While growing up in the town of Blessington in County Wicklow, David Clarke was introduced to a diverse range of interesting music from both of his parents. Through his mother, he was exposed to traditional and alternative music, and acts like Green Day, KT Tunstall, and Daniel O’Donnell. Through his father, he was exposed to ‘80s pop acts like George Michael and Madonna.

 “My mam’s a singer,” David tells Post-Burnout. “She’s, like, the best singer I’ve ever heard in my life; she has the voice of an angel! [Laughs] And my dad’s not the best singer, but he’s got this crazy range for a man! So, I always say, I got my voice from my mam, and my range from my dad.”

From a very young age, David noticed that music had a deep emotional impact on him. “I’m a very sensitive fella, like,” he admits. “For a man, I’m very sensitive; so when I hear music, it makes me feel like I’m going to fuckin’ shed a few tears, like.”

With an ingrained childhood resonance for the power of music and a family tree full of players, David wanted to learn an instrument and settled on the guitar. “First and foremost, I’m a guitar player,” he asserts. “Before I was into singing or writing songs, that was my first love, you know? That’s really what got me into music, playing guitar.”

As a teen, David was drawn to the era’s emo explosion. He enjoyed acts like My Chemical Romance and Panic! at the Disco, before graduating to Nirvana. Upon finding the light and guidance of Cobain, David and his classmate, Jack Ussher, dyed their hair dirty blonde, began wearing scruffy flannel shirts, and started a grunge-inspired band that lasted three years, as David was between the ages of fourteen and seventeen.

David and Jack continued to play together, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the band they were in fizzled. With nothing to do during the lockdowns, David autodidactically learnt music production, starting with GarageBand before switching to Logic. David learnt on the job by engineering some new original tunes inspired by dreampop, indie-pop, and post-punk, which were new frontiers in his experience.

“I just kind of wanted to make something that sounded a bit more important, you know?” explains David of why he chose to explore these palettes. “Stuff that, in years to come, I could look back on as real songs, like. I’m really proud of everything that I’ve made, but I kind of just wanted to make something that felt a bit new and wasn’t following a formula.”

Commencing with the release of his debut single, “Glimmer,” in August 2020, David would go on to release four singles and two EPs under his own name and gig around Dublin with some local players from Blessington and Ballyknocken. “I genuinely think there’s some magic in this town,” David says of the talents found in his back garden.

“There’s not much original music played in Blessington, because there’s no venues, you know? So, a lot of the work here, as a musician, would be as a covers musician. Like, you can fit in a few originals, but that’s not what people are looking for, like. That’s not what you’re being hired to do.

“But the likes of Eoghan Daly; an amazing folk singer-songwriter. He’s actually opening for David Keenan soon. I would’ve went to school with Eoghan, and I was playing a gig there with him yesterday. He’s a genius. He’s just such an amazing lyricist, and he’s so descriptive, and he articulates himself so well in his music.

“And a brother of mine… – more of a brother than a friend – …Jack [Ussher], he’s in a band called Sell Everything. They are just doing God’s work, right now! Everything they’re releasing is absolutely groundbreaking, to be honest with ya. And he’s got his own band, 20mg__guy. Any genre, this guy can do.

“I’m definitely leaving people out. There are up-and-comers, as well. There are young fellas, like Melo Bliss. They’re a new band…well, I suppose, they’re not that new, but I produced one of their singles, ‘I’m okay.’ It’s out on Spotify. They’re kind of indie. A few years younger than me, but their music is so much better than the music I was making back then. [Laughs]”

But despite the talent pool and the continuing success of the Blessington-based festival Kaleidoscope, David concedes that for artists living in places like Wicklow and Kildare, there is still a requirement to “make it” in Dublin. “That’s where it’s at,” he says of Dublin. “That’s where all the venues are, that’s where everyone wants to be playing. I don’t know; you’re just not going to really get anywhere, just playing in Blessington and Kildare as an original artist, you know? You want to be where the people are, and where you’re going to sell tickets, and where you’re going to get heard.”

