Interviews with NIA, The Cope, and tracks of the week
In this week’s newsletter, an interview with Dundalk artist NIA, nine new Irish tracks from the past week or so, and this week’s guests on the TPOE podcast are The Cope
Here’s a Spotify playlist of all the music mentioned this week.
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NIA: For the longest time I have always had it in mind to write and release my own music
‘Your Way’ is the debut single from Dundalk-based artist NIA, produced by Chris Kabs (a guest on TPOE 258 last year), and delves into the intricate dynamics of trust and vulnerability within relationships. She says it’s an introspective journey, delving into the intricate dynamics of trust and vulnerability within relationships. Just over two minutes long, it’s such a strong debut track - I sent NIA some questions around the release, how she started and plans for the future.
You had your first public performance when you were six and in 2015 uploaded covers to YouTube. Do you look back on all that stuff as a learning curve?
Yes, I definitely do. Despite how young I was at the time, I discovered music was something I really liked, through the process of learning the lyrics, practicing vocals and even stage posture. None of these preparations for my first public performance felt like a chore, I remember it being something I really enjoyed, now a core memory for me. Posting on YouTube gave me a small insight into the intricate process of creating music projects, not just from the artist’s perspective, but also from a producer’s point of view.
When did you start thinking of making and releasing your own music?
For the longest time I have always had it in mind to write and release my own music. I started trying to write my own songs at age 8. I remember if I had a song stuck in my head or playing in the house, I would try to write my own lyrics over the melody. By age 14-15 I was adamant on making and releasing my own music, but only started to plan this in 2020, at age 19.
You've released your debut single Your Way in January 2024 - has it been months of work getting to this stage, ready for releasing your first track?
Yes, it’s been months of preparations for the release. The development of this track itself happened in phases over the last two years, but the bulk of production took place this past summer, with the producer of this track, Chris Kabs. The lyrics of the hook and melody came about in October 2021, but I only brought them into the studio last January.
Tell me about the track and what it means to you.
This track is written from two perspectives on the same situation, which is trust issues. The hesitation to fully trust and the frustration of not being fully trusted. Written with empathy for both sides of the story, this track was inspired by two separate conversations, backed by my own experience. This song is a special one as it’s a reflection of my own understanding and how it developed over the last two years. In a way, this song grew with me, so much so that in the summer before the final production began some lyrics were tweaked to better reflect where I stand on this topic now.
What was it like working with Chris Kabs in the studio?
Working with Chris has been an amazing and insightful experience. Chris is very passionate about his work as a producer and this takes that process of bringing a song to life to another level. Chris’ level of commitment has really pushed me to explore my creativity and enhance the quality of the project.
You've also worked or supported the likes of Negro Impacto and Toshin too - have they been a big help to you finding your feet?
Most definitely, Negro Imacto and Toshin have contributed, not only through the opportunity to perform, but through the support and advice I have received from them. I met Toshin back in May 2022 after going to her show in my hometown. We have since been in contact and she has continually shared words of wisdom with me, definitely a trailblazer in the Irish music scene. Negro Impacto have as well been massive supporters, checking in and advising me during this build up to my release. The group’s lead vocalist Chi Chi is a good friend of mine. We met in school back in 2013, and from 2016-2018 sang together as part of a girl group.
What are your plans/hopes for 2024?
I aim to release more of my music in the months to come, while working towards an EP.
And finally, what's your favorite track out of Ireland at the moment?
‘Not Mine’ by Alan McKee
New Irish music released this week
Kim V Porcelli - Forest School
Kim V Porcelli is a composer who uses looped and layered cello to make instrumental music that echoes the tangled, imperfect beauty and power of nature. The Forest School EP is her first official solo release since 2011’s And at the Snap of Lightning it was Illuminated, Black Sky, Inky Black Sea - she’s a very busy composer for theatre/dance. The three pieces on Forest School explore and play with our sense of time, using loops and layers to stretch and shift perception, while their organic, tactile sound is grounded in the natural world. We’ll have an interview with Porcelli next week.
