Once dubbed as “one of [the] most thrilling new forces in Irish indie-rock” by Hot Press, the Dublin-based rising stars Banríon have been gaining widespread appeal since their 2019 formation for their heart-wrenchingly earnest earworms by all who have seen them opening for the likes of Pillow Queens and Remember Sports or playing festivals like Féile na Gréine, Other Voices or (in this author’s case) We’ve Only Just Begun.

The band’s vocalist and guitarist Róisín Ní Haicéid and bassist John Harding called into Post-Burnout from a studio after band practice to discuss their upcoming second EP Dare to Crush track-by-track, their tour in support of it, adding Irish seasoning to indie rock and balancing the band with work and life. 

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The first thing I just wanted to ask, quite simply, I guess could you just give us a bit of background into how you began and how youse met up?

Róisín: Yeah. So, I started the Banríon project on SoundCloud [Laughs], em, just as a place for little songs that I was writing, in like kind of 2019. And then, my friend Luke who runs Sleepover Club in Workman’s, he asked if I wanted to play a show in like, September 2019, and I was like, “Oh, God! I don’t have a band! [Laughs] And I’ve never played in real life before!” So, I set it up with a couple of people that I knew from college at the time; it was a three-piece in its baby formation. And then John got asked to play by the former drummer, who was one of my friends from college, so yeah.

John: Yeah, we were all kind of around college, as well; we were all in Trinity, at the time. Well, I was sort of…

Róisín: Dropping out! [Laughs]

John: Yeah, in the midst of dropping out at Trinity [All laugh] and playing music. But yeah. Yeah, that’s the origins. But since, we’ve had a couple of people in and out. Our first drummer moved away to America and our second drummer is moving away to America…[Laugh]

Róisín: Like, in a week! [All laugh]

John: In a week!

Róisín: So, we’ll get a drummer who will hopefully not move to America! [All laugh]

Well, it seems like you guys kind of hardened yourselves for, you know, dealing with all these elements, because, I mean, if I’m getting the timeline right, it would’ve been just around COVID times when you guys were really starting to get going. Yeah, I mean, when did you record the first EP [Airport Dads]?

Róisín: In, eh, like February 2020! So, I mean right…I remember being in [original drummer and the EP’s producer] Michael Nagle’s kitchen, being like, “Oh, God! Like, coronavirus has come to Ireland! That’s crazy!”

John: We were like, “It probably won’t be anything to worry about!” I remember we were driving back from Connemara, we were like, “I wonder will we have to do anything when we get home? Probably not!” [All laugh]

Róisín: And then, we just didn’t see each other for a year. [Laughs]

John: Yeah. Like, we were pretty tight at that point, but, like, nobody was really prepared for COVID, so, yeah, we were kind of just forced on a break, almost.

That first EP, I think I heard you compare it to having a cosy sleepover [while recording]. Was that the experience on this new EP, Dare to Crush?

Róisín: More-or-less, as well, like, because…

John: It was a little bit, yeah.

Róisín: …we stayed in our… – the drummer on the EP, Cian [Rellis] – …his house in Ballybrack, we stayed there for three nights and recorded it up in the Dublin Mountains, in Meadow Lodge. So, yeah, even like the couple of weeks beforehand, I was like, “Oh, I’m really excited to hang out with you guys!”

John: It was very chill, yeah.

Róisín: Very good for a little sea swim and getting a takeaway in the evening, like. [Laughs]

John: Yeah, remember we went sea swimming? Very cute few days.

Róisín: It was really, really nice. Because, especially at that point, you were still living in Carlow.

John: Yeah.

Róisín: Even, we didn’t have our own studio at that point, as well. Like, we were still only seeing each other quite sporadically and we weren’t really playing consistent shows then, because it was still kinda COVID-y.

John: Um.

