to his 18 year old self now that he can look back on a significant, interesting and successful career.

“I would say enjoy it. Enjoy your twenties appreciate it a bit more maybe. Not that I didn’t appreciate it but definitely, I’ve been thinking wow we are so lucky. In our early twenties we were sort of going with it and having fun. I don’t have any regrets. I wouldn’t have too much I would change.There is always a bit of, what if we signed to a label at a certain time would we have gotten bigger but there is no guarantee. I think the most important thing is we have a great career, we are doing music and I’m happy. We could be in a bigger band, you could be Chris Martin and still be miserable.There is no guarantee that if you have success you will be happy..You put your happiness on things if you say oh if only this happens then I’ll be happy and if only I get this I’ll be happy.

You know when we started out all we wanted to do was play Whelan’s and some stage at an Oxegen festival. The goal post continued to change and that’s good. It’s good to be ambitious but I think you can put your happiness on that. Some people equate their ambition with success but you have to enjoy the journey. You also need to be able to pat yourself on the back sometimes and say you’re doing alright. I’d say to my 18 year old self Danny you’re in for a good life you’re lucky.”

Hopefully The Coronas can tour the new album soon. It’s a cohesive well paced album that flows seamlessly as a whole. The bands mature and evolving sound definitely makes for a chilled and emotive listening experience with some catchy tunes on there too.

‘True Love Waits’ is set for release on July 31st until then check out The Coronas’ latest single ‘Light Me Up’ below 


Author : Danu

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

A Chat With : Miles Graham

Miles Graham Photo by Colin Gillen

I caught up with Dublin singer songwriter Miles Graham to talk about his new EP ‘All The Right Things’. We discussed how he wrote the EP, his break in 2018 and how much he is missing gigging.

Miles Graham released his new EP ‘All The Right Things’ via Peer Music on the 10th of July.The EP was recorded in London with producer Paul Herman(Emeli Sandé, Dido, Corinne Bailey Rae), with string arrangements from the renowned Sally Herbert(Plan B, Usher, Duffy,Ellie Goulding, Florence + The Machine).The EP showcases his soul-baring songwriting and top-quality sound: a genre-blurring blend of retro-soul and fresh yet timeless pop.When I spoke to Graham last, he expressed he was nervous for the release and having the EP out there now is still quite a scary thing.

“ yeah it’s still terrifying, since the last time I was talking to you nothing has changed. I’m excited about it. When you release music it can take a while for things to pick up, nothing happens overnight. It’s really busy at the moment with promo and there’s not a lot we can do gigs-wise so I’m still missing that dynamic of going out and getting energy from gigs and connecting with people, so it’s a weird balance. It’s like you’re stood still but kind of promoting this body of work but you’re not getting that energy back at you from the crowd which is a bit strange.It’s just missing something but I think we are all missing something no matter what you are up to theses days.

It’s all very surreal especially in the music industry and in the entertainment industry and any entertainment that gathers crowds it’s just all uncertain.For single people who are meeting up, how does that work now?. It’s just creating a bit of distrust with people and you don’t know their background and where they are coming from or whether they have covid 19 or not and they probably don’t even know themselves. I don’t like the way it creates that distance. Before, people greeted each other with a hug whereas we came from you know a good few years ago it was just a hand shake. You know you’d have no more than a hand shake now and that will be that and then we became more friendly with a hug and we have gone from that to no, you can’t do that.“

‘All The Right Things’ is a soulful EP with deep grooves, intricate soundscapes and mellow guitar lines. Each track warrants its own space on the EP and has a special timeless quality. It’s difficult to pick a favourite and Graham is proud of them all but Sunbeam, the intricately textured and heart-melting tribute to his daughter is a special track for him. 

“ I’m proud of all the tracks on it. It’s very hard to pick one. It’s like if you have young kids you can’t pick your favourite one, they are just all the same, but I suppose I love the groove in ‘Sunbeam’, I love the vibe in ‘Sunbeam’ and there is a nice dynamic there. It has some surprises in it with the vocal dynamic and the guitar solo and stuff. I just love the vibe and the change in melodies as the song progresses, but that’s just me being a music nerd, but then again the single ‘Give It Up Now’ I love the strings that Sally Herbert arranged and I just loved the intimacy of it. I love ballads that reach out to people as well in a different way. But yeah I vibe off ‘Sunbeam’.

