Taylor D: “I still love a big pop hook, but now I want it wrapped in loud guitars”

Photo: Demi Lipińska

Lots of people are passionate about music when they’re young, but not many, I’d imagine, have tracks up on Spotify at the age of just 15. Taylor D‘s arrival at BIMM probably felt like the most natural thing in the world, and what’s happened since has seen the pop-rocker’s style evolve to the point where she looks back on her earlier work and links it to the teenage emotions of the time. When she got in touch about featuring her music in the paper – and I will do that, down the line! – what was attached was very different: rifftastic, catchy, and with a light hint of an artist she and I share a love for – Olivia Rodrigo. I caught up with her on the journey so far…

I understand you’ve been making music since the middle of you teens. What was your early music like?

When I first started writing songs at 14, my music was very pop orientated. I was writing about falling in love, teenage crushes, and all the dreaming and overthinking that comes with being that age! My earliest release on Spotify came when I was just 15, so those songs were very much a reflection of where I was in life at the time. I think songwriting was my way of making sense of those feelings and experiences. Looking back, you can definitely hear how young I was, but that was an important starting point for me as an artist.

Obviously taste and style change with time, especially over those years. What’s happened to your style in the meantime, and how do you see your early music now?

I was very much a pop princess when I was younger! My early music was quite poppy, but my taste started to change as I got older. When I was 18, I went to see Arctic Monkeys live, and that concert completely changed things for me. I was blown away by their sound and the attitude of the music, and I came away wanting to bring some of that energy into my own songs.

That experience inspired me to write ‘Can’t Say I Love You’ which was a real turning point for me. The writing was much more indie rock and I was definitely influenced by Alex Turner’s style of songwriting. Looking back, I think my early music was a genuine reflection of who I was at 14 or 15, but the Arctic Monkeys gig helped me realise the kind of artist I really wanted to become. I still love a big pop hook, but now I want it wrapped in loud guitars.

You’ve been at BIMM, which has a great reputation for producing top musical talent across Ireland. Has it made a big difference to the way you operate?

BIMM definitely makes you more competitive. You’re surrounded by talented musicians who are all trying to make their mark, and it pushes you to work harder and think bigger about what you want to achieve. You become more aware of what’s happening around you and what other artists are doing, which can be challenging.

For me, though, I’ve always been very driven because I’ve been doing everything independently from a young age. BIMM has added to that competitive edge, but it’s also reinforced the importance of finding your own identity. There’s a lot of talent out there, so you have to figure out what makes you different and what you can bring to the table. I’m always looking for ways to push myself and take things to the next level.

The new EP has quite a rocky feel. What are the ideas behind it?

The new EP is definitely not about the cupcakes and rainbows of ‘Fan Girl’, which I released when I was 17! ‘Bad Decisions’ is a much darker, rockier and more mature representation of where I am now, both as a person and as an artist.

The songs explore relationships, obsession, insecurity and finding yourself in situations that you know probably aren’t good for you. There’s a lot more attitude in the sound, with bigger guitars .

I think there’s been a lot of growing up between the two releases, and I wanted ‘Bad Decisions’ to show that. I’m now 21 and I’m still a sucker for a massive hook, but I’m definitely not the same 17 year old who made ‘Fan Girl’.

Can you pick out a song or two and tell me the story of them?

The songs explore relationships, obsession, insecurity and toxic situations, but also that moment when you realise you need to walk away.

I’ve always loved artists who aren’t afraid to be loud and unapologetic and honest like Olivia Rodrigo and I wanted ‘Bad Decisions’ to reflect that. It’s very honest and probably says a lot about me!

‘Fake Illusion’ came from a real conversation. I was being introduced to a friend of a friend, and they told me this person already had an impression of me despite never having met me. They thought I was going to be a stuck-up bi*** because, in their eyes, I was quite successful.

That really struck a chord with me because I felt I’d experienced that attitude from people my own age throughout my teenage years. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have had opportunities to be in the same room as people like Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi and Niall Horan, and I’ve even had the opportunity to play live with the late great Christy Dignam from Aslan . From the outside, I suppose people can look at those experiences and make assumptions about you.

But what they don’t see is the person behind all of that. I’ve had the same insecurities, self-doubt and confidence issues as any other girl growing up. I’ve dealt with girls being mean to me at school and still now at BIMM and I know what it’s like to feel judged by people who don’t really know you.

That’s what ‘Fake Illusion’ is about: the difference between the person people imagine you to be and who you actually are. Just because someone sees a bit of success doesn’t mean they know your story.

With a couple of dozen songs out now, it feels like you could have a full album as well as an EP. Is that on the horizon for you?

An album would be a dream, and I definitely have the material in me to make one. I’ve now released two EPs, ‘Fan Girl’ and Bad Decisions, and have 29 releases to my name, which is quite a lot for someone who’s only just turned 21!

I’d love to take the next step and put together a full album, and I already have plenty of ideas for where I’d like to take my sound next. The biggest obstacle is funding. I’m completely independent, so I’m financing my own music and trying to build a career at the same time. Recording an album to the standard I’d want takes a serious financial commitment, and that’s the reality of being an independent artist.

It’s definitely something I’d love to do, though. I just need to find a way to make it happen!

I think one of the biggest things about my music is that the songs are written from real life experiences, so people can relate to them on a personal level. When you’re writing about things you’ve genuinely experienced or emotions you’ve felt, I think that honesty comes across, and people recognise a bit of themselves in your music.

‘Survive’ is a really good example of that. It’s about addiction and how it affects the person on the other side of the relationship, the person who’s watching someone they care about struggle with it. I’ve had so many people reach out to me to say they’ve been in that exact situation and that the song really struck a chord with them.

Those messages mean a lot to me because, as an independent artist, you’re often trying to reach people without a big team or budget behind you. Knowing that a song you’ve written can make someone feel understood, or help them put their own feelings into words, makes everything worthwhile. For me, it’s not just about getting people to listen to my music; it’s about making a genuine connection with them.

What are you like as a live performer? Do you have any particular approach you like to take?

I love getting the crowd involved because I think a live show should be an experience, not just people standing there watching you play. I try to build moments into the set where the audience becomes part of the performance. For Survive, for example, I get everyone to put the torches on their phones, which creates a really lovely moment, whereas Obsession is definitely a hands up , get everyone clapping kind of song!

