Jimmie Byrne’s earliest memories of enjoying music came from car rides with his father. “When I was growing up, my dad had an iPod Touch, if you remember those,” laughs Jimmie when he spoke with Post-Burnout. “So, we used to blast…we’d be driving up to visit grandparents or whatever, and we’d be blasting classic rock in the car. He had an album that was the Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. So, it was that kind of jazz. It was all the hits from AC/DC, Rolling Stones, Beatles, and we’d be blasting that in the car.

“It wasn’t until secondary school that I started…like, I kind of missed the whole Arctic Monkeys thing as it happened. I guess I was kind of old enough… – I was like, what?, eleven years old in 2008 – …so, I guess I could have jumped on there, but I was more attracted to classic rock, and then, when I was a bit older, like secondary school-wise, it was grunge. I loved Soundgarden, Nirvana. I was more into Soundgarden than Nirvana, to be honest. What else did I listen to? Alice in Chains. All that stuff.

“But it was always the more classic side of it, but I was a bit like a contrarian, like, ‘Oh, all this new stuff is crap,’ kind of thing. [Laughs] In secondary school, I loved Royal Blood, actually. Royal Blood were sick. That’s when I started picking up the guitar, in secondary school.”

By his own admission, Jimmie was initially “quite crap” at the guitar, but his love of music made him persist. Jimmie had grown up in Dublin but moved to Longford at eleven, where he found it difficult to form a band. While he managed to play a few school shows in Longford, it wasn’t until he moved back to Dublin in 2016 to study Economics, Politics & Law at DCU that he would finally get to start a band.

“We were called 4corners,” Jimmie says of his first band. “We put out one song that we recorded ourselves. We did Fibbers gigs. Mostly Fibbers gigs. We did some Battle of the Bands at DCU. […] I’m still friends with those guys from that band.”

But Jimmie didn’t really like the course he was on, saying, “The law and politics was fine, but the economics tied me to a tree and garrotted me. I did first year, failed it, repeated it, passed. Second year, failed it, and then when I failed second year, I decided to drop out.”

After leaving college, Jimmie was unsure of what he wanted to do next. He worked for a spell at Bar Rua on Clarendon Street, which overlooked the TUD Conservatoire, where he would witness musicians going in and out all day. Around this time, 4corners would play their final show at the now sadly defunct Drop Dead Twice on Francis Street, located just up the road from BIMM, when the vision of what he should do next dropped into his lap.

“After the gig, me and my mate were outside, in the smoking area, and people were asking us, ‘Oh, do you go to BIMM?’ I was like, ‘What the hell is BIMM?’,” Jimmie recalls. “When I was at Bar Rua, I was like, ‘God, maybe…’ Because I always enjoyed playing music, but I never thought of it. I was like, ‘God, I need to go and get a real degree,’ but then I was like, ‘Wait a second, I can get a fake degree, instead!’ [Laughs] I love you, BIMM!”

Jimmie enrolled at the college’s BA (Hons) course in Commercial Modern Music, specialising in Guitar. Unfortunately, halfway through his first year, the COVID-19 pandemic locked everything down, stifling not only his overall college experience but his ability to network.

“I know some people in my year, they made friends very quickly, even during COVID, but I didn’t,” Jimmie says. “I was a bit older than everyone else; I was 23/24 at the time of going into BIMM, and everyone was 19 or 20 or whatever, so there was a bit of an age gap there. So, I found it hard to meet people, and by the time everyone was forming bands, people were ahead, basically.

“Also, I liked hard rock, but I didn’t like metal, so that cut me out. I was just slap bang in the worst spot. [Laughs] Because I didn’t want to be in an indie band, but I didn’t want to be in a metal band, so I was kind of screwed!”