When I wrote Sunbeam it was just a moment I had. I was going through a tough time in the form of a break up and my daughter, she was like my sunshine, my sunbeam and helped keep me positive and I just had a moment, I can visualise it now. My daughter hugged me in my living room and there was that Sunday morning sun just coming in the window and the curtains were barely open and you know that kind of dust that settles in the air and that sunbeam through the curtains. It was just a beautiful moment. I suppose the whole kind of vibe in that song is in the verses basically just saying that everything is going to be ok as long as we have that sunshine in our lives. She’s a twin to my son and now he’s a bit jealous. He wants me to write a song about him so I’ll have to get working on that.”

The EP as a whole flows smoothly and is perfect for relaxing to. This wasn’t Graham’s intention but just what appears to happen when he writes

“ I’ve been into that vibe. I’m not sure whether it’s my voice or not, maybe it is. I actually just got an email from a label I was working with in Australia, a dance label and they said we’d love that smooth vibe on this track and I was thinking does everyone just want to fall asleep to my music or what’s the story? It’s all the laid back type of vibe but I think there is a lot of soul in it. When I say soul I mean from the heart. Especially in the EP there is more of a connection, but no I don’t aim to be that way I think that’s probably the way I am.”

The arrangements throughout the EP are simply outstanding; Graham delicately blends bubbling rhythms with subtle explosions of melodic counterpoints to create a cohesive and charming body of work. Graham likes to be precise with his production but still manages to capture emotion within his tracks.

“Thanks very much, that’s a lovely description. I’m not sure whether it was purposely done but I do focus a lot on the dynamic within a song. From its first lyric to bringing people on a journey and in the production of a song and the lyrics and melody.I do focus on that journey and I’m conscious of that when I write, that the first line has to get people interested. It’s like writing a novel or a book, I am conscious of that and also the build up in the production.I would be quite finicky with that kind of stuff you know it has to have the right dynamic and have the feeling and accomplish the hairs on the back of the neck moment. For me that’s what music is about.”

Graham took time out to focus on family in 2018 – which was a brave decision. When you get into something like the music industry it’s easy to develop a mindset that makes you want to keep reminding people you are there for fear of them losing interest.I wondered if he was worried about this when he made his decision to take a break.

“No I didn’t worry about that.It was just something I had to do at the time and I had the right reasons obviously. I had a young family and that’s my priority and music is always second to that.Family is first.That was always the case even when I started out on my music career. I work really hard even when the kids were really young, you know changing nappies at two in the morning and sending emails at three for the next day and that’s just how it works.

It is a different thing when you have a young family and are trying to work a music career. I remember the late Terry Wogan saying that to me. I had some success in the UK in 2015 and he said Miles that’s a tough challenge and I wish you all the best with it. He knew that I had a young family and at the time I thought ‘ah he’s a nice man saying that’ but it was the years that followed that made me realise that he was very right. For me it’s worked. If you’re out touring, if you’re hugely successful and you’re out touring for months it’s different.Whereas I was going out and I was doing, like I did a tour in the UK and it was 2 weeks and I played loads of lovely venues and then I was back home again and that was fine.In 2018 it all just built up to a certain point and I went through a relationship breakup and I just had to re-focus. It’s a huge change in anybody’s life so I just needed time to re-calibrate myself and focus on family.

So I wasn’t worried about what the industry was doing, that didn’t come into my head.It was just focus on the family and then I started writing again after a few months just as therapy and I’ve learnt a lot about myself as well and how music is apart of me no matter what. Even if I don’t release music. I mean I probably have about 3 or 4 albums worth of songs that haven’t been released, that I hope to release someday but I don’t see the point unless there is a reason to put music out. I’m happy to be putting music out now. It feels right.”

Graham’s latest track ‘Don’t Change’ resulted in him performing the single live on BBC Radio 5 and a stunning version of Dido’s Thank You, and picking up further airplay from BBC Introducing.I wondered is all that support a comforting confirmation he was doing something right with his tunes

“ Totally consider myself very fortunate to get any airplay or backing from radio play from Laura Whitmore or people that like the music but it’s a really difficult business.It doesn’t come easy. It comes from hard work.Those radio plays they come from hard work from promoting and even creating the music from scratch. There is so much good music out there as well and even with lockdown, you mentioned BBC Introducing I think had like thirty or forty thousand songs uploaded to their system within lockdown and their policy is they listen to everything and perhaps they might get played on local BBC radio or whatever so you can imagine the influx of that they are getting as well so to get any plays amongst the bunches is definitely great. It is a little bit luck of the draw as well you know. No matter how good you are there is that element of luck there. You always hear musicians saying you know I consider myself very lucky but I know for a fact they work really hard.”

Graham’s plans for the rest of the year are unsure however there is a gig that will hopefully go ahead and some surprises to keep an eye out for.

