Interviews with Kim V Porcelli and Naoise Roo and 12 new Irish releases
In this week's newsletter, an interview with composer Kim V Porcelli, Naoise Roo is on the TPOE podcast and lots of new tunes to dig into
Here’s a Spotify playlist of all the music featured this week (bar HousePlants’ new track (available on Bandcamp but only gonna be on streaming sites from February 14; good idea tbh) and Ros Steer’s album, also only up on Bandcamp. If you like what you read or hear, please subscribe to the newsletter - and to the TPOE podcast. Here I am on Instagram and Twitter.
Kim V Porcelli: I like the physicality of instruments. They suggest things, just by virtue of being in your hands
We featured Dublin composer Kim V Porcelli’s Forest School EP in last week’s newsletter. Delighted to have an interview with her about it this week. Listen to it here and read the chat below.
Forest School is your first official solo release since 2011’s And at the snap of lightning it was illuminated, black sky, inky black sea. Were you focused completely on composing for theatre/film in the past 12 years?
Oh my goodness, no. I went to grad school after that release, to do an M.Phil in music composition, and then I got on the Next Stage programme for theatre artists, and then I had my son! He had fairly serious health stuff in his first year and parenthood in any case is *very* all-encompassing. I also didn't have a creche spot for the first two years, so saying yes to projects was very hard. I turned down one job that I couldn't believe I was turning down, purely because I couldn't make the money work.
But then, yes, as he got a bit older, I did really long to collaborate with other people. Rather than spending more time at home, making music on my own!
So I did some theatre and some film and some dance stuff, yes. It was a joy.
I did write other music in that time, between Inky Black Sea and Forest School, but I haven't released it yet. Back then I thought I was saving it up for an album! I hadn't got round to understanding how useful the baby step of an EP can be. I'll release that music at some point.
What are the differences between making this release and that 2011 collection?
’And At The Snap Of Lightning...’ was a single I wrote in response to a deadline. God bless deadlines. The Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF) had a callout for new work, for inclusion in a best-of-the-year CD. So I wrote it and got it done in time for that.
This collection, I wrote after receiving an Arts Council Agility award to work on new music, following the pandemic and some health stuff I'd had that had sidelined me for a bit. Again, having that external structure helped so much. These are deeply non-romantic reasons for making work, haha. But I need deadlines and structure to get stuff done. The magic of creativity comes later.
I think another difference is: I've now been doing this for longer. There was a bit of beginner's mind involved, back then! A bit of being delighted with any good idea I got. And not over-thinking it. Honestly, I try to hang on to that!
What are the differences between making your own music and composing for film/theatre?
When I'm composing for film, I'm thinking about, and talking to the director about, what we want the viewer to be feeling as they experience the piece. And then I see how I can help create that feeling, by adding something that isn't already there, or underlining/supporting something that is already there.
Oftentimes, bits of music are suggested to me by playing along during a rehearsal, or by playing along at home to unfinished bits of film. And then I go off and finesse whatever I've caught, into something. Whereas, making my own work, you're starting from a blank page. Which I find harder! Ha. So for Forest School, I did a lot of playing and recording, and some reading, and lots of listening.
You say the three tracks explore and play with our sense of time. Was this an idea you had at the outset or just how the tracks/collection developed?
A bit of both! I remember listening to Sparklehorse's Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain, at the school gates, waiting for my son to come out. The very, very slow tempo of that piece, the amount of space in it, the repetition in it, the slow addition of elements. That piece was kind of a seed, for Forest School, in a lot of ways. It wasn't that I started from an intellectual starting point though. It was an emotional starting point: a desire I was feeling to be really gentle. To explore slowness and space.
How does a song begin for you? Is it with an idea, just a musical note or from just playing your cello until something feels/sounds right?
Most of the time it starts from playing a lot, and finding bits that I like, and recording them in a voice memo, and then seeing if I can grow them into anything.
It's funny. When I was doing my master's degree, for an assignment I interviewed Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh (incredible trad fiddle modernist) and at that time, he started making pieces this way also. I was really gratified to hear this – it kind of made it OK for me not to start from sheet music, like a lot of composers do. I like the physicality of instruments. They suggest things, just by virtue of being in your hands.
But sometimes I really start from a mood. ‘We Came In and Lit The Fire’ started from a mood. I also love messing around with a loop pedal: it's a really quick way of layering notes and textures. ‘Romance Loops’ was reverse-engineered from a loop I'd made.The intimate, time-stretched
Forest School track by track
‘We Came In And Lit the Fire’
I remember reading about Brian Eno’s idea about a ‘clock of the long now’. What if we stretched our notion of time, and slowed down the present? This piece was me playing with this idea and seeing if I could make something on a very, very slow time axis while keeping its pilot light lit.
‘Forest School (With the Canopy and the Sky Above Us)’
‘Forest School’ is a cacophony of friendly detail, forever changing yet familiar, looping through days and seasons. I love the paintings of Mark Rothko. At first, when you look at them, they’re mostly featureless panes of colour. But if you slow down and soften your gaze, so much is going on. They’re so full of detail and voice. ‘Forest School’ was the result of me experimenting with writing a piece where ‘nothing happens’ yet loads happens.
