What do you consider to be the darkest piece of music you’ve ever heard?
Heroin by The Velvet Underground stands out for sure. Its sonically filled with dread, anguish and despair yet still feels triumphant at the same time.
How would you characterize your own music?
I would say our music aims to cross the borders between industrial/gothic punk and techno. To achieve that kind of hybrid live, our live set follows the format of a typical DJ set, seamlessly moving from track to track with instrumental transitions. Generally, our music is high-energy, and full of moments of tension as well as release. The louder moments often feature a relentlessly pounding rhythm section and wailing shrill guitars, and its all headed by Ross’ sinister, foreboding spoken word vocal.
What are your musical aspirations?
I think that we all want to continue to make music that feels unique to us, and music that will translate into a high-energy, hard hitting live gig experience. It feels flexible though – we will continue to flow between different genre influences and sounds depending on where our heads are at musically.
What are your main musical inspirations?
We all listen to lots of different music, but we love certain acts in particular including Sextile, Preoccupations, Nine Inch Nails, Death Grips, and Giant Swan. We’re of course inspired by music around us in Ireland from acts such as Gilla Band, Just Mustard, and Lankum. They’re consistently breaking the mould and pushing the limits creatively. It’s such a rich scene here currently and it really keeps us motivated to do more.
What are your main goals in life?
I think I speak for all of us when I say we want to consistently be able to create and travel, experience new cultures and cities, and share our music with others. Other than that, just continue to grow as people I suppose. Is that part cliché?
What motivates you to create?
Personally speaking, I feel so motivated to create after going to an unbelievable gig, or just from talking to like-minded people. I think experiences that are shared with other people remind me how impactful music and creativity in general can be. Your creativity can have a profound impact on others as well as yourself, and that’s so powerful. Even if it’s just helping someone else get through a tough week.
Are you more of an early bird or a night owl?
I think we’re all absolute night owls, to be honest. I’m never getting the right amount of sleep myself... although I don’t think I know more than five people who do get the right amount!
Besides music, what other art forms would you like to explore?
We all studied film together, and we’ve all worked in film across various roles on set. I’ve worked as an Assistant Director on a few jobs, Ben has worked extensively as a Script Supervisor across Ireland and Ross has worked in camera. I think exploring film as an artform and being generally massive cinephiles has really informed our musical work. We create all our own music videos from scratch, and our song writing strives to be as visual as possible in its presentation. I think having a strong visual aesthetic on top of your sound can really be important, particularly early on.
Which is the very first record that had a big impact on you?
I was big into my Stewart Copeland when I was starting to look at drums differently (aged 15/16), and so maybe ‘Zenyetta Mondatta’ – The Police (1980). There’s some seriously tasty drumming in there which changed how I approached the kit, particularly with hi-hats. It’d be wrong if I didn’t give Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ (1979) a shout-out too. Steve Morris is probably the greatest drumming influence on me. He’s like no other.
What is the best decade for music?
I really believe that the past ten years or so has produced some brilliant music, but I’d say the 1980s. That’d be my strongest decade in a pub quiz anyway.
What do your future plans include?
We’re headed out on our first ever UK tour this May following the release of our debut EP ‘Conditions’ on May 5th, playing two shows at Brighton’s Great Escape Festival as well as headline shows in London, Manchester, and Belfast. We’re also playing Electric Picnic in September this year.
Beyond that, we aim to start playing European shows later in the year and tour more extensively across the UK and Europe, including plenty of festivals next summer. We’re writing more material currently and can’t wait to continue to share more with listeners. Stay tuned!
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Conditions releases May 5th, 2023
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Chalk
Band photo by Sienna-Lillie Munn
All questions answered by Luke Niblock
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