“EP is out I want to promote it as best I can. There have been really positive vibes back about it so far. It’s hard to plan really but I have one gig booked in London for the 19th November and fingers crossed that will go ahead.It would be great to get out and gig the songs live.Thats the best way to experience them I think.It’s a different experience for people to come and see me live with the band and I’d love to give people that experience.For one thing I’m really tall. I’m like six foot four so that would be the first thing ‘oh he’s really tall’. I love performing so hopeful a few gigs will come about.There are things happening in the background with the music that you might hear very soon.That I just can’t say at the moment.I’m also shooting a music video this weekend in Dublin for the single ‘Give It Up Now’. We are shooting it around Merrion Square so that should be good. “

Miles Graham’s new EP ‘All The Right Things’ is a timeless collection of tracks. His delicate and emotive vocals, lush harmonies and raw tender moments build in to the tracks groove infested underbelly making each song an engaging and spell-binding listening experience. He is a rare talent and the EP is a must listen.

Stream ‘All The Right Things’ below 


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Indie, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With – Alvarez Kings

I had a chat with UK alternative pop 4-piece Alvarez Kings last week about the bands new single ‘Words I Couldn’t Say’, their upcoming album and touring.

Four lads from South Yorkshire, UK who gleefully share their moniker with an infamous old school South American gang, Alvarez Kings summon pop power through timeless analog synth and guitar magic. The quartet—brothers Simon [vocals, guitar] and Paul Thompson [bass, keys, backup vocals], Aidan Thompson [guitar, keys, production], and Richard Walker [drums, samples, pads] have quietly built up an international buzz since their 2012 formation.

You guys have just released a new single titled “Words I Couldn’t Say” tell us about that track and how you wrote it?

“It was a song that as soon as we created the idea of it we knew that we had to finish it. Simon had the initial idea of it when making his spare room into his baby daughters nursery. He said when the room was empty, he found the acoustics awesome and he started firing voice memos over. And yes, the acoustics did sound great! The song is a story of an uncontrollable collision course of self-destruction from drug and alcohol abuse. We like to think of it as the desolation of a failed relationship, and self-blame.”

Your tracks have vibrant and rich soundscapes with synths and luscious rhythmic textures. Did you always plan to bring synths into your sound or was it something you discovered worked when you were experimenting?

“It has been something we have developed over time. We  like to push the boundaries of production and our overall sound. We also try not to do an Oasis and release the same sounding record every time.”

How do you guys tackle the production of your songs do you get a producer in to help or is it something you tackle yourselves?

“On our ‘Somewhere Between’ album we worked with producer Carlos de la Garza who was outstanding, however with the new album and us not being able to travel to LA we have kept it all within the band. From writing and recording to mixing and mastering. We had a lot tracks already recorded before COVID hit so luckily we could mix from home. Through lockdown our group chat has constantly been lit up with new mixes and new songs. “

How do you write your songs, do you write elements separately and bring them together to work on or does the magic happen when you guys are all together?

“It all happens when inspiration strikes really. When we are on tour we always like to play backstage on new song starts together, be that a guitar riff, melody ideas or some bass lines. Then when we come home, we like to focus and finish writing them up.“

Up until 2018, you toured your debut album extensively, playing sold-out headline shows across Europe, UK and the United States along with some of your biggest festival appearances to date including Firefly and Summerfest. How do you find touring ? and how do you deal with the challenges that come from being on the road all the time?

“We like to see touring as the success of all the hard work and long hours we put into our music. Its great how we can see how our music effects people lives and we love that we can meet friends and fans along the way. The main challenges are being away from home. You can hear this on a lot of the lyrical content from us. From sending ‘Postcards from Berlin’ to ‘Sleepwalking PT I’“

I bet you guys have had some crazy experiences while on tour or onstage what is the most bizarre thing to happen while you were on tour?

“One that sticks out the most was in 2018, we were playing a show in Atlanta and a mosh Pitt started. One young guy was being really rowdy and starting fighting with people in the front row and tried to get on stage but got met by the headstock of Pauls bass guitar. Everyone cheered and the bouncers took the guy out.  “

You have experienced both performing as a main act and a support act with the likes of Melanie Martinez, PVRIS, and Echosmith – two very different experiences for artists. With a support slot you have to appeal to fans who might not be yours yet and win them over and with a headline slot it’s almost like a party with people who love and appreciate your music. Do you find the support slots daunting?

