Interviews with Def Nettle and Elaine Malone and 12 new Irish tracks of the week
In this week's newsletter, Def Nettle's Glen Brady talks through his just-released debut album, Elaine Malone is on the TPOE podcast, and lots of great new tracks
Here’s a Spotify playlist of (nearly) all the music featured in this week’s newsletter.
Wexford punk-funk band Def Nettle released their debut album DN001 on Friday, February 8. A project by Glen Brady, one half of NYC electro outfit The Glass, and also known as DJ Wool and as a member of DARK with Dolores O’Riordan and Andy Rourke, this is the first time the genre-hopping artist is taking centre stage. DN001 is a melange of styles - popping through rock, punk, dance and hip hop - never letting you relax over the course of its 10 tracks. You can listen to it below (buy it on Bandcamp) and read a track by track with Brady below - a fascinating read.
‘Don’t’
The opening track, like many of my songs, was written while in the car, specifically while stuck in the mundanity of traffic on the M50. Its subject matter is introspection and insecurity. It’s about living in the world yet feeling apart from it. There are undertones of thoughts on addiction and how those habits spring from our discomfort with the world and our relationship to it, about not wanting to or even being able to verbalize those feelings. Just don’t, don’t even try. In the third verse, there’s a rap which seems to be a recurring theme in my songs, given my history, but it’s personal and delves into teenage influences and Irishness. Hence the references to The Golden Horde and other Irish themes.
Musically, the beat originally harkened back to the early 2000s and my time in New York and the music I was hearing then. Fischer Spooner, The Rapture, and Peaches are probably good examples and can still be heard in the bleepy intro synth and the 303 in the latter half of the song. However, Def Nettle tends towards poppier arrangements and although there’s some disco in there, once drummer Jay Oglesby and guitarist Joe Donegan played on the record, it started to veer in a rockier direction. I’ve always been a fan of the Smashing Pumpkins’ guitars and musical dynamic and undulation so I wanted the verses to be sweet and lyrical and then to gain power in the choruses.
‘The Pills’
I’m regularly surprised when our first single, 'The Pills', is misunderstood as some sort of tribute to rave culture or ecstasy but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s actually a semi-biographical story about a female friend of mine and her interaction with pharmaceuticals and the repercussions of that lifestyle from a female perspective. In a sense it’s me putting myself in her shoes and trying to make sense of the situation. I feel it’s the song where I found my feet as a songwriter or writer in general. I’ve been writing my whole life and never really done much with it; hundreds of notebooks in closets… My focus had always been as a DJ, engineer and producer and I’ve always felt the need to figure out a way to get my writing out into the world and this song opened that door for me. Once this was written, I named the act Def Nettle and dove into songwriting fully and this album is the result of that.
For the music, I looked back at my early interest in skate rock and punk, specifically bands like the Butthole Surfers, Bad Brains, Black Flag and even Beastie Boys. I wrote the main riff in five minutes but had Dan Donnelly from the Levellers et al replay it in his inimitable style. Around the time this was written, I reconnected with my old band mate (Third Eye Surfers) Lisa Doyle and she wrote the third verse which I think is really important as the song is (supposedly) from a female perspective. Her verse really completes the narrative for me and cemented her place in the act.
‘Invisible’
The lyrics from this song are my reflections on a conversation I had with a friend while we were both reading Bono’s book, Surrender. The first half of the book deals with the early years of U2 and I had had some interaction with some of the characters, with several degrees of separation, as a youth. There’s no doubting the influence of the Virgin Prunes on a lot of Irish rock and I found myself listening to them quite a bit around the time I wrote this song. Again, I felt it was important not to understate the Irishness of my influences and I tried to make that clear, if not a little sarcastic with lines like “It’s a grand day for drying…”
Musically, this was the first time I had a complete band behind the Def Nettle name and I was experimenting with having the players take a larger role in the writing of the music. The guitar riff was written and played by Ronnie Carroll from the band and the lyrics, music and beats were written around that. Next Ely Siegel came in and played bass and Jason Fleming, who was our drummer at the time, played drums. The guys brought a fresh vibe to the Def Nettle sound and I can hear some Queens of the Stone Age or Eagles of Death Metal in there…. I’m not sure if that was intentional. I can’t help but notice some Thin Lizzy vibes in the double guitar riffs at the end. Ronnie plays in a Lizzy cover band and I think that really matched the lyrics and gives the song a feeling of completion.
