Eoghan's Substack

What I’m Into… with Banríon

What I’m Into... with Sarah Crean

TPOE — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 09:02:11 GMT

What I’m Into… is a weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them. You can see all the guests so far - and their recs - at the bottom of this post.

Irish-born, Brighton-based singer-songwriter and producer Sarah Crean releases her second album Heirloom on September 18. She says it’s entirely made by women, loosely based on the myth of Calypso, using the story to “explore deep themes of turmoil, life-altering experiences, and the reconciliation that comes after”. Sarah Crean plays the Rockshore stage at Electric Picnic at 6pm on Friday.

Preorder Heirloom here

Sarah Crean on Substack

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

The new Phoebe Bridgers album is great, sonically such a treat. ‘Autosmile’ by @ is super (found thanks to my pal Holly Farmer). And ‘brand new chanel$’ by Slayyyter is bloody class.

Irish act people should know about

Rua Rí is in my opinion, one of the best artists coming out of Ireland right now. I was driving down to Wexford a while ago to meet a few pals and just listened to ‘Sitting on The Wall beside You’ and ‘Makeover’ on repeat. That album is really something special. I also love the stuff that Ellie O’Neill is putting out, like ’Sister of the Sea’.

Most recent/best gig

Men I Trust at the Eventim Apollo was savage. I had seen them play Troxy before that, but went solo this time on a chilly London night and it was just gorgeous. A close second is Japanese Breakfast at Paradiso in Amsterdam, with Barrie opening. My heart swelled from start to finish, a lot of tears too.

TV/streaming/film

I don’t really watch a lot of TV (unless it’s bizarre-o reality TV) but this year I’ve watched almost 140 films, which is a bit mad. Cléo from 5 to 7 is one I really loved that I watched recently, but my favourite film, always and forever, is Cinema Paradiso.

Book

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is my favourite. A very special and profound read.

Podcast/radio

I feel like I’d quite benefit from listening to podcasts but don’t - shameful on my behalf. I have been glued to BBC Radio 6 as of recent though, and finding lots of nice gems through tuning in.

Play/exhibition/other

Getting sent videos of my Dad playing golf, something he seldom gets to do anymore. He became ill in 2023 and life has become very different for him since, so it’s a lovely thing to get sent those videos, knowing he can still dip into his favourite things from before.

A place you love going

Anywhere in the Irish countryside. You’d miss the green terribly, Lahinch to be specific. I have great memories there.

Something you think deserves way more attention

Male figures and musicians in the industry getting away with all sorts in their treatment of women. It’s a very upsetting thing to watch, and is bloody rampant. I hope people pay more attention with empathy at the core of their perceptions, or the stories of the women who have fought so tirelessly to be heard will fade to soil. They deserve more than that. I could talk about it for hours, but it wouldn’t do my head much good.

What are some of the influences on your second album ‘Heirloom’?

I was listening to a lot of ML Buch when making Heirloom. The Suntub album in full was extremely inspiring, and creatively very freeing. Rinsing that record and learning she produced it herself gave me a big push to commit to doing the same on mine. It’s a big risk, especially with the record being self-funded and independent, I could’ve played it safe. But my gut felt the opposite, and I could really do whatever I wanted with it. Buch’s stuff played a big part in that process. Blue Rev by Alvvays was also such an influence for a lot of the album, especially in the mixing process. I like to think Heirloom is sat in the happy medium of both, taking that inspiration from a solo artist like ML Buch, and a solid indie band like Alvvays. It’s a nice place to be.

What I’m Into... with Last Apollo

What I’m Into... with Rebecca and Dan from Art to Art

What I’m Into… with Alan Daniel Tobin

What I’m Into... with Last Apollo

What I'm Into... with Banríon

TPOE — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:02:21 GMT

What I’m Into… is a weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them. You can see all the guests so far - and their recs - at the bottom of this post.

Dublin-born, London-based artist Banríon has switched from indie band to solo project in recent times, led by singer-songwriter Róisín Ní Haicéid. Debut album Untarnishing is due out in October and the single ‘Roseland’ was released at the end of July. She says the softer sound was in part inspired by songwriting workshops with Adrianne Lenker and Florist, and the transition from a band to a solo project.

Ní Haicéid says of ‘Roseland’: “My mother’s side of the family is from Donegal, and I spend a lot of time there visiting my grandparents and other family, so I had a wealth of descriptive imagery to work with; the medium sized house, the dog with two different eyes and the abundance of love that flows from there. My grandparents’ house, called Roseland, was my great grandmother’s house before them, a cottage along the Donegal railway line on the south coast. I wanted the song to be quite rhythmic to mirror the sound of a railway. I developed the track further that year through a few sessions with one of my musical heroes, El Kempner of Palehound. Diarmuid O’Connor and I recorded this song mostly in County Kildare, and partially in a shed in Dublin early last year.”

Ní Haicéid says of the video, which you can watch below: “This connection to family and place made it crucial to have my family involved in the making of this video. My cousin Kate Gurren and I directed the video in Roseland and it stars my cousin Aoife who interpreted the lyrics into Irish Sign Language. My auntie Michelle is deaf, so we have all grown up with an appreciation for the Deaf community, and the beauty of their culture and language. Irish Sign Language is such a rich language with so much room for metaphor, humour and movement that I thought it would be perfect to use in this music video.”

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

I’ve been rinsing the new EP I Love You by Alana Markel. Whatever that genre is called, it’s my favourite genre right now. People Are Strange by Stina Nordenstam is my album of the summer, I can listen to it on loop and find something freaky and new within it each time.

Irish acts people should know about

PowPig, Ellie O’Neill and SOAK were all really formative artists for me, I always come back to them. Three incredible albums by my besties came out this year: Stephen Star’s Newt, Ellie O’Neill’s Time of Fallow and Nashpaints’ Everyone Good is Called Molly.

Most recent/best gig

Most recent gig was seeing Felicity J. Lord in the Avalon cafe, it was silly and messy and fun, I felt old.

TV/streaming/film

I never watch TV but I go crazy for a bitta shite like I Kissed a Girl and Below Deck (Mediterranean).

Book

Constellations by Sinéad Gleeson is one of my all time favorite books. I read it first when I was about 20 and had just been through three extremely turbulent years in terms of my health. Reading Constellations made me unlock really getting to know myself, and how my health informs how I interact with the world; she put to words things I didn’t even realise weren’t universal experiences or feelings. I emailed her about how much it meant to me and she sent me a really thoughtful email back, I should print it out and frame it actually.

Podcast/radio

Ologies by Allie Ward! I recommend this to everyone and anyone, it’s like sitting in on a really niche lecture. She gets a different expert or ologist on each show. My favourite episodes include: discard anthropology (trash), reality tv sociology (trash tv), medieval codicology (weird medieval manuscripts and snails) and literary olfactology (the politics of smell).

Play/exhibition/other

A play by Isadora Epstein is a play I want to watch, there’s no one else like her.

A place you love going

Cottons Coffee in Peckham, it’s my local cafe and it is soooooo cute !

Something you think deserves way more attention

The Irish public health system.

What are some of the influences on your new single ‘Roseland’?

Adrianne Lenker for sure, it was written as a homework assignment for her songwriting course with School of Song. She told us to use John Prine’s ‘Far From Me’ as a template. You might listen to that song and think it feels a million miles away from ‘Roseland’ - and you’d be right. The main influence was to follow the format of three descriptive lines and then a confessional line at the end of each verse. Both Adrianne and Prine are amazing for sneaking in a big revelation, I’ll get there too.

What I’m Into... with Rebecca and Dan from Art to Art

What I’m Into… with Alan Daniel Tobin

What I'm Into... with Last Apollo

TPOE — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:30:30 GMT

What I’m Into… is a weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them.

Last Apollo aka Lucy Rice releases debut album I’ll Walk Towards You on September 4. She says it’s been shaped over the last three years by love letters that have traced their way into songs, creating a collage of grief, care and honesty. Rice says: “This album overflows with love. New listeners might hear a lot of heartbreak and turmoil but for me, this album is a reminder of my amazing friends and the love they have never ceased to show me.” The first single from the album, ‘Home’ was released on July 17.

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

I can’t stop listening to ‘The Kiss’ by Judee Sill - particularly this live version. It catches me right between the ribs everytime I watch it. It is so stark, it feels impossible not to be moved by it.

“Sun, siftin’ thru the grey
Enter in, reach me with a ray
Silently swoopin’ down
Just to show me
How to give my heart away”

This verse terrifies me in how important it feels. It nearly feels like, if you are brave enough to love someone, you are choosing to take part in something beyond human, which exists more in the large-scale realm of religion or nature. It is empowering and brilliant.

Irish act people should know about

I don’t think I will rest until I have asked every single person in the world if they have seen Rachael Lavelle live. I went to one of her shows randomly in London about a year and a half ago and my jaw is still left somewhere on the floor in St Pancras Church. I was at a bit of an artistic crossroads at that time, I was writing the album but still was very unsure about the way I wanted to convey the songs and what purpose I felt the songs or even Last Apollo had. Exhausted and overwhelmed, I remember taking my seat in the church, not quite sure what to expect and then, suddenly, there was this perfect performance in front of me. I found the whole thing so inspiring, and it invigorated me to keep working, studying and figuring out the space I wanted Last Apollo to occupy in the music scene. I find myself now in a position where I am a lot clearer of the role and persona of Last Apollo and I attribute that hugely to lessons I learned instantly while witnessing this mind-blowing performance of absolutely wonderful music.

I nervously bought a CD from her at that gig and have probably played it through once every two months since - whenever I need a reminder that true conviction in your art is ultimately the only important thing.

Most recent/best gig

It is a 50/50 between Junior Brother at the Pavilion in May and Caroline in Whelan’s in March. I liked both gigs for the same reasons though. Both gigs made me think about songwriting in new ways and filled me with otherworldly emotions during the sets. I think both artists I love particularly for the musicality of their songwriting and the trust they place in the listener. I definitely left both sets itching to go home and write and arrange new material after what felt like seeing through the looking glass for however long the sets were.

TV/streaming/film

Dog Day Afternoon - can’t stop thinking about it - again, I love how stark it is. I am really into things being stark right now. I love how the whole film takes place in one location, and how, by limiting the film in that way, the other aspects of film such as script and character development are SO rich and SO compelling. My band and I try to limit our recording process in the same way. Limitations force you to really deeply consider every single addition you do make and its necessity. Only the best stuff makes it in to the final piece of art that way.

Book

The Bible (The Old Testament specifically) - I am not religious but I really want to know deeply this text that is the root both of so much war and suffering and also the root of so much beautiful art. I have only read the first two books (there are approximately one million) and already I feel it has allowed me to feel closer to a lot of songs/books/films that make references to it and has made me realise its fundamental role in popular culture. I plan to read the sacred texts of all the major world religions for the same reasons - I think it will take me a few years but it is something I think will be super important to my understanding of the world and all of the people in it. But, for now, I am starting with the fruit containing the knowledge of good and evil and those bold enough to eat it.

Podcast/radio

The Sleepy Bookshelf - an insomniac’s godsent. A few years ago, my friend, Siofra, showed it to me while we were playing some shows in Spain and I was struggling to sleep and I have listened to it pretty much nightly ever since.
Mystery train with John Kelly - always and forever.

Play/exhibition/other

Art to Art season 2 launch at the IFI. It was so amazing getting to hear three artists I admire so much (Spider Stacy from the Pogues and Charles and Andrew from the Mary Wallopers) talk about their process and the way they view their role as musicians. The audience was filled with wonderful artists from all disciplines and it felt equally amazing getting to hear their questions as it did hearing the answers. Sometimes being an artist can feel a little bit lonely as it is a very unique position to put yourself in - you use your life and your experiences to create art and then somehow also then have to remember that the resulting art and the way it is received is not a reflection of you as a person (my therapist has a field day trying to untangle those two positions of thought with me often). To be in a room full of artists filled with questions stemming from that core quantum superposition was extremely moving and comforting and I felt very lucky to have been a part of the crowd.

A place you love going

The secret bookstore - my CD collection is forever indebted to the second-hand wall at the back of Freebird.

Something you think deserves way more attention

THE CLIMATE CRISIS in a solution-oriented way not in a we’re doomed kind of way! I want to learn so much more about climate policy and govermental structures so I can advocate for policies and laws that protect the environment. But for now, am just trying to bring it up in conversation and make people aware of how we STILL have the power to protect the planet for future generations.

What are some of the influences on your new single ‘Home’?

Musically, it is a mix between Anohni, Joni Mitchell and BCNR. I was also reading a lot of Joan Didion at the time and wanted to write something being very economical with words and images as opposed to writing something full of metaphors etc. I suppose you could say I wanted to write something STARK.

TPOE's new Irish music roundup featuring Morgana, Paahto & the Bull, Sarah Crean, Banríon and more

TPOE — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 08:39:35 GMT

Twelve new releases to dig into today plus loads of tour news and album releases to put in your diary. They include a new project from John Francis Flynn, Banríon’s first taster of her debut album, the first release of the year from Bricknasty, plus chatbots and more. Here’s the previous new music roundup and here’s the updated playlist on Qobuz.

Morgana - ‘You Are Never Gone From Me’

Morgana is gearing up to release debut album The Whole Thing Was Very Very Emotional on Friday September 25. Judging by recent singles ‘Fix Your Heart for Free’ and ‘Sidekick’, it’s going to be one of the most fun records of the year, bursting with huge 80s-influenced pop anthems. Preorder the album here.

She says latest single ‘You Are Never Gone From Me’ is dedicated to her manager Conor Cusack, who has been through the wringer this year. She says: “It means more to me than any of the other songs on the record… it’s such an emotional one for me. The song is about Conor and if you have been to a gig of mine or bought some merch or streamed my music whether you knew it or not, Conor’s been all over all of those things. Every facet of my music since forever. He started managing me and Gemma in Saint Sister like 10 years ago and has been the single most important driving force behind me as an artist. I don’t say that lightly. And he’s had a fucking crazy couple of years and a nightmare over the last couple of months. The song’s about him and how good a friend he is and the lengths we go to for our friends and how they’re never really gone from us no matter where they end up.”

