Irish rockers Spearside are a new band on the scene, bringing a cool garage rock sound back to the genre. Their song Not Up To Much really caught my attention when I heard it, and I cannot wait to hear more from them! You can find a stream at the end of this interview if you missed it first time round – they really are something special!
By Jane Howkins
You released a single titled Not Up to Much. What can you tell us about the track?
We recorded Not Up to Much in our own home studio during the same sessions as our previous two singles, so it completes a trilogy of sorts. When the musical backdrop is major key and up-beat, it can offer some extra license to explore darker lyrics without the song feeling too laborious. The song is about someone revelling in their descent into nihilism. The character in the lyrics takes the tragedy of their life, their apathy and their social isolation, and uses it as an excuse to give up, blame others and crack a wry smile while they do it.
How has the reception to Not Up to Much been so far, and where can the song be purchased?
Thankfully the reception has been great so far! It’s a thrill to get airplay from the likes of Steve Lamacq and one of our musical heroes, Mickey Bradley from The Undertones (who described us as a band with three fine heads of hair). A lot of people have also picked up on the incredible music video that our friend Ferdia McMorrow animated for the song, which really brings the psych/garage rock elements of the song to life. The single is up on our Bandcamp page if anyone would like to download it!
Your music has an indie garage rock sound. What/who influences you most as artists? What have you been listening to recently?
Some of the big influences that people pick up on are the likes of The Saints, The Byrds, Teenage Fanclub and Brendan Benson. As you mentioned, we also love all the underground 60s and 70s garage rock stuff along with the whole garage revival scene of the 90s and early 2000s. An incredible garage/psych/proto-punk record that I’ve been listening to again lately is The Day the Earth Met Rocket From the Tombs. Rocket from the Tombs were a band that split into The Dead Boys and Pere Ubu. This record has some early versions of songs that both bands would go on to release, as well as some bizarre Stooges covers, what’s not to like?
What do you think is the biggest challenge in the music business at the moment?
Making money is the major challenge, but also trying to make something of your band, promote your music and work with the music industry without falling into being another boring ‘showcase’ band who does everything by the book.
Do you have anything else exciting coming up this year?
We’ve got some shows in London coming up which will be the first time we’ve played abroad. We’re playing Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes in Shoreditch on 12 April and then in July we’ll be coming back to play the Pump it Up festival, so we’re really looking forward to that. We’ll also have a few more singles coming out this year that we’re excited to release.
Where are you based? How is the music scene faring at the moment?
We’re based in Ireland, about an hour from Dublin. There’s a lot happening in Irish music these days with plenty of bands becoming international acts. As a band that has been knocking around the underground for a while, it gives us hope to see that the Irish scene is getting a lot of global attention. The underground scene in Ireland has some exciting new bands coming through too. We play with a lot of our friends Unstuck’ who also record all their music with us in our studio. Another great band who just have a couple of singles out are Beauty Pageant who we’re playing with next month in Galway.
Any last words for the fans?
Come see us live and buy a t-shirt on your way out!