• Q&A: Girl Band

    January 22, 2014 - By 

    Dublin-based quartet Girl Band have made a hell of a lot of noise in a short space of time. From last year’s gloriously curdling racket of a Blawan cover, ‘Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage’,  the band have been riding on a fresh wave of attention which has not only rekindled interest in their 2012 EP, France 98, but has also created something of a hypestorm around their latest single, ‘Lawman’. What’s particularly refreshing is that said hype seems to be justified – the aforementioned single is a six-minute beast of a thing; all dread-inducing basslines and frenetic percussion.…

  • Q&A: Hornets

    January 23, 2014 - By 

    Ahead of the release of their forthcoming new EP, No Faith, we chat to Sib, vocalist/bassist from Belfast punk metal band Hornets about the writing and recording of the release, recently expanding to a four-piece and what the next few months hold in store for the band. Photos by David Timlin. You’re set to release your latest EP in the coming weeks. How was the song writing process for these songs and what can we expect to hear? Yes, our new EP, No Faith, is to be released on the 31st March. The song writing process for the EP was much…

  • Interview: Tera Melos

    January 19, 2014 - By 

    There are few bands who can write a song that is equally melodic, complex, and crushingly heavy in quite the way that Tera Melos do. Even in their earlier, scuzzier part of their career – when the three-piece’s songs really just sounded like a patchwork of fairly disparate ideas and virtuoso instrumentalism – their first, self-titled release was a group of nine songs, ‘Melody 1’ to ‘Melody 8’. The band have always shirked the “math-rock” genre that is often applied to them, and as their sound has developed it becomes easier to see why. Their sound has followed a very…

  • Interview: A Fight You Can’t Win

    December 12, 2013 - By 

    Four months on from their most recent breathtaking performance in Belfast, Edinburgh alt-rock four-piece A Fight You Can’t Win return to Voodoo this weekend to plays alongside Hornets and riffmasters general LaFaro. Having just released the brilliantly accomplished video for their latest single ‘Jerusalem Crickets’, we talk to the band about its creation, the obstacles they face performing in their own city and what the next few months hold in store for the band. Hi guys. You’ve just unveiled the ridiculously impressive video for your new single, ‘Jerusalem Crickets’. Firstly, how did the idea for the video come about? Thank you!…

  • TTA Session #002: Hurdles

    November 15, 2013 - By 

    Off the back the release of their brilliant Where To Start EP, Belfast-based indie pop band Hurdles are our second featured act on our ongoing Thin Air Live Session series. Filmed and edited by the ridiculously talented Colm Laverty – with audio recorded and mixed by the upstanding and handsome James Bruce – the session features an interview with the Niall Hanna-fronted four-piece and performances of ‘Ruthless’ and their most recent single ‘Control’. Miss our first session with Bellos? Check it out here. Watch the session with Hurdles below!

  • Inbound: Skymas

    November 7, 2013 - By 

    In the latest installment of Inbound, we talk to Martin Corrigan, main man with new-fangled Belfast-based electronic three-piece Skymas. With collaboration at the heart of the project, Corrigan tells us about the band’s musical manifesto, the influence of philosophy and the band’s debut double A-side, Primer. Hi Martin. Firstly, how did Skymas come about? Did you all know each other before getting together as a musical unit? Nick owned a clothes shop that I was buying a T-shirt in. He was standing behind the counter playing air bass to ‘Elephant Talk’ by King Crimson. We started talking. Three weeks later…

  • Interview: French For Rabbits

    November 5, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of their debut Belfast show at the Pavilion on Thursday, November 7 – supported by Sons of Caliber, no less – Brian Coney chats to Brooke and John from New Zealand dream-folk duo French For Rabbits about recent touring, sonic influence and their joint love of the sea. Hi guys. So, how did the band first come together? John: Hello! It all came about when we uprooted our lives in Christchurch in between earthquakes and moved to Wellington. The real reason for the move was because Brooke had decided she needed to start singing – in her previous bands she…

  • Alarmist – Pal Magnet EP track-by-track interview

    November 1, 2013 - By 

    On the day of its official release, Dublin instrumental quartet Alarmist talk us through each track on their brand new – not to mention exceptionally good – EP Pal Magnet. Read their words and stream each track individually below! Aztec Dreams In this song we were trying to be quite intense but in an unconventional way, with these old-school guitar tones and blippy melodies rather than heavy rock riffs. A couple of us had gotten really into the 1950s producer Joe Meek and his albumI Hear a New World, which is full of these twangy slapback sounds and primitive early synths, and that…

  • Inbound: A Bad Cavalier

    November 1, 2013 - By 

    In the latest installment of Inbound, Brian Coney talks to And So I Watch You From Afar guitarist and ex-Panama Kings frontman Niall Kennedy about his (essentially) new solo project A Bad Cavalier, the release of his superb debut EP, Ex Libris, and trying to make the time to make the whole solo thing work. Hi Niall. You’ve just released Ex Libris, your first solo release under the moniker A Bad Cavalier. How long has it been in the making? It’s been in the making for quite a while now. I started A Bad Cavalier when I was 16 and I have been…

  • Interview: John Carpenter

    October 25, 2013 - By 

    As movie directors go they don’t get more legendary than the pioneering, inimitable and boundlessly influential John Carpenter. From his 1978 landmark horror debut Halloween to innumerable other cult classics including Escape from New York, Dark Star, Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog, The Thing, Starman, Big Trouble In Little China and They Live, his ever-increasingly legacy as one of the most important directors in the history of cinema is beyond refute. With Samhain lingering just around the corner, Will Murphy grab a few words with the man himself, touching on comics, composition and Kickstarter campaigns. Firstly, I’d like to ask about new…