‘Boat Race’
‘Boat Race’ is a straight-up charger with obvious punk rock influences. The lyrics are a tongue-in-cheek reference to being slapped by various ex-girlfriends for long-forgotten violations. It’s supposed to be raucous and fun, not taking itself as seriously as some of the other songs on the record. Lyrically, it rails against those doing so and I made it with the intention of getting a crowd going at a live show. It’s a dirty, no-nonsense arrangement where I laugh at myself a little bit. Lisa came in later and we remade the second verse to be from a female perspective, i.e. giving the slap. My good friend, Greg Earl from California skate crew the N-Men and the band Cement Eater, played guitars, giving it that skate punk authenticity. The song was one of the first songs made for the album and Ely Siegel came in last minute and exchanged a Moog bass line for the heavy, distorted punk rock riff that really added power and musicality. Jay Ogelsby once again added the jump-up, pogo-inspiring drums.
‘God’s Trainers’
This one deals with anxiety and the way we use commercialism and materialism to try to alleviate its symptoms. Specifically I used the obsession with trainers, sneakers or runners as they are known in Ireland, but it could very well be anything we use for the dopamine hit of just buying ‘stuff’. It could be guitars, synthesisers, clothes, cars or anything really. As Lisa cleverly states in her verse ‘The delivery lad knows my name’. Ironically, I had just gotten a new guitar around that time and the main chord riff was one of the first things that came to me when I started playing around with it. However, the song only started to take shape when Ely came in and played some live bass on it, again, ironically with a new pedal board he had just bought. The bass fx really gave the song its character for me. Blow your wages on high-top trainers.
‘Four Years’
The song has a very special place in my heart. The lyrics were written over several months and could easily have had multiple verses. The song is an honest and intense ballad of love lost and death. It delves into the story of my ex-girlfriend, who was violently murdered by her boyfriend, and the profound effect that tragedy had on my life. The 'Four Years' concept came about as it was written four years after the event. In that time, I gave up alcohol and that party lifestyle. To put it simply, her murder transformed my life. It made me take stock. Somehow the idea that a young woman’s life was over, that she could no longer experience the beauty and the trials and tribulations of human existence, forced me to appreciate this life, find gratitude and respect her tragedy by making the best of what the universe had given me. This song is fucking heavy and I’m really proud of it. The The were a huge inspiration to me and though it’s not a direct copy of a The The song, I feel Matt Johnson’s influence every time I listen to it.
‘Piss Take’
This song is dedicated to the begrudgers, the naysayers, the Debbie Downers. Every artist has them, the ones who stab you in the back, the ones who sneer. I love each and every one of you and this one is for you. You have fuelled me, inspired me and, for a long time, I needed that push. I needed you to keep me on my toes. This song is a swan song to all of that. I release you. I am free. I made it. I am still here, making music, playing shows and being me. I will never stop. Musically, this song is a collaboration with my friend Joe Donegan, who plays guitar. Joe is a direct, honest musician who will tell you the truth and question your ideas, all in the name of the song. That openness in the face of possible animus is a wonderful contribution to a song that is dedicated to those who criticize in the shadows. Drums are fast and funky, just the way Jay Ogelsby played them.
‘Architecture’
Again, this one is an abyss of personal feelings of loss. It’s a tale of pain and isolation seen through the perspective of an autumnal 80/90s Dublin, grey and austere but maintaining the vigour and rhythmic enthusiasm of that pre-Celtic Tiger era with Manchester-style dance rhythms. It’s a requiem to my teenage years, broken and alone wandering the streets of Dublin in the rain, using the buildings and architecture for cover. Joe Donegan appears on guitar again. This time, he plays a comprehensive kaleidoscope of melody, texture and power and he was forceful and demanding in the studio, ensuring that I push the musical possibilities of the song, and I’m really grateful for that. Graeme Slattery (A Boy In Cords, The Devlins) came in later and brought out the beauty and retro feeling of the song with some extra melodic guitars. This was the first time Ely Siegel appeared on a Def Nettle number and would soon become the bass player in the band and his playing really expanded the arrangement and nuance between each section.
