• Interview: All The Luck In The World

    February 26, 2018 - By 

    Following the release of their second album, A Blind Arcade, on 23rd February, Ben Connolly of Berlin-based alt-folk trio All The Luck In The World chats to Nicole Glennon about contrasting studio spaces, sonic experimentation and the importance of originality. TTA: A Blind Arcade has just been released. How are you feeling about it? BC: Overall we’re really excited about it. We put a lot into this record and then had to sit on it for almost two years, so there’s a sense of relief in knowing that the songs are finally going to make their way to people. I would say that…

  • First Aid Kit – Ruins

    January 22, 2018 - By 

    Written predominantly in the wake of a break-up, the aptly named fourth album from Swedish folk-duo First Aid Kit wades through the aftermath of heartbreak, self-doubt and loneliness, in the search to find something among the ruins. Lead vocalist and guitarist Klara Söderberg had just broken up with her fiancé when she reunited with elder sister Johanna in Los Angeles to write their fourth record. She described the record to HMV as being about the ruins of a relationship, “How sad it is, but also how beautiful it was. That’s all you have left at the end.” It’s a perfect…

  • 18 for ’18: Junior Brother

    January 10, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature of showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up is Junior Brother. Photo by Sarah Ryan Having played Whelan’s Ones to Watch festival the last two years running and given his recent move to Dublin, Ronan Kealy is set to make 2018 his year. The Kerry native, who goes by the stage name Junior Brother, followed up his debut EP Sleeping at the Bottom of the Sea with Fuck…

  • Jack Cooper – Sandgrown

    August 30, 2017 - By 

    After more than a decade in the music industry, Jack Cooper has found a moment to himself to release Sandgrown. The Blackpool native has fronted indie-rock bands The Beep Seals and Mazes in the past, and is currently making music with James Hoare under the title Ultimate Painting, but his first solo record consists of a set of nine easy-going folk inspired tunes with the lyrics, the instrumentation and the production all handled by the man himself. In his own words, Sandgrown is a “loosely connected concept record” that centres around the seaside town of his youth. Not just the…

  • Lucy Rose – Something’s Changing

    July 7, 2017 - By 

    Last year, British singer-songwriter Lucy Rose embarked on the trip of a lifetime. In the space of two months she played 33 gigs in eight countries. The challenge set in this case was that the dates were in Latin America, a place where you would be hard pressed to find her music in shops and where her promoters did not believe she could fill a venue. In a move that was deemed crazy by both her label and loved ones, Rose promised her Latin American fans she would bring her music to them if they could book her venues and…