The Goo 1
Words: Niall McGuirk JUNE/JULY '25 STOAT Wexford
indie rockers Stoat have been around for a couple of decades, dipping in and out of the scene as family and life commitments allow. They are back with a new album, being launched in the Star Bar on July 4th. I asked their bass player Cormac about the timing of the new record and where the band are at for 2025. C: The band is a fundamental part of our lives, but it fits into the small spaces that aren’t occupied by jobs and families and doing the hoovering and washing the dishes etc etc. So rather than gigging every week we try to concentrate our attention on just a handful here and there, and make them special. Probably you’ll see a bit more of us over the next while, especially if other people are as excited about the new songs as we are - until our families and employers’ patience gets exhausted and we have to catch up on other stuff we’ve been neglecting What has been the motivation to keep going as a band? I don’t think we need motivation, any more than you’d need motivation to eat a piece of chocolate, or sing in the shower. I just always have bits of songs and grooves knocking around in my head, and I feel like it’s the same for John (the other main songwriter). And then as soon as I have something good I’m just itching for the other guys in the band to hear it and bring it to life. The songs are just natural outgrowths of what’s going on inside our heads - whether that’s kinda daft whimsical flights of fancy or our deepest reflections on ... well, everything, good and bad. One of the best compliments we ever got was “Stoat’s like someone you meet in a pub and they’re great craic, but then as you’re chatting realise you’re actually having a really deep conversation”. Listening to our songs, if we succeed in getting the songs right, should be kinda like hanging out with us at our best What is the most enjoyable part of being in a band? Like - making up songs is FUN, y’know? Having an idea for a cool line or bit of a song, or hearing an idea one of the lads has come up with, is just exciting - when I come up with something cool I’m buzzing when I play it for my wife and I can’t wait to show it to the lads. And then when a song comes together and we’re all playing it and it’s sounding good none of us can keep the smiles off our faces That’s not to say that it’s not a slog sometimes - the end part of recording where you do all the tidying up is always work. And it’s not as if we don’t care if anyone listens. Part of the excitement of songwriting is having succeeded in saying something you wanted to say, and wanting other people to hear it. As a group of friends playing some music, do you think this helps or hinders the band? Like any group of friends we spend most of our time just talking shite and trying to make each other laugh, and doing stuff we like doing, but it happens that what we like doing has an output that other people can hear. “A band” is what it looks like from the outside, but for us it’s really ... well, “Stoat” is just kinda shorthand for us being ourselves. Stoat’s new album I Contain Multitudes is released on July 4th. They launch it with a gig in The Star Bar, Baggot St on that date. 37