‘German Cars’
'German Cars' is a sarcastic, ironic letter to a good friend and collaborator who traded in endless musical talent and boundless opportunity for misguided self-aggrandisement and a fierce and uncompromising addiction to benzodiazepines. It’s horrible in its candidness. I wrote the lyrics in one sitting, a blunt soliloquy relating his love for BMW and Mercedes Benz to his harrowing addiction. This could possibly be the only way to get through to him. But we all know the false overconfidence of dependence. The only one who can dig them out is themselves. It’s an intervention, however misguided. Love hurts. In terms of music, I wanted it to be uptempo, the drums like a stab in the heart, piercing and vibrant. I wanted the music to somehow be the opposite of that, delicate and dreamy like an opiate high, counterbalancing the rhythm and intensity of the vocals with the beauty of what could have been but could be lost forever… Time will tell. Love hurts.
‘War Machine’ featuring Andy Rourke
'War Machine' was written on the way home from dropping a friend to rehab and I thought it fit nicely in the running order after the annihilation of 'German Cars'. We hear a tale of the zealousness of the party lifestyle, the role of drugs and alcohol in the artist’s life but also the reckoning and the rebirth of someone I cherish. A phoenix from the flames. An artist reborn. To come to terms with the truth is to face the truth. We must forgive ourselves, the hubris of our art. This is what we are.
The Smiths were the most important band of my teenage years. They got me through it. Their music was everything to me for a long time. I knew Andy Rourke for many years and had several remixes done by him of my previous acts - DJ Wool, The Glass - and had in turn remixed his band Jetlag and engineered/mixed his collaborative album D.A.R.K. with Dolores O’Riordan. However, I never lost my absolute joy at simply knowing Andy, the bass player in the band that saved my life many times over. I’ll never forget the first time I met him. I was in the middle of a gig on stage in San Francisco and he just sauntered up on stage and danced through the last half of the show. Knowing him was an adventure. Andy had a habit of saying he didn’t want songs to sound like The Smiths during recording/writing and then telling me it didn’t sound enough like The Smiths when it came to mixing. I love that. He was irreverent, clever and funny…and this bass line sounds very….Smithsy…. RIP Andy. Guitars are played by Graeme Slattery again on this one. He transformed my meagre and simple chord changes into (in my mind at least) a Prefab Sprout, Deacon Blue-esque melodic vibration that finishes off the album with a definitive 80s feel.
This week’s new music playlist
Niamh Regan - ‘Madonna’
Galway’s Niamh Regan follows up her word-of-mouth debut sensation Hemet with the first taster of Come As You Are (preorder), due out in May, ‘Madonna’. The press release teaser: It’s an album full of acutely observed vulnerabilities and introspection. Its themes are the issues that many of us find loom large in the small hours: questions of self-doubt, uncertainty about your life’s direction, whether relationships are flourishing in the way you’d hoped and determining priorities. Regan says: “A lot of it is about being in your late twenties and kind of realising we’re all running out of time. I’d have bouts of massive self-belief in the studio, and then in the next breath I would be like, ‘This is the worst piece of music I could have even imagined.’ It was a rollercoaster. But through that I found self-acceptance; this is where I’m at and making peace with that. That’s what the album essentially is, just making peace with where I’m at and being realistic with myself.” A one-take live recording, Regan says of ‘Madonna’: “I wanted to start the album kind of as bravely as possible and I think that way is to do it on your own.”
Cosha - ‘Fire Me Up’
A taster of Cosha’s forthcoming EP Murmurs, due on May 9, ‘Fire Me Up’ is a smoothe ode to love. She says: “I made that beat on the plane when I was leaving from London to LA, it made it even harder because it was really about that like, ‘I still love you, I still want you in my life but we do need to do this and we’re both quietly in the distance for each other. You’re never not going to be someone I care about.’ I remember I was trying to sing the vocals and it was obviously really raw and I couldn’t sing it, I kept choking up and crying... and that’s actually the take on the song, me trying to hold it in and sing through it.” Cosha released debut album Mt Pleasant in July 2021.
Gurriers - ‘Das Goblin’
A big year ahead for the Dublin band. Singer Dan Hoff say: “‘Des Goblin’ is about apathy and self-obsession in the face of impending destruction, particularly to do with the effects of climate change and war and people being too obsessed with themselves and their online personas to be able to see the wood for the trees. Musically we pulled from further afield than previously, and really leaned in on our dance influences as well as a more fluent spoken word style vocal.” Gurriers have also had a lineup change.