Paahto & The Bull - ‘The Tenpenny Piece/Elizabeth Kelly’s Delight’

Paahto & The Bull is the guitar-duo project of Patrick ‘Paahto’ Cummins and John Francis Flynn, who met in 2011 and went on to form Skipper’s Alley in 2013. Cummins is one part of Ispíní na hÉireann, while Flynn is a renowned solo artist in his own right who Radie Peat recently hailed for discovering the song that went on to be her debut solo release in July 2026. Formed during covid, Paahto & the Bull gradually worked towards recording an album with the help of Brendan Jenkinson and Ben Rawlins. Said debut, The 123, is released via Claddagh Records on August 21. ‘The Tenpenny Piece/Elizabeth Kelly’s Delight’ is the first single to be taken from it.

Paahto & the Bull Irish tour dates:

Thursday, September 17: Dolans, Limerick
Saturday, September 19: Clonakilty International Guitar Festival
Sunday, September 20: Joe Lee’s Bar, Tullamore
Friday, September 25: The Dock, Carrick-On-Shannon
Monday, September 28: Coughlan’s Bar, Cork
Tuesday, September 29: Róisín Dubh, Galway
Wednesday, September 30: Saltwater Festival, Bundoran
Saturday, October 17: Levis Cornerhouse, Ballydehob
Sunday, October 18: The Green Room, Dingle
Saturday, October 24: Pot Duggans, Ennistymon
Sunday, October 25: Connolly’s of Leap, Leap
Monday, October 26: Prims Bookshop, Kinsale
Wednesday, October 28: Whelan’s, Dublin
Friday, October 30: Cleere’s Bar, Kilkenny

Banríon - ‘Roseland’

After a slew of tracks dating back to 2020, Banríon has transitioned from a full band to the solo moniker of songwriter Róisín Ní Haicéid. ‘Roseland’ is the first track to be taken from debut album Untarnishing due out in October. The song began as an assignment during an Adrianne Lenker songwriting workshop in early 2024. Participants were tasked with bridging the dimensions between descriptive and confessional lyrics, using John Prine’s ‘Far from Me’ as a model. For Ní Haicéid, the exercise led her back to Donegal, where her mother’s family has lived for generations.

Ní Haicéid says: “My mother’s side of the family is from Donegal, and I spend a lot of time there visiting my grandparents and other family, so I had a wealth of descriptive imagery to work with; the medium sized house, the dog with two different eyes and the abundance of love that flows from there. My grandparents’ house, called Roseland, was my great grandmother’s house before them, a cottage along the Donegal railway line on the south coast. I wanted the song to be quite rhythmic to mirror the sound of a railway. I developed the track further that year through a few sessions with one of my musical heroes, El Kempner of Palehound. Diarmuid O’Connor and I recorded this song mostly in County Kildare, and partially in a shed in Dublin early last year.”

Sarah Crean - ‘Dreamer’

‘Dreamer’ is the third single to be taken from Sarah Crean’s second album Heirloom, set for release on Friday, September 18. It’s entirely created by women and based loosely on the myth of Calypso, using that story as a way to explore deep themes of turmoil, life-altering experiences, and the reconciliation that comes afterwards. Co-produced by Crean (alongside Lina Lou), ‘Dreamer’ was co-written with Essence Martins and is indie-pop at its best. Preorder Heirloom here.

Paddy Hanna - ‘The Look of Love’

Good to see Paddy Hanna back up and at em after what sounds like a rough few months. He says: “Behind every confident performer is a terrified human, that’s something I’ve struggled to hide over the years, sometimes resulting in what I can only describe as ‘unpredictable behavior’. So whilst nerves will always be a factor, they can also be that magic ingredient that can turn you into a coiled spring.” All Together Now last week marked the last of a trio of Burt Bacharach shows that Hanna has been doing this summer. A full-length Bacharach homage album, Paddy Hanna’s Bacharach Show Vol.1, is released on Friday, November 20. Recorded in only three days with producer (and bassist) Chris Barry, it also features Daniel Fitzpatrick (Badhands, Chuck Squires) and Brendan Doherty (Villagers, Van Morrison), with Daniel Fox (Gilla Band) on mixing duties. You can preorder the album here.

Bricknasty - ‘bobinov’

The first tune from Bricknasty since BLACKS LAW last October, ‘bobinov’ was produced by Cillian McCauley and grew out of the band touring overseas and a want to bring more energy to the live show, according to Nialler9. Their next show in Ireland is September 12 as part of the Last Days of Dalymount series of events.

Binmen - ‘Talking to Robots’

Wicklow band Binmen have released a steady string of singles since debut track ‘Backhammer and Tongs’ back in 2022. ‘Talking to Robots’ is the latest, a fun post-punk three minutes with a hint of Sultans of Ping FC. They even made a lil chatbot for the release. Ask it anything! Binmen currently recording their debut EP which they say will be out before the end of 2026.

Ezra Williams - ‘Blight’

The first single from Ezra Williams since ‘Incandescent’ last November, they say of ‘Blight’: “A song made by me about a specific situation that is vague enough that you may apply it to your own lived experience.” It’s an introspective piece about feeling watched and burdensome in someone’s life, then finding a strange peace in the silence and solitude that follows once that weight is finally lifted.

Absolute Lilt - Criostal

Absolute Lilt are an Irish lilting duo comprising Lisa Canny and Niamh Hinchy (album 2/11ths of Biird) offering a unique take on one of Ireland’s oldest vocal traditions. Using only their voices, they blend tight harmonies and percussive rhythms to create a sound like no other. The Criostal EP is the duo's first record and what they call the first of its kind: a set of traditional Irish lilting music made to help the listener drift off to higher planes, a seven-track collection of timeless music released on Heavenly Recordings. They say: "‘Monaghan Twig and ‘John McHugh’s’ are two traditional tunes that first went viral for us online - so this set is a special one to us. It represents the beginning of Absolute Lilt’s mad journey! We are very proud of this EP and can’t wait for it to be out in the world!"

Trick Mist - ‘Gap’

Cork-based artist Trick Mist aka Gavin Murray releases ‘Gap’, the first instalment of Sub-liminal, a five-part audio/visual series in collaboration with filmmaker Graham Patterson and field recordist Mícheál Keating. He says: “A meditation on the housing crisis and the heartbreaking civil fracture it creates via a re-contextualisation of Irish mythologies most tragic battle scene. Featuring: A derelict site, Ardee Bog and Átha Ferdia: the mythological river site where friends/enemies Cú Chulainn and Ferdia did battle.” An album encompassing Sub-Liminal is due out on Moot Tapes in due course.

Sub-liminal screening events (followed by Q&A):

Wednesday, September 9: Test Screen, Limerick
Thursday, September 10: Roe River Books, Dundalk
Friday, September 11: Test Site, Cork

Dylan Flynn and The Dead Poets - ‘Running Away (For a While)’

Limerick’s Dylan Flynn and The Dead Poets channel Gang of Youths on their new single ‘Running Away’ (For a While)’, a reflective song about holding onto hope that things will improve next year. The five piece have been steadily releasing music over the past five years, including 2025 EP I’ve Been Living Life the Wrong Way, with support slots with the likes of Kingfishr and The Darkness, and a trip to SXSW. They say they’ve spent most of this year working on new music, with album news due soon and the band’s biggest headling tour to date coming up in autumn.

Dylan Flynn and The Dead Poets Irish tour dates:

Wednesday, October 28: Ulster Sports Club, Belfast
Thursday, October 29: Workman’s Club, Dublin
Saturday, November 21: Spiegeltent Pavilion, Limerick

Christian Cohle - ‘Venus’

There’s a hint of Alex Turner to yoga teacher/songwriter Christian Cohle on ‘Venus’, the latest single to be taken from his third album Queen of Ashes, due out Friday, October 16. He says it’s about addiction, transformation, healing and the search for meaning in the aftermath of collapse. Of ‘Venus’, he says: “I was drawn to the image of Venus as the mythological embodiment of love and attraction, but I wasn’t interested in portraying her as a perfect goddess, but rather a force of nature, both divine and predatory.” He launches the album at Whelan’s on Friday, November 13.

What I'm Into... with Rebecca and Dan from Art to Art

TPOE — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:00:08 GMT

Created by Rebecca Breene McDonnell and Daniel Breene, Art to Art pairs artists together without an interviewer, creating space for honest conversations about creativity, artistic practice, and the realities of making work. Season one featured the likes of Madra Salach and Cliffords, Junior Brother and Elius Grace, and Gurrierrs and Child of Prague. Season two was launched at the IFI and featured a chat between Andrew and Charles Hendy from the Mary Wallopers and Spider Stacy from the Pogues. The cast of season two includes Aiesha Wong, Sexy Tadhg, Antony Szmierek, Nell Mescal, Last Apollo, AeMak, and Conor Dockery. You can subscribe at Art to Art on YouTube.

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

Rebecca: I’ve been listening to Racing Mount Pleasant’s self-titled album since the day the algorithm fed it to me, which was last August when I just had a big fight with my best friend because we got on a train to Prague instead of a train to Bratislava. Once we were on the correct train to Bratislava, we were sat beside each other in silence and this album felt very palpable in my headphones. It also just had absolutely no skips from start to finish on that first listen, and ever since. Song: ‘It’s Not Going To Be Okay’ or ‘Moon High’ by Joshua Burnside.

Dan: It’s a Hell of an Age - Madra Salach (The CD) and Best of Cher CD I found in a charity shop

Irish act people should know about

Rebecca: Calum Agnew, Sell Everything, Esmeralda Road, Last Apollo, Avenue68. Also there’s a seanchaí called Eddie Lenihan. Dream guest on Art to Art, and he’s from Clare too, by the grace of God.

Dan: Eddie Lenihan.

Most recent/best gig

Rebecca: Joshua Burnside in the Button Factory.

Dan: Just went to a Ceoltas Seisúin in Ennistymon, saw some trad and got to meet/listen to Paddy Hynes, a 96-year-old seanachaí.

TV/streaming/film

Rebecca: The Bear.

Dan: Cool Hand Luke.

Book

Rebecca: Famesick by Lena Dunham. Not for the Jack Antonoff x Lorde tea but more for the way she describes the many chronic illnesses she’s had to face and how they impacted her relationships (work/romantic/platonic). As someone who is new to the chronic illness club, it was really heartbreaking and also enlightening to read about someone else’s experience and relate to aspects of that to an extent that’s a little scary. But the Jack Antonoff PowerPoint is tea.

Dan: Treasure Island.

Podcast/radio

Rebecca: Really admire what Dublin Digital Radio are doing, platforming so many new concepts, presenters and artists. Fourth Best has a radio show now once a month and I’m such a fan of what Colm does, so it’s great to just see him do more. The man has taste.

Dan: Blindboy.

Play/exhibition/other

Rebecca: I went to an exhibition in Vienna last year that I can’t stop thinking about: Zilijifa by Ibrahim Mahama. He had collected thousands of headpans - what many people in Ghana use to carry goods. They hold them on top of their heads and walk for miles. The exhibition was showing that transport of goods was the backbone of their society. So he made the skeleton of a train out of the headpans. Another layer to the exhibition was that the weight of the headpans on top of each person’s head, started impacting their spine or “backbone”. So there were hundreds of X-rays of bent, out-of-shape spines all over the wall. The whole thing was so larger than life and had such a through line, so the story really connected.

Dan: Paddington the Musical

A place you love going

Rebecca: My real home which is Kilkee, although I don’t go there nearly enough.

Dan: Anywhere out West.

Something you think deserves way more attention

Rebecca: Better facilities and disability care/transport at festivals. Even having an extra crew member would help with this.

Dan: The Epstein Files.

What inspired Art to Art

Rebecca: Dan and I were working in a three-storey studio space in Dublin that I thought would be perfect for artists of all disciplines to use, so I wanted to create something that would get artists in the door and talking about the place. That’s where I came up with the idea for Art to Art. The place shut down a few months after this idea came to mind so I’ve just been sitting on it for years. Obviously it’s inspired by Actors on Actors. Also, since then, Blindboy and Tommy Tiernan probably pushed me to do it because they are both artists themselves and they run some of the only interviews or podcasts I can listen to. They’re just very passionate and sure of themselves, so it creates a nice environment for a conversation.

Dan: Very much Becks’ idea.

What I'm Into... with Alan Daniel Tobin

TPOE — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 08:06:19 GMT

What I’m Into… is a weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them.

West Cork artist Alan Daniel Tobin released his third album Mountain Common in May 2026 and plays Skibbereen Arts Festival on Wednesday, July 29. He and Pat Carey aka How I Became a Wave are playing The Wind That Round The Fastnet Sweeps: Live Music at the Fastnet Rock. They’ll be playing music aboard Carraig Aonair as it circumnavigates the Fastnet Lighthouse. It leaves Baltimore at 7pm.

Tobin says of Mountain Common: “My music is a timestamp of my life and this album is a diary entry addressing events in my life and in the world over the last few years. The album takes the course of a full day, and at the most personal level is intended to act as a note to my children, so that at any stage in the future they can listen to my voice, read my words and find comfort in the love I have for them.

“I had intended to make the album entirely at home - a simple, unplugged recording, but my love for collaboration took hold and I soon drafted in close friends to help. I have a co-write with London-based Irish artist, Elly O'Keeffe, Ger and Mary Walsh of The Bones Below gave an incredible amount of their musical talent and magic, as did my LOWmountain bandmates, Deirdre Hayes Archbold and Niall O'Driscoll. I feel safe making such personal music with these people.”

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

Our house is full of music and we turn to so many albums depending on the time of day, mood, and vibe. I love listening to atmospheric, ambient and droning music - my go-to-album is Lilium’s 2000 masterpiece (my opinion), Transmissions of All The Goodbyes. From the first note it takes me back to my first year in college; it has been a constant throughout my life. A project from French musician Pascal Humbert. I’ve also been listening to a lot of music from Bonnie Prince Billy, Gregory Alan Isakov, RY X, Aoife O’Donovan, Phoebe Bridgers, Faithless, and Ólafur Arnalds. With the kids, we love Beastie Boys, Nirvana, Jimmy Eats World, Elvis, and music from Wicked,

Irish act people should know about

Here are only a snippet of all our great homegrown music:

Most recent/best gig

I played at this year’s Galway Folk Festival in June and got to see a beautiful artist from New Zealand, Nadia Reid. We got the opportunity to sit and chat for a bit, which was such a treat. I also met up with Kenan Flannery; check him out, he’s fantastic and a really cool dude as well.

