The well-seasoned Belfast drummer James Foy (Virgins, Wynona Bleach) occupied his time during the COVID-19 pandemic by writing songs. Not priding himself as a guitarist or vocalist, one of his crafted songs convinced him to take this music and make a new band that he would front.

That song was “Dirty Chin,” the debut single from his new project Mucksavage. James tells us all about the band, the song, exploring grief on the track, finding love in the project, and much more.

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The first thing I wanted to ask was a little bit about your own background. How did you get into music, yourself, and did you come from a musical background or was it something that you had to discover independently?

I guess, growing up, my parents were both kind of musical. My dad was a guitar player, and a great guitar player, but he never really did anything with it, and my mum played piano and stuff. But, yeah, getting into music was kind of like…In primary school here, they kind of, like, [Laughs] weed out all of the musical kids by getting you to sing back, I don’t know, some piano melody and stuff. Yeah, [Laughs] it’s kind of ridiculous, just being like, “If you can sing back this melody, you’re musical,” I guess, but I was one of the kids who could sing it back and got stuck into feckin’ violin lessons. So, that’s kind of how I started. [Laughs] Yeah, playing violin when I was seven years old, and then, from there, I decided it was cooler to play guitar.

[Laughs] I’ve actually heard this from a few different artists, where they kind of started out with violin, then got into rock music. It’s a very common trajectory, I think.

Yeah, absolutely! But then, after picking up guitar, I realised that I was a crap guitar player, so I decided to play drums. [Laughs] And, yeah, I did that for a while, and then I was always kind of writing songs. That’s kind of why I play guitar; it’s kind of a tool to just write music. I don’t really enjoy playing guitar, to be honest. I do it because it’s a means to an end, if you know what I mean.

Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned there that you got into rock music. What were you listening to? What were some of the bands and the artists that you were discovering independently, that kind of influenced you, once you were taking up guitar, to kind of, I guess, emulate? Because I think that’s how we all learn when we’re learning an instrument, is to copy the people that we like.

Yeah, well, the bands that blew me away as a kid…I was big into pop punk. [Laughs] Like, I was a complete scenester, emo for a while! So, it was more so for drums. When I started playing drums, I wanted to emulate as many drummers as possible because I wasn’t getting lessons; I just kind of got a drumkit and had a pair of sticks and was like, “Right, let’s do this.” So, there was a lot of blink-182 and a lot of Pixies – like, a lot of Pixies – and just anything with good drums was my kind of thing. With guitar, it was never really…Like, I didn’t emulate artists; I just learnt how to play chords and learnt how to put chords together, and then tried to learn how to sing on top of that and never really…[Laughs]…never really achieved that! I’m still trying to learn! [Both laugh]

As you grew, how did you find your influences expanded? You mentioned Pixies there, and that’s, obviously, an influence you mention for Mucksavage. As your own tastes grow, does that, then, influence the way you play music or the way you write music?

Yeah, absolutely. Like, what I listen to in the moment – like, day-to-day – absolutely influences what and how I write, big time. A lot of inspiration comes from a really cool guitar sound or, like, a really cool texture or something about the way they’re singing and vocals, or the way the vocals are recorded and stuff like that. Every day, I’ll be like, “Oh, that’s class. I should write something like that.” Yeah, so, with “Dirty Chin,” I can’t remember…I was probably listening to a load of Pixies at the time, to be honest. I wrote that song, like, [Sighs] I’m going to say, like, six, seven years ago. I can’t remember exactly when. But, at the time…I get really stuck in trends, so, it’ll be, like, a month to a year of just the same three or four bands. I cannot remember what I was listening to. With other Mucksavage songs… – like, maybe, future releases and stuff – …you can definitely tell…[Laughs] you can always tell what bands I’ve been listening to!

[Laughs] You just see a chronology?

[Laughs] Yeah, pretty much! Like, there’s no mystery behind it! Like, I’m really very black and white. Yeah, there’s a song called “Soup” that we’ve written, and that’s kind of our closing song for the set, and you can just tell that I’ve been listening to Nirvana, and LCD Soundsystem, and a lot of post-punk stuff because it’s very much in that vein. But, yeah, absolutely, what I’ve been listening to and what the rest of the band have been listening to absolutely influences the product at the end of the day. 100%.

