• 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…

  • Q+A: The Vincent(s)

    April 7, 2015 - By 

    It’s a gorgeous, sunny afternoon in Cork City and I’m about to interview a band that describe themselves as death pop and bleak drag. In person, they are far from bleak but some of the most uplifting people you could ever meet. Cork’s The Vincent(s) had me in stitches laughing. Tell me a bit about your musical background. How did you all start getting into making music? Marc: My mother bought me a four track, when I was really young – it was like one of those Fisher-Price four tracks with drums and stuff, I started messing around with that. It…

  • 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…

  • Front of House: James Feeney

    February 2, 2015 - By 

    In the third installment of our Front of House series, we chat to James Feeney, a sound engineer working predominantly at The Workman’s Club in Dublin. He discusses what goes into his job and and his plans for 2015. Photos by Shaun Neary, Carlos Daly and Isabel Thomas. Hi James! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Hello! My name is James Feeney, I’m based in Dublin and currently working as a freelance sound engineer. I primarily work in The Workmans Club but there are a few bands I work with quite often too. How did you become…

  • 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…

  • Interview: East India Youth

    January 15, 2015 - By 

    Featuring photos by Joe Laverty taken in New York, Mike McGrath Bryan talks to English electronic musician William Doyle AKA East India Youth about his Mercury Prize-nominated debut album, Total Strife Forever, plans for the future and more. The crossover between indie and electronica has always been strong, but with the disparity of genres and tastes these days, was it more difficult to make the transition from Doyle and the Fourfathers than you’d imagined? No, it was quite easy, if a bit gradual. I’d already started recording things by myself at home when I was 14, long before that band – and…