The Goo 1
JUNE/JULY '25 with drums in mind, if you know wha
t I mean. In that sort of classic folk thing of an internal metronome. Some of it was really simple because they might have had… What’s the organ that has the drum machine on it, Ruth? Ruth: The Organetta. John: The Organetta. What a name. So for those ones, it was obviously, you’ve got essentially, a click that I’m playing to. And for other ones, for example, ‘Bury Me Not’, we had to keep it incredibly sparse and simple so that I could play off Ruth’s delivery as it came in, which is cool. I think it’s kind of really neat to have parameters in that way. They move from song to song, so it’s quite coincidental and arbitrary, the stuff like that. You’re having to figure out what will work, and what will suit us and also what’s practical. It was good craic. Over the many shows I’ve seen, watching songs like ‘Adieu Lovely Erin’ develop from these sparse arrangements with fairly simple drum machine rhythms to these exuberant explosions, to see a familiar piece of music transformed in that way… John: I got excited for that one when I first heard it. It’s got a slightly psychedelic edge, all those off-the-beat string hits in the arrangement . All the stuff that makes my brain vibrate. It’s one of those ones where it sort of almost feels like it’s been written for you. I don’t mean that as somebody who was going to bring something to it. I mean as a fan of music. I think the first time I heard ‘Peasant’ by Richard Dawson, I thought, “oh my fucking god, this speaks to my DNA” not “I like the sound of this.” Where there’s so many touch points in it that you’re just thinking “holy fuck”. Obviously, there’d be lots of stuff that we’re collectively fans of. So it shouldn’t be surprising that it happens, but I still got super fucking stoked when I was listening to the demo of that for the first time. Your approach to your individual instruments is so unique. Whether it’s the drums, Cormac using the two fiddles, or the open tunings and the harmonics, or Ruth using her voice as a theremin. Is that a thing of eschewing traditional forms or as simple as “this could be fun’? Cormac: It’s “this could be fun”. That’s primarily the position that it comes from because if it didn’t come from that, I’m not sure if I do it. Ruth: I think you have these ideas in your head. You can hear all this stuff in advance. It’s amazing. I might play him a little something, and then he goes, “Yes. I know what I have to do. ”And it turns out it’s like two fiddles or whatever” Cormac: As far as my approach goes, I mess about a lot at home, so there’s a kind of, subconscious buildup of ideas, but my favorite thing is to just go in and just go ‘bleh’. For us to be working with Spud is perfect for that because he really enjoys that as well. Ruth: You bring it out in each other. They have this secret code that they speak to each other. Spuds might say “I need you to do or a…” or “Do you think you wanna do a bleedlebloo” And Cormac says, “Yeaaaah”. And they each know what they mean! It’s a perfect pairing, and what Spud brings to the table, the clarity on the production side of things. The album sounds so rich. So everything’s mysterious, but you can hear each element well enough to try to figure out what it is. John: He was the first person to introduce me to the idea of sound as though you’re looking at a canvas, and what he’s really adept at is creating the space for lots of stuff to be able to fit on the same canvas. I think back to my old band and earlier iterations of things where I’ve recorded the drums and it sounded amazing. By the time everybody else has done their bits, the drums sound like they’re just being squeezed by everything. He’s very he’s incredibly adept at creating enough space for everything to be able to breathe, without actually compromising that much. Cormac. I think he hears in three sixty or something like that. You know what I mean? He’s fully aware of everything that’s happening all around, and he somehow manages to get these little spaces for everything. And it’s exactly that dance. It’s a canvas. Just where you think he can’t put more brightness or or whatever, he finds it. He finds it. It’s been a pleasure to see the love shows develop over the past year. How have ye found it? Is it any smoother getting everything together yet? Does it still take an hour to soundcheck? Ruth: Now it takes an hour to plug everything in. Cormac: I think we’re getting more confident. Things are getting tighter. I think for me and then maybe for ye as well.the last, the gig we did in Whelans with Adam on sound, was just the best for me anyway.. It was really incredible. He nailed it. We’re still dicking about, kind of introducing little bits. The tracks can be so rich and so dense that you’re kinda thinking ”Okay. How do I or how do we represent this? How do we represent the intricacies and the counter rhythms and whatever is happening in a way that, yeah, best showcases. It’s a work in progress. It’s a work in progress. And once we do a few more gigs, it’ll be better again. John: We’re not really a known quantity yet, but there’s a couple of really nice things we’re getting to do. We’re playing Supersonic, which is one of our favourite festivals in the world. There was one year when five of [Cormac and my] siblings were there at the same time! Then we’re playing this one in Glasgow called Core, which I think is getting announced today as well. And that’s with Cave In and Chat Pile and all these sorts of interesting noise people. And we’re set to play the Royal Festival Hall with our friend, Lisa O’ Neill which an incredible Is there anybody who’s come up recently that you guys admire? Ruth: I mean, there’s so many, it’s hard. Trá Phaidín. Our friend Cathal Caulfield. He’s amazing. He’s one of the best fiddle players in Ireland. Cormac: Oh, Miles Manley of course. The last two or three things he put out is incredible. Ruth: Oh, and the new album, ‘Colloquialism’, by Decy is well worth a listen. John: Rùn are excellent as well - they’ve signed to Rocket in the UK - heavy, psychey mantra driven goodness! ‘All Smiles Tonight’, every right thinking music listeners Album of the Year for 2025, is out July 11th through River Lea Records. Poor Creature play Button Factory on Nov 27th. Tickets on sale now. 9