• Q+A: Jesca Hoop

    June 30, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of her slot in Mitchelstown Cave as part of this year’s Clonmel Junction Festival on Saturday, July 8, Californian singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop talks to Zara Hedderman about inspiration, collaboration and aesthetic as a form of fuel. Go here for more info about the show You’re set to perform in a cave for your appearance at Clonmel Junction Festival. Will this be the most unusual stage surrounding that you will have performed in? Are you looking forward to perform in a cave? Well, if this cave is as reverberant as others I have been in then yes, I am very much looking…

  • Disillusionment and Self-Discovery with Shookrah

    June 28, 2017 - By 

    Having featured in the sixth issue of our magazine back in early 2015, Cork RnB maestros Shookrah have evolved into something quite special over the last couple of years. Following a memorable set at Body&Soul at the weekend, Senita Appiakorang and Emmet O’Riabhaigh open up about process, metamorphosis, new material & their peers. Hi guys. First thing’s first: for those not in the know, how did you Shookrah first come about? When and where were the seeds sown? Senita: We all loosely knew one another from college and mutual friends. There was a glory period we called “the holy trinity”…

  • Q+A: Bear Worship WAS Here

    June 25, 2017 - By 

    Karl Knuttel – or Bear Worship, to use his professional name – has just released his nine-song debut album, WAS. It’s an exotic, hypnotic record that seems to exist in a time and place all of its own. Here, he talks to David Turpin about the process of making the album. I’d like to ask about the title of the album, WAS. It’s a very emphatic one-word title, and yet it also happens to be a very ambiguous word. I guess what I wanted to represent with the title is that every person wants to feel like they matter. Making…

  • Q+A: Steffi

    June 23, 2017 - By 

    The Fabric and Fabriclive mix series have been on a roll recently, with stellar entries from Special Request, Call Super and Nina Kraviz recently added to the canon. The latest addition, Fabric 94, is from Dutch DJ, producer and label owner Steffi. A longtime resident at Berlin’s Panorama Bar (the house-focused corner of techno monolith Berghain), she enlisted an intriguing cast of long-time friends and new faces, asking each one to make a track specifically for the mix. What came out of it is a deep and dark journey with plenty of minor key drama, subaquatic basslines and nary a…

  • Festival Mixtape: Another Love Story 2017

    June 20, 2017 - By 

    Another Love Story returns to Killyon Manor for its fourth Summer Festival outing this August 18-20. Organised by Happenings and Homebeat the almost otherworldly festival promises terrific Irish and International live music and DJ sets (including a set by yours truly), colourful instalments and plenty of room to explore. Ahead of what’s set to be another unforgettable weekend, stream our fifteen track ALS Festival Mixtape, featuring the likes of Katie Kim, Bantum, Tomorrows, ELLLL, Replete, Beach, I Am The Cosmos, Hilary Woods and Overhead, The Albatross. Go here to buy tickets to Another Love Story 2017.

  • Inbound: Silverbacks

    June 13, 2017 - By 

    Having just released one of our favourite Irish EPs of the year so far, Sink The Fat Moon, Dublin indie rock five-piece Silverbacks chat to Will Murphy about lo-fi aesthetic, the imprint of the 90s on their sound and their plans for the rest of the year. Your sound picks up where the likes of Pavement, The Pixies and other fuzzier 90s groups left off. What about that era appeals to you so much? Everyone in the band is drawn to guitar bands and I quite like when that’s paired with lyrics of a humorous nature. You find bands like…

  • Preview: Stendhal Festival 2017

    June 12, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of its return to Ballmully Cottage Farm in Limavady on August 11 and 12, Stendhal Festival organisers Ross Parkhill and John Cartwright talk to Caolan Coleman about this year’s outing, the festival’s expansion to date and the current health of Irish music. Go here to buy tickets to Stendhal Festival 2017 My friend came home from university the other week clutching a letter marked ‘Medical Emergency’ that turned out to be from you guys. How important is clever marketing to a smaller festival like yours? Ross: We are always up for trying new things, keeps things interesting. Nothing beats…

  • Is It Happening Again? David Turpin On The Uncertain Return of Twin Peaks

    June 8, 2017 - By 

    It’s hard not to feel sympathy for anybody who ‘binge watched’ Twin Peaks in anticipation of the much-ballyhooed revival that began airing on Showtime / Sky Atlantic this May.  Seven episodes long and broadcast in the spring/summer of 1990, the first series is still the best serial drama ever made – an enchantment emerging from the attrition between soap opera surface and the febrile imagination of co-creator David Lynch.  It was humorous, slyly erotic, sometimes terrifying, and occasionally profoundly moving.  Following its progress into the gradually more dispiriting second series is an experience that can only be described as heart-breaking. …

  • Loah and Behold: Catching Up With Sallay Matu Garnett

    May 25, 2017 - By 

    Sallay Matu Garnett has been steadily honing her musical style as Loah, over the last five years. During this time she has collaborated extensively with some of Ireland’s prominent musical figures such as Hozier, Glen Hansard and Bantum. Quickly, critics and audiences became increasingly interested in the music she was writing and releasing as a solo artist. Garnett’s music is informed and inspired an eclectic mix of genres that she was exposed to growing up in both Sierre Leone and Ireland. Where there are traces of traditional West African harmonies you can also hear Western influences throughout her repertoire. Such…

  • Preview: Women’s Work 2017 with Oh Yeah Music Centre’s Charlotte Dryden

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of its second annual return this weekend, Brian Coney chats to Charlotte Dryden, CEO of Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre and founder of Women’s Work NI to discuss what’s in store for the latter this year. Go here for the programme for Women’s Work 2017. Hi, Charlotte. Last year’s inaugural Women’s Work seemed like huge success. How was it from a personal point of view? Oh I was immensely proud and very moved by the support. The line-up for both last year and this year’s forthcoming second outing have been first-rate. But how did the festival bloom from discussion into…