Róisín: So, I feel that from that point on, from like last summer when we recorded it, we’ve kind of been, like, consistently playing since then, but like, yeah, there was a two-year gap where we kinda just didn’t do anything. [Laughs]

John: The big…I think there’s one big difference in my mind, which is I think that it felt more professional this time, for sure. Like, we were kind of…I mean, Michael, our first drummer, he kind of engineered the first album and mixed it and everything and he did…he was amazing at that. But…yeah, that’s about it.

Róisín: What? [Laughs]

John: But, eh [Laughs], we were still kind of experimenting, figuring out what we sounded like and everything. Whereas, going into Meadow with Rian – Rian Trench, a competent, professional, brilliant engineer – we kind of had an idea of what we wanted to sound like, too, so we were kind of more on a target.

What was working with outside people like this time? Did it alter the music in any way or alter, I guess, the flow of it?

Róisín: Em, it was still quite, like, self-produced but also…

John: Yeah, we actually…we, like, co-produced it, the four of us, kind of.

Róisín: Like, there’s not a “producer” on the EP, really…

John: Yeah.

Róisín: But like, me and Rian kind of did production while he was recording it, as well, and Chris Barry mixed it and he’s, like, full of ideas, as well. So, it was really fun.

John: We even, we had a couple of, like, extra bits added afterwards by friends, too. We have some assistant credits. Our friend Isaac – who is our…new drummer’s brother, actually – added a couple of, like, atmospheric bits on a lot of the tracks. Em, there was a saxophone briefly in one of the tracks! [All laugh]

Róisín: We axed that!

John: It was literally really close. It’s still in there, somewhere.

Róisín: Buried it!

John: Our friend recorded that from London. So, em, yeah it changed it a bit in that…I dunno, it was kind of we knew what we wanted from those things, so the process was not super different. Actually, maybe from working with Doc, your approach changed a little bit?

Róisín: Yeah, my friend Diarmuid [O’Connor], who helped produce “End Times” with me. We did that during COVID, as well. But, yeah, that kind of…that project was my first time kind of producing and having a say in the production and it kind of sharpened my idea of what I wanted things to sound like and I kind of, like, just had that confidence to be like, “Oh, no. This is what I want this to be like.”

Yeah. When I was reading the electronic press kit for your band, I noticed the artists that you list as inspirations being Snail Mail, Katy Kirby, Indigo Da Souza, Alex G and Big Thief. What I find interesting about that is that they’re all international acts, yet, when I listen to your music, it seems very distinctively Irish and I think a lot of that comes from your vocal performance, Róisín, in the sense that it feels like you’re not afraid to kind of put your accent in there, and, you know, I think a lot of the time accents can kind of just disappear in singing, anyway. Was that a conscious effort or was it just how it came out?

Róisín: Em, I don’t know. Sometimes I find myself – like if I ever do a cover – I always kind of lean into just mirroring whoever’s accent…like, you know, whoever’s singing originally.

Yeah.

Róisín: But, em, yeah, sometimes I feel like you kind of rarely hear Irish accents, and that’s why people say to me all the time, “Oh, it’s so cool that you sing in your accent!” And it’s like, “Oh!” [Laughs] Like, “I didn’t really realise it!” But then, sometimes, I have to kind of toe the line of, like, trying to sing in my normal voice but also not, like, parodying my own voice or kind of putting it on or anything. [Laughs] Because sometimes it does just sound better not to do a harsh A. That’s when I always find myself leaning into a more American accent – stuff like “ha-r-d” or anything with that kind of thing – because it cuts the word much shorter than it could be [Laughs]. But, yeah, so I guess it’s a mix of both.

Sweet. So, yeah, talking about the new EP, then. It’s obviously… it feels a lot more personal, perhaps, than your other work – although, to be fair, your music has always felt personal – but, I think on this one, it was sort of a means of getting through bereavement. I was wondering, when you’re kind of writing from that perspective – obviously you’re trying to kind of exorcise your own feelings and to try and express them and get them out – but sometimes, is there an aspect where you’re trying to, I don’t know, maybe help people in a similar situation?