I also like throwing in a recognisable cover that people wouldn’t necessarily expect at an indie rock gig. Earlier this summer, we were doing Billie Jean, off the back of the Michael Jackson film, and when Bon Jovi came to town, we threw in some of their music too!

I think dropping a song that everyone knows into the middle of an indie set can completely change the energy in the room. People suddenly have something familiar to connect with, and it gets them interacting with the band. Ultimately, I want people to leave a Taylor D show feeling like they’ve been part of something, rather than just having watched a performance.

Are there any artists you particular admire at the moment and would like to learn from?

Probably an unpopular opinion, but YUNGBLUD! I feel like he came from a similar place to me in the sense that he’s put out a huge amount of music, constantly worked at his craft and built his audience over time. Not all his releases were massive hits, but sometimes it takes that one song to change everything. With Zombie, it feels like his career has reached another level.

What I admire is how he treats his fans. He genuinely seems to care about them and makes them feel like they’re part of something bigger. I also respect his attitude towards ticket prices. He doesn’t seem to believe that being a fan should mean having to pay extortionate amounts of money to see your favourite artist live.

As an independent artist, I’m trying to build something from the ground up, so I look at artists like him and think about the kind of career I’d like to have. Obviously, I’d love to reach that level of success, but I’d also want to maintain that connection with the people who supported me along the way. I think that’s just as important as the music itself.

What are your hopes for the future?

Like most independent artists, I’d love to land a record deal with the right label and team behind me. I’ve spent years building Taylor D independently, writing, recording, funding and promoting my own music, so I’d love to get to a point where I have the support to take everything to the next level.

In the meantime, I want to keep growing my audience, building my fanbase and developing my sound. I’ve just released my second EP, Bad Decisions, and I’m excited to see where it takes me.

And, of course, the big dream is to play the 3Arena someday! I’m very aware that there’s a long road between where I am now and filling an arena, but you’ve got to have those big ambitions. I’m happy to keep putting in the work and see how far I can take this.

Rodney Owl: “this was a beautiful, but at times difficult, album to make”

Music writing has been a passion of mine for two decades now. Part of that, of course, is being enthralled by some of the same old acts that are found on the international touring circuit that makes up the more commercial end of the music industry. Another part – an increasingly predominant one for me – is being in the lucky position of being sent stuff that people think you might like. Sometimes by acts themselves, and sometimes by people who just know my taste a little. I can’t lie, that gentle flow of music to check out in my inbox is one of my favourite things. I’d not heard of Rodney Owl, honestly, until an experience exactly like that.

The Armagh-raised, long-time Galway-based artist, Mark McConville, is one of those people you stumble across on the music scene who so clearly do things for themselves and the joy he extracts from his own creativity. His music is delicate and reflective of a life in rural Ireland. It’s self-exploratory, draws influences from his environment, and has this kind of beautiful, poetic lyricism and gorgeous circular feel (which he references in his first answer, below) that firmly delivers the emotion and depth of his experiences. I was fortunate enough to be able to talk to Mark about his latest record, ‘Loneliness Is Contagious’ and the stories that sit behind it…

Let’s start with the album. Dive in with a bit of background on what it’s all about, and how it came to be… 

It’s a reflection on the passing of time. It looks backwards and forwards as I try to make sense of my own life, appreciate the good things, understand the difficulties… how and why they presented themselves.

The opening line is “everybody knows where the future’s going.” 

The closing line is “the dream is over.” There’s a lifetime living in between.

As always, it started with a song. My songs very often come from looking back on text or voice notes, I make so many I forget most of them. So I browse and wait to read or hear something that strikes me, often hits in a way that I had perhaps not originally intended when I made the note after waking up on the arm chair at 3 am. I like that… the way it hits different, not the 3 a.m armchair. 

It was a beautiful but at times difficult album to make. Touching on youthful memories, aging, personal grief and self doubt. Writing the songs came very easily, it felt like they flowed out of me and that is one of the most satisfying feelings a musician can have, but adversely this set up the problems for later. 

With the songs written I then had to record, and that process of filling out the tunes where needed, working with other musicians adding bass, drums, backing vocalists, overdubbing guitars, effects etc was a happy time full of fun, progress and ideas. 

The trouble started in the mixing stage. I was so enthused and positive about how the songs had come together that I got a bit afraid of it. I developed a fear of ruining them and became creatively paralysed at times, unable to make production or arrangement decisions.

In hindsight, I’d been traumatised by the experience of recording and releasing my second album ‘Truth Is Broken’ where, at the behest of the record company who released it, I had worked with a producer without properly thrashing out the direction of the album. This resulted in a half cooked – some great, some painful – set of songs that almost broke me. I’m not offloading blame here, it was my own fault for allowing it to happen. 

Anyway, I eventually realised I needed help with the production side for “Loneliness Is Contagious” so I reached out to a local, tried and trusted studio engineer – Ray Diamond – to co-produce. Ray helped lift the weight of responsibility, breaking down the fear by testing out ideas, offering honest opinions and encouragement, plus a world of studio experience and knowledge way beyond my own. Once the ball was rolling in that regard it came together quite quickly.

‘Loneliness is Contagious’ certainly implies a particular vibe. I guess, contrary to that, the album probably creates some connection? 

The title comes from a song that was half written towards the end of the recording process, seemed to fit the mood of the album well. For now that song remains unreleased as I didn’t finish it in time for it to be considered for the album. 

It’s not supposed to be too deep, it’s just the play on words that I like. 

I hope the album makes a connection through phrases that draw a listener in. There might be a line that grabs attention and sets off a train of thought. Themes are perhaps hinted at but rarely obvious. Lyrically, the songs/stories can be quite abstract, but I believe they evoke emotion and connection via melody, tempo, and production also.

On this album there are songs about bravery when at your most vulnerable, childhood, family ties and memories, death and grief, love and break ups, war and laughter, finding your place in the world despite what anyone else thinks. I mean anyone who’s ever lived a little can relate to those things. This may be the closest I’ll ever come to being a real grown up.

Can you pick out a particular song and tell me what it means to you?

‘Silence is a Gun’ is a song about speaking up when it’s easier to stay quiet. A song about having the courage of your convictions in the face of ridicule, abuse and lies. 

