Delivery Service

Dublin indie-rock band Delivery Service have had an explosive year since their first single Ghost debuted in March 2025. Blending punchy bass lines, distorted guitars and sweet vocal harmonies, Delivery Service are equal parts nostalgic slacker-rock combined with confessional, modern-day humour and lyricism. The female-fronted band have nailed the outspoken, unapologetic elements of 90s figureheads like Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, while also adding a contemporary twist to the keystone of DIY punk ethos: go on stage to get your feelings out.

A buzz is simmering around their name once again following the release of their debut EP ‘five songs’, which came out on Friday, May 1. We chatted with band members Becca Daly, Ashley Abbedeen (also hotgirl) and Ciara O’Neill to talk about band beginnings, the importance of tending to the local scene, and how the stereotypes that female musicians have faced in the past still unfortunately persist up to the present day.

Congratulations on the upcoming EP. How are you feeling about the release?

BECCA: Really excited.

Has it been a while since you wrote those songs? Does it feel like it has been a long time coming for you to release these songs all together?

CIARA: Yeah, they’re like the first songs we ever wrote. They’re old but, well, old by a band that’s not that old standard. I want to go back to the very start when the band was first being formed.

Becca, I saw in another interview that you said that Delivery Service was formed after you watched a documentary about Bikini Kill. Is that correct?

BECCA: Yeah, that’s true.I watched The Punk Singer, it’s a really good documentary about Kathleen Hannah, who’s the lead singer of Bikini Kill. And I just thought it was very inspiring. And I’d always wanted to start a band, but, it kind of gave me a kick up the arse.

I was like, if she can do it, why not? Why can’t I? And then I put up a story on Instagram, not very analogue or old school, like Bikini Kill, but you know, these are the times we live in. Then Ashley reached out, and Ciara as well. And then Niall was a friend of Ciara’s and then we all kind of came together.

Where was your first gig?

BECCA: It was in the Workman’s Cellar. RIP. Another girl from BIMM was doing a college assignment and she had to set up a gig and she asked us to do it.

Do you think BIMM is a good place to start when you want to form a band? Is it an encouraging place to get started?

ASHLEY: Yeah. I would say so. I think there’s just so many different types of people and obviously we got very lucky that we found our type of people in that way. I think we all generally have a very similar taste in music. I didn’t start either of my bands until after BIMM, but it definitely was the instigator of everything. I went into BIMM with not really a notion of what kind of music I even wanted to make. I wasn’t even really much of a songwriter. So I think it really gave me the tools and the building blocks to find my voice anyway. I know a lot of people have things to say about BIMM. Whenever I see anyone speaking negatively about it, I understand a lot where they’re coming from. I think you get out what you put in though. There are obviously people that we went to college with who were very negative. Some males were negative about the women in the course. I remember kind of having a panic attack over being in a group situation where we had to turn a song into our own version. I was nervous because I think I was in a group with just all guys. Not necessarily that they made me feel in that moment, like I wasn’t able to work something out, but just the overall vibe from a lot of the guys in the course was very harsh towards girls. I don’t know if it’s so much like that anymore.

BECCA: I definitely experienced that. I didn’t experience it myself, but I noticed the way some of the guys would talk about girls in the course, like it was almost like they had to prove themselves more. And a lot of guy bands would get so much praise and the girls would have to work 10 times harder to even get a look in.

ASHLEY: I think it’s kind of how the band came together a little bit because we were all a bit frustrated about situations like that and wanted to work with other women.

BECCA: Yeah. Especially since I only started playing bass when I started the band, obviously you do get those kinds of nerves of, will people be like, oh, she can’t play, she’s shit cause she’s a girl or whatever. I’ve never had anyone say that, thankfully. But obviously it’s just a concern that I think a lot of female musicians have - that they’re not taking it seriously - which needs to change.

What have been the main things that you’ve learned in the last year of being together as a band?

ASHLEY: I would say keeping things as DIY as possible has really paid off for us, and focusing our efforts on the local scene and helping each other out. I think the reason that we’ve been able to make these records was we used all our own money that we have made from gigs and stuff like that. I think saving all the gig money into a band fund really paid off for us. Choosing the right gigs to play, knowing when to spend money and where to spend money. I’m very grateful that we’ve been able to keep everything very in our own hands. We have complete control over everything.

BECCA: Yeah, I’d agree with that, definitely. And learning to not get too carried away. I definitely am someone that can want to rush, want things to happen fast. But the music industry comes in waves.You could have one period of time like when Ghost came out where there’s so much attention, so much buzz and so much stuff happening, and you have quiet periods. I guess I’ve just learned to know that the quiet periods don’t necessarily mean that it’s all over and everyone has forgotten about you because that’s just not true. And as Ashley said, keeping things within the little bubble, because that’s what makes scenes thrive and bands enjoy being in them.

ASHLEY: I think you can really do so well with building a real audience where you are. I have gone to the Basque Country a few times and I’ve become a fan of a lot of the bands over there, and no one even really knows about them outside of where they’re from, but they are selling out venues of 300 cap and have the whole crowd singing every single lyric back to them, and that’s what I want. That’s the goal. You can go to a local gig where it seems like it’s a band that is doing so well because they’re playing shows all over Europe, but no one’s really singing back their lyrics. I think that’s very telling of if you’ve really built a true fan base or not. Or if it’s just a buzz or whatever.

It takes effort to build up a nice fan base here as well. You’re obviously putting a lot of time into that as well, and people appreciate that.

BECCA: Yeah, I think the scene here is so good at the moment. It would be a shame if all the bands decided to move to England or something like that. That’d be shit. I think we have such a nice little buzz going on right now. Just need to keep tending to it like a garden.

What are you most excited for in the future of Delivery Service?

ASHLEY: I’m excited to record the rest of the songs that we have. I would love to release everything, like the EP and the other songs that we have all together as an album. I think they all work. Even the set that we play, I think it all flows really nicely. So I’m excited to be able to listen to all the other songs that we have. I really love one of the songs we have called Not Gonna Happen. It’s a conversation between me and Becca going on about the male gaze and not really caring about male attention. I’m excited particularly for that song.

BECCA: I love that song too. I think a lot of people seem to like that. People that have come to our shows have commented on that song. Plus it’s my Mam’s favourite.

CIARA: I’m excited for the prospect of recording that and seeing what else we can pull out of it that we really haven’t thought of yet. I feel like sometimes when we get into the studio we think of some new things.

ASHLEY: Definitely. To play around with the composition of all the songs as well and see how they can grow into something more well thought out and matured.

‘five songs’ is out now, and is available on all streaming services. A limited vinyl pressing is available in-store at Spindizzy Records, Georges Street Arcade, or available to purchase online via blowtorchrecords.com .

For more information and to support the band directly visit https://deliveryservice.bandcamp.com

Watch Delivery Services music video for their single ‘Turancy’ now!