Holly Macve - ‘Time is Forever’
Fresh from collaborating with Lana Del Rey, Holly Macve releases the EP Time is Forever. It’s sumptuous. Macve was born in the west of Ireland, and when she was six months old her mother fled from an abusive relationship and took her and her sister to settle in West Yorkshire. She says it was here she discovered her love of music and film at a young age: “I was given a video tape of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing, along with Elvis Presley’s Jail House Rock. I couldn’t take my eyes off them.”
A Lethal Black Ooze - ‘It Bows’ (Live at Ailfionn)
The opening track on their self-titled EP, released at the start of December, A Lethal Black Ooze have released this live version of ‘It Bows’. It’s rollocking. Comprised of Andy McGurk (formerly of Spies), Jamie Hyland (M(h)aol) and Iain Faulkner, they says A Lethal Black Ooze is a pandemic sanity project with collaboration at its core and a fondness for dirty, ‘keep it real’ recording methods. Of ‘It Bows’, McGurk says: “I’m so used to feeling like I have to make structural changes every so many bars within my songs. I think it comes from an insecure place that the listener will get bored so when it came to ‘It Bows’, I wanted to challenge myself by writing a song that just played into the repetitive nature of the song and sat in the moment, not rushing off in any direction. I really enjoy the middle section of the song where you just listen to the chord being played out and the effects dancing around the chord giving it movement.” He says of the EP:”It’s been a really rewarding experience to go through the process of getting this EP out into the world. In some ways a relief to be at the finish line but in other ways a little bit sad to be done with it. I just hope anyone that listens to it enjoys it and we have more stuff in the works also so see you there.” A Lethal Black Ooze play Sin É in Dublin on Sunday, February 10, with Nerves.
Really Good Time - Retreat to the Cubicle
Dublin’s four-piece Really Good Time released their debut EP Escape from the Mountain of Spit in November and are wasting no time in following it up with new single ‘Retreat to the Cubicle’. They say: ‘Retreat to the Cubicle’ was born in a moment of divine inspiration, while lead singer Diol was locked in a bathroom at a party, teetering on the edge of illness and hallucination after eating too much candy-floss. Lying on the bathroom floor with the sound of music and laughter muted and faraway through the tiled walls, a guitar riff suddenly appeared and stuck in his mind. Days later, that riff was still there, turning around and around. As it mingled with the loose shame of having locked himself in that house party’s sole bathroom for several hours, a song began to solidify around it. In a way, this is a song about throwing a tantrum. It is about the moment when one suddenly wishes to be locked away from the world with all of its responsibilities, disappointments and joys, even if that means confining yourself to a grime-infested toilet cubicle, forever.
Aidan Thomas Tobin - ‘Holy Fool’
This is the opening song on Aidan Thomas Tobin’s debut album A Faithful Terror, to be released at the end of February. What you can expect: Handmade defamiliarised drum and bass and ambient clouds of free-floating harmony, scrapes of viola over noisy odd time beats, bowed electric guitar through massive reverb and pinpricks of piano and children’s lyre. All of the music was written, recorded, mixed, and mastered in an acoustically untreated room on an ancient, complaining Macbook Pro.
The Cliffords - ‘Sleeping with Ghosts’
A five piece from Cork, the Cliffords are Iona Lynch, Gavin Dawkins, Harry Menton, Daniel Ryan and Locon O'Toole. They won UCC battle of the bands in 2022 and ‘Sleeping with Ghosts’ is their fourth single. Killer vocals.
The Last Sound - Veered
The Last Sound is Barry M, one half of Irish techno mercurial noiseniks Whirling Hall Of Knives. Veered started life in 2006, when the early collaborations that would lead to WHOK were just forming. Until 2010, the bulk of the album was developed in the background but remained unfinished until 2023, when it was dug out of the archives and brought to life in 2024, providing a great document to a period of transition between TLS and WHOK but also standing up as a timeless The Last Sound album.
"Veered is, from a certain angle, a hazy, corroded time capsule filled with darkly euphoric artifacts from the macrolabyrinth...