In the Belfast music scene, is there any reaction to what’s going on in the scene, locally, that influences you, too, or are you kind of detached from that? Do you kind of go, “No, I’m going to do my own thing and I’m over here, trying to create Mucksavage as an independent thing”? How much does the scene you’re in influence what you’re doing?

Honestly – I’m not going to lie to you, Aaron – I wish there was as much thought as that put into Mucksavage, I really do! [Both laugh] It’s so reactionary. I think that’s at the heart of it, that’s what it is: It’s authenticity, it’s what we’re feeling. I don’t think we’re trying to emulate other bands but I don’t think we can help it, either. You know, with our friends TRAMP, [they] are an incredible band and are absolutely blowing up in Belfast, and there’s no way that we can’t be influenced by that because they’re such good friends of ours but, also, such great performers and great songwriters. Parker, as well. You know, they’re a great live band and they write great music, but their energy live is absolutely something that we want to take away and we want to learn from.

Yeah, I’ve been hearing great things about them. I haven’t seen them, myself, but, yeah, I’ve heard them mentioned before.

You’ve got to see them live. They will just blow you away. And, for a three-piece, Dylan [Bradley], who plays guitar, it’s ridiculous; it’s just a guitar into an amp and that’s his sound! He has an [Unintelligible]! It’s unbelievable! [Laughs] Yeah, yeah. It’s great.

Doing the Fugazi method? [Laughs]

Yeah! Totally, totally! Total Fugazi method! They’re just unbelievable, and I can’t get over it! But the Belfast music scene is so rich and great, and there’s so much good stuff. Like, every week, it seems, there’s a new band on the scene that are releasing incredible music, and I think we’re lucky to be in there at a time when we’ve got a lot of friends in the music scene that we’ve made through the music scene, but a lot of friends that we’ve made from playing shows, as well. Yeah, I think we’re really lucky to be starting out, now. All of us have played in a load of different bands, but together, as the four-piece we are now, we’ve got a lot of good guys around us. Yeah, really, really lucky, genuinely, to be playing with great bands.

You know, it’s interesting, I was talking to the band Ferals the other day, and they were saying that when it comes to the arena- and theatre-level bands, a lot of them seem to be skipping Belfast, now, when they come to Ireland; they tend to just play Dublin and they have to travel in. But one thing we were both noticing is that, while that is true – for whatever reason, the bands that would play the SSE or the Ulster Hall or places like that, aren’t really coming around as much anymore – you’re starting to see the people who play places like the Ulster Sports Club or The Limelight or places like that coming around more, now. I’m noticing that a lot of those smaller acts from Europe, and the UK, and the US, and so on, are actually including Belfast a lot more. So, it’s interesting that a lot of those kinds of smaller, 300-capacity places are getting more international traction. From your perspective, does that extend to the local music scene, as well? Are there opportunities for local artists to play with these smaller acts and network in some way?

Yeah, absolutely! You know, Sprints – one of my favourite bands from Ireland, now – man, they were playing the Sports Club in April and it was incredible. Yeah, it really does lend to this kind of, I don’t know, kind of D.I.Y., underground element to it. You know, people are playing Black Box and they’re playing the Oh Yeah Centre. A couple of weeks ago, A Place to Bury Strangers were playing in the Oh Yeah Centre, and I just couldn’t believe it! Like, a place [Laughs] I played twenty times last year, and they’re just there! It was, like, two Twin Reverbs blowing the head off everyone! It was so cool! It’s way better, in my opinion, seeing a band in that setting. You know, when they’re spitting on ya and sweating on ya, it’s just way better! Absolutely!

Let’s talk about the formation of Mucksavage, then. So, when did the project actually begin and how did it come about?

So, “Dirty Chin” was the first Mucksavage song that I was like, “This should be played live, as a band.”

Did it start as a solo project?

