THEATRE
THEATRE
words: Liam Griffin
The incredibly exciting Limerick five-piece Theatre released their debut EP Incarnate on June 12th to a brilliant reaction from critics and music lovers both. Since then the band has been incredibly busy with festival appearances and Other Voices Derry and are midway through a hugely successful UK tour. They finish up a great year by being part of the New Years Eve Dublin Castle line up so grab a ticket for that pronto. We spoke with members Maeve O’ Shea (vocals), Dara Gooney (guitar), Oscar Halpin (guitar), and Gerry Sheal (bass) about the release of Incarnate.
You guys have been together for three years but haven’t released any music until now. Was there any temptation or pressure to get music out there earlier?
Dara: Yeah, I suppose in a way there was some pressure from fans at shows to put music out, but it was something that we just had to ignore and focus on developing the music, but also ourselves and our live shows.
Maeve: I think for a time we were quite precious about the thought of recording and we just really wanted to get it right. We didn't want to rush into it before we’d taught ourselves enough about what being in the studio is like compared to being a live band. So, we just wanted to get the live shows down really well and be a live band for a while before the whole other world that is being in the studio.
Gerry: Yeah, good pressure as well, right, to have people that want your music at shows. When we were on tour in December I think we were all kind of itching to have that moment, but it's worth it to hold on to it and for it be right.
What was the process like of choosing the five songs for Incarnate?
Dara: I think one of the biggest things was that all of the songs we wrote in Limerick.
Maeve:from a very early stage of the band
Dara: yeah, they were all kind of written around a similar time. We had written a lot of other songs around that time, but these five felt the strongest because we never had to really sign off on them: they always showed their strengths from playing shows. They, as well as numerous other songs, have held their ground, so we wanted to put out a body of work that we felt confident in and understood.
Maeve: Yeah, it kind of just made sense to put out some of our oldest stuff.
Dara: They were probably songs that I think a lot of fans probably wanted to hear as well. I think that definitely helped to decide what was going on it.
Maeve: I think we deliberated a tiny bit at the start about adding one or two of our newer ones into the EP, but it was kind of an easy decision in the end to be like, ‘no, keep some things in the back pocket.’
Dara: Yeah, I think once we heard the track order that's on the EP, it kind of just made sense. I think it really clicked.
The cover artwork, by Omer Mosseri, is ethereal and ghostly and represents the music so well. How did it come together?
Maeve: Omer was an artist that we found on Instagram and really loved his work. Our manager, Georgie, as well was just blown away by his stuff so it was kind of a group agreement that we all really loved his work. We had a colour palette nailed down right from the start of planning out our campaign so when we started finding mint green crossovers in his work, it felt really perfect. As well as that, his work has so many strange beings in it and a lot of the themes in the EP are about a changeling-like person, or a wendigo-like person, and all of the figures that he draws kind of have that way about them. That's what made me fall in love with them.
The lyrical approach on Incarnate is so varied. What is it that draws you towards a particular voice or perspective when writing?
Maeve: Well, I don't really have a strict process with writing lyrics; it's a free-flow process in the writing room with the lads. We'll just be playing with something and I'll start to improvise. Then, I'll go home and I'll sort what I have. I tend to write in boxes of lyrics and then I'll swap things around and I'll see what goes together well, but most of the time I go home and I'll reread and I'll realise that there's a story there that I just didn't realise I was writing in the moment. ‘Messiah’ was something like that. Oscar had this riff on an acoustic guitar and started playing it in my apartment. I wanted to write a dark folk song so I came at the process of those lyrics with the intention of writing about a not likeable, male, dark figure. Sometimes there's a plan, but most of the time the plan comes after.
Oscar: An interesting point around the idea of lyrics and writing, ‘Black Swan’ is about a really tough event that happened last year where Dara unfortunately got into a car accident. We wrote that song at that time so that's what those lyrics are about. I was curious about what the idea of a black swan represented in culture, and in metaphor. It represents an unsuspected event that happens in one's life which changes their perspective which is crazy because that's exactly what happened.
You’ve shot three brilliant videos for the singles from Incarnate. What’s it been like to have the opportunity to represent the songs visually?
Maeve: We're all big visuals lovers. We love films, and sometimes we try to work film watching into our rehearsals as a band; we find it really important. So, before even the thought of having an EP campaign at all, we were thinking about what our songs would feel like put to videos. So, it was exciting. It was like, ‘finally, we get to do this; we've been wanting to do it for ages.’
Looking back over the period of time from when the band formed up to releasing Incarnate, what’s been the thing that you’re the most proud of?
Maeve: I think our work ethic, to be honest, and staying a really solid group.
Dara: I was going to say our belief. I think that's what I'm most proud of.
Gerry: Yeah, our belief in ourselves and our belief in each other
Dara: without that we wouldn't be here really.
Maeve: I mean, we find it easy to work hard, you know, because we genuinely love doing it every day. I’m just proud that we're able to stay like that as a group, you know?
Gerry: It's not lost on us how lucky we are to be doing this.
You can hear the fantastic debut EP Incarnate by Theatre on all streaming services, and you can find gig dates and more info on their Instagram (@theatre.band).