It felt like a song I had to write for myself, to see me through. The discourse on-line around world affairs having become so ugly and manipulative… Trump, Palestine, immigration, Generative AI, big tech… the obvious gaslighting of decent, intelligent, thoughtful humans with a soul, versus the industrial rumbling of the machine that keeps all that ticking over. Bots and media outlets competing for clicks, hearts and minds.  Justification of heinous crimes and ideologies in the name of gods and fairytales.

I grew up in Northern Ireland in the 80s so its nothing new to me, it’s the same story again only supersized and much more dangerous for the planet in general. I had to take a break from socials for a month last year for all these reasons above. I think that’s when I wrote the song. My 11 year old daughter Emilia sings some angelic backing vocals on there too and both her and myself are very proud of that. 

You’ve obviously been making music for a while now. How has your style developed, and landed you where you are now?

Well like most musicians of my vintage, I’ve listened to and loved a lot of music. The first band I really remember falling in love with was The Jesus & Mary Chain. Closely followed by The Velvet Underground. Those bands helped me understand simplicity, and how effective that can be. Three chords and an attitude. I guess I’d have been around 14 when I first picked up a guitar, though I knew I could sing from an early age.

Irish ballads, rebel songs and maybe a touch of Frank Sinatra were always crowd pleasers in our house on a Saturday evening when the parents came back from the local. When I got into guitar I gravitated towards bands like The Smiths and The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen. Never liked the hard rock/metal stuff, the widdy widdly speedsters never impressed me.

I suppose a major part of my musical heritage is the fact that I’m the youngest of 8 children, so plenty of tastes to draw from. An older brother who was into The Sex Pistols, The Specials, Joy Division. Another who fed me Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Dylan, Beatles & Stones. I guess I started then to find my own way around…

Neil Young was a big favourite for many years, Nick Drake, Sly & The Family Stone. In the early 2000s I dug deep into acoustic blues, for about a decade I rarely listened to much else. Skip James, Robert Johnson, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Sam Chatmon. The Delta Blues brings me tears of joy still.

A few years ago I got on the Kraftwerk train, that led me to Lori Anderson and early Depeche Mode, I’d always avoided that early electronic stuff before but suddenly gained a massive appreciation for it. All this finds its way into my own music sooner or later.

I’m currently in musical love with Aldous Harding, have been for a while. I enjoy her unpredictability, she’s quirky, makes unusual musical choices and off the wall lyrics. All the things I strive for. I guess all these different stages, have mirrored my own music through different times of my life and merged together in some way to forge the writer/musician/performer I am now. I cut my teeth in cover bands, although I’ve been writing songs since my early teens I only really started writing consistently and releasing music in 2016. 

Galway is famous for its nightlife scene. Is it a good place to make music?

Galway’s a great place to be creative in general. There’s a such a pool of great musicians and artists. Amazing characters who deserve more recognition than they receive, living and breathing their art as they create it. I left my hometown of Lurgan, County Armagh aged 17, went to London and got to know hunger.

I played in a punk band called ‘Your Mum’, busked a lot and was chased around tube stations by London bobbies. Had my mind opened and expanded, listened to Hawkwind and Spacemen 3 on repeat for some years before returning home to Lurgan aged 23.

It wasn’t long before I had itchy feet and needed to leave again, was drifting and Galway saved me. I came for a visit in the summer of 1996 and I’ve been here ever since. The city has changed a lot since then, it’s a lot less spit and sawdust now but, despite themselves the City Council haven’t quite managed to ruin the place completely just yet.

I can’t speak much on the current nightlife, I’m way out in the sticks and rarely get out late unless there’s a band/performer I really want to see. Family life takes precedence over everything else for me now and I’m very happy with that.

I have beautiful memories of playing in Roisin Dubh with my band No Banjo, an acoustic blues band who had a Sunday night residency there. Packed houses with sweat dripping from the ceiling, people climbing over each other, ears ringing next morning. That was pre Covid era, I’m not sure those things still happen anywhere, I hope they do for the younger folk, I’ve had my share.

On the rural side of Galway life, does space play a big role in what you create?

Oh yes it definitely does. I rarely see a sinner out here. One of my favourite things to do is simply walking with our two dogs. There’s an unmarked famine village in the next field after our house. The farmer who owns the land allows us to walk there, the peace and quiet is something impossible to find anywhere near towns and cities. The wind blowing through the trees, the sunlight twinkling through the forest canopy, dancing on the deep, dark mosses… I’m getting inspired here just thinking about it.

There are no tall buildings visible anywhere in the area, another rarity in today’s world. The sky is forever open and all consuming, whatever the weather. City dwellers would pay good man to see this sky at night, it’s a beautiful humbling experience that doesn’t fade. If I’m in writing mode, there’s no better place to roam around in the quiet with my own thoughts.

Maybe a bird sang a melody, maybe I just heard it that way, a middle eight crawls out of the undergrowth, a word on the wind. A beautiful mix of physical space through eyes and body, mental space for ears, mind and soul.

I notice you reference a ‘Celtic rainforest’ in some of your web presence. Tell me about that… 

Yes, me and the family live slap in the middle of a forest. Some friends have christened the house Sleepy Hollow, it can be spooky in the evening if you’re not used to it. We have frequent encounters with badgers, bats, foxes, hedgehogs, actual owls, jays – my favourite bird, doesn’t everyone have a favourite bird? – sparrow hawks, phantom bovine entities, a wild goat came to stay for a few days…

We keep bees and tend chickens, we’re chicken tenders. We have a couple of dogs and a cat to keep an eye on things. It’s right on the edges of the kingdom of Connemara. There’s a lake nearby and a mini burren. High humidity, and high levels of rainfall make the forest environment quite unusual, with lots of rare species of mosses, fungi, liverworts and lichens. It’s home to several varieties of native trees too. A beautiful place to live, I forget how lucky I am less often than I used to.

You’ve been outspoken on the evils of Spotify, which I completely understand. Have you managed to work well outside of it? 

Yes, I’ve never been happier creatively. Spotify, for me, thrives on competition not community. Separation not coming together. To build a successful career on Spotify as an independent musician with no team, no label, no manager, no clout… all that considered Spotify is not a healthy place to be, it’s pointless to me. Probably detrimental to creative output, definitely bad for mental stability.

