The Cork rockers focus on their very good new EP Salt Of The Lee, KNEECAP, and the significance of musicians utilizing their platform.
Cliffords. If you happen to haven’t heard their identify – stretched on billboards and blasted on the airwaves – but, it’s solely a matter of time. Final 12 months, the Cork band launched their debut EP Strawberry Scented, a self-financed labour of affection that earned some glowing vital notices.
They’ve adopted it up with a superb sophomore EP, Salt Of The Lee, which is only some days outdated after I meet singer Iona Lynch and keyboardist Locon O’Toole over Zoom. On the subject of milestones comparable to these, it’s not unusual to replicate on apparent artistic progress, which runs parallel to the private progress of your twenties.
“Strawberry Scented follows us as youngsters and has a really nostalgic, candy sound,” Lynch remembers. “But this one has rather a lot more actual issues and darkish moments. So the sound positively displays that.”
“We needed a bit more edge with this one, and to experiment with a a lot heavier sound,” O’Toole provides.
“The EP was remodeled the final three years. We had been in faculty and coming to phrases with a variety of issues that occurred in our life,” Lynch follows up. “I suppose you could possibly name them our first ‘grownup’ issues. All of this was set in opposition to the backdrop of Cork Metropolis. We had been closely impressed by the music scene there, it’s the place we grew up”.
Amongst the heavy hitters on the tightknit Cork scene are Cardinals, Pebbledash, I Dreamed I Dream and The Love Buzz.
“It’s such a tremendous scene,” enthuses O’Toole. “There’s a lot expertise and everybody’s so supportive of one another. You go to a gig and there’s at the very least 10 folks from different bands in the crowd. Everybody’s all the time going out to help one another.”
For the Leesiders, that help extends past the Insurgent County to the wider Irish scene, and it definitely goes past the music itself. Lately, Cliffords signed an open letter supporting KNEECAP, who got here below hearth in the US media following their Coachella set, the place they displayed visuals that learn “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine”. For Cliffords, supporting the Belfast trio was an apparent step.
“An awesome level that’s been introduced up is that the protection has been so closely centered round KNEECAP, and never the genocide,” Lynch asserts. “I feel what Kneecap did was incredibly courageous, but what’s more important right now is the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Not sufficient individuals are speaking about it.
“Individuals aren’t outraged sufficient and we are able to’t simply sit again, watch this occur and dissociate as a result of it doesn’t really feel geographically near us. It is actual and it is taking place right now. We have now to proceed speaking about it. The true level is to not be outraged by what some individuals are saying, but to be outraged by what’s really taking place.”
On the subject of artists with a platform to talk out and protest the established order on quite a lot of fronts, Lynch thinks “it’s incredibly important”.
“I’ve all the time been actually keen about sexism in the Irish music scene,” Lynch provides. “Yearly these statistics come out about the lack of illustration of ladies and nonbinary acts on Irish radio. And it is enhancing, but it’s solely enhancing by a small proportion. Final 12 months, it was lower than 3%, this 12 months it’s 5%. It’s enhancing, but it’s nonetheless not good. I feel that you probably have the privilege of getting a platform and an viewers, you need to utilise it to the better of your means.”
Salt of the Lee is out now
