• The Thin Air Podcast: Martin Newell (The Cleaners From Venus)

    June 19, 2025 - By 

    Today we’re meeting the jangling man, Martin Newell, a songwriter, poet and author – sometimes referred to as “the godfather of lo-fi music”. In the early 1980s, Martin began recording perfect pop songs under the name The Cleaners From Venus. Releasing albums on tape cassette and spreading through fanzine culture, his early work was later reissued in the 2010s by US label Captured Tracks. Quintessentially English in subject matter and undeniably melodic in production, for many Martin Newell is a missing link in the chain of popular music – a vital outlier and a testament to doing it yourself. You…

  • The Thin Air Podcast: Elaine Howley

    June 12, 2025 - By 

    After a brief, half-decade hiatus, we’re delighted to say The Thin Air podcast has returned for Season 3, hosted by Danny Carroll. This season will have a particular focus on the creative practice of self-recording artists, featuring an expanse of deeply personal approaches to the process, and the myriad ways a song – and career- can take shape. In this episode, we meet someone who has long been a TTA favourite, Elaine Howley, a singer and producer originally from Tipperary, and now based in Co. Cork. Danny Carroll went to see Elaine at her home in Dripsey, on a particularly…

  • The Thin Air Podcast: SOAK

    February 5, 2020 - By 

    In our final episode of season 2, Danny Carroll meets Bridie Monds-Watson aka SOAK, to talk about her song ‘Everybody Loves You’.  The first single released from her second album Grim Town (Rough Trade 2019), ‘Everybody Loves You’ sees Bridie’s songwriting and recording process significantly shifting gears.  Here, she breaks down the elements that went into the dream-pop ballad – be it a lush string section or “soggy cardboard” guitars.

  • The Thin Air Podcast: Just Mustard

    January 29, 2020 - By 

    This week’s installment of the Thin Air podcast features Dundalk band Just Mustard and their track ‘Pigs’. A hypnotic highlight from their debut album Wednesday, guitarist/producer David Noonan, singer KT Ball and drummer Shane Maguire talk about the song’s writing and recording process with Danny Carroll.  Serving as a blueprint for the band, we found out how ‘Pigs’ informed the band’s development and gave them a new way of approaching their songwriting.

  • The Thin Air Podcast: Girl Band

    January 22, 2020 - By 

    This week on the Thin Air podcast, Danny Carroll meets one of Ireland’s most beloved group’s Girl Band, to talk about their recent single Shoulderblades.  The first song the band released in four years, Shoulderblades served as an intense, exhilarating teaser for second album ‘The Talkies’. Girl Band’s singer/lyricist Dara Kiely and bassist/producer Daniel Fox speak about how the song developed and reflect on its varied influences – be they 19th-century freaks, low-cost imported lager, or Leonard Cohen’s howling anguish. Tracklisting: 1. Girl Band – Shoulderblades 2. Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal (Happa Remix) 3. The Beatles – Baby…

  • The Thin Air Podcast: Careerist

    January 15, 2020 - By 

    This week, we speak to Belfast band Careerist about the track ‘Negative One’. A highlight of their excellent debut album Weird Hill (released on Pizza Pizza Records in November), singer/guitarist Carl Eccles and bassist Nathan Rodgers talk to Danny Carroll about the influences that inspired the song, and the recording process. We also get insights from producer Chris Ryan (Robocobra Quartet) about how the song developed in the studio.

  • The Thin Air Podcast: TPM

    January 8, 2020 - By 

    In episode two, we’re delighted to feature the Dundalk rap duo “making unemployment sexy again” – TPM. Since 2015, brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy been making funny, insightful, very Irish hip hop together, influenced by anxiety, depression and life on the dole. Last year they released the explicitly excellent single, ‘FUCK RTE’, and Danny Carroll visited the brothers in their Louth abode to learn more about the song. The episode also features some insights from their producer David Noonan (Just Mustard/Larry) credited here as DJ Chronic Lower Back Pain, with Charles and Andrew talking about how the song evolved, what it means to…

  • The Thin Air Podcast: Junior Brother

    January 1, 2020 - By 

    The premiere episode of The Thin Air Podcast Season 2 features Kerry’s finest singer-songwriter Junior Brother.  With his debut album Pull The Right Rope recently named The Thin Air 2019 album of the year, Ronan Kealy speaks to Danny Carroll about the song’s origin and recording process.  We also hear from the song’s producer Chris Barry (Ailfionn Studios), as well as cellist Claire Kinsella (Lemoncello). Ahead of episodes from TPM, Girl Band, Careerist, Just Mustard and SOAK, stream episode 1 of Season 2 below. Music Featured: 1. The Back Of Her (2018) 2. Hungover At Mass (2017) 3. You Make A Fine Picture…

  • The Thin Air Podcast: David Gedge (The Wedding Present)

    October 8, 2018 - By 

    The Thin Air podcast returns with a distinguished elder statesman of indie rock – David Gedge of The Wedding Present.  John Peel favourites and jangle-pop pioneers The Wedding Present emerged from Leeds in the late 1980s with their scrappy and lyrical debut album ‘George Best’.  A unique blend of bitter melodrama and everyday mundanity, it’s an urgent record that revels in the melancholy of small town life. From their C86 roots the band went to be bona fide indie-popstars, charting no less than 12 singles in the UK top 40 in 1992, and becoming a regular anomaly in the shiny…

  • The Thin Air Podcast: Malojian

    September 21, 2018 - By 

    The Thin Air podcast returns with another delightful in-depth song dissection. This week Danny Carroll meets Antrim singer-songwriter Stevie Scullion AKA Malojian. Having recorded his last album with Steve Albini (this documentary is worth a watch when you have a spare hour), Stevie wound up home-recording his most recent LP ‘Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home’. Featuring contributions from Joey Waronker (Beck, REM), and Gerry Love (Teenage Fanclub), the album has recently been nominated for the Northern Irish Music Prize. From his home studio, Stevie talks about the album’s title track ‘Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home’.  Clocking in at nearly six…