I’ve never really been a fan of it but the final red flag for me was the news that Daniel Ek has invested over half a billion dollars in military arms manufacturer Helsing. He’s now the chairman of that company. I just don’t see how that can sit well with anyone who has a conscience, giving hard earned money to fund and sustain the military industrial complex was never something I aspired to. So, I’ll never subscribe and I removed all my self released music from the site and immediately felt physically & mentally cleaner. I’ve never looked back.

Bandcamp suits me better, a boutique kinda vibe, it feels safer – less stained by big tech/ business/ political interference. It’s not perfect, not much is in this world but it’s a better fit for me. I do upload to other streaming sites and some people have suggested that ’s hypocritical as nowhere pays particularly well per stream etc.

My answer to that would simply be that it’s not just about there payment model. Spotify is the industry leader and they set the standards for the rest. Their example is appalling so if there’s a streaming site to call out and stand against then they’re the clear target.

What is Rodney Owl like as a live entity?

Well, I’ve had a few different incarnations over the years. The full band – bass and drums, second guitar, keys, backing vocalists, the whole shebang. More recently, after my last album release in 2023 I toured the tunes as a three-piece with second guitar and Bandoneon/Keyboard. I very much enjoy and encourage different versions of the songs when playing live.

Arrangements change, tempos and time signatures too occasionally. For the current run of shows the set is much more broken down, it’s mainly just myself with a Spanish guitar, and none of the songs on the new album are quite that sparse, so as you can imagine I’ve had to rework those and that’s something I enjoy, often end up preferring the live versions.

That could also be due to the fact I don’t have to listen a thousand times for mixing and production. I’m working on feeling and emotion instead of striving for technical perfection. Warts and all wins every time in the AI age.

I play electric guitar with some atmospheric effects pedals for a few songs just to change it up a little, guest players when possible, small venues, intimate vibes. I’m not a big talker at shows, it’s not my strong point, makes me nervous and often leads me down a blind ally. So I sometimes like to push that awkward silence that can happen at live shows, I find it projects the nervousness on to the audience, and they’re really relieved when I start the next song. I’m sure anyone reading this now will be rushing to check out my dates and buy a ticket.

What are your hopes for the Rodney Owl project moving forward?

Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m a bag of contradictions currently. I’ve never felt more sure of myself as a songwriter but simultaneously never been so endangered as a songwriter. I’m maybe one step away from packing it in, or maybe that’s what I like to tell myself, to keep the creativity under threat, not allow myself to feel comfortable in that skin and take it for granted.

My main focus presently is to get enough shows close enough together to call it a tour, so from the outside it looks as though I’m living the dream, I do have a plan and I know what I’m doing. For me, the hustle of the gig hunt, looking for airplay and column space etc leaves me mentally fatigued and ultimately, can be detrimental to the actual reality of being a songwriter. I need a manager.

In the last few weeks I’ve sent out maybe 50 emails to venues in Ireland and got 3 replies, (that’s actually a pretty healthy ratio) all 3 with the positive outcome of having the opportunity to play my music to an audience.

That feeling of achievement is quickly followed by the stark realisation that I now have to make it work, it’s up to me alone, after talking myself up to convince venues it’s gonna be great, I now have to convince myself and my potential audience it’s gonna be great also. All things considered it is difficult to find the motivation to keep going sometimes. I’m acutely aware of the fact that every song could be my last, every show a final farewell. 

Occasionally I have the ability to step outside myself. I see how ridiculous it all is. I notice the deep wrinkles, the giant crows feet, the thinning hair, the dad paunch, the glasses, the grey beard…there’s no longer anything remotely cool about me. But inside I’m still a half handsome, loping, discerning and potentially revolutionary human. 

I do sometimes wonder why I’m still at it. I guess it’s because by accident or design I inevitably find myself liking some little noodle I’m playing or a phrase or melody I wake up with. I’ll then try to elaborate, it becomes a song, I then feel a responsibility to record this song, if I like it I feel a responsibility to release it and gigs and accompanying visuals on and on etc etc… and here we are.  

Wasps vs Humans: “this album is about humanity’s pursuit of destroying the planet and ourselves”

I find Wasps vs Humans fascinating. It’s primarily, I think, that their music is somehow both relatable and quite unusual. They fit vaguely into some kind of Celtic punk mold, but only in the sense of the choices of instrumentation and punchy vibe, really. THe musical aesthetic around it all is very different, and so the whole is extremely distinct from, for example, Dropkick Murphys or Flogging Molly.

As a husband and wife pairing, their music flow in a way that feels somehow loose and free, incorporating traditional Irish instrumentation and poetic elements to a raw, punchy effect. I caught up with Carl Plover, who guides me through their second album and the feel of their band in 2026…

Your new album is ready to go. Tell me about it…

‘The Day Homo Sapiens Destroyed the Earth’ is our second album. We started recording it last August, releasing our first single ‘Death Chamber Visits’ September of last year, followed by ‘My Country’s Like A Broken Pen’ in April this year, ‘BANG BANG (You’re Dead)’ came out in August, and our latest single, ‘Are You Having a Good Dream’ was released this September.

The album is both a culmination of two years’ worth of gigging and a more focused composition of songs with a clear theme throughout.

We decided to record the album in Cork and Dublin and work with two different studios, with the idea of capturing a different vibe for certain songs.

We recorded half the album at Ailfionn Studios in Dublin with Chris Barry. There’s a live, wild, organic feel to these recordings. Chris is very intuitive and he really captured the moment.

The other side of the album was recorded at the Maple Rooms in Cork with Cormac O’Connor. We went through each track with a fine-tooth comb. Cormac is a great producer, resulting in highly polished tracks that pack a punch. 

The two recording sessions have a character of their own, so it seemed natural to divide them between Side 1 and Side 2. While the album has a cohesive sound overall, we felt that each studio brought its own qualities to the recordings.

Is there much different musically this time around, in terms of the way you’ve built and developed the songs?

Although it’s our second album, it feels like our first in that we both decided to write this together with a clear theme. Our first album, ‘Scratch Card Empires’, was more a collection of lots of different songs recorded over the years, with some tracks being just myself from when Wasps vs Humans was a solo project.

Since Linda joined me, we’ve really developed our sound. There’s very much an equal input into the songwriting this time around, and we’ve found a good way of working together.

I love the blank page and will always start the process. Lyrics always come first for me, and the music after. Linda likes to edit; she can take a draft, rework, rewrite and arrange it into its final form. We’ve been married over twenty years and share the same values, so our music reflects this. At the same time, we bring our own lyrics to each song, which is an interesting blend. There can be no ego when writing together. It’s a fluid process, and you need to have an open attitude and accept that if a line is made better, then that is fine.