Róisín: Em, that makes it sound a lot more selfless [Both laugh]. It’s definitely…it definitely comes from a – it’s not selfish, either – but, like, the songs are very much for me. Like, I never really write them thinking about their impact, or…well, sometimes I have to veto stuff that is way, way too personal; I’m like, “I can’t sing that!” [All laugh]

John: Or stuff that we’ll sit on, probably, for another couple of years before it ever comes out.

Róisín: Yeah, stuff that’s too close to home.

Too fresh.

Róisín: Yeah. Like, there’s a song that I will eventually put on an album, I hope, but my cousin had cancer last year. He’s OK now and stuff, but it’s too close to home to put out, but, like, I’ve shown him the song and stuff as well, but it just needs a bit of time for it to be kind of appropriate to sing about, if you get me?

Yep.

Róisín: And the song “Fooling,” about my mam having cancer – she’s also fine now – but, like, that felt kind of almost too close to home to sing, but then once I showed my mam and we talked about it and stuff, she was like, “Oh, I actually really like that. It’s like an honour that you’ve sung that about me” and stuff. So, it kind of depends on who it’s about, as well as how appropriate it is to sing a very personal song that I’ve written for me. Like, that song, I wrote the day that she told me that she was diagnosed, and I wrote it in about twenty minutes to kind of be like, “OK, let’s try to figure out the worst-case scenario.” But then, yeah, people have found it quite helpful for dealing with their own stuff.

John: Definitely. Like, it’s funny you ask, because I find a lot of Róisín’s songs personally helpful, like. I mean, I went to one of Róisín’s solo shows a long time ago – it was like one of those shows where she sang on her own – and I was just in the back, fucking bawling my eyes out, like! [Laughs]

Yeah, yeah, yeah! [Laughs]

John: You’ve got so many out there that are just so personal, and I guess knowing you as well, it’s even more impactful, but I think a lot of people who listen to your songs feel like they know you too because of the good quality of your writing.

Róisín: Um.

Well, I definitely want to talk about the songs on the album [Dare to Crush]. So, I was thinking maybe we could just cover them in the chronological order that they appear on the album. So, it starts with “First Love,” and what I found interesting about this one is that it kind of starts as, em…it’s kind of a Trojan horse, in a way; it feels like its starting as, like, a lovesick kind of, em, eh…as a lovesick love song, but it kind of, at some point, transitions into a kind of song about self-reflection and evaluating your own self-worth and questioning your own self-contentment and working on yourself. Yeah, I was wondering what kind of inspired that?

Róisín: Yeah, that’s such a good analysis of that. [Both laugh] Nail on the head. Em, yeah, it was just…I can’t even remember when I wrote that; I think it must have been, like, 2020. Em, just, kind of…I had gotten into a really lovely relationship that I’m still in and I was, like, writing it from the perspective of how I was feeling a couple of months previous. Just kind of, like, feeling sick of being – [I have] not been in any particular bad relationships in my life – but just like a string of relationships where I felt like I liked the other person more than they liked me or that I was kinda like…but then, yeah, trying to like me more and then, you know, loving people comes with that; once you like yourself. [Laughs]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that…yeah, I really enjoyed that, because I really did think that was a really unique perspective that you don’t really hear. I do think a lot of love songs do kind of tend to put self-worth on the other person, if that makes sense. After that, there’s an interlude and then “Fooling,” as you were talking about. I really related to this one [Laughs] because I do think I have a similar…it seems like an involuntary thing, but, like, a means of kind of using humour as a deflection from dealing with, like, real emotions. [Laughs]

Róisín: Um.

I know for other people in the scenario, it can feel somewhat flippant or disrespectful, but it is kind of like, “I’m aware of it, but I can’t control it.”

Róisín: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah!