Yeah, yeah. It started with me just playing everything, because I was a bit of a control freak [Laughs], and I was like…Well, maybe, equal parts control freak and equal parts couldn’t be arsed getting a band together, because logistics is a nightmare sometimes. So, yeah, it started as me, sitting in my bedroom, just recording demos and stuff. The idea of it formed with “Dirty Chin,” and I cannot remember when that was. Years ago. At least five years ago. So, that’s kind of when it started. I had demos together and recorded even more demos over COVID, and it was only…It was, maybe, let’s say, two years ago, I was on tour with a band I used to play in, called Virgins. Michael [Smyth], the band leader, essentially…we got back off tour in November, and I think we were both sitting with severe post-tour blues, so we decided to go out for a pint and just chat. I was talking about some Mucksavage songs I had written… – I didn’t know they were going to be Mucksavage songs; I just said I had a collection of songs – …and he had listened to them and he was like, “You know, man, you should really do something with that.” He was kind of the push to get started. He was like, “Just do something with it, you know? Get people together in a room,” and I think I was overwhelmed by how much…Like, again, the logistics of it, I was overwhelmed by how much time and effort it might take to get these songs off, and I was also just scared that people might think they were crap. So, yeah, I guess, two years ago was when I got the kick up the arse to put a band together. Then, we properly formed, I’d say, a year-and-a-half ago. So, the original line-up didn’t have our current drummer, Aidan [Rols], in it; it had Michael from Virgins. He was playing drums. He’s a great drummer and, yeah, we started running, I think, seven songs, just to have a half-hour set, so we could get out, gigging. We played a couple of shows, and then I joined a band, called Wynona Bleach, from Belfast. So, I was playing drums for them, and that kind of just took over my life for that summer and Mucksavage kind of fell by the wayside. Yes, then we got Aidan playing drums because [Laughs] the only slot we could practice was a Thursday, but Michael had Virgins practice! It was logistics, again! It was a nightmare! [Laughs] So, now we’re finally settled on this line-up, but who knows? It could change tomorrow! [Laughs] Nah, they’re all great. They’re all absolute sweethearts.

Are they people you’ve played with before or are they people you’ve met through this project?

So, Caolan [McAuley], the other guitar player, I’ve known for years. His original band, Gnarkats, I saw them in Belfast loads. I was really good mates with him, and when the project started, I was kind of like, “I know just the guy who can play guitar,” because he’s just such a great guitar player. I don’t think he’d, necessarily, call himself “Super technical,” but he’s just tasty. He just plays the right notes at the right point, and he’s great. Aidan, the drummer, I’d seen him loads. I think the first time I properly met him, I was absolutely steaming, going to see his band, and I gave him a really awkward hug! [Both laugh]. But him and Caolan have actually been friends since they were teenagers, so it just felt kind of right. And Cleo [Collyer-Greer, their bassist]…so, Cleo’s my partner, and I saw…I played in a band called Paper Tigers, and her then-band, Red Tail, were supporting, and I saw her play and she just looked cool as fuck. She was awesome! She just didn’t give a shit! I was like, “Oh, my God! She is so cool!”, and she was so cool that I didn’t talk to her, all night! I was so intimidated! It was only a couple of months later, when Michael had convinced me to start it, I was like, “I need a cool bass player,” and I love Pixies and I love Pumpkins, and I was like, “Cleo, she’s the one.” Since then, I’d been chatting to her and I was like, “Why do you look so cool on stage?”, and she was like, “Oh, no, I’m screaming inside. Like, I’m panicking every second of it,” and I was like, “Cool! You’ve been a massive influence! So, that’s cool.” So, all of them, I’ve, basically, seen playing before, so I kind of knew, to an extent, what their vibe was and how they played, and, yeah…But, most importantly, was how I got on with them, I think. That’s the most important thing, because there’s no point in playing with, I don’t know, Steve Vai, if he’s a bit of a dick! [Both laugh]

Well, also, what I think is important, from having listened to “Dirty Chin,” is that…I’m going to say something now, and I mean this – I’m not just being polite or encouraging – I think it, honestly, is one of my favourite tracks of the year. I really loved it. When I listened to it for the first time, without knowing what the subject was about, I actually thought it was quite an upbeat song, and then I started engaging with the lyrics and the background of it, and it’s about the passing of your uncle. One thing I’m interested in asking you, because you’ve been mentioning that this song has been in the works for around seven years now, but in the actual lyrics itself, it says, “One year has passed, and how much has changed in that year.” So, I was wondering, how does the time, in real life, relate to the time in the song, if that makes sense?