What are the themes of the album, and does it have a broader message?

Essentially, this album is about humanity’s pursuit of destroying the planet and ourselves. I guess it’s our lens on the darker underbelly of society and what we see happening in the world.

In ‘BANG BANG (You’re Dead)’, there is a nod to our own childhood, the innocence of childhood games of let’s pretend in stark contrast to the horrors of real conflict, modern warfare and a total disconnect to what’s actually happening. ‘My Country’s Like A Broken Pen’ is about failing governments and ordinary people being left behind.

Throughout the album, we touch on other subject matter, from gun culture, capital punishment, capitalism, conformity and destroying nature. It’s doom, death, war and social decay.

There are sprinklings of hope amongst the shit, though – the dark comes with a huge dollop of irony and humour; it’s important to have some light amongst the darkness. We are trampled on, but we gotta get up and fight back.

The title kind of implies social destruction. Do you feel like it’s coming?

It’s already happening. It’s a slow process, like a cancer. It’s an addict that can’t help themselves, injecting when they know it’s killing them. We’re doing the same to the planet. It’s the big news story that’s no longer news.

Tell me a little about the vinyl and the company that’s working on it with you…

This album will be our first vinyl pressing and we have Anthem Vinyl onboard for the manufacturing and distribution. They are an Irish-based company, and we love what they are about. The guys have worked in different areas of the music industry and have a real understanding of what’s needed. They have been a great support and are good heads to work with.

You’ve a few live shows up. Feel free to plug them here, but while we’re at it, how is your live show adapting to the new album?

We kick off the live stuff with an in-store at Spindizzy Records in Dublin on the day of release (Fri, Oct 2nd), and the following day is the Cork launch at The Crane Lane Theatre.

We have a string of live dates across Ireland throughout October, November and December and will be teaming up with Jinx Lennon for a handful of shows. We’ve also some gigs where we’ll be joined by Captain Moonlight from Kilkenny, Thewlis from Dublin and Japanese Jesus from Limerick. (See below for full tour dates.)

The live shows will mainly feature the new album. We have incorporated the drums and bass stems that we recorded for the album into our live setup, which means the two of us can perform live with a meatier sound. There’s a sprinkling of punk poetry; the whistles are mixed in with electric guitar distortion. It’s a hold-onto-your-hats kind of show. 

You’re a married couple/band. How does the music fit into life in general? Is it part of your everyday world or more a distinct thing?

Music is never far away. Instruments are scattered around the house. While waiting for the kettle to boil, we might start writing another song; it’s just part of the day for us. Having said that, we do schedule in rehearsals. We each have a role to play. Head of our own departments. Musically it fits, it’s like food – to us, you need it to live.

Given your previous jabs at Andrew Tate (pauses to clap)… you must be happy with recent developments in his world?

Hopefully the courts will do their jobs properly. Everyone has to be held accountable for their actions; that’s how the system should work.

How much has the rise of Meryl Streak done for music in your kind of space in Ireland? You have quite a lot in common…

It’s great to see Meryl doing so well. If Bob Dylan was starting out today, he’d be doing a Meryl Streak album. It’s poetry. It’s good to see words holding such importance in music again. Meaning is key to anger. Punching with your voice.

What are you hoping to make next?

There will  be lots of shows – we have an album to sell and promote. We’re going to show up in some new places and cities this year, and we hope to gig abroad next year. Keep spreading the Gospel according to Wasps vs Humans. Amen.

‘The Day Homo Sapiens Destroyed the Earth’, the new album by Wasps vs Humans, will be released on Friday October 2, 2026

AUTUMN ALBUM TOUR DATES 2026Fri Oct 2 @ 6pm – Spindizzy Records, Dublin

In-store & signingSat Oct 3 @ 4pm – Crane Lane Theatre, Cork

‘Official Cork Album Launch’
HEADLINE SHOW with special guests THEWLIS – Fri Oct 9 @ 8.30pm – Thomas House, Dublin

Special guests JINX LENNON – Fri Oct 23 @ 8.30pm – Cleere’s Theatre, Kilkenny

TRIPLE BILL with JINX LENNON / WASPS vs HUMANS / CAPTAIN MOONLIGHT – Sat Oct 31 @ 1pm – Music Zone, Cork

In-store & signing – Fri Nov 6 @ 8.30pm – Spirit Store, Dundalk

Special guests JINX LENNON – Sat Nov 7 @ 1pm – The Steamboat, Limerick

In-store and signing – Sat Nov 14 @ 8.30pm – Thomas House, Dublin

‘Official Dublin Album Launch’
HEADLINE SHOW with special guests THEWLIS – Fri Nov 20 @ 8.30pm – Record Rooms, Limerick

HEADLINE SHOW with special guests JAPANESE JESUS – Fri Dec 4 @ 8.30pm – Coughlans Live, Cork

Double Bill with JINX LENNON

Say She She: “a band is like a family; like a marriage”

Piya Malik, Sabrina Cunningham and Nya Gazelle Brown are all classically trained singers, and their band, Say She She, is very much a product of their environment. Emerging from a Brooklyn social scene with a firm nod to harmonies and 70s soul, the three friends were very much a natural fit from the start.

“Nya and I, and our dates, were at this beautiful Kickstarter house party in Harlem, and were so inspired by this show that we went upstairs and started singing. We were doing harmonies, singing together straight away. We ended up ditching the boys and we kept each other,” Malik laughs.

“Then we met Sabrina – we both lived in this ramshackle cowboy tenement building and we could hear everything. I could hear Sabrina’s vocal warms up, and it turned into this very sweet, fast friendship. Before long, we were all hanging out somewhere different every night. We went from those three annoying people singing in a restaurant next to each other, to people paying us to sing, which I find quite funny.”

“Singing is our shared dream. We’re very accepting of each other and kind to each other. We had a strong friendship before we found our way into a band.” 

Brown explains “a band is like a family; like a marriage. There’s a business, but there’s also the family part, and you can’t just take care of business. We create these beautiful moments for the audience, and that means creating a moment for ourselves.”