“Yes you’re right. They are both different. Sometimes we prefer the support slot -mainly away from home as we can go on stage, deliver energy for 30-35 minutes and have time to talk to fans after. If your headlining sometimes it’s hard to make time for that sort of thing. “

Do you get nervous before shows and if so how do you deal with nerves?

“We used to in the early days but not so much anymore. We have a beer and do our pre show routine. “

You guys are currently working on your second studio album, which is currently anticipated for a 2020 release. What can we expect from the album?

“You can expect lots of exciting new sounds/songs but still staying loyal with some classic Alvarez Easter eggs. “

Has the writing or forming of these tracks been different to how you created your debut album ‘Somewhere Between’?

“With the addition of Aidan we have been doing a lot of writing with him. A lot of the songs on the previous album were written over 5 years ago, so it’s been awesome writing fresh songs but our process has still remained the same. “


How have you guys been keeping busy during this crazy covid- 19 time?

“We’ve been busy with a new addition to our Alvarez family – baby Pippa. Also we’ve been writing back and forth through WhatsApp and voice memos. We’ve been doing a lot of live-streams and have some great ones coming up, so keep your eyes peeled for those! “

What advice would you give someone who wants to start a band or career in music?

“Practice, play and write as much as you can. “

What’s next for you guys?

“We will be back touring and playing shows whenever it is safe to do so. We also have lots of new music coming your way!“

Stream ‘Words I Couldn’t Say’ below


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Interviews, New Music

A Chat With : Butler (LUKE THOMAS)

I had a chat with Luke Thomas last week about his new project Butler and his eagerly awaited second single, Colours Of Love. Butler is the brainchild of award winning singer/performer Luke Thomas, whose electrifying new project has allowed him to explore his more commercially creative side. Already known as the front man for the band The Swing Cats, Thomas wanted to try something different with Butler.

Thomas recently released the sensational summer anthem ‘Colours Of Love’, with Afro/Irish singer J Bols. We talked about the differences between the two projects and the birth of Butler.

“ Well I’m in a band at the moment called The Swing Cats and I just wanted to get back to being more creative and explore more radio friendly songs and projects.I started this maybe two years ago just working with Irish producers just to be more current with one eye on radio play and stuff like that. I released a song last year which did quite well, it was played on most national stations and I just wanted to follow up with something summer-y and something to make people happy. I hooked up with an Afro Irish artist called J Bols and he had a song called Colours Of Love and we just rewrote parts of it and arranged it and it is what it is now. So I’m delighted and excited that people can finally hear it. 

I started as a solo artist when I was a teenager, that’s going back maybe 13 years now at this stage and it was always my idea to do dance/hip hop/pop sort of music. That’s what I started off doing and I fell into The Swing Cats by accident and that was kind of my main identity – like with that band I’ve sold out a lot of venues, The Concert Hall, The Olympia, Vicar Street and it was always in my head that I wanted to return to the pop/dance element. That was the creative side, the song writing side so to speak. So I said it’s now or never, that’s how it came about. It really helps the creative side but it’s fun as well. It’s fun to hear people’s reaction to a song that you have written on the radio.”

The Swing Cats are a six piece collective which has performed for President Micheal D Higgins, appeared on The Late Late Show and enjoyed two number 1 iTunes albums. However Butler gives Thomas more freedom.

“Absolutely, I’ve gone to a point now with The Swing Cats where I feel quite comfortable and people know me from that so I’m able to explore other avenues and it really shows another dimension to what I do. At the end of the day I would describe myself as a performer without being conformed to a genre. I know a lot of bigger artists, not to compare but you look at bigger artists, like, Lady GaGa would obviously do her big dance pop numbers but at the same time she can collaborate with someone, an iconic figure like Tony Bennett who is the closest thing we have right now to a Frank Sinatra. Tony Bennett is 90 something years of age. He was around those days, in Vegas in the 60’s and 70’s. He’s won Grammys doing that style of music and there’s countless other examples of people who have switched genres so I suppose it’s just to explore it. I would never forgive myself if I didn’t give it ago. Thankfully people like it and thankfully it has been received very well.”

Colours Of Love is a vibrant and fun track – perfect for summer. I love how Thomas blends rich elements of guitar with electronics and afro beats. I wondered if he had the full idea of the song before he went into production or was it a case of messing around in the studio to get the right sounds and energy. Although he had help on elements of the song it was challenging to cut the track into a 3 minute song.

