The Goo 1
OCT '25 started with Rún, I had this very strong
sense that this was work that needed to be done. It had a certain impetus. So anything that came from that was kind of just a logical progression, a logical necessity almost. So for me, it always felt a little bit kind like following a guiding star of some sort. You’re reaching places that sound lived in. The risks you’re able to take and the rewards you reap from them. It sounds like a very lived in project. Diarmuid: There’s always this sense almost of something telling us what it is and where it’s going, and we just nurture it and kind of try and keep our feet on the right path, if you like. Can you tell me a little bit about the compositional process? Tara: Well, some of the pieces were completely composed in the room, and then some of them are pieces that were maybe being worked on by me with Rian, or me with Diarmuid. ‘Caoineadh’, at the end, is a really, really old piece.. That constantly kind of loses its skin and becomes something else. It’s not set in stone. I think a lot of the pieces, while they are now manifested in wax, in this particular state, have the potential to evolve more. There isn’t any hard rule around finishing something and then putting it away. There’s always the possibility that it will lead to something else or that it can become another version of itself. So as I say, I mean, a lot of it was actually composed in the room but the seeds may have come from somewhere else. Can you tell me a little bit about the recording sessions for ‘Rún’? Diarmuid: Most nearly everything you’re hearing on that record is basically a live in-studio session. Tara: A good few of the vocals are first takes. Apart from some segues, in between material, and some choice overdubs, it actually was an incredibly tight time frame to get that stuff down, which is kind of amazing in itself. For the live session, it was whatever we could actually capture with our eight channels at that time. So getting the bones of the album down was very natural and very quick. And then we basically just had time. for time fermentation and maturation. And we recorded it live on an eight-track tape machine. So we didn’t have a lot of wiggle room there, and we only had, I think, nine tapes. So one tape per song, then the tapes then went to Pro Tools for the overdubs. Diarmuid: That’s all in Rian’s studio in Wickwell, The Meadow. There are some remarkable ideas and textures on the record. What were some of the highlights for ye, and was there anything new you discovered in the process of making it? Diarmuid: Well, it’s a definite case of trying out some stuff. One of my favorite things is a breath work piece in ‘Terror Moon’, which basically, myself and Tara gathered around a microphone and panting. Literally panting into the microphone. That kind of deep Wim Hof thing going. Castanets on Terror Moon as well, and a Moroccan frame drum. Just lots of really fun stuff going on. There’s a cow bone and a sheep bone playing together. What can people look forward to when they go to see Rún? The live shows look ceremonial. Obviously, we will be playing stuff from the record, but there’ll be a bit of improv happening within that. There’s a big thing as well we were aiming for in the record but didn’t get, and that’s all part of the give and take of it. This idea of it being a completely continuous experience. Live, we largely do it completely unbroken. There is an element of journeying about it. There’s a lot 27 of stuff around dealing with living in a body in the world, abusing bodies, bodies not feeling able for the world, and then the process of kind of letting the body go and then being liberated into a kind of a new place. A rebirth or something. So that when we play it, all of that material live, we tend to just go straight through all of the pieces because it is that. It is the journeying of a body with mind, the metaphysical and the spiritual and and the physical. We seem to be at a golden age of Irish music, which you guys are on the crest of. I ask some people who’ve been involved in the music scene here, for as long as you guys have, what has it been like, seeing the fruits of your labor as people are realizing how vibrant a country this is for interesting music? I would say that the situation we’re in now is a long standing dream of mine where there is this Irish sound that you can really pick out. This idea that beside the Brazilian section, there’s an Irish section that isn’t just trad. Rún’s self-titled debut album is out now on Rocket Records on vinyl, CD and digital. @run_band_insta