I kind of related to that one a lot. [Laughs]

Róisín: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah. That’s me. [All laugh]

Em, then we have another interl…oh, no, sorry; then we have “Departure Party,” and I liked this one because I know, for example, you’re very socially conscious and it seems like this is really the first time we’ve heard in your music, you bringing in that aspect, and I think it really shows the kind of…the political affecting the personal, in the sense of the housing crisis brings about emigration, which affects you on an individual level because you have shit housing and all your friends are away.

Róisín: You can’t have a party. [Laughs]

Yeah!

John: You can’t keep your drummers in the band, like. [All laugh]

Exactly, yeah! Yeah, I was wondering, so, like, was kind of incorporating that kind of, I guess, that political element, that socially conscious element, was that something you wanted to do more of or was that just kind of testing the waters?

Róisín: I…like, it didn’t even feel political to me, when I was writing it, because, like, so much of what me and my friends talk about all the time is being fed up with…

John: And you work with it, too.

Róisín: Yeah. Sorry, I work in the homelessness sector and, yeah, like so much of what everyone’s talking about is…

John: Constantly, yeah.

Róisín: …how, like, Dublin can be so much better. And it comes from a place of hope, as well, is that, like, we know what needs to change and we know it can be so good, because everyone here is class, and like…

John: We all love it, like.

Róisín: And like have a really good time, but there’s just these like very obvious blocks that stop people from, like, being able to live here, to survive here, and also have a good time whilst trying to stay here.

Absolutely.

Róisín: Yeah. So, it’s just…throughout all the songs, I’m always writing about either what I’m thinking about or talking about and, like, the housing crisis…That song, I wrote when Jigsaw had just been closed down; it was a club just off Mountjoy Square, and, yeah…So, we were just…everyone was just really, really bummed for a really…well, they’re still bummed [Laughs] about that. But yeah.

Yeah, I do think it’s kind of a sad reflection when…I was thinking about this when, remember when the Olympia Theatre got the corporate sponsorship? I was like, that’s a historical venue like that, that’s so artistically relevant, that can’t be protected? It needs, like, corporate sponsorship just to survive in this country, like. [Laughs] I don’t know. I had a similar thing, where just like everything is kind of closing and it feels like, for the people who are remaining, it just, I don’t know, it does seem like there’s kind of less reason to stick by. [Laughs]

Róisín: Yeah. Yeah, well it’s also kind of not trying to be a martyr in staying here though, as well. Like, it’s like as well, that if you have to leave, then that’s fine, like. But that’s about me, as well, like, I think I have been thinking about leaving…

John: I keep telling myself that I’m not the one. Not the one to, like…

Róisín: Save Dublin, singlehandedly. [All laugh]

John: I feel super guilty in the exact same way.

Róisín: Yeah. Like, I’ve been thinking about going and, like, I feel really guilty about that [Laughs], because then I’m like…

John: “If I don’t stay, who’s going to stay?” [All laugh]

Róisín: Yeah, yeah. It’s a funny one.

Em, we then go into another interlude, and then “Sugar Water,” which is the final song. Em, I found this one sort of semi-abstract, I think. I sort of got the sensation of, I don’t know – well, this is my interpretation, I’m not saying this is your intent in writing it – but it does feel like someone coming from a, I don’t know, a somewhat bucolic background perhaps and sort of experiencing, em…experiencing a new side of life that was, hitherto, non-existent. [Laughs] Would that be a fair interpretation, or…?

Róisín: Oohhh!!

John: Interesting.

Róisín: I don’t know. Like…

John: It is, in a way.

Róisín: Yeah!

[Laughs] So close!

Róisín: Yeah! It’s ultimately a love song, a big old love song, that I wrote for my girlfriend. But it’s a sister song to “End Times,” in my mind. Even the way they’re kind of structured and the writing style; like, usually I write kind of how I speak, not too much poetry in there, really. [Laughs] But like…em, yeah, I was trying to be a little bit more abstract with that one and that is kind of…

John: It’s hard to write a love song and be really direct. [All laugh]

Róisín: [Singing] “I love your hair!”