Travis & Elzzz - ‘Blockbuster’
Love this track from the Gliders crew pair, a year on from their Full Circle collab. Here’s a feature with them on District from last summer.
Arms That Fit Like Legs - For The Time Being
It’s been a few years since we’ve heard from Dublin instrumental/electronic trio Arms that Fit Like Legs (still a great name). They released their debut album Legwork in 2019. ‘For The Time Being’ is the first track off their the Rotation EP, due in March. It was recorded live in St John’s Church in Kill, Co Kildare.
Lilla Vargen - ‘The Lucky One’
It’s been years since we last heard from Antrim’s Lilla Vargen - this week she released ‘Belong’, off the EP Drive, which is due out on May 10. The press release says she’s overcome a few setbacks, both inside and outside the industry, and has been working hard to find her place in music again. The four songs on Drive are written and co-produced by Lilla, now releasing as an independent artist. She says of the finished record: “I'm proud of this work. I’ve had the space and time to write the songs I want to write, produce the music I want to produce, and the whole process has been a breath of fresh air. In our industry, it’s sometimes the loudest voices, rather than the most creative ones, that get heard, and I hope this EP will give my audience a sense of what that can feel like. Ultimately, these songs are about new beginnings, and having the drive to keep going. But they’re also about rediscovering the joy of music. After all, when I settled on Drive as a title, I did have a road trip soundtrack somewhere in my mind!”
Gemma Hayes - ‘Feed the Flames’
Gemma Hayes made her long-awaited comeback late last year, returning with her first new tune in some eight years with ‘High & Low’. She’s released a second taster of a forthcoming album in the form of ‘Feed the Flames’. She says: “I originally began writing the song after watching Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Knowing a bit about their relationship off screen I was really taken by the depth of their connection, it was a living, breathing fire. What I got from delving into their relationship is that you can love something or someone so much only for your human fallibility to come along and destroy it.”
Gemma Hayes tour dates:
April 12: Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny
April 19: Gleneagle INEC, Killarney, Kerry
April 20: Dolan's, Limerick
April 21: Cyprus Avenue, Cork
April 27: Róisín Dubh, Galway
May 10: RCC, Letterkenny, Donegal
May 18: Vicar Street, Dublin
May 19: Spirit Store - Dundalk, Louth
Megan O’Neill - ‘The Hard Way’
Kildare artist Megan O’Neill has released a steady stream of great singles - and two albums over the years - and that continues in 2024. Self-written, ‘The Hard Way’ was recorded at the Meadow Studios, Delgany, in June 2023 and produced by O’Neill and Alex Borwick, who plays trombone on the song, and recorded mostly live, featuring Paul Kenny, Joseph Doyle, and Sam Killeen. O’Neill says the song reflects a period of grappling with grief and loss. Partially inspired by Jon Kabat-Zinn's famous book, Wherever You Go, There You Are, the lyrics of 'The Hard Way' convey O’Neill’s sense of loneliness, which persisted whether she was living in the countryside or the city during early 2023. The song concludes with an acceptance that life is a combination of the good and bad, the beautiful and the imperfect, but that it’s taken quite some time for O’Neill to understand and embrace this.
James Vincent McMorrow - ‘Stay Cool’
Sounds like JVM has gone back to his roots for the first we’ve heard from him since summer 2022’s The Less I Knew. He says of ‘Stay Cool’: “I have lived the last few years amongst a span of trees. There was something comforting in hiding, but it was obscuring the places I wanted to go, and it was obscuring me. For me, the winter is when things begin. All the songs and records I'm most proud of have either been created or released during the winter months. You'll listen to this song and hopefully know what it's about, emerging from trees, trying to be open again."