TV/streaming/film

Finally finished The Walking Dead - and I now preparing for the spin-off series!

Book

Finding Joy - Dearbhla Mescal: A beautiful book for poetry
The Museum of Birds and Beasts - Tess Leak & Sharon Whooley
A wonderful collection of stories from the islanders of West Cork

Podcast/radio

I love political and sports podcasts/radio shows.

Radio:

James O’Brien on LBC
RTÉ Radio 1 Arena (Rick O’Shea/the late Seán Rocks)
South Wind Blows Philip King
Rising Time - Lilian Smith

Podcasts:

Hamish & Andy
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
The Rest Is Politics
Stretford Paddock
The Overlap

Play/exhibition/other

Does a musical count? I saw Wicked at the West End last summer - mindblowing.....

A place you love going

The Red Strand

Something you think deserves way more attention

Our politicians and public representatives. I am a huge supporter of Palestinian causes here in Cork. I try to attend as many marches as I can and play fundraising shows. Keep the Mother & Baby Homes at the forefront of our minds and hearts. Housing, the health system - the music industry!!! There are loads of issues that deserve our attention.

What are some of the influences on your latest album Mountain Common?

My biggest influences are my family, the West Cork landscape, and the sea. Mountain Common is a townland where I grew up. The artwork is by the amazing Clonakilty artist Aidan O’Regan. We have worked together on the artwork for my three solo albums. I love collaborating. My music is a diary for my kids, my future grandkids and their kids - a time stamp. It’s very important to be tomorrow’s storytellers. It’s all about creating, every day creating.

TPOE new Irish music roundup: Cathal Mac Gabhann, Strange Boy, Adrian Crowley and more

TPOE — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 08:30:24 GMT

Fourteen new songs to dig into today, from Altered Hours frontman Cathal Mac Gabhann’s debut solo track to the return of Grave Goods and Miriam Ingram (after 20 years) to acts in full flow and gearing up for album releases in the coming weeks. Here’s a Qobuz playlist featuring (almost) all the songs.

Cathal Mac Gabhann - ‘Everybody’s Like an Angel’

Altered Hours frontman Cathal Mac Gabhann channels Lou Reed on his debut solo single ‘Everybody’s Like an Angel’. He says he wanted to create a new avenue to release some songs he’s been working on. Featuring backing vocals from Alex Zhang and a killer bassling, it’s a loved-up three minutes that finds Mac Gabhann crooning: “I am in chains for you.”

Grave Goods - ‘Remains’

Manchester/Dublin duo Grave Goods aka Lois Macdonald (guitar/vox) and Sarah Grimes (drums/vox) return with their first single since 2022 debut album Tuesday. Nothing Exists. ‘Remains’ addresses the feeling of contemporary existence in the age of uncertainty. Macdonald says: “We felt ready to make some new music. We took ourselves away to the studio with the intention of spending some time experimenting but this is the first track we wrote and Julie hit record straight away. The lyrics are about the feelings of living in an age of constant change. The total instability that Mark Fisher described in 2009, and trying to navigate this and find peace and love amongst the chaos.”

PureGrand - ‘Love Emporium’

PureGrand aka musician, filmmaker and visual artist Luke Faulkner is gearing up to release his second album with the release of fourth single ‘Love Emporium’. He says: “I love to create danceable upbeat songs and then throw absolute misery into the lyrical content. In this case, I wanted to write something about what it feels like when your dreams and plans you had when your younger begin to fade out and you start to settle into the monotony of life. I wanted the frenetic, nearly malfunctioning beats to reflect the relentlessness of the routine and feeling like everything is passing you by.”

He adds: “A lot of the themes from this album were found in moments of regret and reflection and Love Emporium really acts as a spine for that. Written in the early hours after a night spent navigating queer nightlife and apps, the song imagines how one will be remembered at the end if continuing on a path of emotional isolation, and questioning whether the hedonism of hook up culture can fill emotional wounds. As per usual the misery of the lyrics are paired with an infectious danceable track, this time inspired by Bananarama, Carly Rae Jepsen and the harmonies of Fleetwood Mac.”

Check out previous singles ‘Cordiality is Torture’, ‘Irrelevent’, and ‘Seven Up’.

Conor Furlong - ‘You Won’t Break Me’

‘You Won’t Break Me’ is the third single to be taken from Dublin artist Conor Furlong’s eighth album Descent, released on Friday, September 25. He says: “This is the kind of song I’ve been hoping to write and produce for ages. Songs tend to tell youwhat they need, and none of my previous songs suited this type of style or production, so I had towait until I had written the right song. This is a slow, heavy rock song, which is at times very sparse (relatively clean electric guitar, bass, drums and vocal being the only things going on) and then it explodes with a wall of sound. The slow tempo of it is something I’m proud of - it’s relatively easy to make a high tempo rock song - the pace can be enough to carry the song. Whereas with a slow rock song, it’s all about the melody and the power that the tone of the songconveys. Soundgarden - a major influence on my upcoming new album - were the kings of this, inmy opinion.

“This is a song about abuse, and defiance in the face of it, as in - ‘you might abuse your position of power over me, you might push me to the limit, and you might enjoy doing so, but no matter what you do, you will not break me. I defy you.’ So, it’s a song for people who have been taken advantage of or have been abused.”

Check out previous single ‘Killer’.

Good Swim - ‘A Mark on You’

After a 12-year hiatus from recording, Belfast artist Dave McConnell released ‘Paper Tiger’, his debut single as Good Swim, in January. He hasn’t slowed down since, putting out a song nearly every month - you can check them out in one spot here. Latest single ‘A Mark on You’ examines how trauma can quietly shape the way we think, act and move through the world. He says: “Sometimes big-crazy-life-changing things happen, and those things end up controlling us. Changing how we think, how we act and how we feel. That's the mark. The chorus speaks to that a bit. There was a pretty long journey I had to go on to not have a lot of hate in my heart about things that have happened to me. I'm maybe still walking on that road, it's a constant thing.”

Adrian Crowley - ‘Quinn the Adventurer’

Adrian Crowley, on ‘Quinn the Adventurer’, tells the true story of Irish wanderer James Quinn, whose journey carried him from Belfast to Hollywood, where he acted alongside Charlie Chaplin, before a bizarre saga involving Amazonian shrunken heads, a sensational burglary conviction, a daring escape from justice and a globe-spanning disappearance. It features on Limerick-based collective Bring Your Own Hammer’s From the Tombs, a 21-song exploration of crime, law and order in 19th-century Ireland and the Irish diaspora.

The title track features an all-star cast of musicians and historians, including members of Suede, the Cranberries, Fun Boy Three, The High Llamas, Saint Etienne, and Madness. The album features (deep breath): Sean O’Hagan (Microdisney, Stereolab, High Llamas), Audrey Riley, Cian Nugent, Linda Buckley, Tony Higgins, SJ McArdle, Michael Walsh, Lisa Lambe, Luke Haines (The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof), Miriam Ingram, Hugh Bunker (Fatima Mansions), Damian O'Neill (The Undertones), Brigid Mae Power, Anne Gilpin (Morton Valence), Lavinia Blackwall (Trembling Bells), Inni-K, NQL. Kelsey Michael, Neil Farrell (Toasted Heretic) and Michael J. Sheehy.

Sadhbh Keane - ‘Hate Me Now’

Eighteen-year-old Sadhbh Keane released her debut EP Passion & Paper in 2023 and is gearing up for the followup in autumn. Produced by Philip Magee (Gavin James, Kodaline), new single ‘Hate Me Now’ is a sharp indie-rock track that digs into the messy aftermath of a fractured relationship. She plays Forest Fest in Emo Village, Co Laois, this weekend.

Shakalak - ‘Best’

The latest single from Dublin psych-funk band Shakalak’s second album Kulture Bikki, out August 7, ‘Best’ finds them declaring that “these are the best days”. They say: “‘Best’ was written with the best of the best of us in mind... A celebration of humanity, creativity, our ability to be kind... The beat skips, the music uplifts - Vox, sax, bass, guitar, interweaving riffs - It’s a hip-hoptymystical chant, a positive prayer - Best is a song you’ve known your whole life long - handle with care - So this is for anyone who ever tried to swally a crayon - It’s an up and attem anthem getting that dragon slay on...”

Tickets for the album launch at the Grand Social on August 21 here.

Reevah - ‘The Hardest Part’

Northern Irish singer-songwriter Aoife Boyle aka Reevah follows up ‘Take What You Can’ in May with latest single ‘The Hardest Part’. She says it’s about the importance of staying true to yourself and what you believe in. “‘The Hardest Part’ is a reflection on my life, being an artist, spinning many plates and trying to keep them all in the air. It’s about surviving in an industry where 30 seconds of fame often seems more valuable than building a long, sustainable career. Being a woman and a mother in this industry is incredibly difficult, and I think there’s always that question in the back of my mind. How much longer can I do this? Who am I doing this for?”

MUIRGEN - ‘Brushstrokes’

Cork artist MUIRGEN aka Muirgen O’Mahony released debut EP Loinnir in May and has just released the video for startling opening track ‘Brushstrokes’., which was filmed at Galley Head lighthouse. She says: “‘Brushstrokes’ is about feeling disconnected and desperately craving something more. I spent much of my 20s kind of shapeshifting, depending on the scenario, and the result was a feeling of not who I really was anymore. Being told to ‘trust my gut’ was a mystery to me - what I liked and disliked, what I wanted and didn’t want - and it was exhausting. I had a really strong image as I was writing this song, of jumping off of a cliff into water and that moment where you’re suspended mid-air before breaking the surface. I knew I would eventually need to meet the undertow and get to know myself again. This song is a commitment to going inward, reconnecting to my younger self and coming face to face with that which I’ve been ignoring for so many years.”

Reluctant Bob & the Lonely Lovers - ‘Carry On Without Me’

Waterford band Reluctant Bob & the Lonely Lovers, led by songwriter and producer Robert Baker, have released a steady stream of singles over the past year. ‘Carry On Without Me’ , is the latest, released on July 22. They say: “Despite the title, it is unfortunately not inspired by the classic Carry On film franchise. ‘Carry On Without Me’ introduces us to a possibly unreliable narrator who may be nearing the end of the road and is saying goodbye.” The song was recorded live at Black Mountain Studios in Co. Louth and features on their debut album due for release in autumn.

Miriam Ingram - ‘Cling’

Experimental Dublin singer-songwriter Miriam Ingram releases new album Mariana Trench on September 4 - 20 years since her debut album Trampoline. ‘Cling’ is the first single to be taken from the record, a dramatic sea shanty at the crossroads of folk and indie rock. It blends ancient folk imagery with urban chaos. A story of life, death, and the moment a choice has to be made. Written, arranged and produced by Ingram, it features a great case of musicians: John Dermody [drums], Colin J Morris [bass], Trevor Hutchinson [double bass], Kim V Porcelli [cello], Enda Bates [electric guitar], Darragh O’Kelly [keys], Hugh O’Neil [trumpet], Miriam Ingram, Carol Keogh, Joni Morris, Annabelle Leddy [vocals].

Last Apollo - ‘Home’

Dublin artist Last Apollo aka Lucy Rice releases debut album I’ll Walk Towards You on September - ‘Home’, released July 17, is the first single to be taken from it and finds its narrator pleading for time to stand still. Following the release of Last Apollo’s debut EP Ordinary Matter (since removed from streaming) , Rice found herself at a crossroads, experiencing heartbreak and moving to London. She says: “This album overflows with love. New listeners might hear a lot of heartbreak and turmoil but for me, this album is a reminder of my amazing friends and the love they have never ceased to show me.”

Last Apollo play a co-headline show with Elishka Lane and Molly Donnery at Bewley’s, Dublin, on July 28 ahead of All Together Now on the August bank holiday weekend.

Strange Boy ft Rebel Phoenix - ‘Foul’

Strange Boy teams up with fellow Limerick artist Rebel Phoenix for ‘Foul’, the second single to be taken from Say Nothin', the followup to 2020’s Holy/Unholy. Produced by Enda Gallery and featuring Dermot Sheedy (bodhrán), Conor Crimmins (flute), Sean O'Meara (guitar), and Ted Kelly (banjo), ‘Foul’ follows the loss of childhood innocence, from believing the world is fundamentally fair to recognising the inequalities that define people's lives. Strange Boy says: "You have no power to stop what's happening, so you just become a product of your own time and circumstance."

Irish releases of the week: Gilla Band, Gurriers, Radie Peat and more

TPOE — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:30:20 GMT

What a good week of releases - from Gilla Band and Trá Pháidín album news to Lankum’s Radie Peat going solo and live clips from Whozyerman and Just Mustard on KEXP. Here’s a Qobuz playlist featuring all the songs this week.

TPOE 398: Wallis Bird

Before we get into it, just to let you know, this week’s episode of the TPOE podcast is with Berlin-based artist Wallis Bird, who released her eighth studio album I Can See Your House From Here last month. She plays Hibernacle at Orlagh House on July 18-19 before an Irish tour in September. I thought it was a great chat about her nearly two decades in music, the loss and inspiration of a close friend and collaborator, and plenty more.

Gilla Band - ‘Placeholder’

A lot of news from Gilla Band land this week. They released a new song called ‘Placeholder’, announced their fourth album Pugnello, due on September 25, and got a feature on Pitchfork by Laura Snapes. ‘Placeholder’ is incredible, with a couple of throwbacks to their 11-year-old debut album - the bass slides halfway through are reminiscent of ‘Paul’, the subsequent talking-vocals like they’re underwater like ‘Texting an Alien’. But put it all together and you’ve got one of the most exciting tracks of the year.

Singer Dara Kiely says: “In this track I try to analyse my mental quirks by exploring my comfort distractions. Reverting back to childhood nostalgia – as an escape. The memories seeping into my day-to-day adult life. Representing personal mental health behaviours via outdated pop culture such as the anxious tension set by Davina McCall’s silence when announcing a Big Brother eviction, or the fight or flight that Harold Lloyd surely experienced when holding on to a clock for dear life, and all for our entertainment.

