The story of the appropriately-named Pebbledash began when the Kerry singer-songwriter Fionnbharr Hickey travelled to Cork to study Architecture at UCC. โOur drummer Sรฉan [OโFarrell] was in Architecture for about a week, and he dropped out,โ laughs Fionnbharr when reminiscing on the bandโs formation with Post-Burnout. โBut we had chatted in that week, and I figured out that he had played drums, and a few months down the line, I asked him if he wanted to jam. He was friends with our bassist [Cormac Landers], and we auditioned Michรฉal [OโDwyer, their lead guitarist] a few months after that. But, yeah, if Sรฉan didnโt do Architecture for that one week, we probably would never have met!โ
From Fionnbharrโs recollection, the band had little initial overlap in musical tastes. According to him, his background was in sean-nรณs music and lyrical storytelling, as inspired by the likes of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, and he also possessed an emerging interest in shoegaze and postpunk from listening to the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Lush, Bdrmm, and DIIV. Meanwhile, lead guitarist Michรฉal was inspired by the tapping guitar solos of Eddie Van Halen, and the rhythm section had a shared love of AC/DC and Motรถrhead. But despite this, the band managed to amalgamate and layer their musical drives together to form something unique.
โI was writing away, myself, during COVID, and I wouldโve brought the ideas to the lads, afterwards,โ Fionnbharr tells us of how they crafted their sound. โIt took a while to kind of get it going a bit; we didnโt really know what we wanted it to be or how we wanted it to sound. I think, as well, we all kind of came from different musical backgrounds and stuff. Like, I wouldโve been in a load of trad bands and stuff like that when I was growing up. So, I wouldโve been used to a dynamic like that, so bringing that to the lads who wouldโve had more of a classic rock background, almost, while I was getting into the more alt-rock, and kind of post-punk stuff, and shoegaze stuff. So, it took a good bit of jamming on these different tracks and stuff โ whether we had bits of lyrics or bits of riffs and different things like that – to begin to form something that was a bit tangible, I guess, and something that we felt confident in playing shows with. And even our earlier songs and stuff, they were kind ofโฆI donโt want to say โrushed,โ but they felt kind of more naรฏve than the stuff that weโre trying to do now.โ
![](https://postburnout.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IMG_6438-1024x683.jpg)
Photo by Emilyn Cardona. Courtesy of Pebbledash
Beginning in 2022, as a post-pandemic band, Pebbledash had no real connections within the Cork music scene, and required their own grassroots campaigns to get noticed, notably by playing UCCโs Battle of the Bands competitions at the cityโs 500-capacity Cyprus Avenue venue. By mid-July of 2022, the band had already released their first single, โDive.โ โWe formed just before the UCC Battle of the Bands,โ says Fionnbharr. โThat was our first goal, to get our set and see how it sounded. And we decided, after that, that there was something there and to keep going. But I think between forming and releasing the first single, I think it was pretty quick. I want to say, like, four to six months, somewhere around then. Which is pretty fast, and maybe a little bit rushed or whatever, but without having all those connections and stuff, we didnโt quite know how to approach it, and I think we just wanted to get something out there that we kind of liked and were confident in.
โIt had maybe kind of changed since then, and weโre maybe a lot more proud of our two most recent ones or whatever, but I think that was somethingโฆlike, the fact that we kind of knew no one or whatever, that we just wanted to almost try and explode onto [the scene] a little bit. Because, around that time, there was loads of bands forming in Cork as well, so there was kind ofโฆI donโt know. Kind of a little bit of a space race, like, for people to get out singles and stuff. And I think we did spend a good bit of time mixing them and stuff, so that they would be the best quality that they could, and I do think thereโs artistic merit in them, when it comes to lyrics and stuff, as well. So, itโs not necessarily something we shy away from, but that slightly more approachable, indie pop thing, itโs been done a lot, so thatโs why weโre leaning slightly more into getting experimental without kind of going too crazy.โ
This more-developed sound can be heard on their latest single, โNo Worse,โ which is released today. Admitting that the song was written with the intent of having a strong opener to their sets to get people going, Fionnbharr expands on the song. โWeโd written loads of songs, and they all had strong messages or whatever, but we hadnโt toyed with โ itโs not quite like a hate song โ but something that has a lot of negative attitude, in a way. And that was kind of fun to mess around with. And it wasnโt written about anyone in particular or anything [Laughs], but I think it was a bit of a comment in frustration with trying to be a band, in a way, and frustration with myself, just in general, I guess, with things that are going on in the country and around the world and stuff. So, it was a really kind of cathartic thing for us to write and to perform. And it just feels – like building up to that big outro and stuff – it just feels like this big release thatโs, I guess, a little bit spiritual, and musical, I guess, as well.โ
On how he feels the track differs from their other singles thus far, Fionnbharr says, โI think itโs a good step from what we have done. It might not be necessarily different, but I think itโs a better version of what we had released with our first two singles. Like, our latest two singles might have been what we wanted our first two singles to sound like, in a way. Like, if we went back in time, we probably wouldnโt have released those. If we knew everything that we know now, we probably wouldโve waited until we had these two songs or whatever. So, I do think thereโs a link there, but it might not be obvious to anybody but ourselves.โ
He adds, โIโm kind of a believer in that a band doesnโt necessarily need to have a cohesive sound where you can recognise who they are straight away, that itโs all the same genre and stuff. I do love kind of mixing loads of different genres, and loads of my favourite bands wouldโve been like that, and all my favourite bands in Cork are like that, as well. But I do think, at the same time, there does need to be a root or something that all these different things can branch off of, or else itโs too loose, then. Itโs the same with art, in general. I wouldโve done Architecture in college โ hence Pebbledash as the name and stuff [Laughs] โ but I think a lot of my influence and thinking about artistic things wouldโve come from my learning in that, and, like, developing design projects and stuff like that. So, thereโs a lot of parallels drawn between my songwriting and design.โ
Pebbledashโs latest single โNo Worseโ is available to stream from today. You can follow the band on Instagram, Facebook, and Bandcamp.
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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,ย Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRDย and more.
One response to “Cork Shoegaze-Inspired Alt-Rock Band Pebbledash Discuss Their Latest Single “No Worse,” Forming at UCC with No Connections in the Cork Music Scene, and How Architecture Inspires Their Music”
[…] Less than a year ago, Fionnbharr Hickey, the frontperson of the Cork alternative band Pebbledash, sp… But, really, that single was signifying the ending of that era of the band. […]