“We have each other and that solidarity,” Malik continues. “We’ve had our tour proceeds legally embezzled, and had people shouting down the phone at us about contracts, but we have each other. Our business requires a lot of growth. If you aren’t kind hearted and respectful… you have to give more than you get, for a long time, then it comes back to you.”

“We’re very into what we call ‘honest music’, which means whatever we record is very close to what it is in the studio. It’s just a couple of takes, at most, with everything recorded on the spot. We might tweak a little bit later, but there’s something magical about that first moment. We want our show to be able to recreate what’s on the record. The limitations of that are perhaps evident in the music, in that it sounds quite old, quite 70s style.”

“The album is quite autobiographical, particularly the title track ‘Cut and Rewind’. It’s about both society, and the rhythm of coming on and off tour. ‘She Who Dares’ comes from a little bit before women’s and minorities rights being stripped away the way they are now. But some of these contagious right wing views are like a disease that spreads like wildlife, and it feels extremely dark. It’s sad to see so many young people being persuaded.” 

“We live in New York and LA, and we see ICE raids on people we know. The Taco guy we visit round the corner got attacked by ICE. We feel sensitive to it, the apathy of the first turn has gone. ‘She Who Dares’ was supposed to be dystopian. It’s eerily come to be,” Malik says. “But then there’s a side of the album that’s about hope.”

“We played The Sugar Club,” Malk says of her previous Dublin experience. I’ve been going to Ireland since I was a little girl. My best friend went to Trinity. A lot of our friends drove up from Kerry to go to the show, and that’ll be happening again. It’s extra special, because we’re going to have a walk around town and explore Sabrina’s heritage.”

“The Academy is such a cool venue and the perfect graduation from The Sugar Club. We didn’t get to go to Dublin on the last tour, so we’re extra excited about it, so much so that we requested it. And my best mates will kill me if we don’t turn up,” Malik says. “We had to come back.”

Maykay: “the album is tongue in cheek, conversational, but also has a message to it”

As the frontwoman with cult indie act Fight Like Apes and, for a lesser period, with anthemic dance act Le Galaxie, Mary-Kate Geraghty – known almost universally by her stage name MayKay – is one of the Dublin music scene’s most enthralling and lively vocalists. In recent years, however, her musical output has been sporadic. After a period spent focusing on presenting Dingle music festival Other Voices and advocating for Palestine, she’s back making music, and this time as a solo act.

“I feel so lucky about how much time I’ve spent jumping in on other people’s things, co-writing and so on. But about a year ago I realised everything I had was reliant on other people’s choices, touring, changes in personal lives, and so on. I could have found myself with nothing. I’ve sat on this album for about four years, and had a ball in between, but I want to be more in control of what I’m doing,” MayKay says. “Musicians have so little control, but with this, at least the control I have is my own.”

“I think the single [entitled ‘Busted’] is very authentic MayKay, with Ian McFarlane adding to  it,” she says. “I honestly never expected anyone would hear this, so it’s about as authentic as I can possibly sound. In a way, I sang what felt natural. If we could all write in the mindset that no one is going to hear it, I’d love that. I wasn’t trying to sound a particular way, and it’s the result of inspirations ranging from Pavement to Jenny Lewis. It’s tongue in cheek, conversational, but also has a message in it. I really aspire to get better at that.”

“With the Palestine work I’ve been doing, I’m acutely aware of how important and how powerful communication through music can be. That’s what I’m working towards. ‘Busted’ is about consent. Everyone is different, but I really often don’t know what I’m talking about exactly until afterwards. It’s about creepy situations I was in because I was often the only woman in the room throughout my 20s, touring and stuff.”

“There was this low level creepiness I was often subject to that was hard for me to deal with. It’s not about extremely serious issues, it’s about making women feel unsafe in spaces and whether or not you want to be that guy. The guys who are, stop it, and try to live your life better. It’s not about being flawless, it’s about making improvements in your life and facing up to things.”

“The single is a bit out there, and it’s not something I’d have put out for a long time, but I’m trying to be brave about things. The whole album, though, is about things happening in my life. There are bits about my dad, who passed away a few years ago, who I adored. And a song called ‘Dating Shit’, which is kind of advice, but it comes from a place of having messed up. I really like the album now, and it took me a while to get there. I also want to be back in the mix. I’ve been out of the scene a bit.”

As for her Palestine work, MayKay travelled in 2023, and came back inspired. “I’m a curious person, and I care about people,” she says. “I went out of curiosity and solidarity, and I couldn’t unsee what I saw there. It’s changed me as a person. Everything I do will always include work for Palestine. As a bunch of musicians, Irish Artists for Palestine can, in the face of an oppressor that’s trying to destroy the culture of a place, try to maintain that. At the end of this month, we’re bringing over a 35 piece all female choir called The Daughters of Jerusalem. It’s part of listening to the people themselves, and platforming them. They’re telling their truth.”

Feeder: “We can do a bit of nostalgia, but I’m someone who likes to move forward”

Indie rockers Feeder are 90s and early 00s indie icons. The Welsh band’s 2002 album ‘Comfort In Sound’ is one of the best selling albums in the UK to be released on an independent record label, topping the charts twice, on release and again in 2025. It came in the wake of drummer Jon Lee’s suicide, a moment that came close to being the end of the band. Instead, it ultimately left the other two members to pick up the pieces with a work of stunning emotional depth, with ‘Comfort In Sound’ unveiled amid tearful shows across the UK festival circuit. 

This writer personally attended the first official show back, at Reading Festival (it followed a small warm up in Portsmouth), and felt the emotional weight of ‘Quick Fade’ being dedicated to “absent friends”. Years later, having barely stopped since, frontman Grant Nicholas is revisiting the moment. 

“It didn’t feel right to mess with ‘Comfort In Sound’, so we just remastered it rather than remixing it, and added a couple of tracks back from the Japanese version. It’s one of those special albums for us, so we didn’t do as much,” he says.

“I was a complete mess touring that album,” Nicholas continues. “I was overwhelmed by the support, and in a very weird place. There was that show at Reading Festival with crowds layers deep outside the tent, and it reinforced that we should carry on. We’d been asked the headline the whole show, but it didn’t feel right, so we had that slot instead, and it was powerful.  It was so emotional, a heaving tent.”

