• Q&A With Andy & Ryan Tohill, Directors of The Dig

    Digging up the past is dirty business. Northern Irish indie The Dig, the first feature from brothers Andy and Ryan Tohill, brings viewers out to the bog, for a grubby, mucky, effective drama of guilt and redemption. Written by Stuart Drennan and assisted by NI Screen, the film stars Moe Dunford as Ronan Callahan, a convicted murderer with a memory problem who returns to his small Irish village and finds the father of his apparent victim (Lorcan Cranitch) on an obsessive quest to unearth his daughter’s body. Flagged by Emily Taafe as the victim’s sister, and Francis Magee as a menacing Sergeant, the repentant Ronan picks…

  • Inbound: The Claque

    Girl Band’s incendiary LP Holding Hands With Jamie found itself landing on Albums of the Year lists far and wide in 2015, but health issues have seen the band lie dormant for the last two years. Cue the excitement then that guitarist Alan Duggan has convened a new group, The Claque, alongside Paddy Ormond of jangle-pop maestros Postcard Versions and vocalist Kate Brady. Debut single ‘Hush’ sees the trio pool their talents, combining Duggan’s brutal mechanical noise with Ormond’s distinct sense of melody and Brady’s pop sensibilities. With a debut Dublin show pencilled in for 27th April and summer dates…

  • Phil Taggart’s Slacker Guide to The Music Industry

    Like many broadcasters working within music, Phil Taggart is himself a musician. It’s something that has granted the Northern Irish BBC Radio 1 presenter a considerable amount of leeway and insight when it comes to his new book, Phil Taggart’s Slacker Guide to The Music Industry.  With contributions from the likes of Run The Jewels, Biffy Clyro, Charli XCX , Wolfe Alice, Slaves and more, it’s a book that, in “using the knowledge of the people who’ve navigated the difficult waters of the music industry to ask all the questions you never even knew you had to ask”, tackles everything from music videos,…

  • Going the Distance: 10 Years of Vantastival

    Ten years is a long time in the summer festival business. Both in terms of challenges faced and having reason to celebrate, it’s a much longer time if your summer festival adheres to a fiercely homegrown and independently-minded manifesto. Returning for its tenth anniversary across May 31-June 2, Drogheda’s Vantastival is proof that, with the right marriage of ambition, hard work, knowledge and passion, success is possible. Placing community, curation, sustainability and affordability at the heart of their approach, the organisers are currently busy putting the final touches to this year’s outing. Ahead of that, we speak to festival co-director Louise Tangney about the…

  • Teeth Bared and Tongues in Cheek: An Interview With BATS

    BATS are easily one of Irish musical landscapes’ greatest oddities. A five piece playing a fusion of post-punk, prog and metal with lyrics devoted to topics such as the Higgs Boson Particle, New Earth Creationist Kent Hovind and the Cthulhu mythos. Proudly outspoken with teeth bared and tongues firmly in cheek, there has been silence in the BATS camp since 2012’s superb Sleep of Reason. Now having just completed a Kickstarter campaign for their forthcoming album, Alter Nature the group are back to pick up where they left off. Words by Will Murphy Photos by Moira Reilly Let’s start with the…

  • Belfast Film Festival Preview: The Kiosk – A Q+A With Director Neal Hughes

    A must-see at this year’s Belfast Film Festival is the debut screening of The Kiosk by director Neal Hughes. Capturing the singular spirit and humanity of the city and its citizens, it’s a look through the eyes of a barista serving coffee from a small coffee kiosk in the heart of Belfast City Centre. We catch up with Hughes to discuss the impetus behind the project, the future of the Kiosk following the major fire at the nearby Primark in August and how his film reveals the poetry of everyday Belfast. Catch The Kiosk at Movie House on Dublin Road on Saturday, April…

  • A Turn Up For The Book: An Interview with VerseChorusVerse

    Last year, Belfast-based, North Coast musician and singer-songwriter Tony Wright aka VerseChorusVerse took the leap. It’s one that few musicians ever get around to but for some, Wright including, writing about his life seemed to stem from a kind of cosmic duty; as a means to both memorialise and give literary content to a remarkable life lived. Luckily, it seems that Tony Wright, despite everything, is only getting started. To call Chapter & Verse(ChorusVerse) a page-turner would be doing it a disservice. As anyone who has delved into the author’s music – or caught him live – can attest, he’s every bit the born fabulist. Recounting…

  • Inbound: James Joys

    Not merely one-half of Belfast duo Ex Isles, James Joys is the music-making moniker of Belfast experimental composer James Thompson. Influenced by the likes of Ben Frost, Holly Herndon and Tim Hecker and more, his recently-released debut EP, Super_Tidal, melds electronic, ambient, noise, electoacoustic and rave across five tracks. Ahead of a busy 2019, Joys talks to us about conceptual distinction, confidence, collaboration, and crafting a release that translates the feeling of “being in a massive club with lots of different rooms, with all sorts of music blasting away”. Your recently-released EP, Super_Tidal, is a work of “electroacoustic rave entropy”. Very intriguing.…

  • Life Trainee: An Interview With SOAK

    It’s been three years since Derry born singer-songwriter SOAK broke into public consciousness with her emotionally raw and beautifully-crafted debut album Before We Forget How To Dream. After heaps of critical praise, a Mercury prize nomination, an Irish Choice Music Prize Album of The Year victory and a little time away from the limelight, the 22 year old is back with a new song ‘Everybody Loves You’, the promise of a second album coming soon and a tour at the end of November. Ahead of her show at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre on November 26 (tickets here), Kelly Doherty spoke…

  • Inbound: Ex-Isles

    Last month, Belfast duo James Joys and Pete Devlin AKA Ex-Isles released one of the strongest debuts from an Irish act in recent memory. Masterfully nuanced and politically-minded, the expansive chamber pop of Luxury Mass conjured everyone from John Grant and Scott Walker, to David Sylvian and ANOHNI, all while introducing a project mustering its very own magic. With the pair currently working on the follow-up to Luxury Mass, and a busy 2019 forecast, James Joys talks to us about their “dark swoon”, impetus, collaboration, literary and musical influence, and crafting music that explores our growing alienation from agency over our own lives under capitalism. Ex-Isles…