‘Romance Loops’
‘Romance Loops’ iterates and reiterates, piling melodies and details atop each other until reaching a state of pure exuberance. I had been thinking a lot about Sparklehorse’s song ‘Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain’. It has a very slow tempo and builds over repeated phrases and sounds. According to Mark Linkous, ‘Dreamt’ was a riff on the Gavin Bryars piece ‘Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet’, which goes to really profound places while looping and unfolding very slowly. ‘Romance Loops’ is an experiment with those two pieces in mind, and its title comes from composer William Basinski’s piece ‘The Disintegration Loops’.
Do you have any more plans for the year ahead or is this a once-off piece?
I'm definitely going to be writing more this year. I've also scored another short film which will be released sometime this year.
What's your favourite track/music coming from Ireland at the moment?
I've been loving CMAT for a few years now, since 'I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!', and it has been so heart-swellingly happy-making to see her be recognised lately for the gorgeous genius that she is. Her new album is wonderful and her voice, her power, her imagination, her sense of humour and her pure songwriting chops are just everything. Other than that... Lankum obviously, Rachael Lavelle, Tandem Felix, John Francis Flynn. JFF's 'Mole In The Ground' is stunning. It's such an original approach to a folk song.
Tracks of the week
Sega Bodega - Deer Teeth
Irish-born producer’s latest track ahead of his next album. Check out this show he did on 6 Music over last weekend, on which he said of ‘Deer Teeth’: “It’s part of album three, which I finished a week ago and I just handed it in. I’m just dying to get this process rolling,”
Lord Ormond - ‘Radiator’
Paddy Ormond, who’s been in lots of bands over the years including Jetsetter and Postcard Versions, has gone solo - ‘Radiator’ is the first taster.
EFÉ - Truth☆Truth
Cool lofi, shoegazy track from Dublin artist Efé.
“Don’t wanna be there for you
Hate that I don’t have a clue
Lie to my face just tell the
truth, truth, truth, truth”
HousePlants - ‘No Pushover’
The Choice Prize-nominated HousePlants headed by Daithí and Bell X1’s Paul Noonan return with an LCD Soundsystem-influenced dancefloor beast. Noonan says: “‘No Pushover’, lyrically, is the tale of an outsider, a wannabe insider. I was taken with a story about how Elon Musk and his brother like to talk about the Simulation Argument (that we’re all in a simulation) in the hot tub, and thought - is this the ultimate inner sanctum?” He continues: “The first record was made in the strangeness of deep dark lockdown, with Daithí and I pinging parts to each other from our respective caves. From this remove I can see how essential an outlet it was for my creativity, my sense of self through that time. There was no long game, we were making the thing for the instant gratification! So to have toured the record with a great bunch of people and make it work in that way was an unexpected joy, and we want to keep doing that. This time we’ve been in the room together, Daithí and I, flinging paint and making decisions in real time… and a lot of it is informed by the live experience - what we think works and why.”
Daithí says, “HousePlants has always been about reaching out and connecting, there’s an honesty and rawness to the lyrics, production, and visuals. I think that's what both the band and the audience really connect to, and you see it in full force when we get to play to an audience, There's nothing like it.”
‘No Pushover’ is the first taster of their second album, due out later in 2024. They’ve also announced a short tour:
Friday, April 12: Róisín Dubh, Galway
Friday, April 26: Button Factory, Dublin
Saturday, April 27: Dolan’s Warehouse, Limerick
Friday, May 24: Cyprus Avenue, Cork
Danny Carroll - Golden Hour
A co-curator of the brilliant A Litany of Failures compilation, Danny Carroll has released a couple of singles over the past year and his latest is ‘Golden Hour’, alongside news of his debut solo album. Working with Belfast-based producer Chris W. Ryan (New Dad, Just Mustard, Robocobra Quartet), I Am The Cheese is out March 1 (Bandcamp). Carroll says of ‘Golden Hour’: “I’m quite proud of the arrangement on this track. There’s a lot of experimentation with lapsteel and melodica through a Leslie organ speaker and that creates a suitably floaty feeling in keeping with the sentiment of the song. Lyrically it’s very much about giddy infatuation and maybe the best attempt I’ve made at an unapologetic love song. Bonus points for anyone who spots the Wilco pun in there.”
For the video below, Carroll enlisted the help of acclaimed photographer and videographer Níamh Barry. Playing with Golden Hour’s theme of rose-tinted romance, it stars Fianna Nolan as its deluded protagonist.
TPOE 276: A Litany of Failures
Lemoncello - Harsh Truths
Fresh off signing with Claddagh Records, Lemoncello aka Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella have released ‘Harsh Truths’. Hopefully it’s leading up to a long-awaited debut album in 2024. They say: “We wrote ‘Harsh Truths’ as a sort of conversation with someone who is not really there, or not emotionally present. It became a conversation with the self, the multitude of different voices inside ourselves that guide our intuition.” The Dublin duo have announced a show at Whelan’s on May 15 - tickets.
