Chosen by Monk
These Irish hardcore siblings don’t believe in hanging about, as this is the title track of their second EP not just this year but in less than six months – and they’re already nearing completion of their debut full-length album, which they’re aiming to release early next year:
Speaking about the single, and its reflection on their childhood and upbringing in the County Meath town of Trim, vocalist and guitarist Oisín Walsh says:
The title encapsulates the meaning of the song; the arrogance of youth, the consequence of misplaced effort, and watching someone wilfully go down a sad road.
Steve Albini once said something about the music industry that has always stuck with me because it applies to life in general. He said “If you can understand somebody else’s mistake and not make it, then you’re ahead of the game”.
‘Couldn’t Be Told’ is ultimately about trying to learn from others’ mistakes. We also want to counter that with some positive references to our childhood. Times where you look back and are grateful for guidance you got whether or not you wanted it in the moment. Our Mam would always sing “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” at us when we were throwing strops as kids. Definitely an unorthodox disciplinary technique but it worked.
The music video was shot in the gym we built in our shed during Covid. For better or worse, we’re showing people our lives and telling our story as best we can. Perhaps we weren’t brave enough to fully embrace that in our early singles. From this point on, honesty is our song.
Talking about the EP, and the speed with which he and his brother Cian have followed up June’s ‘Hatchet Man’ debut, Oisin told me:
We almost feel we need to get as much new music out there as possible, to make up for a year of relative inactivity.
With ‘Couldn’t Be Told’ we’re doubling down on the heaviness of the last EP while also reintegrating some of the influences that got us excited about writing music in the first place, back when we were teenagers.
The importance which the two brothers place on their family and upbringing is reflected in another aspect of their work, as Oisin explained:
The cover art is a picture of our dad and grandfather in the crowd watching a long jump competition in Cavan, back in the day, taken around the same period as the cover art for ‘Hatchet Man’, which is a photo of our dad’s marching band, the Breffni Boys Band, taken during the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin in the ’70s. Our grandfather was the band master.
- ‘Couldn’t Be Told‘ will be released on 22 October.
- Spearside play the Cultúr 20.0 festival at The Sound House in Dublin tonight (Wednesday 8 October) and then headline Thomas House, also in Dublin, on 12 December.