More than 20 years later, ‘Black/ Red’ is the last of a group of recent records Nicholas describes as a trilogy. “I’m somebody who likes to move forward,” he says. “I know people love the first few albums, but I think a lot of what we’ve put out on the last few records is as good if not better than our earlier work. We don’t want to live off our past glory. ‘Black/ Red’ is almost two albums in one, and both of those albums would be good in their own right.”

“Our old labels have been asking us to do box sets,” he continues. “I didn’t really want to do that, but it did feel like a good time to go back and reflect on something we’ve done. I don’t know why I felt like that, but ‘Comfort In Sound’, after losing Jon, opened up a lot of doors for us and pushed me in a different musical direction; expanded the sound of Feeder. We’ve never done reissues before. A lot of contemporaries have, and I just thought, ‘let’s do it before we’re too old.’”

Not that Feeder have settled into entering a nostalgia period of their existence. Quite the opposite. “I want to mix it with some new music, too. But the fact is, it doesn’t matter how good the new music is, people want to hear those classics. It’s important for me to still be moving forward, and as long as we can do that, we can do just a little bit of nostalgia, too.”

“We had that ‘Renegades’ period where we went back to smaller venues. It was still Feeder, and a very planned thing. I needed to get back to why I was doing Feeder originally, and that time reignited the spark. We’ve always had that heavy side, and we needed to go back to that to move forward. It was very planned. We weren’t trying to be young again, but it was great fun. I still love that record. That heavier but melodic sound, big riffs, that’s a big part of our DNA.”

“We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves musically. If we want to do a pop song, or we want to do something like ‘Godzilla’ or something like ‘Feeling a Moment’, we’re going to do it. It’s a real mixture. My musical education is all over the place, from Sex Pistols, to ELO, to Peter Gabriel, to Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Pixies. You can hear that in our music. It all comes out of the Feeder blender.”

“With ‘Comfort In Sound’, it’s like revisiting the holy grail, and we might do others before we call it a day. But a lot of bands have already done this reissue thing, and we haven’t, so it just felt like time. We might do one or two more, but we don’t want to milk it either. We want to do things properly, get the original masters and either remix or remaster it. But we won’t just do that.”

Rock has been on the fringes of music’s zeitgeist for some time, but Nicholas is slowly starting to see a swing back towards heavier guitar music. “Things are getting a bit more positive,” he says. “Stuff like Turnstile, Geese, and so on, kids are getting into 90s-like stuff, which is good for bands like Feeder. We do get a new generation of fans. Smashing Pumpkins are back doing sell-out tours, and Billy Corgan has stopped being difficult and is playing the big hits again.” “

Things are not like the 90s with guitar music all over the radio. Exposure is the problem. But I think, for us, it’s almost like we can be out of vogue for one record or one year, and then it circles back. Some of the records we put out were our best records but not at the right time, and others caught the wave.”

‘Soldiers Of Love’ on newest record Black/ Red contains bagpipes, and Nicholas recalls a strange process that led to that, and the ultimate outcomes. “The song had this Celtic feel, with this kind of slightly military bagpipe thing. I could really hear them on the song. I knew it would either be the best thing we’ve ever done or the worst thing, and I had no idea how to find a bagpipe player. Bagpipes are hard, because you can’t really play them in key,” he explains.

“I went on a run in Finsbury Park near where I live one day and I heard these bagpipes from a tunnel where the buskers go. I’d been talking about looking out for a bagpipe player the day before. It felt meant to be.”

“I walked up to the busker, I didn’t tell him who I was or anything, I just told him I had a song that I wanted to put bagpipes on, and asked if he’d be up for coming back to my little home studio. He gave me his mobile number, and about two weeks later I called him up, and he turned up on his bicycle with his bagpipes. He came into my studio and they were so loud.”

“We realised it was in completely the wrong key, and he couldn’t get it into the right key. We put it on a loop and he did his thing, looping the intro through loads of tapes, and I recorded it. I had to time stretch it into the right key. So it’s real bagpipes, edited a little, and used in the intro.”

“He was looking around in the studio, and that’s where I keep platinum and gold discs and so on, rather than having them in the house. He was looking around, and I could see his brain going. Eventually he asked if I knew the band, and I told him who I am. For a little while he looked like a rabbit in the headlights. But I paid him a bit, put in the credits, and he was over the moon. It felt meant to be.”

The song stands as something of a triumph for Feeder’s ability, even decades later, to reinvent themselves, with lines like “the fear, the thrills, moments when you can’t keep still, you reach across to the other side for alcohol and pills.”

“We’ve never been able to do the bagpipes live really,” Nicholas says “though we once had a bagpipe intro that he played as we walked on early in the tour. We couldn’t fix the out-of-key issue to do more than that. But it still worked. The song would be great for a film soundtrack or something like that.”

“There will be new music before too long, though I’m not sure when, and then we’ll probably revisit a couple more records, too. We’ve got a massive catalogue and we could just go out and play that, but we have no lack of ideas or inspiration. I’d go mad if I stopped writing stuff.”

As for Ireland?

“When we first asked to do the Guinness Jazz Festival I asked if they’d got the right band,” Nicholas laughs. “But I’m told they always have other types of acts. We wanted to do an Irish tour but we haven’t been able to make it work for the ‘Comfort In Sound’ dates. I know some Irish fans have been unhappy about that, and we still plan to do it. But this is a bit different. And we will be back.”

Niall McNamee: “I can’t imagine doing only music or only acting”

Niall McNamee’s folk-centred album ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ has just been released. His latest movie, ‘Saipan’, centred on the Irish football team before and during the Japan and South Korea World Cup in 2002, comes out in early January. Between those two things, he’ll be on tour. His life, in short, is split between two camps.

“I think with your first album, you don’t really sit down and write an album, it’s more a collection of songs,” he says of the new record. “Some of them date back to when I was 17, and others I wrote during recording. I wonder how many of these details about life I’d remember if I hadn’t written songs about them.”

“So much work has gone into the logistics and the technical aspects of the record that once it’s released, it’ll be a major moment to reflect. I wonder what it will feel like. I didn’t want to commit to 12 more months in London, so I’ve been staying at my cousins. Then three weeks ago I got offered a TV series, so I’m filming that in Ireland. That means I don’t really have a place of residence, so I’m a nomad. But I kind of like that. I’m just going to go with it. Consciously or subconsciously I get into a few scrapes. But then I write about them.”

