• Inbound: Amerik

    April 21, 2021 - By 

    In the early 2000s, Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello’s method of overcoming physical distance in musical collaboration was so unusual that they named the resulting project – The Postal Service – after it. In 2021, it’s the new normal. Funny, then, that Adam Booth, Belfast producer of instrumental music under the moniker Amerik, chose the current climate for his first collaborative effort. Perfectly timed as we all prepare to get a little closer to each other, his second EP, Bouquet, brings together Gareth Dunlop, Travi The Native, Little Rivers, and Pete Wallace for a richly seasoned collection of heartfelt sounds…

  • A Chat with The Mary Wallopers

    March 17, 2021 - By 

    Dundalk brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy have been charming audiences in their guise as hip-hop duo TPM since 2015, with a run of hilarious but infectious singles about life on the dole, their love of curry sauce and their hatred of the national broadcaster. But their more recent reinvention as stout-swilling folk band The Mary Wallopers, with friend Seán McKenna in tow, came as something of a surprise. Armed with guitars, banjos and a seemingly bottomless well of traditional folk ballads, the trio have supported the likes of Lankum and Junior Brother, as well as playing their own riotous and…

  • An End-of-Year Catch-up With Ray Blackwell of DeBarra’s Folk Club

    December 31, 2020 - By 

    Back in 2015, we had a wonderfully insightful chat with Ray Blackwell, the manager of beloved Clonakilty venue DeBarra’s Folk Club. Five years on, the landscape of Irish live music is – if only temporarily – barely recognisable. Ahead of what will hopefully be the steady resurgence of the live music industry, we catch up with Blackwell to discuss the challenges, highlights and future of De Barra’s in 2021 and beyond. Photos by Bríd O’Donovan Hi Ray. It’s hard to believe that we last spoke to you back in 2015. A lot has changed in the meantime. Before touching on this…

  • Motherhood in the Music Industry: An Interview with New Pagans

    September 21, 2020 - By 

    Belfast’s New Pagans make evocative music, using the tried-and-tested soft-loud dynamic to marry massive riffs with socially-conscious, challenging lyrics with a view to starting important conversations. Catching up with vocalist Lyndsey McDougall over Skype offers just such an opportunity. Forming in 2016; Lyndsey’s recollection of the band’s formation makes it sound like it was an inevitability. “I met Cahir (O’Doherty, guitar and vocals) years ago. We eventually got married but I had been a massive fan of his music (Jetplane Landing and Fighting With Wire). He knew that I had written or had always dabbled in music but I went…

  • Delicate fury: An interview with Maija Sofia

    November 25, 2019 - By 

    The simple, private act of bathing links generations of women, from pre-Raphaelite models of the 1850s to Chelsea Hotel socialites in the 1960s. A solitary, domestic act – baths are a safe refuge from the other side of the door. It is a strange thing – to lock ourselves inside a room in our own homes.  Part inspiration from a daily bathing ritual, part reflection on a Tori Amos lyric – your apocalypse was fab for a girl who couldn’t choose between the shower or the bath – Maija Sofia’s debut LP Bath Time is a nuanced and vital exploration…

  • Interview: David Turpin on Romances

    October 18, 2019 - By 

    The Late David Turpin (so called because of a brief near-death experience) has just released his first album in six years. Romances is a haunting and provocative collection of songs, on which Turpin has stepped back from the microphone to make way for ten guest singers, including Elephant, Bear Worship, Gar Cox, Jaime Nanci and Villagers’ Conor O’Brien. Here, we talk to him about the influences behind the album and its accompanying imagery. Photo by Dorje De Burgh. Previously, you’ve been known as a singer-songwriter. What made you decide to do an album with others singing, instead of you? I’ve…

  • Sampling Dog Howls: An interview with ELLLL

    October 8, 2019 - By 

    Cork-born producer and DJ ELLLL creates gravitating music without the gravitas. Armed with samples of Youtube videos and voice recordings from nights out, she weaves music ranging from tactile soundscapes, to airy breaks and propagating percussion. Now based in Berlin, we caught up with ELLLL ahead of her set at Dublin’s Wigwam on Thursday to talk production and the current state of the club scene in Ireland. ELLLL plays Notions at Wigwam, Dublin on October 10th We saw three new EPs from you earlier this year. Febreeze on First Second Label, Confectionary on Glacial Industries, and Glisten on Paralaxe Editions,…

  • A Sense of Wonder in the Particular: An Interview with Perlee

    October 4, 2019 - By 

    Perlee are an Irish-bred dream-pop duo based in Berlin. Made up of Saramai Leech and Cormac O’Keefe, their first release ‘Chains of Coral/Feelings of Plenty’ is out today. Saramai sits down with Maija Sofia to discuss her creative process, her inspirations and Perlee’s plans for the future. Catch them tonight in The Grand Social Ballroom as part of Ireland Music Week. So having lived in both rural Ireland and Berlin, do you think both of these geographical locations have influenced your music? Listening to the songs it feels like there’s a sense of rural wilderness but also a kind of…

  • 100 Keybaords: An Interview With ASUNA

    September 30, 2019 - By 

    Asuna is a pioneering Japanese sound artist set for this year’s Belfast International Arts Festival to perform his latest mind-bending live creation, 100 Keyboards. The project involves playing the same key on 100 battery-operated keyboards at once, building a sonic moiré effect which must be heard to be believed. Ahead of the shows, we caught up with Asuna to discuss the birth and genesis of project. 100 Keyboards takes place at The MAC across October 17-19. Go here to buy tickets. __ Take us back to before you devised the idea of 100 Keyboards. What creative activity led you to the…

  • Beyond Contrived, Bandwagonesque Bullshit: An Interview With Shrug Life

    September 10, 2019 - By 

    It’s long been the contention of this publication that if any songwriter could claim to be the voice of Dublin it’s Danny Carroll, lead singer and guitarist for Shrug Life. Since 2015’s The Grand Stretch EP, the indie trio have consistently floored us with earworm hooks and existential despair with an empathetic smirk. The songs encapsulate so much of what it means to be alive in Ireland at the moment; the ennui, uncertainty and the oddly humourous nature of it all. With their latest single, ‘Strangers’, having dropped, Will Murphy has a little chat with Mr. Carroll to see where…