POST-BURNOUT
Influenced by the likes of Nirvana, Pixies, Thin Lizzy, Oasis, Sex Pistols, Joy Division, and The Clash, the Limerick brothers, Tom and Cian O’Dowd, formed the rock trio Static Vision, with Cian on guitar and vocals and Tom on bass.
But after a while, the two got sick of the genre limitations. “I think it just came to a point where we got too old for rock ‘n’ roll!” laughs Cian when the brothers spoke with Post-Burnout. “We had to try something new, you know?”
With band members moving away and the primary songwriters seeking something new, Static Vision called it a day last year. While considering what to do next, the brothers took a gig as a two-piece on a cruise ship from Dublin to France.
The crowd’s demands would have the brothers learning Irish trad and folk to entertain tourists. “We had a mixed set,” Tom recalls of their ship sets. “A lot of Irish stuff, yeah, because a lot of people seem to enjoy that when they’re having a drink, you know what I mean?
“You’d be playing for four nights in a row, so you’d learn the songs, just out of pure boredom on the ship, because there’s fuck all to do on it, like! So, you’re kind of just learning and practising away.”
Photo courtesy of Measure PR
The ship would harbour in the French port city of Cherbourg -en-Cotentin, where the brothers would enjoy a night off for the first time since embarking. “When you’d stop off in Cherbourg, you were allowed to have five or six days of going to pubs and doing what you want, really,” recalls Cian.
“And we just, obviously, went to the pubs and started drinking, like! And [Laughs] we’d come back absolutely hammered! We’d still have great shows and all, but, you know, it just got to the point where we were let go. But during that experience, we wrote our first song, which was ’20 Pints to Cherbourg,’ which is completely based on a true story!”
Upon returning home, the brothers had crafted the aforementioned song, which was inspired by the Irish music they had been performing during the cruise. The lyrics and musical direction of that one song would dictate what their next project would be.
This was the birth of The Guzzlers. But just as the project was beginning, the boys decided to move to Liverpool. “We just decided to pack the bags and go, to be honest,” Cian says of the move. “We didn’t know anyone, we didn’t have any connections; we just came with a guitar and a banjo, and a spare change of clothes.
“We just started busking on the streets, and we did that every day, and we were absolutely delighted with that! We thought it was the best life ever; you know, meeting people, scraping up a few pennies for some jars, and finding pubs for the cheapest pints.
“We moved just as Liverpool won the League, as well, so it was absolute carnage, to be honest, and I think that helped us get gigs in the pubs, as well, you know? Because we were Liverpool fans, we just learned the songs, we adapted, and we went from there. We just went over with a dream, and it, somehow, worked out, magically! [Laughs]”
While both are still very proud of their hometown of Limerick, its music scene, and the opportunities it afforded them, Cian and Tom fell in love with their home and what it could offer them.
“It would be a big difference for us, because we had to go up and down to Galway to get our gigs, because there isn’t too much cover music in Limerick, you know what I mean?” Tom says of the differences between the two cities. “It’s thriving with the original music, Limerick. There are plenty of venues, and bands coming out of there. But, just for us, we thought [Liverpool] would be a better city.”
Tom and Cian are perpetually inspired and will often find themselves penning songs when they are not expecting to. As an example, Cian tells us how they came up with a yet unreleased song when they were in a pub in Glasgow, and saw someone spill their pint.
Before they knew it, the two had an album’s worth of original material and decided to go into a studio and record it. “We went into a studio, and just banged out an album,” Cian casually remarks, before Tom elaborates, “We had a few songs done, and then, when we were recording, [Cian] was writing songs and we were just getting them done the next week. It was great, because we got it done so quickly.”
While The Guzzlers’ debut album, currently titled Drinking the Dream, is yet to have a finalised release date, they plan to release four singles throughout the year, before ending 2026 with the record.
The first single the band released was the catalyst for the project, “20 Pints to Cherbourg.” Fittingly, the single was released on March 17th, Saint Patrick’s Day, and served as a brilliant introduction to the project, both sonically and thematically.
When we spoke, the single had been out for three weeks. “I suppose people recognise us for our original music now, rather than gigs around the town, which is great, because that’s what we want to be known for,” Tom said of the reception to the single.
“It’s great to have your first song out, in general, just to get it out there, and that’s the start of your musical journey, then, which is great. It’s kind of the first little ledge that you have to get over.
“It’s been great. Great reception. It’s been playing around the Irish pubs here in town, and we see people singing it a small bit and stuff, so you’re thinking, ‘Will it start getting into people’s heads, eventually?’”
“Yeah, it’s on a thousand streams a week, averaging, at the moment, so I think we’re just over three thousand,” adds Cian. “Which is amazing, because it’s all completely organic. It’s just from word of mouth, most of it, which is amazing. And the support from all the people in Liverpool and the pubs has been helping a lot.”
While the brothers speak in a very relaxed manner about their momentum and journey from a cruise ship to Liverpool to recording an album to releasing a hit single, they do stress that they are putting in the work that success demands.
“We live together. Every day, we get up, and we’re doing something with music,” Cian says of their schedule. “It’s just non-stop music. We wouldn’t get on at all if it wasn’t for music! But that’s the thing, it’s just constantly on the grind. Every day we wake up, there’s just something to do; there’s lists and notes to do.
“I just don’t think we give ourselves credit for it because it’s natural for us, it’s fun, it’s what we do, but, for others, they’ve come up to us, like, ‘Oh, you’re making me feel like a cunt! I’m not doing anything! I’m looking at ye, coming all the way over to Liverpool, and I live here…,’ and people have said that, and that’s a good thing, too, because it probably inspires people.
“But we said, last night, after a few pints, ‘We need to get even more serious and knuckle down.’ So, we’re going to rent out a studio for about eight hours a week, and just commit to that, because we haven’t been doing that, really. We have just been going with the flow, and look how far it’s gotten, so if we actually put eight hours down a week, look at it as work, and just lock ourselves in a studio, maybe we can get better, you know?”
To celebrate the expected release of their album and to cap off the year, The Guzzlers will support the Cavan folk group The Highstool Preachers on their UK tour in December, where they will perform some of their largest shows to date, at the O2 Academy in Liverpool, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, and the O2 Ritz in Manchester.
Whilst primarily focusing on growing their scope in the UK at the moment, the brothers admit that they would like to come back to Ireland, sooner rather than later. “Because we’re only really starting out… – we only released a song – so, we’re trying to build up our name a bit,” Tom explains.
“But, 100%. We’d love to come back. We’re looking at Belfast, Dublin, Galway, Limerick. Book a few shows there. I suppose we just need to build up our name a bit more over there, and see. But, yeah, I’d love to go back and play a few more shows in Ireland. It’d be great!”
The Guzzlers’ debut single, “20 Pints to Cherbourg,” is on all streaming platforms now. You can keep up with the band via their Linktree.
You can see The Guzzlers support The Hightstool Preachers at:
December 11th – Liverpool, UK – O2 Academy Liverpool
December 12th – London, UK – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
December 13th – Manchester, UK – O2 Ritz
Tune into POSTBURNOUT.COM Interviews… tonight at 23:00 (IST) to hear this interview in full. Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music Podcasts.
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.