TTA favourites Search Results have been on a tear. Since introducing them back in November 2023, the Dublin maestros have become one of the island’s most vital sonic forces. Off the back of their deadly second album Go Mutant, guitarist/vocalist Fionn Brennan and drummer/vocalist Jack Condon chat to Cathal McBride about their evolving DIY ethos, the joys of working with cult mixer Mikey Young, balancing chaos and craft on stage and what’s already coming down the pipeline.
Hi guys. You’ve just released your second LP, Go Mutant. How did your approach to this album differ from previous releases?
Fionn: It was much the same for the most part really. We recorded pretty much all of the first album with Darragh Hansard of Orc’s Lair, and with this one we just got the bare bones of the tracks done with him and did the rest ourselves in our practice room.
Jack: Some stuff stayed pretty consistent with the first record. We approached both albums as a sort of collection of songs that accumulated over the year before recording, without any real concept. For about five minutes there was a possible sci-fi theme for the album that only survived in some of the song titles.
Your recent Hot Night EP felt like your most varied and unpredictable release so far, particularly the ambitious 11-minute closer ‘Entity Work’. Is this something that’s carried through to Go Mutant?
Fionn: I think they’re very different records. Hot Night felt like the first concept-style album we’d done. We had a bunch of songs lying around for a couple of years that we hadn’t recorded, so it was a lovely opportunity to rework some old ideas into something new. Go Mutant was all new from the get-go.
Jack: Not really. We actually recorded Hot Night several months after we had finished work on Go Mutant. While Hot Night was very conceptual, Go Mutant feels more like a greatest hits from the live set at the time of recording.
You got Mikey Young from Eddy Current Suppression Ring to mix and master the new album – he seems to be working with everyone these days. How was it having his input, and did he bring anything out in the record that would have been challenging to achieve on your own?
Fionn: We’re big fans of ECSR and many of the projects he’s had a hand in, most notably the fantastic and glorious RMFC’s latest project!
Jack: Put simply, he mixed and mastered the record really well, which is something we can’t do. We’ve mixed and mastered the three EPs we’ve released so far, and we’ll be the first to admit that those weren’t done in a professional manner at all. So it was nice to get someone to do that for us—especially someone whose work with bands like Parsnip and Dick Diver we admire so much.
You’ve been pretty prolific so far – two albums and three EPs in the span of a few years. Hot Night came out as recently as December and I know some of the tracks on Go Mutant have been in the live set for quite a while already. Are there already a bank of new songs ready to go for the next record, or is there any time to stop and take a breath first?
Fionn: Yeah, we’ve got an album’s worth of stuff floating around and other stuff too that we don’t yet know what to do with.
Jack: We’ve been sitting on the finished product of Go Mutant for a while, so in that time we’ve been able to start work on the third record, which myself and Fionn are almost finished recording.
I’ve always enjoyed the contrast between the lo-fi, tape buzz aesthetic of your records against the more full-throated power of your live shows. Has there ever been any temptation to try and make a big, slick studio record that fully captures that live power, or is the DIY aesthetic too important, or too financially necessary?
Fionn: Thank you for saying so! GBV rock. We have fun working by ourselves, so there hasn’t been much temptation for anything ‘slick’ per se. The process is important to us. There’s more freedom here, perhaps.
Jack: That’s it, basically. We can’t afford to be forking out wads of cash each year to make a new record. With all the touring and releasing we do independently, the band doesn’t generate much more than we spend on travel and production costs already. If we were to try to afford actual studio time, it would take too long for us to get in and record—by which point myself and Fionn would probably be bored of the material and have moved on to something else, thus getting nothing done. That being said, we prefer working in a low-budget environment anyway, with just the two of us in the rehearsal room. It captures the fun in the songs.
Live, I’m always impressed by Jack’s ability to juggle drumming, singing and playing a keyboard – sometimes all at once. Does this ever get too much to handle?
Fionn: Not at all! I thoroughly enjoy the sight of him screaming and bashing around back there.
Jack: No, it helps. I play in some bands where I only drum and it hurts. If the focus is being split between singing and drumming I don’t get super conscious of one task in particular.
You’ve been doing a lot of touring recently around the UK and Europe, and you seem to be playing the length and breadth of Ireland in September. Is there anywhere you particularly love to play or are looking forward to visiting?
Fionn: Whelan’s is always a ball! We started out playing shows in the upstairs venue, so it’s a special one for us to be downstairs on the main stage.
Jack: I love going to the Netherlands, so I’m really excited to go to Rotterdam this October for Left of the Dial. I played it last year with Oh Boland and ate so many Surinamese sandwiches.
And lastly, are there any other Irish bands you’re particularly fond of playing with?
Fionn: At our recent Anseo show we played with two new bands, Mark and Luke and Existing Conditions, both of whom blew us away. It was, as they say, a tough act to follow.
Jack: Ronan Group, Adore, Thee UFO, Mark and Luke, Stephen Star, Burglar, Unstuck, Stupid Son, Junk Drawer, Banríon, Ev Carm.
Go Mutant by Search Results is out now
