• Crowded With Different Voices: an interview with Julia Holter

    February 11, 2016 - By 

    Few artists follow their own path so downright convincingly as Californian experimental pop auteur Julia Holter. With her extraordinary, peerlessly prismatic fourth studio album, Have You In My Wilderness, finishing at the top-end of many ’15 End of Year lists, her standing as a supremely individual musician is incontestable. Ahead of her show at Dublin’s Button Factory next Wednesday night (January 17) Brian Coney chats to Holter about inspiration, the thematic concepts underlying her music and the consequence of widespread critical acclaim. It’s five months on from the release of Have You In My Wilderness. I’m curious: does the kind of acclaim it…

  • Inbound: Bear Worship

    February 9, 2016 - By 

    Bear Worship is the new project from Irish musician Karl Knuttel, who has previously performed as Pinkie and as Ivan St John.  Here, he talks about his love of synthesisers, making music out of necessity, and the benefits of being ‘ridiculously controlling’. Words by David Turpin. You’ve said that Bear Worship emerged out of a time of anxiety and depression, and yet the music is far more dreamlike than nightmarish, and far more expansive than claustrophobic.  What do you mean when you say it was made “out of necessity”? You know, anxiety is a harrowing experience. It’s not at all…

  • Interview: Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys

    February 8, 2016 - By 

    The non­-for­-profit­ run ​Open House Festival​ finished its round of sold out gigs across Northern Ireland at the weekend. The festival, which organises live performances in unique and intimate venues, treated guests to acts such as homegrown talent Stephen Maccartney; Jarrod Dickenson, an upcoming Texan-­born Folk and Roots­ Blues singer; and last but not least, Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys, a Bluegrass band from Michigan. During the festival, Claire McKeever caught up with Mark and Josh, one half of Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys, at their penultimate gig at The Arcadia in Portrush. How was Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys…

  • Interview: Noise, Lust and Depression with Autumns

    February 4, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of three Belfast shows in the coming months, Derry’s Christian Donaghey AKA Autumns is a man on a mission. Having recently recorded his debut LP in two days at Smalltown America Studios, Donaghey chats to us about the art of improvisation, the literary impact on his work and his plans for the year. Hi Christan, you’ve recently finished recording your debut album.Who did you record with and how did it go? I recorded the album with a great engineer and long-time friend of mine called Caolán Austin, who I’ve known since I was around thirteen. We recorded it in my…

  • Interview: Steven Agnew – Punk Principles & Policies (Part 2)

    February 4, 2016 - By 

    Part 1 of our interview last week with the Green Party NI leader Steven Agnew focused on his early involvement in the local music scene and the anarchist movement around it, leading toward his eventual election and current role at Stormont. Here, we’re given a seldom-seen look into the – apologies – Kafkaesque system within which the only Stormont-elected member of a minority party has to work – overcoming contradictory policy, surrounded by homogeneous career politicians in the red-tape-encumbered uncooperative & uncommunicative system of departments that make up the Executive. It’s the devolution of power in more ways than one,…

  • Interview: Steven Agnew – Punk Principles & Policies (Part 1)

    January 26, 2016 - By 

    This two part interview gets into the bones of how and why someone who grew up in a predominantly working class Protestant background, who associated and lived primarily around those of an anarchist persuasion with a grassroots ethos, came around to getting involved with the slimiest business around: Big NI politics. We’ll follow through, in The Thick of It fashion, to the absurd complexity inherent within any political structure, and how it’s navigated by someone who actively tries to get things done outside of tribal politics – the extent of which is felt far beyond simply Green vs. Orange. Where…

  • Premiere: Strength – Northern Ireland Yes

    January 21, 2016 - By 

    Set to play our Independent Venue Week show at/with Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre on Saturday, January 30, Derry band Strength are one of sixteen Irish acts we’ve handpicked for our current 16 For ’16 feature. Ahead of a string of shows to mark its 7″ release, we’re pleased to premiere the video for their positively singular new single, ‘Northern Ireland Yes’, along with a revealing Q+A with the band’s main man, Rory Moore. Dig in. Hi Rory. When and how did Strength come about? Strength came about at the tail end of Red Organ Serpent Sound. I felt we were losing a lot of the live, creative…

  • Inbound: Donum Dei

    January 21, 2016 - By 

    Rising metal youngsters Donum Dei have come a long way from forming back in 2011 whilst still in school; they now gig regularly in Belfast and released their long-awaited debut EP Justice Fails last year. We chat with them ahead of their headlining gig on Saturday in the Pavilion for the Distortion Project, covering their past and future, as well as their ambitions for the band. Words by Melanie Brehaut. Hi guys. So Saturday will be one of your first headlining gigs I believe? You must be excited! We’ve actually done a few Belfast headline shows in Voodoo for Rock…

  • Album Premiere/Q+A: Bamboo – Prince Pansori Priestess

    January 21, 2016 - By 

    Comprised of Rachel Horwood and Nick Carlisle (originally from Northern Ireland) London duo Bamboo are a curious proposition in the most nonpareil sense of the term. Melding influence from various folk tradition with far-reaching synth-pop, their sound (and new debut album, Prince Pansori Priestess) is a feat of spirit and ingenuity. We chat to the pair about their craft and process. Hi Nick, Bamboo are based in London but you’re originally from Northern Ireland. Did you make music or play as part of any band(s) when you were based here? Nick: The first band I was serious about was Peepholes, a band I am (still) doing with…

  • Inbound: Mongrel State

    January 19, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of the launch of their their debut album, Mestizo, at Dublin’s Whelan’s on Saturday, January 30, we get the lowdown on Dublin-based Americana-tinged rockers Mongrel State. Photos by Brian Mulligan. Hi guys, first off, for the unacquainted: when did you form how did the band come about? Was it destiny? Compromise? Start off as a Boney M cover band and decide to keep it going with original material? Darren Flynn (bass/vocals): Hah! No, not Boney M! Claudio (Mercante; guitar/vocals) and I originally met when he joined a cover band I was in – more old school rock n’ roll though (lots of Stones…