Lucy Gaffney - ‘Big Love’
Nice dreamy track from the Belfast artist Lucy Gaffney. It follows a string of quality singles and EPs over the years - ‘Big Love’ is off her forthcoming third EP. She says: “‘Big Love’ came from going on long walks up the Divis and Black Mountain in Belfast and feeling content being back home in Ireland after living away. I was happy to lean into a sense of familiarity and grounding that always coincides with being back in nature and the place you grew up in. I was sitting by the fire looking out of the window and Big Love was written in a moment of pure flow. The story of ‘Big Love’ is somewhat ambiguous, it developed into romantic idioms that don't specifically capture people but more so moments and feelings I’ve experienced throughout life that ultimately come down to a sense of belonging and self-worth.”
Alex Gough - ‘Way2’
Latest track from the freshly independent Cork artist Alex Gough, ‘Way2’ doesn’t stick around for long.
Elaphi - ‘All I Ask’
A Dublin-based five piece comprising Sara Barberio, Jacopo Stofler, Federico Camici, and Grim Nordahl, Elaphi’s new single ‘All I Ask’ follows last October’s debut ‘Diamond Walls’. They say the new track reflects the essence of a fleeting moment, akin to a memory that gradually fades away like footprints in the sand.
TPOE 295: Elaine Malone
Cork-based artist Elaine Malone released her debut album Pyrrhic in September and I was delighted to finally get a chance to talk through it with her on the TPOE podcast this week. The interview was recorded in December and we talked about loads of things, from Cork and shooting the album cover in the Glen with Celeste Burdon to influences to her bandmates and the other bands she plays with, such as Pot-Pot. You can listen to the full interview here and read a couple of highlights below.
On recording with Cathal MacGabhainn (Altered Hours)
He's just great, he's a great set of ears to have as well, really great to have around. The Altered Hours in general are just a huge inspiration in Cork for a lot of people and particularly when I moved down first, I would have just been completely in awe of Elaine Howley
On the Bandcamp Daily article about Cork
I think the fear of like, as soon as something gets seen or acknowledged that it will cease to exist - I don't know, it's very hard to conceptualise the scene; or that word, I don't like the word even, because it implies a sense of exclusion, by nature of its existence or something, and you just hope that people in Cork do feel like it's accessible to everyone to make music because that's how it should feel. My greatest fear off the back of something like that would be, well, there was a lot of people who weren't mentioned that are doing great things. We are very lucky with the people that are around and we have such good support systems with Jimmy Horgan and stuff and very inspiring people around the place. And that really does feed into the creation of more work. It's brilliant. Cork is an endlessly inspiring place and a very wildly broad array of musicianship in town as well. It can make pop stars and it can make improvised music people. It can it can do everything.
You already mentioned the Altered Hours early in our chat. Does Cork feel like your biggest influence almost more than the likes of the 60s acts like the Carpenters' Karen Carpenter and the other 60s acts that maybe get mentioned alongside your music?
I suppose, like seeing the Bonk and seeing Fixity and when Percolator came through town, those three acts really stood out in my memory when I saw them live. I think it informs my music as much as Elliott Smith or Lee Hazelwood does. I think being around it and going to see those bands multiple times - the Altered Hours, I would literally go see them every time they play in Cork - and it's always just one of those things where you leave the gig, you go home, and you're like 'Fuck, you need to do more work', and that's a great feeling, where it's like, Alright, need to put the head down'. The standard is so incredibly high. Every time you see the Bonk, it's just so interesting and challenging and so many different routes in it coming through.
It's interesting that you do talk about the work that you have to put in; you mentioned earlier that it is a job, is that how you saw things like five years ago?
When I started writing songs and stuff, everything felt so abstract and unfathomable in how it works. I still feel that way when things come out of you, you're just like, that's the closest thing to the divine, I suppose, in a way, that that thing can be created out of nothing. And it can exist beyond you... songwriting has nothing to do with you personally, really, you're just a channel for whatever's out there. It's a real David Lynch idea or whatever, but like, I dunno, I just would always endeavor to be better at it every time, because I really do feel like an amateur a lot of the time. And I do see it as work, like vocational work. A lot of people around in Cork have jazz backgrounds or are highly trained people; playing with people with that level of musicianship, it makes you want to be better, always, and to just work harder. And I'm by no means a good musician, really. If you do anything for a length of time, it will start to change and evolve and your attitude towards it will change. I don't feel as soft and vulnerable as I did in my late teens. Just playing a lot more shows and getting more comfortable like that really does make a difference.