John: [Joining in] “You’re so pretty!”

Róisín: “And you are really neat!” But that was, also, like, my girlfriend who’s an amazing writer as well and probably touches of how she writes to me and stuff, as well. Always writing little love notes to each other! But, yeah, ultimately, it’s just talking about…our first date was at Whiterocks Beach, and kind of coming into myself and this new relationship and queerness and it being so nice, and, like, yeah, I didn’t know that it would ever be this nice.

One thing I’ve noticed from the new album was, in the mix, your vocals are a lot more prominent. Not that they were obscured before, but it seems like they’re really at the forefront this time. I was wondering was that, again, intentional? Did you particularly want people to hear what you were saying on this one compared to, perhaps, others?

Róisín: I didn’t want that! [All laugh] I was a little more self-conscious!

John: I definitely know that our biggest selling point as a group is Róisín’s vocals. Like, I mean, the rest of us are grand or whatever, but it’s…[Laughs] the songs are…

Don’t put yourself down. [All laugh]

Róisín: John is an amazing bassist; I don’t know if you’ve heard!

John: I’m OK!

You’re alright!

John: The emotive aspect of it is all in Róisín’s voice, and when it came to, like, the mixing and stuff, I really liked what “End Times” was, as kind of a transitional thing. Róisín was thinking more of it as a direction that we would go: more airy, vocally. More, eh, like more doubles and way more reverb and stuff. But when it came to “Sugar Water” – and the rest of them as well – but “Sugar Water” is most…like, the one where you would be most tempted to just saturate it with tons of reverb and everything. Em, it was like we…I don’t know. I just really wanted to make sure that the lyrics were audible, because it’s so, like, conversational as a song, lyrically, if I can say that?

Róisín: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: So, yeah. I think there’s a part where we wash them out and do different, interesting bits, but, for the most part, the audibility was very important. The last record, I think, it wasn’t varied, but, yeah, it was maybe a little more…

Róisín: [Laughing] I don’t know if that was intentional or just the fact that it was recorded in a room.

John: I wouldn’t say intentional – it was self-recorded, self-produced, so that’s probably a part of it. [Laughs] There’s definitely a glossiness to this that, like, we haven’t had necessarily before, which I think just comes from the expertise of people like Rian and Chris; having them on board to engineer and mix. Yeah.

Yeah, and you have a new string of dates coming up; I just wrote them down. 24th, eh, February 24th to March 11th, you’re playing Galway, Cork, Limerick and Dublin. I was wondering, actually – just because you were mentioning before – I believe both of you guys have jobs outside of this, right? How do you kind of balance, I guess, work and the band? [Róisín and John laugh] Especially, when you have to go on, like, a nationwide tour?! [Laughs]

Róisín: Em…

John: It’s somewhat difficult. [All laugh]

Róisín: Em, I’m using my holiday days. I get 25 holiday days. I think almost all of them have been used for band stuff. [Laughs] But, yeah, it is…it’s definitely unsustainable. Like, I don’t how summer will work out, if there’s festivals…

John: Yeah.

Róisín: …or anything like that, down the line. But, as it stands, like, we practice twice a week in the evenings, but yeah, it has been…has been…Even, like, just the admin, like, say behind the tour or the EP stuff, I’ve been trying to do that on my lunch break. [Laughs] I get like an hour lunch break, I’m in the office like, [Mimes frantically typing on a keyboard] “Ahhhhh!!” [Laughs]

John: We don’t have manag…we don’t work with management or anything yet, so we’re still stuck with running…well, Róisín’s mostly suffering all of that. [Laughs] But, em, it is tough. It’s even tough…like, I was living in Carlow for all of last year, which was, like, a logistical thing that was difficult, too.

Róisín: And working nine to five!

John: And working nine to five.