After emerging from the pandemic as a musician and producer who was earning traction, David decided to release his future material under the pseudonym eyejust, despite his notoriety being synonymous with his name. This change was officially solidified with the release of the single, “leavin in the morning,” in March 2023. “I wanted to kind of shift the music that I was making,” David says of the rechristening. “I wasn’t making the music that I wanted to make. So, that’s kind of how eyejust came about. The music that I want to make is kind of always changing, so a lot of the eyejust songs are very different, like.”

Since the change, eyejust has released exactly two songs a year thus far. Their latest track is “out of luck,” which dropped last Friday. The song is a meditation on the actions of the people in your life, as you monitor their mistakes and achievements to discern what to do in your life by proxy. “I went through a very tough time over the past two years,” David says of crafting the song.

“I was struggling with an addiction, and the song, to me, is, ‘Everything’s going to be alright,’ like. There’s a lot of hope in the song. I’m knocking, I’m calling, I’m on it. I’m ready to fuckin’ just move on and be healthy, like, you know? And that’s kind of just what the tune’s about, is just pushing through, and saying, ‘OK, yeah, this bad thing happened, but it’s over now, so there’s no point in fuckin’ crying over spilt milk. Just fuckin’ get on with your life, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.’”

From starting in the humble beginnings of his bedroom during the pandemic, the work David put in has eventuated into him now producing for other artists (such as the aforementioned Melo Bliss, as well as ALVA), and eyejust expanding into a fully-fleshed band that features the talents of Ugnius “Uggy” Dapkunas on bass, and the brothers Ben and Oscar Higgins on lead guitar and drums, respectively.

David is justifiably proud of what he has achieved thus far with eyejust. “It started off with just me making the music I wanted to make, and it’s kind of become my baby, in a sense,” David proudly exclaims. “I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I auditioned to sing in some band, and the guys were fuckin’ amazing. I would’ve known the drummer, and I still have a lot of respect for the guy. I auditioned, and things were going well in the studio, and it kind of came down to, ‘If you’re going to sing for us, you have to leave eyejust.’

“They would’ve had a lot of connections in the industry and stuff, but I just couldn’t do it, like, because I believe in this project, and I know that the songs are good, like, and if I just cop on…because I’m so bad at promoting myself, you know? This single really is like…even emailing you, this is the first time I’ve ever actually done anything. I just put out the tune, and hope it goes well, but I really need to start investing in myself, because I just really believe in it, and I believe in this project, and I think that people will like it, but nobody’s going to like it if they never hear it for the first time, you know?”

Having returned to his hometown after living in Rathmines for a spell, David is planning once more to relocate to Dublin, with the intent of expanding eyejust further and a goal of releasing more than two songs annually. “My main goal with eyejust, when it started three years ago, was to make an album, like,” David says of the project’s future.

 “I don’t want to just release an album, because it’s really hard to make an album without a label, management, or PR, so I’m just going to release ten singles, and the eleventh single will be the first track on the album. So, I’m just going to release ten singles, and then release the album with one extra track, and that way, I can promote each song on the album, individually.

“So, after I release that album, I want to do a seven-track/eight-track EP/album with just features. That’s going to be the main goal, in terms of recording, when I move back to Dublin. I just want to work with as many people as possible. There are so many amazing songwriters that I really admire in Dublin, like the likes of Tom Kelly, Sell Everything, and Jack Ussher, who I’ve mentioned multiple times throughout this interview. Eoghan Daly. I haven’t had a feature on eyejust yet, you know? I just want to do a whole album of collaborations, and just collaborate with as many artists as I can.”

eyejust’s latest single, “out of luck,” is out now. You can keep up with the project through their Instagram.

Tune into POSTBURNOUT.COM Interviews… tonight at 21:00 (IST) to hear this interview in full. Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music Podcasts.

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.