• Interview: Katie Richardson on HATCH! @ The Mac

    Not content playing as part of Katie and the Carnival, Salt Flats and in various other collaborative musical endeavours, Belfast-based musician, singer and musical director Katie Richardson is the epitome of a tireless, committed and boundlessly passionate artist. From December 4 right up until January 4 (and many weeks in advance in preparation) her current creative occupation is composer and musical director of HATCH! Adventures of the Ugly Duck at The Mac, Belfast. With the production having already smitten hundreds of attendees and several critics, we speak to Katie about the ins and outs of the biggest production she’s been…

  • Inbound: TVVINS

    Made up of Conor Adams of The Cast Of Cheers and Lar Kaye of Adebisi Shank (who between the two of them also produce music as No Spill Blood and Charmers) to say Dublin synth newbies TVVINS have local street cred is something of an understatement. It’s that very indie credibility that perhaps makes the nature of the ‘TVVINS’ pairing something of a surprise. Gone are the pulsating guitars through which Adams and Kaye made their names; in their place lashing synths, vocoder-heavy lyrics and fuzzy dance-party angles. Things weren’t always that way. When Kaye and Adams first met, Kaye…

  • Director’s Cut: Le Galaxie – ‘Lucy is Here’

    In the first of a new feature here on The Thin Air, Loreana Rushe speaks with Steve Mac Devitt and Greg Corcoran about their music video work, particularly the recent video they created for Le Galaxie’s latest single ‘Lucy is Here’. Mark Earley also provided us with behind the scenes photographs from the video shoot. Hi there! Can you introduce yourself to us and a give us a little background on your work? S: I’m Steve Mac Devitt and I’m a dublin born designer and director. Originally a graphic designer, I worked print and then web in the dot com…

  • Inbound: Skymas

    In the latest installment of Inbound, we talk to Martin Corrigan, main man with new-fangled Belfast-based electronic three-piece Skymas. With collaboration at the heart of the project, Corrigan tells us about the band’s musical manifesto, the influence of philosophy and the band’s debut double A-side, Primer. Hi Martin. Firstly, how did Skymas come about? Did you all know each other before getting together as a musical unit? Nick owned a clothes shop that I was buying a T-shirt in. He was standing behind the counter playing air bass to ‘Elephant Talk’ by King Crimson. We started talking. Three weeks later…

  • Inbound: The Twenty

    One of a few up-and-coming Northern Irish bands whose music straddles vehement punk and straight-up garage, underpinned with straight-up, socially conscious lyrical content, Belfast-based four-piece The Twenty embody the rigorously no-frills approach that they’ve bestowed upon their music. In the latest installment of Inbound, we catch up with their frontman Colm Warren to learn where he and the rest the band stand on influence, success and the so-called scene. Hi Colm. Firstly, how did the band first come together? Well, Paul (Leggett, guitarist) and I have been mates since school and have been writing songs together more or less since then…

  • Interview: French For Rabbits

    Ahead of their debut Belfast show at the Pavilion on Thursday, November 7 – supported by Sons of Caliber, no less – Brian Coney chats to Brooke and John from New Zealand dream-folk duo French For Rabbits about recent touring, sonic influence and their joint love of the sea. Hi guys. So, how did the band first come together? John: Hello! It all came about when we uprooted our lives in Christchurch in between earthquakes and moved to Wellington. The real reason for the move was because Brooke had decided she needed to start singing – in her previous bands she…

  • Alarmist – Pal Magnet EP track-by-track interview

    On the day of its official release, Dublin instrumental quartet Alarmist talk us through each track on their brand new – not to mention exceptionally good – EP Pal Magnet. Read their words and stream each track individually below! Aztec Dreams In this song we were trying to be quite intense but in an unconventional way, with these old-school guitar tones and blippy melodies rather than heavy rock riffs. A couple of us had gotten really into the 1950s producer Joe Meek and his albumI Hear a New World, which is full of these twangy slapback sounds and primitive early synths, and that…

  • Inbound: A Bad Cavalier

    In the latest installment of Inbound, Brian Coney talks to And So I Watch You From Afar guitarist and ex-Panama Kings frontman Niall Kennedy about his (essentially) new solo project A Bad Cavalier, the release of his superb debut EP, Ex Libris, and trying to make the time to make the whole solo thing work. Hi Niall. You’ve just released Ex Libris, your first solo release under the moniker A Bad Cavalier. How long has it been in the making? It’s been in the making for quite a while now. I started A Bad Cavalier when I was 16 and I have been…

  • Interview: John Carpenter

    As movie directors go they don’t get more legendary than the pioneering, inimitable and boundlessly influential John Carpenter. From his 1978 landmark horror debut Halloween to innumerable other cult classics including Escape from New York, Dark Star, Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog, The Thing, Starman, Big Trouble In Little China and They Live, his ever-increasingly legacy as one of the most important directors in the history of cinema is beyond refute. With Samhain lingering just around the corner, Will Murphy grab a few words with the man himself, touching on comics, composition and Kickstarter campaigns. Firstly, I’d like to ask about new…

  • Interview: Gambles

    It’s interesting to listen to Matthew Siskin (aka Gambles) speak about his debut album, Trust. Borne out of a set of circumstances that are nothing short of tragic, it is a record that is raw and poignant. Roughly three years ago, Siskin got engaged, then lost a child, left his wife, and turned to drink and drugs for two years.  Much of Trust is addressed to his ex-wife of whom Siskin has previously said, “I wanted her to hate me. I did things to make her hate me. Because that would be easier than saying,  ‘I have to leave'”. Trust…