Ways of Seeing - Gold Hand
Ways of Seeing is Cork artist James O'Donnell, formerly of Hush War Cry and Dear Desert. He released debut album End Comes to Light in 2022 and ‘Gold Hand’ follows last September’s single ‘Hasn’t Happened Yet’. Produced with Christian Best at Monique studios in Cork, O’Donnell says it unveils a facade concealing the silent struggles beneath, painting a vivid portrait of a person whose gilded exterior belies the true yearning for happiness, showcasing the delicate interplay between societal expectations and the pursuit of genuine fulfilment. Ways of Seeing play Upstairs at Whelan’s on February 9 - tickets.
Roslyn Steer - Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
Cork artist Ros Steer (Crevice, Cork Improvised Music Club) released this new collection via Fort Evil Fruit last (Bandcamp) Friday. This album is a response to the 1917 Wallace Stevens poem that lends it its title. In keeping with Stevens' assertion that the poem should be taken as a collection of ‘sensations’ rather than ‘ideas’, each track presents an impressionistic realisation of the imagery and mood evoked in each stanza. Utilising a broad musical palette (including double bass, pump organ, keyboards, vocals, and woodwinds), the pieces range from concise and melodic to meandering and improvised, evoking murky dusks and mist-drenched dawns, with a pervading earthy feel.
Birthday Problem - ‘ELE’ (ft Ailbhe Reddy)
A collaboration between Matt Harris (HAVVK, Maria Kelly) and Rocky O’Reilly (And So I Watch You From Afar, Oppenheimer), Birthday Problem’s debut track features the amazing Ailbhe Reddy on vocals.
Galia Arad - ‘That’s Me Now’
An American singer-songwriter based in Ireland, Galia Arad has supported Jools Holland in the past year and been so busy that she says this release is very much last minute. She says on Instagram: “A very last-minute release for a song I’ve worked on for a million hours! I went about this whole process in the most inefficient way but I can see now that the time I was spending was actually me clawing me out of some of my darker spaces. So despite what the lyrics suggest, this song is not a cry for help 😅 it’s actually the very opposite. I’m so grateful to the incredible musicians & engineers that brought my musical vision to life, and got me to re-love this song even when I was over it.”
Ruth Mac - ‘Abundance’ (live")
Berlin-based Ruth Mac goes back to her 2021 track ‘Abundance’, off the Living Room EP, for a live version. She says: “A love song in essence, ‘Abundance’ details a leap of fate toward a new life abroad and celebrates love as a constant throughout the trials and tribulations that come with starting afresh in a new country.” The video was filmed in Mac’s own studio space on the outskirts of Berlin. It was produced in collaboration with Not Clean Productions, the label and community production company founded in the same studio by Mac’s collaborator Mark Glaister. Glaister also engineered the live session, which was filmed and edited by Berlin-based Irish filmmaker Josh Meany.
Twin Headed Wolf - ‘The Black Keys’
Twin Headed Wolf are Branwen and Julie Kavanagh and they say their debut album, Altarwise, due out February 29, is 11 years in the making. They say it’s a collection of windows into the worlds of songs. The themes surround experimental darkness lifted by ethereal blood harmonies and a host of sounds and whirring experiments that cannot be discerned or divorced from the ritual of each song. Of the track ‘The Black Keys’, they say: “Branwen liked to take apart pianos. The twins wrote this song in the rain after the NCAD Valentines Ball while wearing their mothers’ dresses from the 80’s. The song fell out of their mouths.”
TPOE 294: Naoise Roo
Dublin artist Naoise Roo played her ‘last headline show ever probably’ in the Workman’s Club on Friday, February 3. She was on the TPOE podcast beforehand talking about some of the reasons why she’s finishing up. A snippet is below. The full interview is a track by track of her second album Emotionally Magnificent (named after a line in the US Office).
Naoise Roo on why she’s finishing up
I think over the last while I've been thinking a lot about where my place is in this industry, or what my artistic intentions are for myself, and I reached a point where I felt like it was time to step away from it to create a fresh start. And to kind of tear it down to see what could open up in its place. And that's not necessarily even to say a new musical project or something of that ilk, it's also just on a creative side, like what could happen in that space…
On music living forever
Doing this is a real labour of love anyway, outside of all of that superfluous stuff. I don't want to say a lot of it is superfluous, but in ways for a lot of us, it is. I'm really sad to see so many bands that I thought were great feel that pressure, walk away from it, and not - for me, I'm quite happy to walk away at this point. I feel very excited about the prospect, but I know that there's a lot of people who didn't feel excited about it. And that's sort of devastating because they're such amazing musicians... I think a lot of people who have these great projects think that once they stop as well that they don't exist anymore and that people don't listen to their work anymore. But that's not true. I still listen to so many artists that aren't active anymore, and I still enjoy their work so much and they're there, they're in the archive, and that work lives forever, that exists forever. And that's the great thing about art. It is a really challenging time. And I work in the music industry side, as well as a creative, and it's so much pressure, I see so many, especially coming up now, and being a band and all the things you feel you have to do and all the money you have to invest and all the things that you're constantly working to kind of push; I mean, pushing your social media numbers and your Spotify and trying to get playlisted.