“ It was a lot longer there was another minute and a half on the song and I felt it just needed to get to the point quicker and that’s where I brought my experience on that side of things to the table and the guys were gracious enough to work with me. A lot of times if you have come up with a creative piece you don’t want people picking at it or changing it to much so it was a great partnership where we worked together to get the best out of the song and it’s turned out really well. “

Butler’s previous releases ‘Forever Young’ and ‘Applause’ have that night club dance floor feel although ‘Applause’ is more of a cool pop tune. Thomas enjoys the collaboration experience with other artists as they bring different elements and knowledge into his projects

“I like to work with a lot of different people and I suppose you always lean when you work with different people.The last song (with Butler) I worked with Lo Cutz. He is an Irish DJ as well and a producer. He was coming up with the music and the beats behind the last single and that worked well. It brings other elements as opposed to me saying I’m able to do everything because I’m not, so when you are dealing with different genres it’s great to have other experts in their field add to it and make it better. To build the best possible product. So yeah 100% I would love to continue with that and collaborate as much as possible. 

The next one will probably be with Lo Cutz again. We held it back, we felt the summer vibe of ‘Colours of Love’ suited the time and the next song is more darker, an evening night time sort of song. So we are going to keep that one and maybe release that later in the year. Again it’s kind of pop dance-y with a little bit of synth in there. Just to try and build on the foundation of this style that seems to be getting a good reaction.When you release something it’s out of your control it’s down to people’s reaction whether it’s going to work or not so it’s always a nervous time.“

Ireland has a vibrant and budding music scene at the moment especially in the dance and hip hop genre. Butler believes that the great quality content of artists and how they are mastering their craft is making each genre’s scene strong

“It is, and a lot of hip hop and different genres which is great. Its great to see Irish artists coming up to the mark and delivering international level content. I know its always a sticky point for Irish artists with airplay and with getting support but I feel now that a lot of artists are at the level where it warrants the right amount of airplay and its always going to be tough no matter whether your Irish or International to get some sort of airplay particularly if you are independent, so it’s great to see the quality there. They can’t take that away from the artist anymore.The quality is there and people are getting so much better at production levels and stuff like that. It’s great to see.”

Thomas hopes to be able to do live shows as Butler and see what that set up would bring. Seen as Butler is a more dance-infused project it will be a different experience than the live band aesthetic he is used to.

“That was the plan and just get a vibe or a band together just to see what it would look like live, because I actually haven’t gigged with this project and it would be exciting because there is a lot of great young musicians and it would be interesting to see what way the physical side to things would turn out. You know, would I go with keyboards and samples or would I go with the full live band. I’m actually quite interested to see how that pans out so I suppose there is no plans just yet, obviously it’s going to come down to the current situation lifting and various things like that, so I would imagine it could be early next year before Butler will be performing fully live.But I do look forward to that and getting a few more songs and having a decent enough set to perform. “

Thomas has experienced the industry from many different aspects.Through hIs band The Swing Cats, he has worked with different people and now Butler. I wondered what advice he would give to someone who wanted to start a career in music.

“I would say first of all you have to decide what you want to get out of music. I know that sounds a little clinical but do you want to be a gigging musician, do you want to be a recording artist, do you want to be a producer because I think in this day and age sometimes when you are releasing a song it’s like buying a lottery ticket. There are so many talented people out there and you need the infrastructure around you to get the results you’re looking for. So I would say first of all decide what kind of area of music you want to be in and then you will be able to streamline your plan. You need a plan, you need to know what you want out of something. I know obviously a lot of people do it for the love and that is absolutely brilliant. I do it for the love as well but you still need to know what you want out of it because I know a lot of people that would gig around and it might be more of a past time to them or life takes over and they have to get a full time job so again it’s around sustainability, it’s around having a plan and finding out what you want from it. I feel there is a lot of talented people not just in Ireland but around the world but there are a lot of talented people in Ireland and some don’t have the tools to know what the next steps are. Unfortunately there is only a handful of top managers so you have to, for want of a better expression, die on the cross before someone comes and picks you up or saves you. Gigging yourself to the top is not always the best option. If you’ve got a particular sound, you hone in on the sound, you try and make yourself somewhat original or somewhat better.It comes down to having that product and then you need the infrastructure around you. So if you have a product you then look for people that might be able to provide the infrastructure – I call them plugins as opposed to trying to do everything yourself. So ok I might need someone that can promote songs to radio, I might need someone that can help produce things to a better level, things like that and you will get plugins along the way.