Pillow Queens - ‘Gone’
Another new track from PQ and an album announcement - their third album Name Your Sorrow is out April 19. They play Iveagh Gardens on July 13 - their biggest headline show to date. ‘Gone’ is the kinda track that sounds tailor-made for bigger spaces. They say: “‘Gone' is a song that looks into the vapid nature of brief romantic encounters and the hyperbole that can become so monotonous, it makes you jaded." Pamela Connolly says: "Lines like, 'I was in your top five things to do' convey a lack of self-worth that’s tackled throughout the album. It’s a song that showcases a vulnerability that allows for no silver linings–it's the reality of how someone is feeling in the moment." The track came about at the end of a jam session during a songwriting retreat in The Burren
David Hedderman - ‘Pokerface’
Dublin-born and Berlin-based artist David Hedderman releases the fourth, and final, track before the release of debut album Pulling at the Briars on February 9. He says of the song: ““It could be seen a love song, but also in a world that doesn’t make much sense at the moment... to be with yourself and not feel lonely nor confused. not to focus on yourself directly but through an activity....... something that gives you a kind of peace to process it all. Go in... get quiet. have a chat with yourself.”
Melts - ‘Figment’
The first track off their second album Field Theory, the followup to 2022’s Maelstrom, Melts say: ‘Figment’ is about the relationship we have with the world around us, filtered through our own imagination, shaped and coloured by how the individual sees the world. The difference between the concrete and imagined. The video for ‘Figment’ was shot by Irish filmmaker Andy Parkes and explores similar themes as the song - how the mind perceives the world subjectively based on key elements: time, emotion and distance from the person or event.” Recorded live to tape in Black Mountain Studios in summer 2023 and produced by Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox, Field Theory is out April 12. They say: “Like gravity we are drawn to and miss people and like light waves we love people and are loved. We live in orbits of each other, drawn by unseen forces. The album explores these forces, how we relate to each other, the people we live with and the people we live without. At the heart of Field Theory lies the realisation that we inhabit each other's worlds as much as our own, through a field of wide-ranging forces, as important as the ones keeping the planets in place.” Preorder the album here.
TPOE 293: The Cope
This week’s guests on the TPOE podcast are The Cope, a two-piece (Joe Furlong and David Anthony Curley), who released their debut album Dancer on December 8. We talked through all the tracks on that album, one of my favourites of 2023. Furlong has played as a session/live musician with the likes of Sorcha Richardson, James Vincent McMorrow, and more recently Limerick three-piece Kingfishr, while Curley, who now runs the Clinic recording studio (what a treat to record this podcast there!) used to be in the Choice Prize-nominated indie act Otherkin. Listen to the full interview here or via the Spotify player. There’s a snippet of the chat below, about where the idea for the Cope started.
Was this always the plan that you had when you thought about working together, that the Cope would be this big dance vibe?
Furlong: I don't think we ever really had a very clear idea when we first met and started hanging out of 'we need to make this kind of music'. But David was in the process of getting the Clinic open. And we just came down one day and hung out and with the instruments that are available here in terms of all the classic synths and drum machines, it kind of just went that way. We were happy to follow where the instinct just went, I guess.
Curley: Yeah, we were just here. It was the start of Covid and I think there was about two weeks building work to be done that could not be finished. Most of the studio end of things was done but the building basically wasn't safe to be open. So we were just in mucking about with drum machines and synths and sort of landed on a really nice sound naturally. We both come from more like indie rock, live performance backgrounds. So the live performance thing was always going to carry over. And I think there was really just no interest in picking up a guitar. At the time, it was just, as Joe said, the instruments that were around us inform the sound.
Was there a case of feeling a little bit bored by making that type of music?
Curley: I don't know if it was boredom. Towards the end of Otherkin, we got to work with a lot of big producers in that band. And one of them was Steve Dub, he's produced the first two Chemical Brothers records and he's mixed all of them. He brought us to a studio in Brighton called the Toy Rooms, which is a bigger, shabbier version of here. So much larger, more stuff, but on the whole, the place is a little bit grim. But some of the synths and things in there were mind-blowing. That sent me down the rabbit hole, probably one of the most formative weeks of my life. But from that point, I was kind of pretty obsessed with - I'd already a keen interest in listening to electronic music, but making it became much more of a priority for me at that stage.