Róisín: John would literally…like, we’d be playing a show somewhere, and John would be…[Laughing and miming typing on a keyboard]

John: [Copying Róisín’s typing gesture] I’d be sitting in the green room, on my laptop, working.

Róisín: At a pillow!

John: Thank God it was remote! If it wasn’t remote, I would’ve had to leave!

Róisín: Literally on the stage, and he’d be on his laptop at soundcheck!

John: I remember, when we were recording the EP, I was working pretty much for, like, two days of that. I was working. But I don’t know, you have to do what you have to do; it’s not even, like, a question of…like, I don’t necessarily want to be working. I, like…I’m starting a new job soon, that I am very excited about.

Róisín: With me, in my office! [All laugh] We’re going to be, both of us, [Mimes frantically typing] on our break!

John: Working overtime!

Róisín: Using the printer! [Mimes frantically pulling paper out of the printer]

John: But it’s like, you know, we have to make ends meet because rent is just insane. Studio rent is insane. Costs of being a band are insane. We don’t really get paid enough, like bands are not getting paid enough in Ireland in general without big labels backing them, so it is definitely a challenge, but it is just something that we have to deal with, for now.

Yeah, absolutely.

Róisín: But it’s also, like, it’s not so much of a chore. Like, band practice is something that I look forward to.

John: It’s something that refreshes you.

Róisín: Yeah.

John: Yeah.

Róisín: Yeah.

John: If I wasn’t doing it, I’d probably be more tired. [All laugh]

Definitely. Well, yeah, I was going to say, I think that really shows, like, the sense of dedication and commitment, that like, even putting out a single EP, even if it is all self-produced, there is just so much that goes into it. And I think it really is a testament to the dedication that you guys do make the time, that you do – and not just you guys – but I think, like, musicians everywhere. So, just speaking of the upcoming tour, what should people expect if they come along?

John: Ohhhh!

Róisín: Ohhhh!

John: As I said, we’ve got a new drummer, which is very, very exciting, as he is a fantastic player.

Róisín: He’s a jazzman.

John: He’s a great player. He’s played with, like, Stephen Star and a few…Who else has he…?

Róisín: Our friends from the collective called Herzog TV. Cosmo [Clarke]’s played with a couple of those guys, like Henry Earnest and Stephen.

John: So, kind of a different live sound. We’re focusing more…we’re going to be doing a little more preproduction, so it’s going to be…I wouldn’t say, necessarily, “tight.” [Róisín and Aaron laugh] Because, our shows, they’re a little bit more fun when there’s a little bit of playfulness. Well, not playfulness, but, yeah, it’s a rock show, you know? It’s got to be a bit…

Róisín: We’ve never been accused of being too tight! [Laughs]

John: I don’t think there’s a pristine rock show where it sounds exactly like it does on the album.

Róisín: I don’t think that’s something that we’ll ever risk happening! [All laugh]

John: I don’t know, I don’t know. When we do our stadium tour!

Róisín: “God, we’re just too tight again!”

There was one last thing, actually, that I forgot to ask. The EP was originally meant to be out in September [2022], if I’m correct.

John: Yeah.

I was just wondering what the cause of delay was?

Róisín: Em….[Both laugh]

If it’s a sore subject, I won’t…[Laughs]

Róisín: Em, we just…we just didn’t…

John: It’s a marketing strategy!

Róisín: Yeah!

OK. [Laughs]

Róisín: We kind of…because this is our first time getting other people to mix and match it…like, the last EP, it was just our drummer mixed it and mastered it and locked himself in his bedroom for, like, a week or two and did it all.

John: That guy loves locking himself in his bedroom. [All laugh]

Róisín: And I kind of thought that that’s how it worked, but then, obviously, we had to get in touch with people and get their dates, and then we’d go back-and-forward between different mixes and masters and artwork – artwork was a big thing, as well – and, like, it just…I…it was our own lack of planning. [All laugh] “This job will be, like, two weeks!” And then also, like, even submitting it to DistroKid and then, by the time the EP was ready, it was December and then we were advised not to put it out in December or January…

John: Yeah.

