• 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…

  • Chatting To The Cheesemonger: An Interview with Danny Carroll

    A quintessential indie rock showman-turned-millennial songsmith in the classical mode, we have a chat with Danny Carroll ahead of the release of his solo debut LP I Am The Cheese, out this Friday. Your debut LP I Am The Cheese shares its title with a 1977 young adult fiction novel, written by Robert Cormier. Could you tell us about the poignancy of that title to yourself and this body of work? It’s a book I read when I was 12 and was pretty haunted by. The final lines of the novel refer back to the folk song ‘The Farmer In…

  • Digging Deep: Introducing DUG

    Off the back of their first-ever show and debut single ‘Jubilee,’ Dublin-based folk duo DUG, aka Lorkin O’Reilly and California native Jonny Pickett, speak to Ciara Byrne about new beginnings and what looks set to be a very bright future. In the aftermath of their debut single, ‘Jubilee,’ and two sold-out shows at Whelan’s in Dublin, DUG injects fresh energy and a comedic twist into the age-old fusion of Irish folk and American old-time music. October 2023 marked the inception of the project, a collaboration between songwriter Lorkin O’Reilly and California native Jonny Pickett. Their musical journey began amidst the…

  • Still Open Wide: Catching Up With The Altered Hours

    Ahead of playing The Spirit Store in Dundalk tomorrow night – and Dublin & Limerick next month – we chat with Cathal MacGabhann of Cork psych-rock heroes The Altered Hours about their luminous journey & highly-anticipated next phase Go here to buy tickets to the Altered Hours and Alice Robinson at The Spirit Store as part of Collide Hi Cathal. When I interviewed you guys back in 2013, you had a very level-headed – and honestly very refreshing – conception of “success”. You said “Money, popularity and recognition I have no problem with. I really feel that if just one…

  • The Low-End Theory: An Interview John ‘Spud’ Murphy

    Stevie Lennox chats with Spud Murphy about his crucial role in sculpting the soundworlds of Lankum, Black MIDI, ØXN and more Photos by Loreana Rushe In an inauspicious arch underneath the Dart line in North Dublin you’ll find John ‘Spud’ Murphy, working away in his longtime hub of Guerrilla Studios. “So it still is like a cave, which has pros and cons,” he says. “You’re in a cave. And there’s no external light, but you don’t know what time of the day it is. So you just keep working and you’re not looking outside going, oh, it’s beautiful outside. You…

  • In A Different Space: An Interview With Alicia Raye

    Ahead of the release of Love Letters, her collaborative EP with Becky McNeice, Belfast-via-Drogheda powerhouse Alicia Raye chats to Andrew Moore about representation and spearheading change for female empowerment through her own artistry and management Photos by Kate Lawlor The rise of the female powerhouse has been a breath of fresh air within what is, typically, a male-dominated music industry. Artists like Doja Cat, Cardi B, Tinashe and Summer Walker are picking up where the pre-gen started; reshaping the hip-hop, R&B and Afro landscape through a strong, independent female and gender minority gaze. While this is great news for those…

  • A Different Beast: An Interview with Elaine Malone

    Elaine Malone’s debut album roars “Fuck you, thank you” into the abyss. Words by Mike Ryan. Photo by Celeste Burdon Residents have long believed that there’s something intangibly special about the country’s second city, and the same holds true for its musicians. Cork has produced a plethora of transcendent acts in recent years, across the entire musical palette, including Fixity, the Altered Hours, Trá Pháidín and Pretty Happy to name just a few; the Cork music scene is a many-headed beast. The most recent of which has now reared its head in the form of Elaine Malone’s first full-length album,…

  • Serving Punk: An Interview with Problem Patterns

    Off the back of the release of their debut LP Blouse Club and winning Best Video at the Northern Ireland Music Prize, Jack Rudden speaks with Belfast queer punks Problem Patterns about politics, representation and fancy blouses Photos by Sean McMahon Political frustration, an insatiable hunger for justice and pure unabashed cheek are the weapons of choice for Belfast punks Problem Patterns. Formed in 2018 in the wake of a high-profile rape trial, the four-piece has spent years espousing calls for collective action and solidarity amongst oppressed peoples with their distinct brand of abrasive, infectiously catchy and unforgivingly queer hardcore.…

  • Radical Optimism Above All: An Interview with David Holmes

    Ahead of the release of his most fully realised record to date, Blind on a Galloping Horse, Belfast torchbearer David Holmes talks radical optimism, Weatherall, self-awakening, signing to Heavenly and really making it count Artwork by Jimmy Turrell Photos by Steve Gullick Whoever coined “there aren’t enough hours in the day” might not have bothered if they were up on David Holmes. Lauded producer, generation-spanning DJ and soundtrack composer par excellence is the brief but it only grazes the surface of a trailblazer who has packed in more than most. Three sprawling decades in, it’s a journey that hits like…

  • Slomatics

    Off the back of their trouncing new LP Strontium Fields, the Belfast prog-doom titans sit down with Pádraic Grant to talk sci-fi, analogue synths and two decades of sonic expansion Photos by Sean McMahon ​​Twenty years into their existence, Slomatics have entered a new phase. Over six albums, countless splits and EPs, their fuzzed-out sound has grown in complexity and scope. Emerging from the chaos of the pandemic, latest release Strontium Fields, sees the trio – guitarists David Majury, Chris Couzens and vocalist/drummer Marty Harvey – push beyond the doom-stoner-fuzz continuum to blossom into an experimental rock unit as likely…