“I mention Power Rangers at the end of this. It was another comfort vice. They were a huge thing for me as a child. I remember I was at some sort of Christian summer camp when I was about six and was asked what I want to be when I grow up. I said “a Power Ranger”. I was laughed at and was told the shocking truth that they didn’t exist and it is not a profession worth pursuing. I’ve never forgiven them for that.

“‘I’m injecting a lethal dose of nothing. I’m blaring a dangerous amount of Coldplay’…. True story.”

Gurriers - ‘Party Lines’

The second track to be lifted from the Dublin band’s second album, Nobody’s Coming To Save You, out September 25 on Play it Again Sam. It explores the theme of politicians spending money on aid and provisions for countries on the one hand, whilst trading weapons and waging war on these same countries with the other. Written as Gurriers watched the war in Sudan escalate in horror, the track combines high-energy guitar arrangements with a driving rhythm and propulsive hook, with lyrics critiquing political leadership and widespread social frustration. Recorded between Donegal’s Attica Studios and Holy Mountain Studios in London, Nobody’s Coming To Save You was produced by Mark Bowen (Idles) and Loren Humphrey (Geese, Cameron Winter), alongside engineer Chris Fullard (Idles, Sunn O)))) and mixed by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Modest Mouse, Swans).

Trá Pháidín - ‘An Béal Bocht’

Trá Pháidín (Conal Ó hAinmhuighe, Ultan Ó Labhradha, Peadar-Tom Mercier, Micheál Fitzgerald, Pól Ó Lionáird, Ruairí De Búrca) follow up 2023 album An 424 by signing to World of Echo for Cloch’s Claí, due September 25 (the same day as Gilla Band’s Pugnello and Gurriers’ Nobody’s Coming To Save You. I may need to take this day off work). ‘An Béal Bocht’, inspired by Myles na gCopaleen’s novel of the same name, is the first track to be taken from the record, a building mantra that increasingly demands your attention.

The press release: “Based on the historical significance embedded into dry-stone walls, the album presents a satirical view of Éire’s relationship with her native tongue and the Gaeltacht (regions where Gaeilge - Irish Gaelic - remains the primary language). Constructed of ten tracks, each representative of a stone in a metaphorical stone-wall, Cloch’s Claí draws from styles of improvisation in Irish traditional music, exploring avenues of ornamentation and accompaniment in the tradition. As such, the arrangement changes in every performance, a new stone-wall articulated each time - the recording on this album represents just one such arrangement in one such performance. Inspired by Myles na gCopaleen’s An Béal Bocht, the wall comes to embody a variety of themes scattered across the landscape and psyche of na Gaeltachtaí - tokenism, housing, gentry politics, ribbon developments and so on. The result is a music expressive of regional styles in traditional music, krautrock, free jazz, post-rock, minimalism and drone presented in a way that feels instinctively fluid and reflective of a hushed existentialism from the west of Ireland.”

The album was produced by Mercier and De Búrca alongside John ‘Spud’ Murphy and recorded at Attica Audio in Donegal.

The Mary Wallopers - ‘Landlord’s Demise’

The latest track from their third album Paddywhackery, due September 18 and produced by The Coral’s James Skelly, following ‘Crowns of England’ and ‘The Juice’. They say: “This is a song about the fall of empire in Ireland, and an expression of our disdain for the Landlord Class. It’s based on a true story about a manor house falling down around its aristocratic owner, and is also inspired by Tom Barry’s autobiography Guerilla Days in Ireland. The book talks about how, after endless brutal evictions by the Black and Tans in Cork, the IRA took to burning down three manor houses for each eviction carried out by the Black and Tans. This is a song for everyone struggling to pay big rents to greedy little landlords.”

Radie Peat - ‘Still I Love Him’

The debut solo single from Lankum and ØXN singer Radie Peat - ‘Still I Love Him’ is an interpretation of a traditional love song, this version of which was discovered by John Francis Flynn, who came across it in the Irish Traditional Music Archives. He wrote a melody to accompany it and shared it with Radie Peat, who says: “I like indirect. I don’t like being too explicit and I wanted the freedom to make decisions around my voice without having to explain myself… I’m trying to capture the elation and devastation that can accompany true love… John discovered the song in an archive titled ‘True Love’, I found that so dark – even though you suffer - because of the amount you love someone – you stay, you carry on.” She adds of the song: “I wanted the chorus brimming and gushing with romance represented in the vocals and instrumentally with the strings.'“ No news of an album yet but Radie Peat plays Vicar Street on November 20.

Chalk - ‘Get Fucked’

Less than four months since the release of their acclaimed debut album Crystalpunk, Belfast pair Chalk have teamed up with Irish producer Kettama for this new track. They say: “We met Kettama (Evan) last year at our London show at Village Underground and ended up being big fans of each other’s work. ‘Get F*cked’ was going to be on our album but we didn’t work it out in time and so it sat for a while until we worked on it with Evan who gave it a new lease of life from the demo to the track.” Listen here.

Really Good Time - ‘The Love Song’

The Dublin trio are gearing up to release debut album Affirmations on August 7 - ‘The Love Song’ is the third track to be taken off it following ‘Bob Dylan was on Pawn Stars in 2010’ and ‘Do It’. They say the song says: “The world is falling apart in increasingly confusing and horrible ways, but your love fills me the confidence to face it." It’s also their first track to be sung by bass player Jacque Le Coque. Preorder Affirmations here.

Whozyerman - ‘Long Stretch’ (studio sessions)

This song came out a couple weeks ago but this is a new live video. Whozyerman is former O Emperor frontman Paul Savage, with the live band in the clip completed by Matthew Houston (guitar), Michael Liffey (bass), and Dan Nestor (drums). ‘Long Stretch’ explores the inner journey of an artist as they ebb and flow through the love–hate experience of developing creatively. Savage says: “Often, the initial burst of creativity brings a surge of excitement, but there is usually a long journey ahead before that embryonic idea becomes fully formed. While creating the artwork for this song, I happened to look back through an old hard drive and found a demo of the track titled ‘Summer’, created in 2019. It made me realise just how long the song had been taking shape and knocking around. In this sense, ‘Long Stretch’ reflects the idea of appreciating the time it takes for something to evolve, trusting the process and embracing patience along the way.” Whozyerman released debut album Blink in 2022 and ‘Long Stretch’ follows previous single ‘Miles Away’ in April.

U2 - ‘Street of Dreams’

The first song to be taken from the band’s yet-to-be announced new studio album, due later in 2026. The video was shot in Mexico City in May, where the band attended the 2026 Street Child World Cup Finals Tournament at Parque Ecológico Lago de Texcoco. September marks 50 years of U2, for those keeping track.

Just Mustard on KEXP

Fresh from supporting the Cure at Marlay Park and as they gear up for the rest of festival season - including a show at Galway International Arts Festival on Tuesday, July 14, Just Mustard’s full session on KEXP is available to watch now, with an interview at the end.

Setlist:

Endless Deathless
Dandelion
Pollyanna
We Were Just Here

What I'm Into #11... with Leevy

TPOE — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:07:32 GMT

What I’m Into… is a weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them.

Leevy are a five-piece band from Ballyvourney, Co Cork, who released their debut album Baile Mhúirne or the Soldiers March the Paps of Anú on May 8. Comprising Amhlaoibh McSweeney (vocals, guitar, mouth organ & harmonium), Darren Faul (vocals & drums), Johno Kool (vocals & guitar), Bobby Wolfe (vocals, banjo, flute & whistles) and Diarmuid Wolfe (vocals & bass), Leevy’s sound is a rich, driving folk-rock that marries the storytelling tradition of The Pogues and The Decemberists with the raw energy of the Pixies and the intimate warmth of Neutral Milk Hotel and Neil Young. Layered with banjo, whistles and soaring harmonies, their music feels both rooted in the Gaeltacht and pushes into contemporary alternative territory. I also interviewed them for the Irish Examiner. Amhlaoibh answers the ‘What I’m Into…’ questions below.

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

I’ve been listening to a lot of Wednesday recently, their new album Bleeds and their cover album Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ‘em Up.

I really love the alt country stuff, particularly a song that Bobby Wolfe (whistles/banjo for Leevy) has been singing at sessions and sing songs recently, a song called ‘Porchlight’ by Colin Miller.

Muckno’s album Muck for Hamchildren and Joshua Burnside’s latest two albums Teeth of Time and It’s Not Going to be Okay. Joshua and Jamie (Muckno) record out of the same space in Belfast, the best city in the country for music, at the moment. We’ll keep up the fight down in Cork. But yeah the songwriting and production on those albums are incredible. We were lucky enough to get Baile Mhúirne mastered by Joel Harkin in Aye Mastering Studio in Belfast, who mastered those albums, which was handy cause any mastering references I’d have sent him were his own work.

Also a Japanese band called Yumbo. Their album The Fruit of Errata is unreal. Amazing musicians playing on what sounds like children’s toys and pots and pans, with some class string and woodwind arrangements on top of it. Actually, a difficult sound to explain.

Irish act people should know about

There are so many, I’ve been really lucky the past few years to get to know a lot of different artists across the country, I’ll rattle off a few here:

Also, I want to give a special recommendation for John Foley Prized Band, got the pleasure of finally seeing them open for us in Whelans after watching their live performances on YouTube on loop for a few months. Such a class class band, no one else is doing it like them, not taking themselves too seriously while making brilliant artistic stuff with top musicianship. I would recommend everyone see them.

Most recent/best gig

Opened for Maicín in Coughlans a few weeks ago, they are absolutely one of the best live bands in the country. All of the Leevy lads are in love. Packed out gig with a huge energy, and it’s just banger after banger. You can hear little glimmers of different influences tonally in their songs, but the writing, song structure and instrumentation is just so singular and original, as well as the pure craic and joy they have playing. I find the bands/acts I love most are the ones that I start rambling about, searching for an apt description, so if I sound like I’m reaching to describe them, that’s why.

TV/streaming/film

I started watching The Sopranos (again) recently, it’s hard to find a show that compares to the quality of character, writing and storytelling to be honest, so I just keep coming back.

For film then, I’d have a fairly eclectic taste. Irish film, I loved That They May Face the Rising Sun directed by Pat Collins. Really poetic and gorgeously shot and paced. I loved No Other Choice directed by Park Chan Wook, as well as his other films, like Decision to Leave and Oldboy. And I watched Memories of Murder by Bong Joon Ho recently enough as well, really great film.

Also the Japanese filmmaker Kyoshi Kurosawa is a genius. Diarmuid Wolfe from the band and I watched two of his films Kairo (Pulse) and Cure. I almost wouldn’t recommend them, they were so effective at inducing dread. I saw a huge Kurosawa influence on the new Curry Barker horror Obsession, which was such an amazing cinema experience. Have been really into listening to that film’s score while writing stories lately.

Book

A book that’s left a huge impression on me has been The Dark by John McGahern. All of his books actually, but that was the first one of his a read a few years ago. I’d be big on Irish literature, Claire Keegan’s short stories and novellas, JP Donleavy’s books like The Ginger Man and A Fairytale of New York. Been reading Kevin Barry’s short story collection There Are Little Kingdoms, it’s good, I loved his novel Nightboat to Tangier when I read it a few years ago so glad to be reading him again.

Podcast/radio

I’ve been listening to Mike and Vittorio a lot recently, as well as a film podcast called What Went Wrong. Then for radio, I’d try listen whenever Ray Cuddihy is on Radio 1.

Play/exhibition/other

I haven’t been to a play in ages. Last bit of theatre I saw was a local production of an original musical by Seán Óg Ó Duinnín called An tÉalú and it was excellent. It’s the third musical from the Cumann Léirithe in Béal Átha an Ghaorthaidh (Ballingeary), another Múscraí village. Myself and Bobby were involved in the first two, so it was our first time in the audience for one and it was dochreidte. They’re bringing it to the Town Hall in Galway on the 29th of August.

A place you love going

St Gobnait’s Woods in Ballyvourney

What are some of the influences on your debut album Baile Mhúirne or the Soldiers March the Paps of Anú?

Definitely The Pogues, Neil Young, Pinegrove, Ceol an Aifrinn (Seán Ó’Riada and Cór Chúil Aodha), Ger Wolfe and I’m sure a hundred other bands and acts that we’ve absorbed by osmosis over the years of playing and listening to music.

Live review: SOAK returns to De Barra's on intimate summer tour of Ireland

TPOE — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 14:23:24 GMT

It’s over 11 years since Derry singer-songwriter SOAK last played De Barra’s in Clonakilty, West Cork. Back in January 2015, they were still a few months out from debut album Before We Forgot How to Dream, which went on to be nominated for the Mercury Prize and won the Irish version in the Choice Prize. Since then SOAK has collaborated with myriad artists such as Niamh Regan, released a collaborative EP with Australia’s Gordi, and took a “minor sabbatical doing poetry”, exemplified on ‘Just Stand There’ off Fred Again’s ten days. There have also been another two SOAK albums, 2019’s Grim Town and 2022’s If I Never Know You Like This Again.

SOAK, real name Bridie Monds-Watson, is on a solo tour of Ireland this summer. They tell the intimate gathering at De Barra’s that they’re trying to do a full circle of the country without playing Dublin; just them, their guitar and pedals, mum - on tour with SOAK for the first time in 10 years - and their mum’s dog. It’s a stripped-back showcase of new material and follows the release of the first new SOAK song proper in four years, ‘Death Valley Fridge Magnet’.

SOAK says the song was made while being “reckless” with their best friend Jack in the US. Jack was saving the whales, while SOAK was doing things like going in search of the best cookie in New York. But they also got their driving licence and rented a car, heading out on the road with Jack. “We didn’t book anything. We just drove for three weeks and hoped for the best.” On record it reaches a crashing crescendo, but here, it feels more wistful, as the line “never ever gonna let you forget” repeats. SOAK, still only in their mid-20s, is determined to hang on to these defining moments of youth and friendship. “I hope I’m still on your mind,” they had sung on the opening track, over a Springsteen-esque riff.