As the saying goes youth is wasted on the young. If knew when I was 17 or 18 what I know now it would be a different world for me.But that’s the way it is. You do have to learn and you do have to try and make these decisions, particularly with a new band, there’s no rush no one is waiting for you to release your song, no one is banging down the door well for most new bands, so take your time, get it right. Get your songs right, your content, get what your sound is right, listen to what’s out there on the radio. Have a listen to the top 20 songs out there and if you have songs that you’re writing, fair enough their original but have a listen to what the current taste is in music and be clever about it. Maybe you could tweak a song that you have and you know might be slightly sounding a different way and just tweek it into the area it needs to be for radio for example. If a song is too long, to short, you have to think of it like that, which allows you to get to the next level. “

Thomas is building up his writing and tunes for a potential EP next year and hopefully a tour. Things are unsure at the moment but he’s busy planning and putting all the pieces together for his next release. 

“The plan would be to release one more single this year and then early next year bring out an EP and maybe a small tour that would be the ultimate plan at the moment. I suppose the climate at the moment is about having the next song ready to go and thats what people want. They want instant gratification on the music side where they won’t necessarily take the time to listen to an album. What I don’t want to do is spend a lot of time and effort in a big album and something like that for it not to get the proper exposure.So at the moment my plan is to continue to release singles until something catches on to a level where people’s ears are open and then I can bring out a more comprehensive piece of work. That is the way music has gone, certainly for Butler anyway. That may change but that seems to be the way people are consuming music. So what’s next for me is a load more promo and a load more writing. I’ve been working on this next song. I’ve been doing it remotely at the moment but hopefully with the slight changes with four people being aloud in a room I’ll be able to go and actually work on the song face to face and trying to start building the next campaign as well. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will have some acoustic songs up online as well just to get people’s feedback on it. That’s what I’m up to at the moment.“

Butler is an ambitious and fun project with infectious tunes that make you want to instantly dance. Thomas has clearly put a lot of planning and effort into creating and honing his craft to provide lush, well textured and melodies tunes ready for everyone to enjoy. I’m looking forward to what tunes the coming months bring and also to that all important live show as soon as Thomas can organise one. 

Stream ‘Colours of Love’ below 


Author : Danu

A Chat With, Interviews, New Music, Post Punk

A Chat With : Oisín Leahy-Furlong From THUMPER

Thumper – Photography by Ruth Medjber @ruthlessimagery www.ruthlessimagerry.com

I spoke to Oisín Leahy-Furlong frontman of Dublin noise pop band THUMPER last week. We talked about the band’s new single ‘Topher Grace’, their abrasive sound and how they approach their kinetic live shows. The guys are at the forefront of a thriving music scene alongside bands like Bitch Falcon, Fontaines DC, the Murder Capital and Pillow Queens and we discuss this along with the effects streaming has on artists at present. 

THUMPER are set to release their new single ‘Topher Grace’ on the 26th June. It’s an intense and blistering track with the verses taking on a Blur feel. Oisín ruminates on unhealthy and quite destructive behaviour throughout the track

“It was written over the course of a couple of months which is sort of different for me, normally these things are written in bursts. I suppose the song makes several allusions to a culture which is fairly present, in Ireland anyway of airing your problems in public with a pint in your hand rather than in a friends sitting room. I guess its about the idea that maybe you are going through destruction or by unraveling yourself you will find some sort of ultimate truth or something. Which of course is bullshit but I suppose the deeper you are into that lifestyle the easier it is to convince yourself that its the way for you.”

With ‘Topher Grace’ Oisín decided to take a different song writing approach. Avoiding the usual way of writing such as structure and melody he replaced them with a more considered approach to lyric writing and performance. This resulted in a lengthy and interesting writing process. I wondered if this was a way of trying to hone in on his lyrical content and refine it, to become more of a lyricist perhaps. I also wondered was the view in the song a personal insight or was it Oisín watching this behaviour from afar.

“ I suppose I was and I wasn’t. In a way I was trying to strike a more conversational tone, even in the delivery its devoid of melody and things I would lean on and just normal pillars of song writing. But the reason its written that way is because I couldn’t play it on guitar and sing it at the same time. So I had to write it and then just talk it in my kitchen or whatever and it wasn’t until I was actually able to sit down and get a demo going that I was actually able to see how it all slotted together so all the pieces, all the lyrics, all the sections were sort of written in separate vacuums and at a later point were stitched together. So I guess that meant that because I wasn’t tied to melody and stuff like that there was a tendency to go back to it and as you say refine it and I suppose a lot of it would have been written in the thick of it, like in a smoking area of somewhere or in a strangers bathroom or whatever. So a lot of it did need to be refined because it didn’t make a lot of sense but I got there in the end.”

