Castle Arcade is the brainchild of the Monaghan singer-songwriter Ryan Hunt. Initially inspired by indie acts like The Killers and The Strokes, Ryan began playing as a teenager. “I guess I started playing music when I was about sixteen,” he tells Post-Burnout. “I just bought a guitar for something to be at, and I kind of became obsessed with it real quick, and I kind of stuck with it from there and it kind of just took over my life, almost. I started studying in college then when I was 18. I’m from Monaghan originally, and there was a small bit of a music scene here but nothing too big and nothing I could get involved with down here. So, from there, I kind of moved to Dublin and got involved with the scene there.”

Beyond the education, Ryan feels his time at BIMM, where he would study, helped him come into his own as a performer. “I originally only played guitar. I never sang,” he says. “I had no confidence whatsoever. ‘I can’t sing. I’m not even going to try. There’s no point even trying’ [Laughs]. So, I was in a little small band with one of my friends, back when I was still in Monaghan, and I used to write the songs and stuff and he would sing them, because he was a far better singer than me [Laughs], so I used to give him the songs to sing, and then we just kind of made loads of demos, just at home, and then I decided to study at BIMM, and I studied guitar there, and it wasn’t until midway through my first year that I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll try singing one of these songs myself’ or ‘I’ll see how it goes,’ and it went pretty well, but I thought it went terrible, but everyone seemed to enjoy it, so I said I’d stick at it [Laughs]. And kind of, from there, kind of little by little, built up my confidence with it, and started showing off more of my songs, and then I put a band together.”

This would eventuate into Castle Arcade, featuring Ryan and some of his fellow BIMM students. However, during the pandemic, the members moved to different areas and split up, due to the nature of being restricted areas during lockdown, and Ryan briefly continued the project as a solo act before building it back up as a full band again. Castle Arcade marked a big change in Ryan’s music, which was influenced by his education. “Being from such a small town, when I moved to Dublin, I was exposed to so much music,” says Ryan on how BIMM further influenced his sound. “I felt like everyone around me was much more culturally rich when it came to music [Laughs]. I had never even heard of, like, some fusion kinds of music, like all the jazzy kinds of styles. That’s such a big thing in BIMM; they love teaching that, especially in a guitar course, they love teaching you all the jazz chords [Laughs].

“And, from there, I got really into alternative, more kind of heavier, shoegaze-y stuff, and, then also I got really into production as well, and, from there, I kind of got really into pop music and really, really polished radio music. [Laughs] And then, with the Castle Arcade stuff then, I guess I tried to combine the two. So, it’s got that kind of indie rock that I was big into, growing up, and it’s got the kind of more polished sort of pop, sampled stuff. Then you’ve got your heavier guitars, here and there, especially on our new song we’ve got coming out, ‘In This Room.’ It’s got real massive sounding, distorted guitars. A real kind of – I wouldn’t say ‘shoegaze-y,’ because it’s very much a pop song – but it’s got those really reverbed out, distorted kind of bits.”

“I don’t think it differs too much,” says Ryan on how Castle Arcade’s new single, “In This Room,” differs from their previous work. “I think the production on it has levelled up, compared to our previous releases, just as I’ve learnt more about that myself. I have been able to, I guess, put to paper what I’ve been hearing in my head. But it started out just literally, acoustic guitar and me mumbling away in my room, trying to find melodies and lyrics and stuff [Laughs]. And I remember I had just the remnants of a song [and] I brought it to the band we had together at the time and we just kind of jammed for a few weeks, and then COVID happened, so everything kind of got shut down, so it’s been around for a while.

“It had like an, originally, more straight up indie rock kind of sound to it, originally and then, as I got really into production – I kind of taught myself how to produce stuff over COVID, when I had all that free time – and, from there, I got really into synths and drum machines, and I was like, ‘What if I put the two together?’ and just kind of amalgamated the two sort of styles that I had, kind of going on with what I was making, and that’s where this version, the released version, kind of came from. So, I was basically combining heavier kind of guitars with arpeggios and drum machines and just kind of shimmery kind of sounds, like artificial.”

The “In This Room” single drops tomorrow at the time of publication, and the band celebrate its release with a launch gig at Upstairs at Whelan’s in Dublin.  When asked what people can expect from the show, Ryan responds, “A good time, hopefully [Laughs]! We got into rehearsals for it last week [at the time of the interview]. We kind of took a break, and we were just kind of getting back together now and designing the show and the setlist, and we have plenty of new music that we haven’t released yet or new stuff we’ve written in preparation for this gig. But, yeah, we’ve been working on designing it more into a show, rather than just a gig. We’ve got somebody in doing lights and trying to turn it into more than just a simple Whelan’s Upstairs gig [Laughs].”

On the band’s future plans, Ryan says, “I don’t think an EP is too far down the line, at the minute. We have a lot of stuff we’re working on, a lot of songs. We’ve definitely discussed it but, at the minute, we’re kind of releasing these six singles and taking ourselves off the ground. I think the EP will definitely come in the next, maybe, year or so. I definitely think…all my favourite albums are albums that have a concept that run through the whole album, so I think, yeah, if I was to release an album, I’d rather it tell a story from start to finish, rather than it being a compilation of singles!”

Castle Arcade’s latest single “In This Room” is available on all streaming platforms from tomorrow. You can buy tickets to see the band perform tomorrow night at Upstairs at Whelan’s to launch the single here. You can keep up with the band’s social media here.

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.