GURRIERS TALK NEW ALBUM, BIGGER STAGES AND IRISH IDENTITY

INTERVIEW | GURRIERS – Dan Hoff & Pierce O’Callaghan by Gracie Erskine

With their sophomore album Nobody’s Coming To Save You set to release at the end of the month, and a huge tour to coincide, Gurriers have got a lot to talk about. Frontman Dan Hoff and drummer Pierce O’Callaghan had a quick chat with Northern Exposure to talk album two and what it is bringing this Autumn.

How has festival season been treating you so far? 

Dan: I think it’s been quite sporadic this summer. Not as much as we’d have hoped for, but I think it’s been good because the album isn’t out yet so it gives it a lot more time for it to breathe. I feel like we played less shows, but really big, important gigs.

Pierce: Yeah, there’s been some huge festivals across Europe. Especially in Ireland, we got two of the biggest festivals in Ireland and two very good slots and stages. 

All this is in anticipation of the new record. When you’re taking these new tracks out on the road, do you get a bit nervy kind of bringing the new material to the table?

Dan: We’ve talked about when we were going to play songs off the record live for quite a while now. We’ve released a couple of singles now in the lead up to the album coming out, and we’ve been playing those live over a year now.

Pierce: I think we were very conscious of like trying to hold back some of the songs until the album was out or until close to when the album was going to be out. We’ve played like six or seven of the songs from the new record, and there hasn’t been that kind of anxiousness around that you’ve asked about. I think everything we’ve played off the record so far is a very obvious development from what’s on the first record. There are probably two or three tracks that we haven’t played yet that are definitely more expansive and open out the second half of the record.

The dreaded album #2 is quite a big thing. How do you follow up your first one? Did you have an action plan going into it? 

Dan: I think we just wanted to push the envelope further and push our own evolution as songwriters further as well, not limit ourselves to what we can do. There’s a lot more textural stuff, and we wanted to work with a producer who was a lot more hands-on. 

What do you think your biggest change has been as a band?

Pierce: I think a big pivot point in the band is Charlie joining and the domino effect that that had on everything else. We had to take a couple of steps back and learn how to fit Charlie into our existing writing process. I think it’s just the whole dynamic of the group is different. The way we approach things and really think about things is totally different. It forced us all to look inward and think more about things.

With such a strong and present community in Irish identity within the music industry, do you feel you’ve got a kind of legacy to live up to and prove some justice to?

Dan: I don’t know if it’s a conscious thing. I think it’s all very deeply subconscious at times how much we feel very Irish about what we do. I think for me, it’s my accent that I sing in that which obviously brings this kind of authenticity and confidence in my voice. And I think other bands kind of have that as well.

Pierce: I think for us, we just want to see Irish bands do well. That’s why we like to bring Irish bands out on tour. I guess we do have a national pride and love the culture of Ireland.

Dan: I think it’s an interesting thing when people talk about the wave of Irish music at the minute. I wonder, is it a thing that when people will look back on, like, how much will all of it stand up? How much is some of it part of the momentum of it all? If you take Britpop as a wider example, or the New York stuff in the late 90s, 2000s, there’s always bands at the forefront of it. And then there’s always bands that had a moment as a part of that wave.

It’s difficult to say with full confidence because you’re in the middle of it at the minute, but I really do feel as if across the board at the minute there’s so many good Irish artists. The level and quality in every direction is incredible. Take someone like Jazzy and what she’s doing is incredible. She’s doing these kind of, like, house sampling vocal things, but it’s now paved her into producing her own songs, and it’s amazing. I really do think across the board, the quality that Ireland produces is so far above its weight.

Do you adapt your writing process to be more conscious of how songs will go down live?

Dan: I don’t think we’re going to end up writing songs like Nick Cave, even though he jumps around like a lunatic still in the 60s. I think the second album we were trying to make a lot more dramatic. I feel like our first album was always pushing to get to the really big moment, and if you put too much emphasis on that, it becomes manufactured. So I do feel like when we wrote these songs, it was genuinely just being like, this is cool. I like this. I think this is something we should work on.

The upcoming UK/EU tour is absolutely massive. What’s one word you’d use to try and plug yourself and go, no, you should come to this huge tour?

Pierce: I want to say momentous, because this is us playing in bigger rooms. It’s a new record, and we’ve consciously tried to write music that sits better in bigger rooms. I also think these aren’t small rooms, but I would anticipate we won’t be playing rooms this size forever. This is an opportunity for people to come and see us.

Dan: Well then, I’ll just say evolution. 

Gurriers’ huge UK/EU kicks off in Dublin on September 24^th and tickets for the rest of the tour can be found HERE.

Pre-order Nobody’s Coming To Save You HERE.