Yeah. So, it really was that kind of length of time that had passed when I wrote that lyric. I think that’s the first verse. So, the night I found out he had passed away,… – it was really sudden. No one expected it – …I kind of sat with a guitar, and that riff did just come out. Like, I just played it and I was like, “Right, that’s kind of melancholic, uplifting. That should be a song.” I kind of stored it away and just worked on it for ages, but, honestly, I just couldn’t find the right words. It really did take a year, at that point, to find that verse. It was super hard to write about because it didn’t feel like anything I could say was really good enough, I guess. Like, my uncle, Alex, was just an absolute force of nature, – like, he really was – and it really didn’t feel like anything I could say would do him justice, really. But, yeah, that first verse, “It’s been a year and I feel like nothing’s changed,” it just kind of came out of nowhere, a while after. It probably wasn’t a year to the day or anything, but a lot of time had passed, and I think, in that bridge bit, “Three years is such a long time,” and it goes into that kind of acoustic, picking bit. After he had passed away, my aunty gifted me his acoustic, so that’s what was playing on the track, which I thought was really sentimental and nice. So, yeah, I guess I finished writing it [Laughs] three or four years ago, but, yeah, it really was as time passed. A year passed, and I wrote the first verse, and then I got the chorus somewhere in there. I think the bridge was the last bit to go on because I didn’t really know how to end it. So, I wrote the bridge and then I was like, “Yep! Double chorus! That’s how you finish it!” [Laughs] Finish every song with a double chorus! But, yeah, it really did kind of match up, in time spent.

The reason I consider it one of my favourite tracks of the year is that – as you were mentioning – it’s so versatile. I mean, it’s just so expansive. I think it’s a very strong debut single because it shows the versatility of the band on one track in a very succinct way, and I think that’s just a hard thing to do. How much of that was based on your own songwriting, how you drafted the song versus how much of it was based on what the other members brought? What was the relationship, in terms of getting the song as it is now, as we can hear it?

So, is the question, “How did it end up the way it did?”?

Yeah, so the version that’s out now, that people can listen to, how was that crafted? How much of that was your structure, how you wrote it, and how much of that was the band collaborating and adding to it?

I’m the only person who plays on that song, and the majority of it is from the demo. All the slide guitar and the mental Dying fuzz sounds are me into a Fuzz Factory, into, like, a Scarlett 2i2 or something. [Laughs] It really was me in my bedroom. All the verse vocals were recorded in my bedroom. All the bass was all DI’d, in my bedroom. So, the only things that weren’t were…Let me see. The only things that weren’t were the chorus vocals, the drums, and the backing vocals, I believe, and they were all done in Belfast, in Nineteen Eighty-Something Studios with Jonny Woods. So, I know Jonny [because] he’s the guitar player for Wynona Bleach, and he runs a great studio in Belfast. It’s, like, an old, ‘70s ballroom above a pub, and it’s so cool! [Laughs] Nothing works, and it’s fuckin’ awesome! It’s awesome! So, the structure came in bits and pieces and it kind of dripped down. The writing of the song eventually came in and, at a certain point, I was like, “OK! I’m going to have to call it there, or else it will be ten years before this song is finished!” [Laughs] But, yeah, the structure is the same, I guess, as the demo when I finished writing it. I probably recorded that over COVID, when I finished writing it, from 2020 to 2021, and, yeah, it was literally just demoed and I rerecorded them because it sounded like crap. I had a version of it done, this time last year, like, last November, I had done a version where I recorded everything and mixed it myself, and sent it off for mastering and all with Joel Harkin at Aye Sound Mastering, and I got it back and  I was like, “I cannot mix! Like, I can’t do this! [Laughs] Why am I trying to do this?!” So, at a certain point, I had to be like, “Right, I’m calling in the big guns! Get Jonny Woods on this.”

Yeah, I think everyone who self-produces always has that thing… – it’s either the mixing or the mastering – …once they get it back, it’s always like, “Oh, my God! I didn’t even realise it could sound like that!”

Yeah, my version was all bass! It was terrible!

Yeah, no, I find that’s hard to…I think when you’re working on your own music, it’s kind of hard to discern what needs to go where, you know? “What’s the appropriate level, in the mix, of the vo…?” The vocals are a big thing; I notice, every artist, they’re never quite sure where to put the vocals in the mix. [Laughs] I don’t know if that’s the same for you?

Yeah, with mine, I didn’t like my vocals, so they were way down, now they’re way up! Because I’m a drummer, so I never…! So, I was just like, “Woah! OK!”

Yeah, I think people make those assertions and decisions just based on personal preference, rather than, you know, having an outside person go, “Actually, the song would benefit from this!” You’re just like, “I like drums!”

Yeah, it honestly took a year for me to realise that! [Laughs] I was like, “I can’t release that because it sounds like crap.”