After 4corners had dissolved, Jimmie was looking for a fresh outlook for his succeeding project. For him, it was simply about finding musicians who would agree to his suggestion. “I found Eoin [Kinahan, their bassist] and Ignas [Baranauskas, their guitarist], and Sam [Eliasen] was the drummer for the second half,” Jimmie says of how KING CARA was born. “That came together because they said ‘Yes.’ [Laughs]

“We applied for a BIMM gig, so I wanted to get us together for one gig, and then we decided to do another one, and then we did the single release. We recorded the single ‘Eden Quay,’ and then Sam wanted to pursue his own stuff. So, we brought Mel [Mehigan] on last year when Sam left. Mel was recommended by Sam.”

While Jimmie is the project’s primary songwriter, the personnel has expanded the project’s palette. “Eoin plays in Raining in December, which is heavier, and Ignas plays in Skyless, which is shoegaze, and Mel does more Arctic Monkeys stuff,” Jimmie says. “But I feel like we’re all in a good spot, where we bring different things to the table and different outlooks.

“Like, I’d be all about the Royal Blood riffs kind of thing, then Ignas will throw some shoegaze-y stuff into it, and then Mel’s drumming will be Arctic Monkeys-ie kind of drumming. So, it’s a good mix of stuff. […] Eoin would be kind of more my way around riffs and stuff.”

Last year, KING CARA released their debut single, “Eden Quay,” a prosaic and Joycean interior monologue about walking down the titular Dublin quay. “I put out in the press release at the time that it’s about walking through Dublin after working in a club, so it’s Dublin late at night,” Jimmie says of the song. “So, it was a long walk, like Ulysses. [Laughs]

“So, I wrote it like that stream-of-consciousness because I was just trying to come up with things. I was trying to remember things that I had seen, and it’s all part of the walk, because you’re walking down the street, and you walk past McDonald’s on Grafton Street, you walk past The Spire, and there’s always people milling around. Back then, anyway, pre-COVID era. […] I liked the subject matter, as well, because it’s very Dublin.

“I liked the song first, and I loved the riff; it’s a riff I’m proud of coming up with. But the aspect that it was Dublin and a local song appealed to me, as well, because it’s marking us as a local band. One thing about my songwriting that I always wanted to do was just be honest about the life that I have and the Dublin that I know, as opposed to some sort of idealistic thing or speaking from a perspective that I don’t have or someone else’s perspective that I don’t have.

“It’s not the Dublin of Joyce and it’s not the Dublin of Catholicism because, let’s face it, there was Catholicism in school when I was young, but, by the time I wrote that song, everyone was hating the Church! So, it’s not the Dublin of priests walking around, hitting people, you know that kind of thing? It’s the Dublin of 24-hour Maccers on Grafton Street. You go into Hangar, South William. You know, the old Palace with the watered-down drinks. The new one’s a lot nicer!

“But it’s not Dublin for the working class. I’m not working class, so I’m not going to pretend that I am. So, it’s not that Dublin, but it’s the Dublin of people in the middle class, who go to college or work at their normal jobs and then go out for drinks at the weekend. You know, I was thinking of the Workman’s smoking area kind of stuff. That guy in the second verse, he’s quoting Karl Marx and James Connolly in his Instagram bio. That’s Workman’s smoking area!”

After releasing “Eden Quay” in April 2024, the band replaced Sam with Mel and began a small journey that would eventuate in the single’s follow-up being released almost a year to the day after. There was some internal, self-imposed pressure to get a second song out, as Jimmie claims that it is only when you have a few releases out that people know you are a serious act. “We were looking for a drummer for a while, then we had some gigs over the summer. Personnel changes in a band always throw a spanner in the works,” Jimmie says.

“I had this idea that we shouldn’t be gigging in Dublin all the time, so we were getting gigs in Galway, Dundalk, Drogheda, and one more in Dublin, I think. Those gigs were arduous, let’s say. [Laughs] At the time, I had a full-time job. I was working in an office, and it was quite a stressful job because it was a small office and it was quite busy all of the time. I couldn’t go in and listen to music all day. That kind of thing, you know?