Like ‘Death Valley Fridge Magnet’, a couple of the other new tracks are also rooted in SOAK’s time in the US. ‘Transmitter Park’ is about the experience of that aforementioned cookie in NYC. “I wanted to be someone different,” they sing on ‘Woodstock’, as they find themselves sleeping with an iPhone for a pillow - “it felt like a movie”. They preceded that track by explaining how it was made: “I used to write songs like I was punishing myself - I would force myself into a room and try and find what I thought was the coolest guitar riff and then write a song off that. And that’s not a good way to write music… So I started writing songs on paper - words - which was a new thing for me.”

Despite the aim of the tour, a couple of new songs carry a strong Dublin thread. ‘Minus Three’ (“Sometimes getting lost is getting free”) captures the bitter cold of the city, while ‘Closing Down’ serves as a heartfelt farewell to the place SOAK had made home. After a decade in England, they returned to Dublin and lived there for several years before being evicted. It was the last song they wrote in the city, “as I watched all the great things die” and hotels crop up instead.

Other new tracks are more intimate. ‘Subaru’ is a nostalgic track about both playing an old Colin McRae video game and memories of their father and his car; while ‘Speak’ is about Monds-Watson’s brother, who seems to have no luck.

We also get a beautiful cover of Bon Iver’s ‘Blood Bank’. It’s an interesting choice, the title track of an EP that followed Bon Iver’s breakthrough debut and which still sounds like ‘classic’ acoustic Bon Iver - bar the closing song ‘Woods’. With its auto-tuned vocals, the song was sampled by Kanye West on his expansive 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and changed everything for Justin Vernon.

Over 10 years into their career and with that Fred Again collaboration opening up a whole new world to them, one wonders whether SOAK is quietly weighing up what comes next in a similar way to Justin Vernon.

They conclude Wednesday’s set with a request from the audience for their coming-of-age song ‘B a noBody’. You can see Monds-Watson’s brain and fingers whirring remembering the chords of a song they admit they haven’t played in years. “There’s a lot of old songs I don’t play because I feel so unattached to them now.” They say that this track, “even though it’s kind of melodramatic, I respect it”, though warning: “I do feel like I need to preface that I wrote it when I was 14.”

SOAK will visit smaller venues than De Barra’s over the next 10 days before playing London’s Royal Festival Hall on July 18 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Rough Trade. They then head to the US in autumn for a support slot on tour with the Barr Brothers. A new album is sure to follow - who knows where it will take SOAK next.

What I'm Into #10... with Morgana

TPOE — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:05:54 GMT

Picture: Hannah Coleman

What I’m Into… is a weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them.

Belfast artist Morgana has released a steady slew of great singles over the past couple of years. One half of Saint Sister, Morgana’s latest track is ‘Fix Your Heart For Free’. It’s pop perfection and sounds ideal for a sunny summer soundtrack. She says it’s about the lengths people go to to escape heart ache (drowning your sorrows, changing your scene) and the ultimate futility of it all (you can’t out run it and no one can make you whole). Morgana adds: “I wrote it in Co. Clare with my friend Daithi in November 2024. It was an icy day with snow on the ground. I woke up a little earlier than usual and swam off Gleninagh Pier saying a little prayer to the gods of good songs. Warming up in the car on the way home I had an inkling that we’d make something we both liked. It was our first time writing together but when Daithi started playing ‘Hammond Song’ by The Roches to get our heads in gear I knew we’d find a place to write from that suited us both. Unknown to Daithi, I had recently begun playing the very same song before sitting down to write.”

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

The new Lemoncello album is astounding. I first listened to it on a long drive after an even longer night and cried from start to finish. ‘Karaoke Night’ is one of the best songs I’ve heard in years. The lyrics are beautifully specific and the delivery is perfectly weighted. Another highlight of the album is the line “Be nice if your happiness didn’t hurt me but life isn’t like that / Be nice if my happiness didn’t hurt you but life isn’t like that” from ‘Perfect Place’. It’s one of those lyrics that I can’t believe didn’t exist before.

Since its release I’ve had ‘Thanks a Million’ by Divil on every day. It’s a helluva tune about friendship and loyalty - hitting particularly hard now while we send all the love and good wishes in Ireland to Conor Cusack (on bass) in his recovery from major surgery. It’s the kind of song that when put on after dinner while everyone’s drinking the last bit of wine and clearing the plates will have the whole family singing along. Which is exactly what happened last night.

Irish act people should know about

Ae Mak has that rare ability to create work that is as interesting as it is accessible. She’s uncompromising and considered and so fucking charming. A real bright and shining star. Always pushing forward, always with a little glint in her eye.

Was Man is one of the greatest performers we have. His signature narrative style often has me in a chokehold - even if I’ve heard the song before; the jokes always land, the twists always surprise. Special shout out to his rendition of ‘Here I Am In Donegal’, probably the greatest performance of any song I’ve ever heard. That sounds hyperbolic but I truly mean it.

Most recent/best gig

I saw Junior Brother in the Ulster Sports Club in Belfast a month or so ago. When he burst onto the scene 10 years ago he sounded completely grown, ready made. No one does it like him and we’re lucky to have him.

TV/streaming/film

I am a HUGE telly girl. I feel anxious and wound up if I don’t have a certain amount of telly a week. It’s one of the only times I feel truly relaxed. Watching telly on a saturday morning with a slice of veda toast and jam. A friend recently recommended Columbo which is a real joy. If it were being made today it would be classed as art house. Some of the shots are so bizarre, so stylish, the whole thing looks so beautiful and the script is really sharp.

If you’re looking for a film, A Want In Her by Myrid Carten is the best thing I’ve seen in years. She’s a strange little genius our Myrid. Keen ears will hear me reference spending all my time with her as a young child in ‘Nothing Kills a Party Like a Song’; “me and Myrid liked that life.”

Podcast/radio

I hate to be alone with my own thoughts so I’m constantly playing something in the background; even if i just get up from my computer to get a glass of water I’ll play a podcast for 10 seconds to make sure I don’t have to think about anything. My old reliables that get me through the day are Young Hot Guys and Catch Up with Louise McSharry. Special shout out to What Did You Do Yesterday? which I play to fall asleep (because it’s so lovely and relaxing)

Play/exhibition/other

Last month I saw Do You Come From Gomorrah? by Frank McGuinness (starring Ryan Donaldson) in the Abbey. It’s a heavy story (about growing up in an institution with child sexual abuse) with perfect moments of tenderness and sharp humour and all held together so well by one performer.

Another recent cultural highlight of mine is the newest Susannah Dickey book - Into The Wreck. The characters are so funny, so smart, so stressful. I felt for them all, especially when they were being unkind.

A place you love going

Lees Charming Noodles on Parnell Street in Dublin. Order all the Szechuan dishes you can muster, let your tongue go numb.

Something you think deserves way more attention

Veda Bread. Delicious malty bread from the North of Ireland.

What are some of the influences on your latest single ‘Fix Your Heart For Free’?

I was listening to The Roches and Mary O’Hara, Cate Le Bon and Aldous Harding. I became fixated on different vocal styles and tried experimenting with a classical tone. We wanted the vocal hook to sound nostalgic but strange and for the instrumentation to be quite driven but with lots of delicate ornaments.

TPOE 215 from September 2021

What I'm Into #9... with Havvk

TPOE — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:01:27 GMT

What I’m Into… is a weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them.

Dublin-based two-piece Havvk (Julie Hough and Matt Harris) have been making grunge-fuelled rock music for over 10 years and are gearing up to release fourth album Time Will Kill via Veta Records on June 19. Described as a reckoning, Time Will Kill is a fierce, ground-shaking listen, diving deep into reclaiming control amid restlessness, the race against time, and finding meaning in a world that feels like it’s coming undone. Buy the album on Bandcamp.

Havvk tour dates (double headliner shows with Cable Boy)

July 2: Róisín Dubh, Galway
July 16: Anseo, Dublin

Havvk on the TPOE podcast

I’ve talked to Havvk twice on the TPOE podcast over the years if you’d like some further listening…

TPOE 305 from April 2024

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

I’ve been listening to a lot of Oklou lately – specifically her Choke Enough album. I think I’m realising that my listening habits are very effected by the seasons. This time of year, I listen to a lot of female artists with lush, poppy production. Last year, it was Saya Gray and Addison Rae. The year before it was Catherine Jenkins. They’re all quite different but I’m definitely seeing a pattern. The sense of possibilities!

Irish act people should know about

Alannah Thornburgh. She is an incredible harp player that I first heard supporting another great Irish act, How I Became a Wave. She has been Fingal County Council’s artist in residence for the past year and has been working on a series of pieces inspired by North Co Dublin myths. If you know me at all, you know that this is right up my street. Also very much enjoying Cable Boy, Anemone, and the latest lullahush album, Ithaca.

Most recent/best gig

Considering you’d usually find me in a mosh pit or a dancefloor, the last gig I went to was a bit of an outlier – but it really was amazing. I went to see Eric Whitacre at the National Concert Hall with my family as part of their choral festival. If you’re a choir-nerd, like me, then this won’t be a new name for you. You don’t get many (living) superstars in choral music but I’ve been describing him to non-choir-nerds as the Justin Timberlake of genre (which I realise is a bit disparaging these days). I grew up going to see my dad’s chamber choir and I heard a lot of Whitacre at his concerts, and it always blew my tiny mind. I’d never seen him in concert. It was a really special night, to see him conduct pieces from when he was 18-years old, up to more recent stuff. The man just has a way with cluster chords. If you’re ever having trouble getting to sleep, just follow this link to your dreams.

TV/streaming/film

I recently had the joy of seeing two of my favourite films showing at the Lighthouse: Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Amelie, two huge influences on my big-dreaming teenage brain growing up in terms of music, aesthetics, and general wistfulness. I hadn’t seen either of them in a long time and never on the big screen. I was balling already in the opening credits for Amelie – for me it speaks to me so strongly – not just because it’s so pleasurable to watch, but the palpable way to get inside a mind that wants to see beauty and patterns in the world, and sees humans as a puzzle to be solved. And it was wild watching Romeo + Juliet back as an actual adult. I think it is completely lost on us as Leaving Cert students that the hubris of youth is right on the knife edge of this entire story – you just can’t see that as a kid because you’re also seeing the world through naïve self-importance.

Book

Hands-down my favourite book this year so far has been The Houseguest by Amparo Dávila. It’s a little book of short horror stories but I did my best to drag them out because they’re worth lingering on, letting them get under your skin. They’re very much folk inspired – you can imagine them being told from memory. And she has a way of skipping beats, offering you just little enough detail, or having the characters not react enough to things that are clearly disturbing that you feel like you’re losing your sense of what’s real as you read.

Podcast/radio

Cerys Matthews on BBC6 Music every Sunday morning. I have a particular love for what I call ‘kitchen music’, any I would make an omelette to basically any track that Cerys Matthew’s recommends.

Play/exhibition/other

I’m definitely loving keeping an eye on the Lighthouse listings for screenings of old favourites. It’s a very nice time to be had with friends or just on your own with your childhood self.

A place you love going

Right now – the back garden. 100% It was a grim couple of months there in up to about March, but I’ve been spending any days I can out in the garden, since the weather got better. We bought a house in the last year and have some growing space out the back, so I’m currently nurturing potatoes which are almost growing up to my waste, onions which are almost to my shoulder, and garlic which is starting to wilt (this is good – it means they’ll be good for picking soon!). I’ve always wanted to be (but have never naturally been) green-fingered, so I’m also very much enjoying getting to mine my parents for their tips and experience.

Something you think deserves way more attention

(note to self) Real-life tangible support for artists. I realised looking back on my gigs from this year, even I’ve dropped off a bit in terms of going to see local bands. But it so important to get in a room together – to actually put a few bob in artists’ pockets, to keep the venues open, and really experience music and community in a way that can’t be replicated in a 15-second socials clip. Music has become such a fragmented platform to exist in, and so much of the reason we love it comes flooding back when we get in a room together.

What are some of the influences on your single ‘Bad Look’?

We literally said to ourselves, why don’t we try to write a bop? In the vein of Paramore, Weezer, Blur and other guitar bands that inspire you to have a little dance. And you know what, the first time my mum heard it, she said, ‘wow is this a pop song?’ So, I think mission accomplished.

Buy Ossory Road on Bandcamp

What I'm into... with Dose

TPOE — Fri, 22 May 2026 08:13:20 GMT

What I’m Into… is a new weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them.

Dublin-based four-piece Dose (Lizzie Fitzpatrick (guitar/vocals), Lauren Heron (bass), Aoife Spratt (synth), and Nicki Meehan (drums) released their debut EP Sycophantic via Pizza Pizza Records on Tuesday, May 19. Produced by Joey Edwards, it charts emotional manipulation, narcissism, alienation, and the absurdity of trying to remain emotionally functional in a collapsing world. Fresh off supporting Ailbhe Reddy in Dublin this month, Dose are heading out on tour in support of the new EP.

Dose tour dates:

May 23: Workman’s Club, Dublin (tickets)
May 28: Róisín Dubh, Galway (tickets)
June 6: Duke of York, Belfast (tickets)
June 12: Beyond The Pale Festival, Wicklow (tickets)

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

Lauren: I’m basically locked in a loop of St Vincent, Nation of Language and Sharon Van Ettan at the moment and I can’t seem to get out.

Aoife: Kim Gordon, Olof Dreijer, Cocteau Twins.

Nicki: Been listening to Deary, a fantastic dream pop/shoegaze band from London. Revisiting Bloc Party’s first two albums a lot as well for Matt Tong’s magnificent drumming.

Lizzie: I’m enjoying some Lucretia Dalt, Chris & Cosey, Deux and always dipping into David Lynch’s albums

Irish act people should know about

Lauren: Delivery Service from Dublin. They sound like they soundtracked every one of your favourite 90s films.

Aoife: Cable Boy.

Nicki: Will always give Cable Boy a shout.

Lizzie: Snug are really cool.

Most recent/best gig

Lauren: Not that recent, but we all went and saw DIIV together at the Button Factory in Dublin and our necks were aching for weeks afterwards.

Aoife: YEP AGREE

Nicki: I’ve seen a lot of great bands and artists and this is such a basic bitch answer among them but I’ve never had more craic at a gig than I did at CMAT in June ‘24 tbh.