Actually, do you think with that detachment of time and being able to kind of listen to things with, perhaps, a bit of a fresh ear is beneficial? Because I think, now, because you can have such a quick turnaround rate,… – you can, literally, record something on a Monday and have it out by Friday – …the way we distribute music digitally, do you think it’s important to sit on things and actually try and go back to them with a level of detachment?

Em…yes and no, to be honest, like. With “Dirty Chin,” it really aided in, like, the song and how you write it, but there are absolutely songs that I have canned because I’ve just thought about them too much, and, sometimes, you just need to get it and, sometimes, the first take, it might be out-of-tune or it might be out-of-time, but that is the one, like. That is the absolute vibe of it and you should absolutely hold onto it as soon as you have that idea. I think you should try and capture that lightning in the bottle. With some songs…It really is a case-by-case basis, I think, because, some songs absolutely benefit from, like, you write something, then you leave it a couple of months, and then you come back to it, and, suddenly, you’re like, “Oh! I’ve got all these ideas! Let’s do this right now!” But, sometimes, the first idea is the best one, and, then, you can’t remember it, you know? [Laughs]

Yeah, there’s no point sitting around on everything because, sometimes, I think when you have a very strict deadline and stuff, it kind of forces you to just commit to something that you’ve done and, sometimes, that can be the best because I think everyone can just go crazy, thinking, “Oh, what if I changed this?” All the alterations they can make, and then, as you said, something could never get done. You end up with a bunch of unfinished projects. I think every person who creates stuff can relate to that process! [Laughs]

Yes, absolutely. You just overthink it and you overdo it, and the original thing that was so cool about it is just no longer there, you know?

One thing I wanted to ask about the song, it’s about the death of your uncle and it was written during the time that you were still processing it. Do you find now, as time’s moved on, that singing this song…? Can it be challenging, I guess, to kind of invoke the emotions as strongly as you were feeling  back then, or, when you sing it, does it bring it back to where you were? And can that be a negative thing, having to relive that, I guess?

Yeah, so, for me, it’s its own thing, now. Every time I sing that song, every time we play it, it is just like…I was very angry and sad when I wrote that song, and there was a lot of shouting into the microphone, where I had to be like, “OK, that sounds like shit, so maybe I’ll sing it a wee bit, instead,” but now I get to shout and it’s, like, this joyous thing. It really is; it’s taken on a world of its own and it really is celebratory now. At the time, it absolutely was not; it was…I don’t know. I guess I was trying to convince myself that everything was hopeful and it was going to be OK, when I was writing it, but, now, it absolutely is that. One thing I will say is that, a guy called Eoin Bannon, who plays in a band called Alpha Twin, he’s also an amazing videographer, he did the video for us, and I thought, the entire time, “This song is ancient,” you know? “This will be the first Mucksavage song,  and it will come out, and people, hopefully, will like it,” and all the rest of it. We recorded the video in my uncle’s house – the house that he lived, and I always known him to live – and we went back there, to record the video, and, as soon as I walked in, I was like, “This is absolutely heavy. This is something.” In the video, there were, like, pictures of him and stuff, and I was like, “Right,  I’ll hold it together. You know, this is fine. I’ve got a job to do, so we’ll come and do it, and we’ll shoot the video and stuff.” I swear to God, like, two days later, when Eoin sent back the first cut of the video, I was in the kitchen, and I was like, “Wow! This looks great!” Cleo was kind of standing at the door, you know, like, peeking in there, [Laughs] just seeing how I was doing, and I was like, “Oh, that’s great!”, and then I turned around and, just, like, [Gestures tears coming out of his eyes] floods. It was just uncontrollable and it was out of nowhere, and I was like, “I really, really miss him, so much.” So, it’s been really cathartic, going back to that house and recording the video and having a piece of him, and, obviously, playing his guitar on the song and stuff. People listening to it and saying they like it, and sharing it and stuff, it’s great. And, obviously, he’s on the single cover, so every time someone shares it, it’s like, “Alright, cool.” It’s basically just a way to broadcast how much I love that guy. It’s super cathartic, and playing it live is absolutely cathartic and always emotional, and whether that emotion is complete joy and adrenaline or there’s a night we’re playing it and it’s like, “Oh, God. I kind of wish he could’ve been here.” It changes.