“It was definitely more of an insular thing. I don’t think the song is prescribing any kind of answers or anything like that. It’s more like just ruminating on how I was feeling in the moment or even the morning after the moment. As much as I did go back and refine it, it was definitely more of an instant reaction to how I was feeling. Little snapshots of different moments and how they all piece together to form a period in your life. I think it’s only in retrospect that you notice patterns in your behaviour. At the time you think you have full control over your own choices. But yeah it’s definitely a first person kind of view.”

‘Topher Grace’ was cut from just over 6 and a half minutes to a neat 4 minute cut for radio. Reading the full lyrics to the track I felt there was plenty of golden and witty lyrical content cut out for the radio version. Doing these cuts is not easy for an artist when they have put so much time into crafting the track

“ Absolutely yeah, I had to do it with one hand over an eye you know. It was like sending your kid to school without lunch or something.It’s pretty heartbreaking.But it’s the nature of the beast. I normally slave over these edits forever but I didn’t even think the song would get any radio play to begin with for so many reasons so I was able to lash that thing together and go ‘right there you go, there’s your castrated radio edit version’ “

THUMPER have a unique sound in the sense they pack in something for everyone within each tune. They have the abrasive post punk or rock instrumentation with rumbling elastic bass slaps and grooves behind the crashing majestic guitar-burns while the smooth vocals bounce along the sometimes bubblegum or pop melody.Oisín always knew that’s what he wanted to achieve with his music and with the band

“ Yeah, from the outset it was sort of a plan because it started off as more of a solo thing for me. I was putting out tapes under the name THUMPER for a couple of years. Real lo fi kind of gnarly sounding things and just the basic idea was to see how far in the direction of noise and abrasiveness I could push it whilst retaining that sort of pop sensibility. Then of course as the band developed and more people got involved, you know there is 6 of us in the band, so it’s sort of natural enough that everyone else’s tastes and individual styles go into the mix.We listen to lots of different types of music so it’s no wonder that there is different elements going on.”

I asked Oisín when he started with THUMPER was he always confident bringing his songs to the rest of the band or was there an initial ‘oh god what if they slate it’ especially if it’s about something personal?

“Yeah it’s like when you first meet someone you don’t tell them your life story.You sort of gradually get there over time. When you feel comfortable enough to share pieces of yourself until eventually they know the whole you. It’s not too different with songwriting.It’s definitely nerve-racking.Certainly with this song it was the first time I was nervous to bring something to the band in a long time because there is nothing really to hide behind. It’s almost entirely spoken word and it’s just got me screaming and yelping for 7 minutes. Also it’s the first song I’ve written where I haven’t been able to play it myself. I need the band behind me to do it and pull it off. Definitely the demos that I wrote sound so different to what the finished product is. So I guess this trust is inherent in that and you build it up over time and grow a, well not necessarily a thicker skin, it’s just there is a tenderness to it and people recognise that over time. Ultimately it was really rewarding and it’s not an easy place to tap into but it’s something I would like to return to and also I have an entire verse where I don’t have to play guitar. I’m only doing one thing at a time. There are definitely benefits to that.”

Like other bands of this generation THUMPER have the power and influence of streaming platforms which gives artists huge exposure however it doesn’t really make them money. It’s a paradox in the sense you can reach more people but don’t reap the benefits as much as you would with album sales and touring. I wondered does this play on Oisín’s mind or is it just part and parcel of the job

“In one sense it weeds out anyone who is doing it for the wrong reasons.That said I have absolutely no issue with some people who say if you are trying to make money in this you are in the wrong game or whatever. I would love to make a living doing this, I would love to be able to keep making music for people who want to hear it. You do worry that when you are doing it for so long and making so little cash that at a certain point life will catch up and you literally won’t be able to do it anymore even though there is a demand for it and that’s a real threat for a lot of bands. Especially now as you said I’m not paying my rent with my Spotify streams but I might have been off the months of festival touring that we would have been doing which is all cancelled now. I think the only thing you can do is look forward, work on the music as hard as you can and don’t be an imbecile but also don’t worry about too much because it’s supposed to be fun. You’re supposed to enjoy it.Times are bizarre and strange at the minute but I’m sure that enjoyment and happiness will come back again eventually.There is an amazing song called Everything Is Free which talks about this. Its a fucking depressing song because its so on the nose but it is true. You are expected to work for free. I know personally, friends in bands who are very successful and are living with their parents. It’s bizarre but the whole world is morphing and shifting before our very eyes these days so maybe now that people are faced with the reality of having no one to talk to except for records and movies for the last 13 weeks maybe a different importance will be put on that but I’m not holding my breath. “

The music scene in Ireland and Dublin particularly is very vibrant lately – there are so many amazing acts gigging and making a name for themselves from The Murder Cpaital and Fontains DC to Fangclub and Bitch Falcon. Oisín doesn’t see this as competition or that it’s an overload of bands fighting for the attention of listeners. 