Lizzie: My fav gigs have been the Sunday gigs Andy from Gem Beag (Little Gem records) puts on in Anseo. He curates so many genres and really is an underrated gem (lol) in the Dublin scene.

Thanks for reading the TPOE Substack! This post is public so feel free to share it.

TV/streaming/film:

Lauren: Australian TV series Deadloch is the best thing I’ve seen in ages. Hilariously dark and clever, I urge everyone to watch.

Aoife: Sentimental Value.

Nicki: TV - Paradise! I will watch every single dystopian drama there is. I don’t know what that says about me psychologically.

Lizzie: Me and my girlfriend have been watching all of David lynch’s catalogue. I had never watched Twin Peaks: The Return before, it’s such a special TV event.

Book:

Lauren: Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna with special mention to Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth.

Aoife: Love in Exile - Shon Faye.

Nicki: I’m not religious but I’m actually reading The Bible. Just thought it would be interesting to read at a time when despicable people in the world are claiming its content gives them the right to murder and steal people’s land. Free Palestine.

Lizzie: At the moment I’m reading the alchemist and, you guessed it, David Lynch’s biography/autobiography. Book that left a lasting impression of me is The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson.

Podcast/radio:

Lauren: I’ve come to need Marty in the Morning on a daily basis. What a ride - it could be the Star Wars theme song one minute and Madonna the next.

Aoife: What went Wrong - film-making podcast.

Nicki: I’ve just found a new fashion pod called Articles of Interest that I’m looking forward to digging into.

Lizzie: I always enjoy a good cult story so had been listening to Redhanded’s take on scientology

Play/exhibition/other:

Lauren: I got to see the Gwen John: Strange Beauties exhibition in Cardiff and thought it was brilliant.

Aoife: KONSTANTIN - by Lauren Shannon Jones @ Dublin Theatre Festival - loved it

Nicki: Finally visited 14 Henrietta Street Tenement Museum recently. Excellent.

Lizzie: IMMA 4 life

A place you love going:

Aoife: Palma Majorca.

Lauren: Slattery’s in Rathmines after a big day or any charity shop anywhere.

Nicki: Flower & Bean on Cork St. for breakfast. Delicious.

Lizzie: 40ft for a dip and cycle home.

Something you think deserves way more attention

Aoife: Palestine

Nicki: Palestine, The Epstein Files, Ukraine, Iran

Lizzie: The bullying and scapegoating of the trans community.

Lauren: Ditto all.

What are some of the influences on your single ‘Shelley’?

Aoife: The Shining.

Lauren: Yeah, The Shining and in particular Shelley Duvall’s experience during the filmmaking process. In terms of bass, there’s a whack of early grunge and I love obnoxious hypnotic repetition. Shelley is a bit Bar Italia meets Sonic Youth for me.

Nicki: Bit of Nirvana inspo in there drum wise.

Lizzie: I feel like I ripped off Blue Monday a bit with the guitar lock at the start. Kevin Shields will always be a reference for my guitar, tonally and also harmonically. I feel like when people talk about his guitar sound it’s just the reverb, but I really enjoy his use of harmony and the sadness/nostalgia he creates.

Squarehead: 'It was hard, at the time, but you don’t realise, because it’s so much fun at the time as well'

TPOE — Mon, 18 May 2026 09:11:50 GMT

Dublin four-piece Squarehead (Roy Duffy, Ian MacFarlane, Ruan van Vliet and Rudhán O’Mara) have been making and releasing music together since 2011’s Yeah Nothing. Riding the wave of recession-era creativity that defined Dublin’s independent music scene in the early 2010s, they rarely seemed to slow down, touring relentlessly around Ireland and the US in the years that followed. A split release with So Cow arrived shortly after Yeah Nothing, followed by second album Respect in 2013. Then came a six-year hiatus before 2019’s High Tide, and another before fourth album Ossory Road, surprise-released in December 2025. This week, I spoke to Roy Duffy on the TPOE podcast about Squarehead’s 15-year journey - the highs, the lows and the what-ifs. You can listen in full via the player below, or read an edited version of the conversation underneath.

Squarehead play Bello Bar in Dublin on May 30 with support from Anamoe Drive. Tickets.

Subscribe to The Point of Everything podcast on Spotify | Apple Podcasts

TPOE 395: Squarehead

Because I haven’t chatted to you about Squarehead or anything before, maybe we’ll just start at the beginning. What was the scene in Dublin like that Squarehead were born out of?

We started strangely enough because me and Ian our bass player were in a band with our good friend from school called Lar Kay and he went on to be the guitar player of Adebisi Shank and All Tvvins and now he plays with the Coronas. So the three of us were in school together - we started a band called The Manas that was like a math-rock band. This is in the early aughts when the Mars Volta or At the Drive-In and Battles and all these bands were just huge and we were going to see them all the time. So we were big fans of that kind of stuff, started playing that math-rocky thing. Our friend Barry Lennon, who ended up being the vocalist in Hands Up Who Wants to Die that I played bass in, he put out our first 7” on his label that was called Armed Ambitions.

And through that scene that was a lot of punk bands and post-rock bands and math rock bands, if you want to call it that, around the Lower Deck, especially, in Dublin, there were gigs every week or every night of the week sometimes. Got to know loads of different people. And I was always still doing acoustic stuff at home on my own that was definitely not in the math rock, punk rock, heavy side of things.

So I think it was only myself and Barry; after that band with Ian and Lara fizzled out, we did Hands Up Who Wants to Die, and we did a bunch of tours around that first album that I was on with them. We did an Eastern European tour. It was us and another band called Gestamo Orchestra. We went all around Eastern Europe, and went to Ukraine and all these different places like Beirut. And they said, Why don’t you open up and do your acoustic stuff? And I was like, Oh, I don’t know about that, playing to a squat in Berlin to a bunch of crusties. But it turns out they loved it. They were all drunk and just singing along to ‘Fake Blood’ and all these songs that I just had done on my own.

Thanks for reading the TPOE Substack! This post is public so feel free to share it.

So I gave it the name Squarehead and when I got back from that tour, I started recording demos with our friend Andy Walsh - I Heart the Monster Hero was his moniker at the time. So through that, Squarehead was born, and a few gigs happened, and Ian decided to play bass with me. And once we had a bass player, we needed a drummer. So it became less acoustic and more of a full-band thing. And then Barry Lennon comes back into the scene through Richter Collective, who he’s now running with our friend Mick Roe, who played in Lar’s band, Adebisi Shank. So it’s just like a whole bunch of mates all from different bands chopping and changing roles and eventually fell into the version that Squarehead was.

I didn’t realise that Squarehead started as an acoustic project. It’s hard for me to hear that now - has there been an acoustic Squarehead release?

No, because the first one was supposed to be that was on Any Other City, James Byrne’s label, who played with Villagers and released early Villagers stuff. He had seen us play - just me on acoustic guitar, and Ian maybe playing an acoustic bass; kind of like Violent Femmes-y. Then once we decided we were going to do that release with him, we said, ‘Oh, let’s put some drums on it.’ And then we used electrics. It always happens with Squarehead - you just start adding stuff and getting a bit too carried away. You want that wall of sound thing.

So tell me about figuring out that Squarehead sound. It’s been a fairly consistent sound over the years - rock, surf rock. Was that what you were going for after maybe you put the acoustic guitar down?

Totally. Around the time I was doing the demos of the acoustic stuff, everyone was like, ‘Oh, it sounds like Weezer.’ So, I was like, ‘OK, if we’re sounding like Weezer, we should get some heavy guitars in here and see what that sounds like.’ And rocking up the stuff did sound good on most of it. So just went in that direction, although the first one’s a lot less rocky. It’s more Beach Boys sounding and a bit cleaner. Definitely, for the second album, we decided to push it a bit heavier, and that was like a conscious decision. And then through it, like different elements, like adding Ruadhán on the synths became an element that we liked to play with. It gets more spacey or ethereal. But as far as planning what the project or anything like that was going to sound like, that didn’t come into it. It was just, this is what I sound like when I’m playing music by myself at home. And these are the weird little songs I come up with. And this is what me and my friend Ian, and then our friend Ruan do with them.

Do you just focus on Squarehead then? Does that become your only band? Or are you still diving into other people’s music?

There was a period where I was still playing with Hands Up, but it was hard to juggle the really heavy touring schedules that they wanted to do and release schedules with also writing and recording and playing gigs. Because Squarehead just immediately started doing a lot, once we released our first single, ‘Fake Blood’. I think it was the Nialler9 thing, got a lot of traction. It was getting a lot of radio play at the time as well. It was a different era. There was no streaming or anything like that. There was blogs and stuff, and if you got a write up and this or that, that would get you a bit more of a fan base or whatever. So we just played and played and played relentlessly for the first three years. I’d say.

I have in my head that you were touring or playing, doing radio as well, outside of Ireland too. Were you in the UK a lot?

The UK a lot at the start. I think Holland was the only country we ever played outside of Ireland in Europe. But then we straight away went to the States and played there. We did about three tours, I think, of the States, and they were a lot of fun. Lose a lot of money. Some of them were slightly dangerous. We got deported from Canada because of a visa issue. But they were fun, and we just kept plugging it because we did well over there. I think that Weezer-y US rock sound, as you were saying, has a bigger audience there than maybe it does here, or other places,. Like whenever we played places like England, we were definitely not cool or hip enough. We were just these dorky Irish lads that played US rock music like you’d find teenagers doing in a garage or something.

When did you play the States first? When did you first head over there?

2012. Those first three years were just full on, we just toured non-stop. We got involved in the Richter Collective very early on. They were great at the media at the time - PR stuff and just getting us out there and over to England and playing shows with bigger bands in London, and doing radio. And then the US thing happened through the FMC crowd - they do SXSW. We had some friends in New York, the writer Liz Pelly and her sister Jenn Pelly. They were in Dublin for a summer, and they stayed with a couple of friends of ours. So we just met them through the music scene, and they were big fans of some of the Popical Island bands. So when we went over to do SXSW, we contacted them, and they said, ‘Yeah, come up to New York. We’ll book you a show. We have friends in Boston. We’ll book you a show.’ Real old school - just like, email this person, ask for a show; email this person. And so we ended up, on a shoestring budget, flying over. We were borrowing amps at every venue, but it’s a good way to meet people. You show up and you’re like, ‘Hey, can we use all of your gear. We’re from Ireland. We couldn’t get ours over here.’ So we went from Vermont, Boston, New York, then down to SXSW. Then we went up to Toronto for the CMW Festival, and back to New York, I think. And so we do these loops and just dot around.

And so back then, it felt like SXSW was such a big thing. It doesn’t seem like it’s that way for a couple of reasons now. What was it like playing that then, did it feel like it was a real showcase, that you have to really impress people? Did you enjoy the experience of playing SXSW.

Yeah, we’re the least business-minded band in the world. Like I know young bands now have obviously all the wealth of information online; there’s courses you can do and all these things that educate you how to market yourself, how to do PR, these kind of things. We had zero. So we just showed up. Our manager at the time wasn’t even there. I remember we did one of the main showcases, and someone was like, ‘This person wants to talk to your manager.’ We were like, ‘He’s not here. He’s on holidays.’ You could say we messed up those opportunities, but we had a lot of fun. And those places, and experiences were just amazing.

When you say that, are you like, ‘Ah, why do we do that? What if we had done it the ‘right way’’?

There might have been at the time. But knowing us as people and knowing us as a band now, after this long, no, we’re just not that way inclined at all. We’re just not great at schmoozing or networking. In an environment like that. I think it was a 9am gig, people are all hungover, and it’s just like, ‘OK, this booking agent wants to speak to you’. We were like (shudders), only like, 21 or 22 so babies.

We’ll continue our chronological journey down the years. Respect followed in 2013, so just two years on from the first album. Was it just that you were riding this wave of creativity, both around you - with Popical Island, Richter Collective, the Dublin music scene - and also just this trajectory that Squarehead seemed to be on as well. It was easy to make a second album?

Yeah, exactly as you said, but we did do an album in between those two that was going to be the second album, but it got picked up by a label in the States called Inflated Records, and they were interested in putting out a record by a band called So Cow as well, from Tuam. We were really good friends with So Cow and we actually played a bunch of dates together on one of those US tours. So the idea became, why don’t we do a split album? So we took all the songs that were going to be our second album and put them on the split album with So Cow called Out of Season. And I think that came out in 2011 as well.

That could have been early 2012 but it just meant that we took a chunk of what we were working on for the second album and put it on this. I think it’s about seven or eight songs, I can’t remember, and that is still available online somewhere. It got us back to the States, and we did a lot of gigs around it, but it didn’t register much with the circles we were in over here. So then Richter Collective approached us about the second album, so that’s when we started the Respect stuff. But unfortunately, before that came out, the Richter Collective folded. So that was bittersweet. It definitely filtered into some of the vibe of that record - sadness, frustration and just things have their their time or whatever.

How do you look back on it now? What were you thinking with that? I mean, can you go back to 2013 and think what were we hoping for with this album?

It was definitely a progression, as you said, just going with the momentum that we had, and not wanting to stop, take a breath, even when we should have, I’d say, because that had been at that point, three or four years of just relentless gigs and releases and writing and recording and having no money to show for any of it, and trying to do little jobs here and there. It was hard, at the time, but you don’t realise, because it’s so much fun at the time as well.

When is the next Squarehead release? I have it that High Tide (2019) is next. Am I missing something in between?

We did take a break around then, after (Respect). We still played together every week. But just mentally, some of us were just absolutely zonked from at that point, four years of constant Squarehead would take its toll on anybody. But it took a while to get the juices flowing again and get songs going. So then you’re into 2015. I think High Time came out in 2019. Somebody highlighted, it’s been six years since that one, and it was six years in between. Six years does seem like a lot when you consider the three, four years that we were really firing on all cylinders and putting out stuff and touring and stuff. But life stuff gets in the way: People get married, move away jobs change. So it took a while to get that next one going, but it was our friend Gugai McNamara from the Roisin Dubh and Strange Brew records, who approached us. He’d always been really kind to us whenever we played in Galway, and always a big fan, so he approached us about doing an album, and that was when we were like, ‘OK, let’s get the band back together,’ or not back together, since we never stopped playing, but let’s do something again.

