Since the advent of alternative music, Sheffield has been a place where independent artists can perform, make music and forge their careers. In this series, Mad Sounds with Jake Bollington, I document the sounds of the city by speaking with the best bands and artists that the city has to offer.
This week, I was lucky enough to sit down with drummer Ryan McClelland and guitarist Lughaidh Armstrong Mayock from the Irish indie rock group Basht. I met with the pair following their sold-out headline show at The Foundry to talk Miles Kane, Portishead and car trouble in the Alps.
For those unfamiliar, Basht. are a Dublin-based alt-rock group who have, as of late, been gaining significant traction on the national and international music scene. They’ve toured with Sheffield music legend Miles Kane, and this month, they finally released their long-awaited debut album entitled Poor Advice. The record is an energetic and timely blend of the group’s post-punk and indie sensibilities that has been rightfully acclaimed amongst the music press as one of the strongest debut albums of the year.
Religion is front and centre across the album’s ten tracks and is explored with particular depth on songs like Circadia and Superchurch. I started by asking the group what religion means to them, and why religion plays such a prominent role on the record.
LUGHAIDH: I think the Church was a theme we picked [for the album] given the history of Ireland but it wasn’t necessarily completely focused around the Church [itself]. I think [it was] the idea of the Church as a power structure and also just as authority in general, and that idea of being sceptical and questioning these power structures. The Church was just a
good example… We all have different relationships with faith and religious upbringing.
RYAN: The song itself, Poor Advice, was written pretty early on in the process. I think we were just kind of having conversations and chatting about what poor advice looks like and different bits of poor advice we’ve received… And, as Lughaidh said the Church was the obvious example of that, but I think other aspects of that are explored throughout the album as well. It’s just writing about our experience and encouraging people, and ourselves, to challenge that authority and make up your own mind on how you feel about things
The theme of authority and scepticism is certainly a prominent one across the album, with many of the group’s songs taking strong stances on social issues. The most notable example of this is ‘Kids Vs Guns’ which began life as a poem on the subject of Palestine. The pair told me a bit about the role that politics plays in the group’s writing and how they incorporate their beliefs into the music.
LUGHAIDH: While we were on the road, it was kind of unavoidable. It’s everywhere. You can’t ignore it or shut it out, and it’s just something we all felt strongly about, to try and write about certain things that are happening, particularly in Palestine. In terms of the broader idea of music and politics, for me, I like a lot of music that is also political.
RYAN: It’s always been art’s job in a way to challenge things, and the most interesting art, be it music, film, television, whatever, it doesn’t ignore these things. It challenges them head on.
The album itself was produced by iconic producer Ali Chant, who has previously worked with artists like Yard Act, Portishead and PJ Harvey. The pair spoke about their experiences with Chant, recording the album in Bristol.
LUGHAIDH: It was an amazing experience. Very positive. We love Ali, and I think previously when we were doing the first EP, Ali was in talks to actually record that one. So, it felt like it was in the works for a long time… It didn’t work out that time, but we did the album with him. I think we were all really excited about the idea of recording in Bristol because [of] a lot of the Bristol bands we really like, like Massive Attack, Portishead [and] Idles to name a few.
RYAN: I think we wanted to push the boat out a bit with the album and just experiment with the sound a bit more and he was just great for that. He really got into the nitty gritty with all the songs and wasn’t afraid to just get a bit weird, dial in some weird sounds. He was really up for working with us and he had some great ideas, and he’s just a lovely fella! Shout out to Ali. Moving away from the album itself, we also discussed the group’s experiences working with Miles Kane on his latest international tour.
LUGHAIDH: Ah, we had great craic hanging out with Miles. He took us on his EU tour which was brilliant. We went from France through to Croatia, Italy, Serbia. So many places. It was a brilliant experience. Most places I’d never played a gig before.
RYAN: Yeah, it was a great opportunity, and we certainly learned a lot about how to run our show. Because, you know, it’s one thing doing shows in the UK, but when you’re doing five-hour drives everyday to countries you’ve never been to, there’s all sorts of hurdles that come up. Our van broke down in the Alps, our driver Jimmy dislocated his shoulder in Rome, there’s all sorts of mad things that happened. So it was a great learning curve, but Miles was very kind to put us on and he was lovely. Big ups to Miles! (laughs) His band are great as well. Great musicians all round.
The group are the latest in a number of major Irish acts to rise to prominence in the indie rock world, with contemporaries like Theatre, Fontaines D.C. and Gurriers also seeing similar success. The pair spoke to me about the wave of Irish bands that are seeing success at the moment, as well as the music scene back in Dublin.
RYAN: It’s a small place in a really good way; a lot of the bands all know each other and they all kind of want the best for each other… I feel like there’s a really high standard for musicality and everyone wants to really push the boat out to represent Ireland as best we can. It wasn’t that long ago that there was a sentiment that you had to move to the UK or somewhere bigger to be successful, so it’s a pretty amazing privilege that at the minute we’re in this scene… and everyone’s looking in with a keen eye. I can’t speak highly enough of it to be honest.… I think it’s great that the country’s doing well in that way and people care, because, as I said, for so long, there were so many great bands coming out of Ireland that just never really got the opportunities they should have.
The quality of the music coming out of Ireland at the moment is truly spectacular, and it’s unsurprising that fans are engaging with Irish music on a scale like never before. Basht. are a shining example of the incredibly exciting things happening in Dublin at the moment, and it was a pleasure to speak to them about their latest album. I thank them for sitting down with me.
Poor Advice, the debut album by Basht. is available now on all streaming services, and the group will be appearing at venues across the UK and Ireland over the next few weeks. Their next appearance will be at the Button Factory in Dublin on the 7th of November.
Image credits: Polocho & Basht.
