Alternative Ireland

Hailing from a small Dublin suburb and being dubbed Ireland’s answer to Ed Sheeran is no mean feat. A lazy comparison it may be. However, it’s not the only impressive accolade one could throw at Dermot Kennedy.

Since the emergence and meteoric rise of Spotify sensation Dermot Kennedy over the past couple of years, accompanied by the recent success of other Irish musicians such as Hozier, Fontaines DC and Kodaline. The spotlight of the music industry seems to be shining on the young musicians of Ireland. More young artists than ever before seem to be emerging and are forging their path in the music industry.

With Brexit, social and political unrest boiling over in the UK, giving British artists more ammunition than ever to spit at the establishment. The political and social climate is certainly helping the rise of the new so-called modern-day punk movement, grime, you have to wonder what is happening in the Emerald Isle that is giving birth to a wealth of new talent in Ireland.

I spoke to Robert Dalton, Dublin musician and frontman of the Irish post-punk band Scattered Ashes, to try and gain some insight as to the social and political influence on today’s Irish music scene.

What do you think is happening in Ireland at the moment, politically/socially that could see this sudden rise of great music?

RD: Socially, there is a renewal of the idea of being Irish. Our generation is the first to be culturally quite mixed due to the high amount of immigration from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe in the 90's. Also, up until about the start of this decade artists especially alternative ones felt the need to relocate to London to have any chance of sustained success in the business. Due to the communicative nature of the internet, the need to move abroad has ceased and meant that artists with success choose to stay here rather than leaving, which produces a strong scene in the city of Dublin. Greatest example being Girl Band, after they signed to Rough Trade and all the artists influenced by them that popped up in their wake e.g. Otherkin, Fontaines DC, The Murder Capital and Just Mustard.

Alongside Dermot’s success, a more underground post-punk movement is emerging in Ireland lead by Dublin rockers Fontaines DC. Meeting at BIMM University and bonding over a mutual love of 60’s rock and poetry they have taken their beat poetry inspired punk to the shortlist of 2019’s Mercury Prize. In April of this year, Dublin's post-punk poets released their debut album 'Dogrel’ to wide critical acclaim. With rave reviews from NME, The Times, and The Guardian these boys have certainly made an impact in 2019. Touring extensively since the release of ‘Dogrel' the boys have made serious inroads into cracking Europe and the US, with a high-profile performance of their hit single ‘Boys of the better land’ live on the Jimmy Fallon show as well as a scintillating performance on influential Seattle radio station KEXP live they have certainly gained many admirers across the pond.

In a recent interview on the roof of a parking lot in Austin Texas, Fontaines frontman Grian Chatten revealed that one band could be the catalyst for this explosion of post-punk in Ireland.

“I think there was a bit of catalyst in the form of Girl Band a few years back, people particularly, local people to digest it because it was so incredibly different from what was perceived to be Irish culture but at the same time it was very intrinsically Irish because of its language but it was a very modern approach to Irishness, like a modernist Pogues.”

I asked Robert from Scattered Ashes on his opinions for the rise of post-punk in Ireland. Below is his answer:

What do you think is responsible for the sudden rise of post-punk bands in Ireland?

RD: The post-punk thing is largely due to the abstract and existential spirit of Irish art in literature we have Beckett and Joyce, in music you can hear that too in the lyrics of The Murder Capital and Fontaines DC but also in the poetry of Kojaque, Kneecap and others in the hip hop scene.

We're a literary nation, another reason why I think there's so much pride in our scene now is that we've finally that post-colonial mentality always looking to the "mainland" due to generation gap that doesn't remember the troubles etc. but also because Britain kinda lost its “cool” after the early noughties.

Fontaines DC are not the only post-punks who are putting Dublin on the map. Enter, The Murder Capital fellow BIMM students and friends of the aforementioned. Since 2015 The Murder Capital have been bringing their brand of arty post-punk everywhere that will have them. The band had to wait until the beginning of 2019 and the release of their debut single, which was released on Human Season Records to start making real noise in the industry. After releasing their debut single the band swiftly released their debut album ‘When I Have Fears’ in August of the same year. The band started making waves after that with dark, brooding and powerful performances in the UK and Europe.

This impressive genre-spanning crop of Irish talent appears to have no limits, Ireland finally have another singing storyteller to rival the likes of Damien Rice, Glen Hansard and Damien Dempsey. Hailing from Dundalk, County Louth David Keenan has been creating quite the buzz for himself over the past couple of years. With songs to captivate and inspire audiences the world over. He shot into the public eye after a video of himself went viral playing his track ‘El Paso’ in a Dundalk taxi. Fast forward 4 years and Keenan has shared the stage with many of his contemporaries including the likes of Dermot Kennedy, Hozier and Damien Dempsey. His poetic songwriting and lilting melodies are winning him many admirers in Ireland and globally.

Due to headline Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on January 13th in celebration of the release of his debut album ‘A Beginners Guide to Bravery’, this is evidence of how far David Keenan has come in the last few years. 2020 looks set to be a big year for the young Irishman.

You can’t talk about the rise of young artists without mentioning Kevin Smith aka Kojaque. The Northside Dubliner and his label Soft Boy Records have been making a name for themselves in 2019. Since the release of his debut EP ‘Deli Daydreams’ in February 2018 which, was named as the best Irish release of that year by the Irish Times. Kojaque has been on the radar of many hip-hop heads both at home and abroad. With his label being the subject of a recent Boiler Room documentary, supporting the likes of Lana Del Ray and Slow Thai and hitting the prestigious stage of SXSW earlier this year, there seems to be no stopping the young Dubliner. Kojaque is already an established film-maker and visual artist to boot, dreaming up all the concepts and visuals for his unique music videos, the self-confessed cinephile has also produced and created his very own short film called Love In Technicolour which won him the RHA School Graduate Studio Award.

Alternative Folk artist Ronan Kealy AKA Junior Brother is another talented young Irish musician currently on the rise. The Kerry-born Dublin-based songwriter has made a name for himself with his skittish off-kilter brand of folk music. His debut album released in May this year received rave reviews from GoldenPlecs.com giving it a 4.5 out of 5-star review, the Irish Times also gave the album 4 stars out of 5. He has received major airplay on the radio in both the UK and Ireland and gained fans such as the likes of Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders) who has been spinning his tracks on BBC 6 music. Blindboy Boatclub from the Rubberbandits described Junior Brother as one of the best artists in Ireland today, in a tweet to his 214.6K followers he wrote ‘He sounds like if you gave a peat bog viagra’

Irish music in 2019 appears to be in a very good place, with Dermot Kennedy launched into the spotlight three years ago when one of the tracks he uploaded onto Spotify was picked up by discover weekly, a playlist that automatically appears on every user account each Monday. Since then Dermot Kennedy has gone from busking on the streets of Dublin to playing at Coachella this summer. Dermot himself and Hozier arguably the two biggest young acts from Ireland presently seem to be very keen to champion their fellow countrymen. In several filmed interviews Dermot Kennedy has informed the viewers to check out guitar-toting poet David Keenan. Whilst Hozier, has been known to big up, up and coming Irish artists including Junior Brother on his Twitter account.