We released High Time at the end of 2019 with big plans to go touring and stuff in 2020 which was like, ‘ahhhhh’, and I’m sure to anyone involved in releasing the album, was a bit of a pain, because the thing just sits there for a couple of years not getting pushed. But we did what we could. We stayed in touch on Skype, and I kept writing and writing. Would send stuff to the guys, and myself and Ian did a side project called Shark Palace with our friend Mark Chester from Ginnels and our other good friend, Sherry, who recorded the songs. We put that up Bandcamp recently. It was just a fun pop punk thing that we bashed out for the hell of it in between some lockdown or whatever.

But once we got back together and things were getting back to normal, we were like, OK, gotta do another album. And didn’t intend for that to be another six-year gap. But I guess those three years, covid era, lead into two years of just working hard to write, record and build on the release.

Squarehead’s fourth album Ossory Road (released in December 2025) was written around 2023 as Roy and drummer Ruan were, respectively, expecting babies around the same time

So that year was spent really knuckling down whenever we could, because you want to be home as much as possible and take care of everything. So you’re like, let’s just go in, two, three hours, bash out these songs. And we thought we were doing demos that we’d work on an album later, just so we had them documented. Ian, our bass player, had gotten really good at recording and software and stuff during covid, so he was documenting all these demos. And sometimes I’d just show up and say, ‘Ian put this beat in here, this click track, and I’ll just record these guitars. And Ruan, you just play these drums straight beat. And he’s like, No, I need more time to learn this. And I’m like, Just go, the chorus is in two.’ And we’d just record demos like this, and I’d go in the next day and just do some vocals over it, just to get these ideas down on paper or whatever. And our producer, Les, who’d done the last two albums, heard us doing all this, and he was like, ‘No, fuck that. This is the album. You guys just work on this. It sounds great.’ So we just built on those demos and worked really hard over the next six months before both babies came a week apart. So we finished everything then and then it was just like both of us, me and Ruan, were at home with our new babies, and just sending notes to Ian about mixing and stuff like that for a good six months or so.

What I'm Into... with Shark School

TPOE — Fri, 15 May 2026 08:30:48 GMT

What I’m Into… is a new weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them.

Galway trio Shark School (Nora Staunton - guitar/vocals, Peggy Ford - bass, and Meg Bruce - drums) formed in 2023, releasing a string of killer tracks. The latest single is ‘Don’t Trust a Man’, which they say is an “abrasive and raw track lamenting the desperation for women to comfortably just be; to just exist free of the burden and disappointment of living within a gendered social hierarchy”. It’s taken off their debut album Selachimorpha, which is due for release on June 26 via Strange Brew. Preorder it here.

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

Peggy: Something To Consume by Die Spitz

Nora: I’ve been listening to a lot of Amyl and the Sniffers lately, especially their first album.

Meg: Fiona Apple has had an unparalleled chokehold on me for the last year. Her whole discography is insane but Fetch the Bolt Cutters is especially high on my rotation right now. The percussion is so unique, and the production techniques make it feel even more intimate than her other albums.

Irish act people should know about

Peggy: For Nina. Every time I see them I’m mouth open eyes wide mind blown. And also such a lovely group of people.

Nora: Infidel from Galway I think they are class and I’m excited to see what comes next for them.

Meg: Mother Of Pearl from Limerick - definitely one of the best live acts going right now.

Most recent/best gig

Peggy: Nora and I saw Wolf Alice in Dolan’s in Limerick last year. I think that gig will stick with me forever. Their song ‘Yuk Foo’ blew my mind when I first heard it at 15, so it was really meaningful to see them with Nora in such a cool venue.

Nora: The most recent excursion I took was to Limerick to see Big Thief in Dolans, they played for nearly three hours and I was just in awe of how Adrianne Lenker played that guitar and how perfectly they all formed the sound together on that stage.

Meg: I saw Pretty Happy opening for Sinead O’Brien a couple years ago and it was face-melting.

TV/streaming/film

Peggy: I always go back to O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Nora: I’d have to give a shout out to Skate Kitchen here, it has to be one of my favourite movies by far.

Meg: I’ve just finished an Aussie crime drama called Mr Inbetween and I can’t believe it’s not more well-known; it’s one of the best character studies I’ve ever seen. The violence is interspersed among a lot of mundane domestic scenes, making it much more believable and horrifying.

Book

Peggy: I’ve been reading the My Brilliant Friend series by Elena Ferrante. I love anything about female friendship.

Nora: Stiff Little Fingers: Song by Song has been the most enjoyable book I’ve read as of yet! I don’t read much so it takes a very interesting book to get me to finish it.

Meg: Just Kids by Patti Smith. It’s an incredible book in its own right, but I think it’s the book that found me at precisely the right moment in my life more than any other.

Podcast/radio

Peggy: The Blindboy Podcast

Nora: The Infinite Monkey Cage has to be my favourite podcast. It’s where I get all my niche facts that I love telling people and that people do not love hearing me tell them.

Meg: Journey Through Time is probably one of the best researched history podcasts I’ve come across, especially the series they did on the Salem witch trials.

Play/exhibition/other

Peggy: I was at Beyond the Pale in 2024 and I saw a cabaret as Gaeilge, I think it was called Cabáiste Cabaret. It was awesome.

Nora: I’m gonna go with “other” here and say I very much so enjoy watching the man who does keepie-uppies with the football on Shop Street in Galway city. I think he is class.

A place you love going

Peggy: Tigh Neachtains in Galway. Sitting outside with a cup of tea and watching all the people go by.

Nora: My granny‘s garden in the summer so we can all sit outside in the sun, drink lemon cordial or MiWadi and eat lots of biscuits.

Meg: The Cavan Burren! No one seems to know about it outside of the locals but it’s breathtaking and there’s loads of Neolithic structures and a huge portal dolmen called the Giant’s Grave. Its also my family dog’s favourite place to go so it gets extra points.

Something you think deserves way more attention

Peggy: Brands anglicising Irish words to make them more palatable and profitable for tourists. It doesn’t sit right with me.

Nora: The war in Ukraine.

Meg: Animal liberation.

What are some of the influences on your latest single ‘Don’t Trust a Man’?

Nora: At the time of writing this song I think I was listening to a lot of Black Midi and Lightning Bolt but also Wet Leg and a lot of that kind of indie rock stuff so I think it perfectly forms the genres together into this sort of weird metal-but-not sort of sound.

Listen to David Kitt on the TPOE podcast

Gemma Hayes: 'I probably would have been an incredible introvert. And making music put me into an extrovert industry'

TPOE — Tue, 05 May 2026 07:30:33 GMT

Gemma Hayes celebrates 25 years in music with a special show as part of the NCH Landmarks series next Tuesday, May 12. She’ll be playing debut album Night on my Side in full, plus rarities and b-sides from that era. Tickets here. I had a great hour-long chat with Gemma at my house in West Cork about it all for my podcast, The Point of Everything. You can listen to it in full here and read a lightly edited portion from the start of the conversation below.

Firstly, we’ll stay in the present before we delve into the past. It’s been just over 18 months since Blind Faith, your first album in a decade, was released. How have the past 18 months or so been playing the shows, taking that music on the road?

It’s been so good. It’s been good for the soul. It really has. I was always making music in those 10 years, but just not releasing. So just to get back in front of an audience and actually working with other musicians - actual other human beings; a lot of the stuff that I do tends to be in my studio on my own, so when you don’t do that for 10 years, I just forgot how important people were in the creative process. So actually to hear the songs being interpreted by musicians - because they’re putting their own stamp on it live - it was like, oh my God, I want to go back and actually make a live album of this now. So it’s been beautiful and I’ve got to work with gorgeous humans. And I keep going back to humans because I don’t think I’ll ever make a record the way I did, the last few records, again. And I think there’s something with being on this planet quite a long time now is that collaboration and people - that’s when a spark happens. There’s something about if you write a song and it’s just you in the room and then as soon as you include another person, it changes. The song completely changes. And if you include four people, the song completely changes again. And for me, it just got better. So now I think I’ll be doing that from now on.

Have you been playing many songs from Night on My Side in the live show over the past couple of years?

Well, I’ve been playing three or four. I would say the majority of the songs on that album, I never played them live. So I’m finding myself having to go online to try to find what tuning [a particular song was]. I actually contacted a girl who used to come to all my shows and she’d always take my setlists, and I always had the tunings written down and I had to contact her to find out what’s the tuning of a particular song. And she had it all. So, I’m nervous. I have a show in the National Concert Hall on May 12 and it is me playing Night on my Side and early works, B-sides from that time and songs that I never even recorded. There was a few people that over the years would always say, Why did you never release ‘Stop the Wheel?’ I remember seeing you in Witnness playing that song and you never played it again.’ So I’m pulling out all these old songs and it’s a gorgeous feeling to go back and sing songs from Gemma when she was 22. And some of it is slightly cringey because back then, everything was just so earnest or I was quite earnest about every single emotion, but there was a purity in it. I didn’t think about it too much. I just wrote these songs and I liked them. And then I played them, and I didn’t really think too much about how they would be perceived. That’s the innocence, I think, of your first album. You live with these songs for a long time. So I’m really excited about it and it’s going to be a celebration of an album. It didn’t sell millions, but the people that it resonated with, it actually resonated quite deeply. I get beautiful messages from people who tell me about how specific songs carried them through a difficult time. And I kind of go, ‘Wow, well done, confused, awkward Gemma. You managed to create something out of a crappy time in your life that has done a bit of good.’

It feels like in studying the album. I’m merely doing a little psychological deep dive into this girl. I actually found myself singing one of the songs on Night on my Side. ‘My God’ is the name of the song. And I actually felt like saying to my younger self, ‘Oh, God, don’t be so hard on yourself, ease up. It’s OK. It’s all right.’

What were the feelings or what was it coming from? Was it the pressure of trying to make it as a musician back then? Or was it personal stuff?

I think it was just being awkward in the world. Do you know what I mean? When you’re a teenager, you just don’t - the world is just kind of a freaky place other than your comfort zone, the world is just a freaky place. And I think I had that in my twenties as well. I probably would have been an incredible introvert. And making music put me into an extrovert industry.

It just forces you.

It just forces you to be. So I think I really struggled with that. I had huge anxiety playing music live and actually having people look at me, you know. Being on stage was like my worst nightmare, to have any attention on me. So to be put in that position, I think my adrenals were shot. I was playing gigs, but it didn’t come natural. But yet I loved the connection, so I was just struggling with, I suppose, a lack of confidence personally, but very strong belief in my music. It was nearly like a rope that I could hold on to, to kind of pull myself out of little troughs I would find myself in, and then I could just pull myself out.

Was it literally just you on stage? When we talked a couple of years ago, I think I asked you about how you started and you were talking about doing open mics at the International, which I presume was just you on stage. Were there other humans on stage with you at the time?

No, that was literally you just put your name down at the door.

It’s a lot of pressure on young shoulders, isn’t it?

Oh, huge. And it’s funny. There was the International Bar up in Dublin on a Tuesday night. It was run by a guy called Dave Murphy and he went upstairs and you put your name down and you sat there and I used to - I don’t know why I did it - I would put my name down. And I would sit there terrified, hoping he wouldn’t call my name. But yet I put my name down. So there was some part of me that was pushing me to get on the stage. And the other part was saying, no. But it was a brilliant time of cutting teeth. I remember that room and Paddy Casey would get up and Damien Rice would get up, Glen Hansard, a guy called Emmett Tinley from the Prayer Boat, Damien Dempsey. These are all young, really, really young kids. We were all kids. And it was so inspiring.

Was David Kitt in those circles as well? He told me he was in Whelan’s a lot but didn’t feel like part of the scene. Did you feel like part of that scene because Juniper, Damien Rice, Glen Hansard would all be part of that Whelan’s scene?

Yeah, I was sort of on the periphery. There was an inner circle and I skirted the edges of it. And I remember David Kitt. I remember noticing him one time and I’d never seen him before. It was just after I’d gotten signed. So I was leaving and going off making records. And then I noticed this guy with really cool trainers. Actually, I think the first thing I said to him was stupidly, ‘I really like your trainers’. And he was like, oh, thanks. And I just remember this dude turning up, you know? But then I was off doing my record. So we never really crossed paths too much.

He says that he didn’t quite feel part of it because he made beats and stuff like that. He talks about the production side almost more than the songwriting side and I wonder is that something that you thought of as well? Your first EP is very acoustic and just you, pretty much. And then the album that we’re gonna focus on, Night on my Side, is a lot rockier, a lot more ‘bandy’. Did you feel ‘I’m not a singer songwriter - I’m in a band’? Was there that idea around it?

Eoghan, you’ve just kind of hit the nail on the head there like 100 per cent. I write songs, but I felt and I get it, and it’s a beautiful scene of songwriters where it’s really sort of a purist approach where it’s just acoustic and the song needs to be whole and complete just on acoustic. I love folk music for that, for that reason. And those people can get up solo and you won’t miss any other instrumentation because everything is whole, just on the acoustic. But for me, and just my need to express, it wasn’t always through lyrics and guitar. Sometimes it was textures. There’s some songs on my first album - there’s a song called ‘Tear in My Side’ which has one line. There’s one line in the song that I just sing again and again, and it builds and then I stop singing and it takes off. Because it was all about the sonics. It’s about the colour and the sonics and the production. So I always found, I’ve got a few acoustic songs I can throw out at a party, but, I’m certainly not of that style of music; I like it, it’s just not for me. I like textures. So in that way I can totally see what David is saying. And also it kind of nails your colours to the mast as well, the type of music you make - especially at that time, it puts you in a certain category. I think it’s a lot more fluid now. I think everybody blends a lot more, but at the time it was very much like, folk artists were over there, the bands were over there. So I tend to just put blinkers on and do my own thing.

Did you face that crossroads as to it ‘should’ just be acoustic music? Did you have people saying you should make this type of music, you should make that type of music? Or were you always intent on what you ended up making on that first album?

