• Tight Unit, Closer Friends: An Interview With Search Results

    Since featuring them as an Inbound artist late last year, Search Results have smitten many more listeners with their masterfully mercurial indie-rock craft Ahead of what’s set to be a packed few months, Danny Kilmartin chats to Dublin trio – guitarist Fionn Brennan, drummer Jack Condon and bassist Adam Hoban – about the road less travelled they have taken to their upcoming second LP Photos by Monika Ruman What’s in a name – why Search Results? Jack: We lost a bet with Shane Clifford. You started writing together very quickly after first meeting. What was it that brought you together…

  • Whaling On: An Interview With Blue Whale

    Next Friday, March 15, Belfast jazz-punk band Blue Whale return with their highly-anticipated second LP, Last Immediate Images. The follow-up to 2018’s Process, it’s another masterfully shapeshifting leap forward from one of the island’s most fiercely unpigeonholeable bands. Recorded and produced by Gilla Band’s Dan Fox, the album is a remarkable expansion, and deft deconstruction, of what the Quietus once hailed as their “chaotic, yet controlled experimental rock.” Ahead of its release, Cathal McBride spoke with guitarist Ben Behzadafshar about prolonged experimentation, the magic of biding one’s timing, being ‘sound carriers’ for Damo Suzuki and more. Blue Whale launch Last…

  • L’esprit de l’escalier: An interview with Perlee

    Ahead of playing Dublin and Belfast this weekend, Berlin-via-Navan duo Perlee discuss the magic of taking chances, putting their stamp on dream-pop and releasing one of the Irish LPs of the year, Speaking From Other Rooms Speaking From Other Rooms is one of the most accomplished Irish albums of the year. It spans soundworlds and explores some really strong themes like self-actualisation, destiny and long-distance love. It feels like you invested a lot of your soul into the release. Looking back, does it feel that way to you? Thanks for saying so. There were so many beautiful Irish releases this…

  • Q+A: Swimmers Jackson

    Off the back of his stellar new LP Now Is All, we chat to Dublin singer-songwriter Niall Jackson aka Swimmers Jackson about the health of the scene, breaking new ground and being 100% DIY Swimmers Jackson plays Belfast’s Sunflower on 8th September, the Kicking Donkey in Bundoran on 9th September and Sandino’s in Derry on 10th Sunday. Go here for tickets Your new album, Now Is All, is full of highlights and features some of your finest songs to date. Taking a step outside of it, how do you feel it stands apart from what you’ve done before? It’s been…

  • Heavenly Pop Hits: Q&A with Martin Phillipps from The Chills

    The Chills haven’t been here for a bit, their last show being at The Button Factory in 2014. That was the year before Silver Bullets, their first album in nearly 20 years, came out and served as a perfect reminder, or introduction, to Martin Phillipps’ perfectly executed pop writing. That such an album would come out after years of quiet and be great isn’t common. That such an album would only be the start of a string of excellent albums, all in the 4th decade of The Chills’ existence, is cause to marvel. And so you can marvel to your…

  • The Lay of the Land: A Catch-Up With Landless

    Ahead of their highly-anticipated headline slot at Letterkenny Trad Week this Friday (27th January) we chat to Landless about their upcoming second album, ten years of their world-beating unaccompanied traditional folk and the contemporary trad folk landscape of Ireland. Hi Landless. We last talked back in 2018, off the back of featuring you as our 18 for ’18 artists. Lockdown notwithstanding, you’ve covered some sizable ground in the in-between. Can you sum up how the last five years have been for you, collectively? Ruth Clinton: The last five years have been a blur of house moves, babies, study, work, and then of…

  • The Art of Slowing Down: An Interview with FRMR

    Last month, Northern Irish folk songwriter and poet Andrew Farmer aka FRMR unveiled one of the year’s finest LPs from these shores, Amelanchier. As well as offering a short piece on the making of the album, Farmer talks to us about songwriting, self-belief and the art of slowing down. Making The Record ‘Amelanchier’ by FRMR Amelanchier was recently launched into the world. But before we touch on the album, can you tell us a little bit about how you got to where you are as a songwriter today? In 2009 I took a year out to take part in a creative programme based…

  • Riding The Wave: An Interview with Æ MAK

    Over the last few months, Dublin-based artist Aoife McCann aka Æ MAK has well & truly ramped up her perfectly unpredictable brand of future pop. Off the back of her class Class Exercises EP, and the euphoric visuals for ‘New Friend,’ Brian Coney talks to her about the cyclical nature of pop, winning the praises of Jamie XX, her upcoming debut album & more. Photo by Anastasia Metluka Hey Aoife. Congratulations on ‘New Friend’. For our money, it’s easily one of the Irish tracks of the years so far. How was the writing and recording of this track for you?…

  • Inbound: Amerik

    In the early 2000s, Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello’s method of overcoming physical distance in musical collaboration was so unusual that they named the resulting project – The Postal Service – after it. In 2021, it’s the new normal. Funny, then, that Adam Booth, Belfast producer of instrumental music under the moniker Amerik, chose the current climate for his first collaborative effort. Perfectly timed as we all prepare to get a little closer to each other, his second EP, Bouquet, brings together Gareth Dunlop, Travi The Native, Little Rivers, and Pete Wallace for a richly seasoned collection of heartfelt sounds…

  • A Chat with The Mary Wallopers

    Dundalk brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy have been charming audiences in their guise as hip-hop duo TPM since 2015, with a run of hilarious but infectious singles about life on the dole, their love of curry sauce and their hatred of the national broadcaster. But their more recent reinvention as stout-swilling folk band The Mary Wallopers, with friend Seán McKenna in tow, came as something of a surprise. Armed with guitars, banjos and a seemingly bottomless well of traditional folk ballads, the trio have supported the likes of Lankum and Junior Brother, as well as playing their own riotous and…