“Doing music and acting is something I love. They serve and get in the way of each other at different times. I can always be writing songs, but I can’t act until someone gives me a job. I always wanted to do both, and until I have an acting job I have a lot of time without stuff, so the music’s great for that. I find I get totally entranced with the music stuff and then acting comes along. I can’t imagine only doing one of them. People will say you have to give singing and acting both 100%, and I did worry about that, but it worked out.”

“I played Alan Kelly in the Saipan movie. I did play in goal for a bit, but I don’t know if that comes across in the film. The sporting parts of it look amazing. I did save a couple of screamers so hopefully they’ll use them!”

“I felt born for that. Until recently I went to most Ireland games home and away, I’ve always had a strong connection to the Ireland football team. Like a lot of lads, I wanted to grow up to be a footballer. When I got cast, I thought I wasn’t the right age to play Alan Kelly, who was about to retire in 2002. But actually I was. I’m too old for some roles already. I might feel it, but I can’t play the young idiot anymore.”

Paranoid Visions: “all we wanted to do was express ourselves”

I make a point of covering Paranoid Visions and their continued punchy output. I enjoy the music, but I also do it in part because they feel so inherently countercultural. They’ve no interest in the modern Irish music scene outside of their own engaging realm, and even less interest in the media coverage around it all. In fact, they borderline scorn it. Yet they are a true legacy act, a band with an extended backdrop of cultural commentary on Ireland delivered with wit and no little panache. I got hooked when I first moved to Ireland, on the ‘Outsider Artist’ EP, a record that somehow charted whilst simultanous remaining truly punk in style: every minute crammed with music, a DIY photocopier style cover, and the most beautifully scrappy sounding live recording to back it all up.

I soon learnt that Peter Jones, guitarist with the band, is one of the more quietly influential characters on the Irish music scene, and while it would probably be a slight stretch to call us ‘friends’, we stay vaguely in touch. I’ve interviewed him on stage at the Sugar Club. He’s sold me records I would never have heard otherwise. He’s dragged Paranoid Visions frontman Deko, who famously hates interviews, to my interviews, on the basis that, I think, he believes I actually get it. Who knows if I do, but I do know I rate it all.

Over the last few years, the band have been at their peak, which is a mad thing to say about a band that’s been on the Irish music scene since the 80s, but it’s true. The ‘Countdown to Pharmageddon’ series represents their take on modern life, and is also a beautifully presented vinyl series that shows that genuinely DIY (Peter created the vinyl company that produces their work) can also be slick and memorable. I got the chance to ask Peter all about it….

You did some celebration stuff recently-ish for 40 years of Paranoid Visions. Obviously it’s impossible to look back over 40 years (or at least it would be several books). But how does the band that exists now compare to how you started out?

I feel that the motivation, thought process and desire to create hasn’t changed at all. When we started out all we wanted to do was express ourselves, make some music and share it with like-minded people, in 2026 we still want to do this. This is the secret to longevity… to have literally no aspirations to becoming part of the fabric or putting in benchmarks for success.

You’re a couple of records into this series now, and the actual records have been complete works of art. How did the artistic concept come together?

We had made the album Cryptic Cross Words and the design, concept and aesthetics were quite elaborate. It reminded us that the creativity should extend beyond the music. So we came up with the idea of Countdown to Pharmageddon, a package inspired in parts by Crass’s Christ the Album. Our friend, the remarkable artists Boz Muhabe provided us with five images that Cormac Figgis took on board to create the design for five releases. Each one contains an LP, a poetry book, inserts and art prints and other material presented in a box. This latest one took a lot longer than anticipated, and was a lot longer than expected (just under an hour of music), so its become a double album… this time everything is red (the previous three were blue, orange and green respectively).

What are the themes and stylings of the new one?

Lyrically the themes are varying between war, horse racing, cancer, religion and the realities of daily life and struggles! Musically its far more thought out, controlled, varied and produced than anything else we’ve ever done!

Obviously there’s a progression through the themed records, too. How has that developed? Does the overall of it feel like a bit of a magnum opus for you?

Each record is supposed to feel like an extension of the previous  one. The progression from this one is the sound and production quality, everything we have ever done has been riddled with shortcuts or compromises and as this one had taken a long time to complete, we decided that there would be nothing we could reflect on that has a “I wish we had….” feeling

Let me bounce off a couple of particular tracks and perhaps you can tell me the story behind them. ‘Nuclear War’ is a stark one…

We are all huge fans of killing joke and had always wanted to mix that disco drumbeat alongside aggressive guitars. This seemed the perfect opportunity. It actually started life with the title ‘North Korean Love Song, and was started before Covid!!!!

What about ‘Fear Of The Known’…

We are also huge Virgin Prunes fans! The whistle was a huge nod towards that. This one is largely electronic in a kind of 90’s German industrial way, there were plans to add a lot more to it but once we listened to it after a few months, it was obvious that anything more on it would ruin the sound!

You’re personally involved in Molly [Vulpyne]’s band and I think a couple of others at the moment. Have you found it difficult splitting creative energy like that?

Not at all! Molly is an exceptionally talented songwriter with a very clear view of what she is creating. Jay and myself, along with Tony Carberry, were parachuted in to put our style on top of her structures and she is only too happy to let us play whatever we want on top of what is usually an already completed structure. So its quite liberating to be honest to put various hooks, pete shellyisms and dynamics without any interference or judgement! On the whole album, there was just two songs that the rest of the band deconstructed and reassembled the structure on, Ripe and Filter.

It’s Irish Music Week this month. I’m going to take a wild guess that punk won’t be overly well represented in amongst it all. How do you feel about things still looking that way?

Whats new about that! These events are usually put together by people with personal agendas. I absolutely despise that element of the music industry.  Nepotism, treading on other bands heads to advance an act you’re involved with, egotism, narcissism and delusion are rampant. Artists with literally nothing to offer but have a dad, partner, manager etc bankrolling them and levering them onto bills makes me sick. There are some piss poor acts getting big breaks ahead of fifty better artists who don’t have an inside route. Its manufactured bullshit. At least one direction and the spice girls were openly manufactured show ponies, Irish music week will no doubt be riddled with press darlings who are only darlings because someone has paid someone to plug them.

Are there going to be live shows in support of the LP? Where can we catch you?

Yes, October 9th in Lost Lane and November 15th in Morecambe. Theres plans for some European shows too.

Meanwhile Countdown to Pharmageddon 5 is being written!!