“We organised those gigs, and I was kind of burnt out after doing that, organising everything, social media, et cetera. Then I went away for a week or so, Christmas was coming up, and things fell by the wayside, as it happens. So, I decided to get more singles done before doing any more gigs. So, we recorded… – I won’t say how many singles. It’s a surprise! – …but multiple, more than one. We got them done with an engineer called Anthony Gibney at Audioland Studios in Leixlip. Pleasure to work with; great engineer.

“We recorded them at the end of November/start of December. Then, obviously, Christmastime, and then in January, I went away again for three weeks, and there were tweaks. You know how it is with mixes and mastering: everyone’s got opinions, everyone’s throwing stuff. We went in again to go over the mixes and stuff. So, it was finally done.”

For their second single, they chose the song “Favourite Crusade,” which was released last week at the time of publication. “‘Eden Quay,’ we probably wrote about 2018, I’d say,” Jimmie says of why they chose this track. “‘Favourite Crusade’ would probably be about 2019, so they were both around at a similar time, they’re both of a similar vibe. I don’t know if you can tell, but they both have Royal Blood, kind of Queens of the Stone Age-y stuff going on.

“I guess it is a love song. I was staying with my missus at the time, and it was the first time I was living with someone because I had always lived on my own or with flatmates before then. So, we were in that situation, living together, and it was very nice, but we were also isolating in quarantine, and we couldn’t do anything or whatever, so there’s kind of that frustration there. It’s romantic, but there’s an undercurrent of frustration and an undercurrent of obsession, because I love history, and I just tried to put as many historical references as possible into it. [Laughs]

“I wanted it to be kind of negative in a way, or kind of an obsession that will destroy a person or whoever, like The Crusades, which were an obsession that destroyed a lot of people, a lot of lives. […] You can see in the lyrics, When you knock on the door, my shame hits the floor. You’re a flaming bird in the trees/I hope to cure my disease. That’s not a good thing! [Laughs] That doesn’t sound very pleasant, you know? She’s on fire!

“It’s also from that place where I had a lot of failed…I’m not going to say relationships; I’m going to say a lot of failed almost-relationships, or crushes, or whatever, as we all do. So, it was kind of from that place. I’m drifting, swallowed by my optimism, got that feeling again. It’s like, Greener sides are calling/When pushed, I’m falling. Every side looks greener, you know? So, there is that thing where this isn’t a good thing, this isn’t a great thing.

“So, I don’t want to say it’s a pastiche of a romantic song because there is a bit of romance in it. It’s just heartfelt with a bit of satire, a bit of obsessiveness, a bit of negativity in it, as well. That’s where the lyrics are coming from, and the rest of it, it has a nice riff. I like the riff. It’s built around the riff. Quite riff-y, if you noticed.”

“Eden Quay” and “Favourite Crusade” are two of the earliest songs that Jimmie wrote for KING CARA. Future releases will feature more recently crafted tunes, which Jimmie feels will be stronger indicators of the band’s current iteration. Choosing to release “Favourite Crusade” was more an attempt to give the people who had seen the band live and liked the song the opportunity to stream it as a studio track.

To celebrate the release, the band will perform a launch gig on Thursday at Anseo on Camden Street, which will be their last show for a while, as they plan to gig less this year. When promoting Thursday’s show, Jimmie says, “The 1^st of May. Doors are at eight o’clock. We’re being supported by the mighty Joe Maxi. Tickets are five euros at the door. No online tickets; just show up. Preferably cash, but there will be Revolut options on the door. We’ll be selling merch. It’s going to be very sweaty. Hopefully, it’s going to be very crammed, and sweaty, and awful, and you’ll need two showers afterwards. That’s the idea!”

KING CARA’s latest single, “Favourite Crusade,” is on all streaming platforms now. The band will perform at Anseo, Camden Street this Thursday, with special guests Joe Maxi. Tickets are €5 on the door. You can keep up with KING CARA here.

Tune into POSTBURNOUT.COM Interviews… at 21:00 (IST) tonight to hear this interview in full, where we expand on everything discussed in this article, as well as discuss how the band wrangles KING CARA with their other projects and obligations, their upcoming singles, their experiences gigging throughout the nation, and much more. 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.