“I think it’s great, there has always been a healthy competition,whether there has been an eye on Dublin or not that has existed the whole time.I think the bands that you mentioned are all very different and all being influenced by each other. I think the broader the spectrum of creativity is, the more there is to be influenced by. No I don’t see it as a negative at all and definitely those bands are a big influence on us and I know them all and they have all gone through a million different iterations of what it is they do presumably because of the music that is being made around them and the attitudes and all that sort of stuff. I feel like all of us, we are making music anyway it’s just that now there’s I guess more attention although its difficult to see when your so deep in it.”

I saw THUMPER perform a few years ago supporting Fangclub and it was quite a wild performance. I would say there was no one left without whiplash after their set, my ears were ringing for sure. The guys manage to keep their live shows fresh and engaging but they don’t plan any of the antics 

“No we don’t plan any of that. We never even talk about it. We just like playing the music and I don’t know its just a combination of different personalities in the band and that’s how we act at other peoples gigs as well to a certain extent.Its not for everyone, certainly when your touring and your doing it every single night there will be nights where you can barely stand because you are so exhausted but something happens when you step on that stage man. I think the bottom line is when we rehearse, we rehearse a lot and we get the songs as tight as we can possible make them.Which means that when we actually get on stage we don’t have to think about too much, we can tear around the place, smash stuff up and the idea being that we’re kind of such a tight unit it will be able to snap back into place when it needs to.I think maybe when you saw us we were more on the side of chaos than anything else maybe but certainly that’s the thinking now.It’s just rehearse the songs and write them and respect the craft and then by the time you get to the stage you have earned a bit of fun like I think the time you saw us was in Whelan’s “

At that show bassist Joey (who was performing his last show with the band) smashed his bass off the stage and the crowd took every piece.

“ yeah that was very funny. That was my bass! His name is Joey Gavin he is living in Berlin now. He is making his own music and bringing out singles this year. He is great. “

With touring on hold, THUMPER have spent their time in the studio writing and recording, as well as hosting live streams on social media for their fans and this week they are planning a live stream to promote their new single.

“ They are fairly nerve-racking to be honest. Much more so than getting on a stage because although on one side of it, the side other people see looks like a performance and all that, on my side I’m just a man screaming in my kitchen at the back wall. With no one to tell me whether I sound good or bad or if the connection is there or whatever.But it’s been nice to keep in contact with the fan base and play some tunes and wet people’s appetite that way. We are doing a proper full band, full production live stream the day after the single is release.So the 27th June on our Youtube and that will be pretty much our first and only gig of the whole summer. That should more closely resemble the old Thumper experience more than anything we have done before. So I’m looking forward to that. “

THUMPER have been touring and releasing music for a few years. From his experience of the Irish music scene and life in a band in general, Oisín has a few words of wisdom for budding new musicians? 

“ Just worry about the songs first because there’s no point being an amazing band or getting amazing festival slots or whatever unless you have got good songs that you have take care of, nursed and all that sort of stuff.They don’t have to be your best songs you probably could be ripping someone else off at the beginning but that attention to the craft straight off the bat is just going to earn you fans, listeners and people who respect you. You’re not going to be great at the beginning and people are going to watch you even if you can’t play your instrument very well and you can’t really sing too well.Which is definitely what I was like and still am like to a certain extent. If you clearly have put passion and effort into the songwriting and the writing in general. Then that’s more than a decent jumping off point. “

Though it’s difficult to plan for the coming months THUMPER have some exciting plans ahead 

“Good question! we are recording and writing a good bit. We have got more music coming out this year and believe it or not we do have one or two gigs lined up that we should hopefully be able to announce soon but we are just going to channel all the energy that we would have been putting into the road straight back into the studio. Yeah we have some big plans coming up and we are looking forward to sharing that with people. “

THUMPER are a band to keep an eye on. These guys slowly and delicately build their songs adding a new layer and dimension each time until their tunes are an all out mouth-frothing whack of psychedelic noise rock.Their ability to create a frenzied euphoria throughout their tracks while packing in some punch is what makes their sound so infectious. 

The band are holding a live stream to support the release of ‘Topher Grace’ on the 27th of June check it out through this link 

https://www.facebook.com/events/2547221645530520/?notif_t=plan_user_joined&notif_id=1592490752396184

‘Topher Grace’ is set for release on 26th June until then stream their previous single ‘Ad Nauseam’ below 


Author : Danu