I guess one final thing I’ll ask is, now that you have your debut song out, what can people kind of expect from the other songs you have coming out? Generally, do you have an idea of the release pattern or, at the moment, is it a bit all over the place? [Laughs]

Um…so, we put this out…Cleo had, essentially, pressured me. She was like, “James, everyone is asking about Mucksavage. We had played a couple of shows, and everyone wants to hear music. You need to get your shit together, and you need to put this down. You need to get this out,” and I was like, “OK, cool!” [Laughs] So, I was really naïve. I’m still super green to all of this. Like, I don’t really…I’m still learning how to be a frontman and a guitarist in a band. I’m still learning how to do all the social media stuff, and talk to a camera, and talk to an audience, and all that stuff.

It never gets easier! No, I’m joking! [Both laugh]

No, I don’t imagine it will! So, there was no strategy for this. It was kind of just like, “Right, let’s get it out and let’s do it.” So, I think, in talking, the second single could be a couple of different ones, but the song I think it’s going to be is a song called “Watto,” named after the character from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. [Both laugh]

The little blue guy?

[Laughs] It’s basically a love song I wrote about Cleo before we were together. While she was in the band but before we were together, and I didn’t want to call it “Cleo,” so I was just like, “Watto.” The theme of it is being stuck on a planet…[Laughs] It’s ridiculous! I know!

[Laughs] I’m just picturing she’s watching Star Wars, and she’s like, “Him?” [Both laugh]

You’ll see the resemblance, man! Come see us live! [Laughs] But the kind of theme was being an alien on a planet and not really knowing where you fit in, and finding someone and being like, “Ah, cool. I finally get it.”

He’s also a slave owner. [Laughs]

[Puckish frustrated sigh] Let’s not talk about this whole thing! I forgot about that part! [Laughs] We’re trying to retain the “Watto” name, here, OK?! We’re going to get so cancelled! Oh, my God! We’re going to have to change it!

Sorry, Cleo!

Yeah, sorry, Cleo. I could still call it “Cleo,” but it wouldn’t make any sense, then, but sure. But the video idea for that… – I’m giving away a lot of spoilers here, and things might change, so this is a placeholder idea – …but Cleo bought a wee Sony Handycam recently, and she was setting it up and she was like, “James, come in here! There’s stuff on the camera!”, and I was like, “Oh, my God! It’s a sex tape!”, and I slid in there, like, “Oh, my God!” But it was someone getting married, from the ‘90s, like, someone actually in a church in England, filming them, and then, I think, the subsequent honeymoon after that, where they’re going around Disneyland, and it’s all handheld and super grainy, and I was like, “That needs to be a music video.” So, yeah, I think that’s what we’re going to do. And it’s cheap and easy, and we’ll go in and record it – we’ve got it demoed and all – so, we’ll go in and record it. I think the new year seems right. I was going to try and stick it in before the end of the year, but, as soon as December hits, no one really cares. They’re all Christmas mad, so…

Yeah, a good time is, you know that little period between Christmas and New Year’s? Like, nothing’s ever going on there, so you know…!

Yeah, maybe. Or maybe we’ll wait until Valentine’s Day or something. I don’t know. We’ll see. But I would like to get something out soon. Like, it’s been a lot of fun, and it’s been great having people’s opinions and stuff on the single, so I just want them to be able to hear more.

What’s the recording like, now? Because you mentioned with “Dirty Chin,” it was home demos that you, later, got professionally touched up. When it comes to what you’re doing now, in terms of the recording, what’s the plan? I assume it’s all full band now, or is it still solo stuff?

Yeah, so I’m…Being a drummer, I love playing the drums and I love recording the drums, and I know exactly what I want and I’m super picky about it. I’m not a great guitar player and I’m not a good bassist. I’m not even a good vocalist, to be honest. But drums are my thing, so I’ve sort of had to have a conversation with Aidan, and be like, “Man, can we just see what the craic is?” [Laughs] Because I don’t know! I don’t know if I’m going to get in there and be like, “Ah! I could do that!” or, maybe, Aidan will probably do it better, to be honest, but I don’t know! With guitar and bass, Cleo and Caolan should absolutely be on the record. Aidan’s like, “Man, I don’t care. Play the drums and I’ll do it live, and we’ll do that.” So, I don’t know. I guess we’ll see. [Laughs] It’s a point of contention in my own head. I don’t think Aidan really gives a shit, so I think I’m just freaking out myself! Like, there’s half of me who would be like, “Yeah, it’s a band effort,” and then there’s the other half of me that’s like, “It needs to be perfect! It needs to be all this!”