Róisín: …because there’s not that much media, and most of the press were doing their “Ones to Watch” or, like, yearly wrap-up kind of things and we were like, “OK, then!”

John: And everyone told us January was too quiet for gigs and stuff and yeah. So, we were actually, we were only maybe two months delayed but that turned into this four, five months because of the Christmas thing.

January seems like a good time to gig then, because you have a lack of options, so “Hey, come listen to us!” [Laughs]

John: That too! Yeah, I don’t know…

Not that you guys need that incentive! [All laugh] I just realised that I accidentally insulted you. [All laugh]

John: Any competition and we’re done!

Yeah!

John: We can’t compete!

Róisín: Yeah, no, literally, I remember at shows over the summer, I was like, “Our EP’s coming out in three weeks!”

John: “Next week!”

Róisín: And then we stopped saying that!

John: And another thing, I was away for a few months. We didn’t actually start the mixing process for a good few months after we finished recording because I was away and, because we were co-producing and everything, it was hard to, like, align everything on the album with what we would all be happy with. Like, it’s hard to make sure that we would all be happy when I wasn’t even in the country for two months or three months. So, yeah, that’s part of it, too.

Sweet. Yeah, if there’s anything else you’d like to add just before we wrap up and, just in general, what do you think the future holds for you guys?

John: Number one on the US Billboards. [All laugh]

Róisín: James Corden Show.

John: Yep. Limited 200,000 run of the vinyl, probably. [All laugh]

Róisín: I think…I feel like the EP will go down well.

John: I hope so.

I have no doubt.

Róisín: I hope we could do music full-time, which I would love to do.

John: Someday. It’s been a little bit inspirational, I think, seeing a few bands that are, you know, a few years ahead of us, in terms of their career, quitting their day job and being like, “OK, we can actually make this viable.” Like Pillow Queens, who we toured with at the start of last year, and I remember, it was only around then, finally, all of them had quit their day jobs.

Róisín: Yeah.

John: So, it was like…you know, and they’re way bigger than us, but, like…someday it will be nice.

Róisín: Someday, we’ll grow up and become Pillow Queens!

John: Yeah, when we grow up…when I’m 45… [All laugh]

Róisín: But, yeah, the short-term plan is just to kind of release the EP, see how it goes, and hopefully play some festivals this summer. We’ve never played, like, a summer festival.

John: Yeah.

Róisín: Apart from, well, Féile na Gréine, of course.

John: Best festival in the country!

Róisín: But like a camping…like a camping kind of festival would be really fun.

John: Would be great, yeah.

Róisín: Just to…yeah, just to see what comes our way and have fun with it.

Have you guys actually played internationally yet or has it all been domestic, so far?

Róisín: No, no.

John: Not yet, no.

Róisín: We’ve only played in Limerick, Kilkenny and Dublin.

Oh, nice. So, this tour coming up will have Galway and Cork for the first time?

Róisín: Yeah.

John: Yes.

Róisín: Yeah, it should be really fun.

John: We’re hoping to add more dates around the country over the course of the next few months, too…

Róisín: Oh, sorry! I forgot we played in Kerry!

John: Oh, we did! We played Other Voices! The big one! I always forget that. [All laugh]

Róisín: Sorry to the people of Kerry!

John: Sorry, Kerry!

Alright. Thanks a lot, guys. Take care of yourselves.

Róisín: Yeah. Thanks so much, Aaron.

Banríon’s new EP Dare to Crush is available to stream and purchase from February 1st. You can keep up with the band on their website, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

You can also see Banríon on their Dare to Crush Tour, appearing at:

February 24th – Galway – Áras na Gael 

March 4th – Cork – Fred Zeppelins

March 10th – Limerick – The Commercial

March 11th – Dublin – The Workman’s Club

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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.