What’s amazing about that first album is I had so many people, I think also being kind of young, female, right. And I think with the best of intentions, people just assumed I needed help, assumed I needed lots of advice. And I think they underestimated the fact that I knew exactly what I wanted. I just didn’t know how to verbalise it. So my quietness, I think, made them think, ‘Oh, well, let’s advise her. Well, you know what you should do… You should make an acoustic album. And it’ll be really easy to sell because you can put it in that category in Tower Records under acoustic folk music’. I remember somebody telling me you’re neither one or the other. ‘You make band music, but you’re folk. Where are we supposed to put your record in Tower Records?’ They kept saying, ‘Where do we put it?’ It’s not fitting in easy to a category. So for commercial reasons, you need to just make an acoustic record and it’s cheaper to tour. And it made sense from their point of view. And I got into trouble with my record label way back then over that.

Because they couldn’t pin you down?

Because they had a very strong opinion about what I should be doing. But I had heard Mercury Rev and Sparklehorse, which is nothing like the music I make, but I really loved the production. And my songs to me were - I don’t make obscure music. They were very sweet in terms of like, I love a sweet hook, I’m a sucker for a sweet hook, so I always try to have something like that in my music. I didn’t need soft production on top of that, I needed something actually darker to pull at that. And so I took it upon myself to contact Dave Fridmann, who’s a producer over in America, which my record label went nuts about. They didn’t support that at all. And we had a big fight and they said they weren’t going to pay, but then contractually they had to.

What I'm Into... with Roisín Gowen

TPOE — Fri, 01 May 2026 08:01:13 GMT

What I’m Into… is a new weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them.

Dublin singer-songwriter Roisín Gowen released her debut album Out of Grief, Into the Garden on March 20 - the first day of spring. She says the nine-track release is as much about love as it is about loss, reflecting on the process of finding peace and resolution after the confusing and painful loss of a mother. She says: “It holds both a heavy heart and a gentle spirit, capturing the longing for our loved ones who have passed whilst trying to understand how to navigate our futures without them.”

Buy the album on Bandcamp

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

I spent a bit of time with my friend John Lappin in January who has a kaleidoscope encyclopedic knowledge on Irish, traditional, folk and folk-adjacent music. He got me hooked on the Silly Sisters, and the many worlds of Maddy Prior and June Tabor (Steeleye Span, Oysterband, etc.) which led me to having their silky voices and harmonies on repeat, particularly their version of ‘The Grey Funnel Line’. This also inspired my recent shruti box purchase!

Otherwise, my current eclectic mixed bag of tracks that I have been listening to a lot is ‘Spencer the Rover’ (John Martyn), ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ (Roberta Flack version), ‘Cities in Dust’ (Siouxsie and the Banshees - I love this song), and ‘Love & Mercy’ (Brian Wilson - more on this below). I am ALWAYS listening to Heaven or Las Vegas (Cocteau Twins), Lion and The Cobra (Sinead O’Connor), and Hounds of Love (Kate Bush).

Irish act people should know about

Molly Donnery! Molly Donnery! Molly Donnery! Oh my gosh, she is incredible. She is also A LEGEND. Every part of her artistry is so unique and strong - her voice is soaring, her harp playing is so captivating, and her songs are so interesting and all of these things come together and contrast and complement each other so beautifully! I would hike 10 miles to see her show and everyone else should do the same!

I also have to shout out my dearly beloved folkin queens - Katie Archer, Elishka Lane, Pippa Moloney, All Things Eve. I feel very lucky to have gotten to know these guys over the last while through music. Katie has just released a bunch of intricate, stunning singles! Elishka recently released her sweetest second single called ‘Personal Best’ and has so much amazing stuff on the way, including a new folk duo called Second Cousin! Pippa, on top of her solo work, recently released an incredible EP called Nothing to Hold with her duo Barnburner. Pippa has such a haunting stunning voice and creates amazing worlds with her songwriting. The time-old folk duo takeover is HAPPENING! Eve also has such a powerful voice and runs the Dublin Songwriting Circle with Luke Clerkin which is how we met and is a really lovely platform for songwriters to meet and share new music in Dublin.

Most recent/best gig

The best gig I went to this year was Courtney Marie Andrews in Whelans. I got a last-minute call to fill in to support her and having not deep dived on her before, I was blown away and so inspired by her live show centred around her voice. I loved that she played her new album start to finish and was one of the best live acts I have ever seen. I’ve been rinsing her latest album ever since. ALSO...MBV in The Royal Albert Hall. Myself and one of my best friends who I also play music with (shout out James!) are massive fans so it was very special to see them and that album live. I’m also very inspired by their songwriting.

TV/streaming/film

I recently rewatched one of my favourite movies of all time Love & Mercy, the Brian Wilson biopic. I’m so new to the making of music so I am hooked on and deeply fascinated with anything that gives any insight into the life that made some of my favourite songs. The song ‘Love & Mercy’ would definitely be on my Desert Island Discs. I really want to try to learn the piano soon just so I can play that song. There’s a few versions of it out in the world, but if you haven’t already, everyone simply go listen to the live recording that they use in the film. It’s even more heart-wrenching once you have learnt about his life.

Book

One of my best friends gifted me Rumi’s Where Everything is Music poetry book back in October the night I launched my second single and had my first headline show! So it’s very special and sentimental to me! In my rudimentary interpretation, the poems talk about channelling different forms of grief into music and art in a way that transforms the pain into wonder and magic instead. I’m not a big reader at all so I really enjoy having something like this that I can dip in and out of, and it was especially grounding while I was in the process of releasing my album which mirrors the sentiments of the book. It lives near my bed so once in a while I will get back into bed in the morning with coffee, pick it up and read only one or two of the poems over and over again for about 30 minutes. I love that it speaks of songs as ‘story water’.

Podcast/radio

I love the Songwriters On Process podcast. The premise is that it interviews songwriters as writers opposed to musicians and I love hearing about people’s wacky approaches to their work. It also usually gets artists on once they’ve released an album so I find it very coooool and interesting to hear them reflect on that process. The songwriting for my debut album was very personal and mostly just a process giving myself a chance to see if I was any good at it, or could even write an actual song. So now that I can confirm I am not entirely shite, I get very excited learning about different techniques and approaches with the aim of now trying to write different types of songs for my next body of work. The podcast is also just a great reminder that there is no formula and you just have to do whatever works within whatever parameters you set for yourself.

Play/exhibition/other

10,000 crows flew over my dad’s house in Waterford every night this past winter at sunset. It was EPIC.

A place you love going

Outside.

(preferably when it is sunny)

(ALSO, the Cobblestone Backroom <3)

Something you think deserves way more attention

Spotify sucks! It’s been coming up again recently but something like 44% of music on Spotify now is made from AI. If that isn’t mental enough, it also runs ads to recruit for ICE in the States, pays artists poopoo pennies for their songs, and the CEO invested $600m in developing AI war technology last year. I do think many people are aware of this! BUT I think it could be great for there to be more conversations about how to kick up the dust with this, even just from a perspective of how the Irish music industry supports its artists and channels listeners. I am not naive to the fact that Spotify is the mother tree of listening platforms, but it could be cool if blogs, press, playlists, radio, etc. could send listeners to something like Bandcamp or SoundCloud as opposed to the platform that pays artists the least amount of money out of any streaming site. I don’t know how viable it is but with the Irish music scene being so strong, it could be cool to explore alternative approaches. I’ve made a collaborative guide to transferring your music library off Spotify here if anyone is interested.

What are some of the influences on your debut album Out of Grief, Into the Garden?

I was listening to a lot of Hejira (Joni Mitchell album) when writing some of the songs off the album (especially when I wrote ‘Fighting Spirit’) so I think that is a strong sonic influence and I have gotten a lot of feedback that confirms that. I have been raised on the likes of Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Paul Brady (all referenced in the first track of the album), and John Prine so I’m certain their songwriting filters in there. I was also helping out on a film about Ani DiFranco at the time of writing some of those songs and I think her DIY approach to her music and career gave me a lot of comfort in some of the songs on the record feeling unpolished (intentionally).

The record is about feeling a permanent shift from pain to peace after grief. After toiling with loss for many years, the ‘garden’ represents a space of clarity and calmness that I felt I was able to fully step into through the process of making this record. The garden is also the physical gardens and green spaces in my life. When I was really torn by grief and struggling to find any sort of relief from my mental health or strength to start pursuing music, the only thing that would have brought a deeper sense of temporary comfort was being in nature. I think that was partly due to imposing and feeling a sense of my mother in those spaces, but also just because they have such magical healing capacities. In my previous absence of writing music and understanding my life through that, I think my experiences in those spaces and how much they helped me inspired this record massively. I am so glad I have both music and the great outdoors so present in my life now!

Preorder Swings & Roundabouts on Bandcamp

What I'm Into... with Goldbug

TPOE — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:00:40 GMT

What I’m Into… is a new weekly series where Irish artists share a snapshot of what they’ve been enjoying lately - music, books, films, places, and whatever else has been sticking with them.

Goldbug is the moniker of Irish/French artist Danilo Ward who on Friday releases latest single ‘Blink’ off Goldbug’s debut album Swings & Roundabouts, which is out June 26. Raised in a religious commune in rural Provence, he says his music draws inspiration from forgotten places and the creatures that inhabit them. Now based in Dublin, Goldbug recorded the album with Chris W Ryan (NewDad/Just Mustard) and says it blends art rock, lo-fi electronic textures and neoclassical influences with songs that twist and turn through darkness and light. You can preorder the album on Bandcamp and watch the video for ‘Blink’ - a homage to 80s sci fi horror films such as John Carpenter’s The Thing and The Fly - at the bottom of the post.

Artist/song/album you’ve been listening to a lot lately

With Boards of Canada seemingly teasing a new album on the way, I am currently rinsing their catalogue. BoC are one of my favourite artists and I have been spinning Geogaddi a fair bit, I love the darkness in the record. I’m hoping the new album has that really sinister feeling to it. My friend was joking ‘how long does it take them to put some LFO pitch mod on synth, grab some spooky samples and upload the masters to Warp’ - ahhh, my mind doesn’t need much to be blown, I’m going to lose it when new music drops.

I was in the studio with Paddy from Echo Northstar and he played this song ‘Rosetti Noise/Chrystal Garden And A Coda’ by Harold Budd. I have since been loving the whole album The Pavilion Of Dreams. I’m really into choral vocalisations, like using voice with no words. This song is such a beautiful example of that. The song feels like catching a glimpse of a unicorn in an enchanted forest.

Irish act people should know about

D_abdu. I’ve heard snippets of the music Dara’s been quietly writing and I love everything about it. His first song ‘Peter’ he put out not long ago is so beautiful. Feeling kinda weirdly connected to his artist journey in that we have both been bass players in bands for years and then recently have started being our own artists. Funny how that’s a surprise to people, when actually you’ve been cooking up your own stuff in the background for years. It’s a joy to see him putting out music.

Most recent/best gig

The best gig I’ve recently been to was caroline in Whelan’s on March 15. Caroline 2 was maybe my favourite album last year. The gig was absolutely magical, really enchanting. I couldn’t believe the sound was so good when there are eight people on stage and they have all kinds of instruments (Bass clarinet, strings, etc). I loved the absolute chaos of leads swimming all over the stage. They said their sound engineer was also the person who mixed their record, so no wonder it sounded just like it. That record is immaculately produced/mixed. I’m playing a small festival in Riga called Ladidadi alongside caroline in July this summer, I hope I get to hang out with them at it.

TV/streaming/film

I’m a sucker for ’80s sci-fi horror movies, like John Carpenter’s The Thing or The Fly. The music video for ‘blink’ was inspired by those films. I love practical, old-school effects, that kind of look bad but are awesome. I built this big insect head for the video, that was fun. Most recently I watched this dark fantasy movie called Legend (1985) that’s in that style. Can’t say the movie was good, but the aesthetic and atmosphere of it was amazing.

Book

My friend gifted me this book Insectopedia: A brief Compendium of Insect Lore by Eric R. Eaton for my birthday. I’m a big nerd when it comes to insects, and the book is just random, interesting and weird facts about various insects, and I’m loving it. Here is a very weird fact from the book talking about the existence of flea circuses in 16th century Europe: “Intricate miniature replicas of chariots, carriages, even a Man of War ship, all pulled by ‘trained’ fleas, combined with the convincing salesmanship of Bertolotto, made the theatrics quite the attraction, at only one shilling for admission. The Human Flea, Pulex irritans, was the species of choice in these enterprises, perhaps because they fed readily on the blood of their captors. Bertolotto liked to profess that his charges were fed on ‘Ladies of distinction’, and indeed Human Fleas are attracted disproportionately to women, somehow sensing ovarian hormones.”

Podcast/radio

Every time I’m driving I listen to Lyric FM in the car. Lots of great classical, soundtrack, theatre and world music stuff is on. I especially love the Mystery Train show. Not into opera, but when opera comes on I just keep listening, trying out exposure therapy, and I think I’m finding opera listenable/enjoyable a little more each day.

Play/exhibition/other

I went to an exhibition by the Kitchen Sink Collective in Luckys called A Theatre of Sediment and Strings. Really great variety of art by recent graduates, all so talented and lovely.

A place you love going

I dig Strawberry Hall in the Strawberry Beds. It’s in Dublin but feels like the countryside. Lovely pub with a pint of Guinness that is no more than €5.

Something you think deserves way more attention

I think overgrown gardens don’t deserve more attention, like you don’t need to weed the hell out of it, it’s great for insects to leave a garden overgrown. For their sake, plant more wild flowers, let the autumn leaves pile up, leave that old bucket of water stagnate and start teeming with a million mosquito larvae.

What are some of the influences on your new single ‘Blink’?

With ‘Blink’ I was playing around with unconventional song structures and odd time signatures. I was really into Slint and Battles at the time. It’s also got a bit of a shoegaze edge to it, which was influenced by my time spent as bassist in dublin dream pop/shoegaze band of all living things. I also was listening to Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stalk and loved how expansive their compositions were. It’s a very nonlinear song, kind of a mirror to my very nonlinear upbringing in a religious missionary household. I’ve moved around so much throughout my life, ‘Blink’ twists and turns like that. The song was also inspired by the scene in the movie Inception where the van is falling off the bridge in slow motion, but all the characters are still stuck in dreamland trying to get a job done. It’s kind of like the thoughts I’d have in the moments before crashing into the sea if my car went over a cliff.