• Interview: Charlie Caplowe (Xtra Mile Recordings)

    April 29, 2015 - By 

    In a revealing conversation, Will Murphy talks to Charlie Caplowe, founder of one of the finest independent record labels around, Xtra Mile Recordings. Based in London, the imprint is responsible for putting out some stellar records from Reuben, Frank Turner/Million Dead, Future of the Left, Against Me! and many more. Hi Charlie. What’s the early history of Xtra Mile? What led to the creation? Who were the key players? I was working as a PR for many years handling the press for many acts including Million Dead, Frank Turner’s old band. No labels were signing them, so I said, “Well, sod that.…

  • Interview: Dutch Uncles

    April 9, 2015 - By 

    Just under two months from the release of fifth album, O Shudder, and barely into a UK/Ireland tour, Dutch Uncles frontman Duncan Wallis chats to Joe Madsen about performing live, recorded ventures both past and future, and changes in band membership. So how are you guys feeling about the reception and feedback you’re getting on the new album? Interesting question.  I don’t think we’ve thought too much about it, really.  We’re very happy with the reviews.  We weren’t expecting to get so many 4/5’s and 8/10’s because that’s all we got straight across the board with our last album, so we didn’t…

  • Q+A: Princess

    April 9, 2015 - By 

    One of our featured 15 for ’15 acts, Dublin noise-pop duo Princess are truly riding the crest of a wave at the minute. Ahead of shows at Belfast’s Woodworkers on Saturday, April 11 (free), Galway’s Roisin Dubh on April 16 and Limerick’s Kasbah Social Club the following night, we chat to Liam Mesbur from the band about their increasingly enthralling sound and direction. Hi guys. I remember featuring ‘Tortured Wings’ in a BBC Ulster radio segment two years ago. Your sounds has really developed since then. What do you owe that to? When we did that tune it was myself writing everything and…

  • Interview: Bennie Reilly (Little Xs for Eyes)

    April 9, 2015 - By 

    Mike McGrath Bryan chats to Bennie Reilly from indie pop band Little Xs for Eyes about their new album, Spotify and their plans for the rest of the year. Photo by Abigail Denniston. Everywhere Else has been in the works for a while now. Was there a coherent record in mind all along, or were singles along the way, like ‘Summer Stay’ the focus before collecting them along with other new songs? We recorded the album this time last year, and the songs had all been in development for a couple of years prior to that but during that time we had…

  • The Road to Recovery with Slint’s David Pajo

    March 17, 2015 - By 

    Slint guitarist David Pajo has had an extraordinarily colourful career. Aside from spearheading the aforementioned Louisville post rock band’s genre-defining sound on the likes of their landmark 1991 album Spiderland, he has also released several albums under his own name, Papa M, Aerial and M, as well as playing with the likes of Zwan, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, Tortoise, Royal Trux and innumerable other acts. This week last month, Pajo attempted to take his own life, having posted a long, detailed suicide note on his blog. Against all the odds, he was saved just in time. The reaction from his many…

  • Interview: Rory Nellis

    March 12, 2015 - By 

    Just over a year since the release of his wonderfully beguiling four track EP, The Moon, Belfast-based singer-songwriter Rory Nellis is currently crowdfunding for his forthcoming debut album, Ready For You Now, via Pledgemusic. Ahead of its release in June, Nellis – also frontman with the indie rock quartet Seven Summits – talks to us about the crowdfunding process, the host of local musician friends who feature on the album and how focusing on the positives of his hometown pays creative dividends. Hi Rory. Your forthcoming debut solo album, Ready For You Now, is being released via PledgeMusic – an increasingly…

  • Interview: Sleater-Kinney

    February 19, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of their Dublin show at Vicar Street on March 26, Brian Coney talks to Janet Weiss, drummer with the recently-reunited, impossibly influential Sleater-Kinney about getting back together, rediscovering the magic of writing and refusing to be ever consigned to the “girl band ghetto”. Hi Janet. Before touching on the reunion itself, in what ways do you think No Cities to Love – your first record in a decade – is a continuation, musically or thematically, from The Woods? I think that with so much time between The Woods and the new record, it’s not really a direct response to…

  • Q+A: A Place To Bury Strangers

    February 23, 2015 - By 

    Amid preparations for a three-month tour of the US and Europe, A Place to Bury Strangers‘ front man Oliver Ackermann chats to Joe Madsen about the release of their fourth album, Transfixiation, and their years as a changing act in a niche genre. APTBS to come to Dublin on March 31 and Belfast the following night. APTBS has gone through quite a few changes over the past decade, shifting band members, management, and labels through its stages. How do you feel the band has changed or grown through all these developments? I think it’s allowed us to become more focused on exactly…

  • Inbound: Hare Squead

    February 11, 2015 - By 

    In this installment of Inbound we chat to Jessy and Tony from Dublin based hip-hop trio Hare Squead about the foundation of their sound, sidetracking profanity, their forthcoming debut album and more. Photos by Alessio Michelini. So tell us about Hare Squead. Who are you, and what’s your deal? We are just three polite boys from Dublin who like to sing and perform, and make people happy. We want to be joyful and energetic and we want to spread that to other people. Discuss each members individual strengths and traits and what you bring collectively. We decided to write these about each other, just…

  • Pragmatic Greatness: The Continuing Saga of Echo & The Bunnymen

    January 27, 2015 - By 

    For one glorious moment, Echo & The Bunnymen stood on the precipice of the world, and it seemed like Mythic Glory was theirs for the taking. Then they had an extended holiday, released a commercial sell-out album, and broke up. About ten years later, they found themselves in a similar position, at the forefront of perhaps the most spectacular comeback in pop history, Doing it Clean. But what happened in the next fifteen years? “I know the reality of life, and where we are in the world. I’m not an idiot, you know,” Will Sergeant tells Steven Rainey. More than…