You gotta relinquish that, man! Nothing’s ever perfect in life! [Laughs]

Man, I’m in therapy at the minute, and maybe that’s what we’ll talk about next week, my need for perfection because it’s just horrible and it will absolutely ruin me, one day! But, yeah…

One final thing I wanted to ask-slash-accuse you of… – No, I’m only joking – …was Mucksavage just an elaborate ruse to talk to Cleo?

[Does a lip trill] No…no comment, man.

Alright! You don’t need to incriminate yourself! [Both laugh]

Awwwhhh…I really hope she doesn’t see this interview! We’ve had this conversation. I’ve admitted certain things that I am not going to admit, live on air. But, like, the first time I saw her, she was playing bass and I was completely just in awe of her, so much so that I could not talk to her. Then as soon as Michael was like, “What about that girl, Cleo? Like, she’s a cool bassist!”, I was like, “Yes. Absolutely.” But we kind of met up…there was, like, a “Help Musicians” thing at the Sunflower Bar in Belfast, and a mutual friend of ours, Anna, had asked me if I’d go with her, and I was like, “Yeah, cool,” and I showed up and Cleo was there, and I was like, “Oh, shit!” I had already asked her to be in the band at this point but I hadn’t really, properly talked to her; I had sent her across the songs and stuff. That was the first proper time we’d really met, I guess, and we were just having pints and hanging out, and it was really, really nice and chill, and I was like, “Oh, she’s super cool!” [Laughs] Then, at the end of the night, I was like, “Do you want a lift home or anything?”, and she was like, “Oh, no, my boyfriend lives across the road,” and I was like, [Doing a stunted voice] “Oh, OK! Cool!” So, absolutely, the number one reason I asked her to be in the band is because she’s an awesome bass player and that band, Red Tails, she was playing in, were, like, playing in mental time signatures and she was all over the shop, and I was like, “Michael! That’s class!” Number two is because she was so cool. And I absolutely did not think about how deeply I would fall in love with her, at the time. Absolutely not. That was just circumstantial. So, here we are.  

Perfect. One thing I’ll add is –  I’ve talked about this before with a friend of mine – if you’re ever in that scenario and someone brings up… – Now, you have to play this like you’re a complete idiot, like you have no brain function. It has to be to that level of commitment – …but if someone says, “Oh, I have a boyfriend,” the correct response is to look around and go, [In an idiotic voice] “Is it me?!” [Both laugh] That’s the best response in that scenario. But if there’s any semblance of intelligence, it doesn’t work; you have to be completely stupid for it to be funny.

I could probably get away with that! Yeah, absolutely! I could absolutely get away with that!

[Laughs] It takes a certain kind! [Both laugh]

Easy! Like, yeah, I could get away with that, no sweat. I have zero brain function, so, yeah, easy. Without a doubt.

One final thing I’ll ask, what can people expect? Obviously, the single’s out, but do you have any shows coming up? Do you have any place where people can see you, and things like that?

Currently not. We have no gigs for the rest of the year or into the new year, but that could soon change. We have friends who were thinking about doing a Christmas show, which would be really fun. I think the plan next is to get the next single out, and, with that next single, we will absolutely do a release show. The reason we didn’t do a release show with “Dirty Chin” is that I don’t think anyone knew us. We’d played a couple of shows in Belfast, but the last show we played in the Students’ Union Bar in Queen’s, like, people kind of like…people started to listen, I think. It was one of those shows where we were like, “Oh, OK. I think we’re a band, now,” you know? People were kind of…You could see them kind of perk up and listen to what we were saying, and I wasn’t falling over my words when I was interacting with the crowd [Laughs], and it was cool! So, yeah, I think I’d love to do a really sweaty show in the Queen’s Student Union because it’s, like, 100-cap in the wee bar upstairs, and the sound’s great and the lights are great. So, yeah, just get a couple of really great, cool bands as support and then get the next single out. So, that might be the next time we play a show. I would love to play a show sooner. So, yeah, I’ll just keep it open and, if anyone’s listening and wants us to play, hit us up!

Mucksavage’s debut single, “Dirty Chin,” is on all streaming platforms now. The band will play with Dullahan and Broncos at the Ulster Sports Club, Belfast on February 22^nd. Tickets for that show are available through Eventbrite. You can find the band’s music, social media accounts, and live dates through their Linktree.

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.