POST-BURNOUT
When we last spoke with the Dublin punk band Milk Rain, they had just released their second single, “Merry Fucking December,” which was their first release in three years. After the New Year, the band spent no time claiming their stake in the Dublin music scene.
“We’ve been busy enough,” their vocalist and guitarist, Lisa Milk Murnane, tells Post-Burnout of their year thus far when we chatted last week. “We’ve had a pretty stacked start of the year, just packing in gigs. We had our Anseo duology tour, of just playing Anseo twice! [Laughs]” “And within two weeks,” adds their bassist, Maeve Costello. “Like, one week, then the next, we played Anseo twice! [Laughs]”
Beyond gigging, the band have been working on their debut EP, Saphic Failings, which is expected to be released “sooner than ya think!” Described as “…a three-song story arc of Lust, Love and Devastation, loosely based on unfortunate romantic life-choices” in their press release, the EPis a conceptual piece realised by Lisa as she was penning three separate songs that reflected on past relationships.
“After an absolute disaster of a relationship, I was like, ‘OK, I just want to fully take control of what happened there, and write my version of that disaster, essentially!’” Lisa laughs while explaining the EP.
“In hindsight, I’m just looking at how bad of a job I did. So, we’re calling the EP Saphic Failings, because it has nothing to do with the girls; it was a categorical failing on my part! We’ve even spelt the word ‘Sapphic’ wrong in the title! [Laughs]” “It’s now become a stylistic choice!” defends Maeve. “Yes!” responds Lisa. “Now it’s a choice! It was an accident, initially!”
Lisa candidly admits that she didn’t begin writing the songs to self-reflect, saying, “The first song, initially, I was like, ‘I sound so cool!’ [Then] I was like, ‘Oh, I sound like a monster! I see! I’m actually a really awful guy in this song!’ Even though initially, it was written out of pure, genuine arrogance, of ‘I’m the coolest ever!’
“Whereas the other two, one was more a kind of song of obsession and genuine adoration, but at an uncomfortable level, with someone. And then, the other…we’ll see how we all take that when that comes out! [All laugh] Maeve thinks it’s great!”
Photo by Emily Beattie
Courtesy of Milk Rain
For a while now, Milk Rain has had the consistent line-up of Lisa and Maeve (who was her first conscript) playing alongside guitarist Thomas Earls and drummer Conor O’Boyle.
While Lisa is the band’s primary songwriter, they all come together to add or subtract what they feel is necessary to make each track the best it can be. When Lisa came to them with this concept, they were already familiar with the tracks on an individual level.
“Some of them have actually been in our live set for a while,” Maeve says of the EP’s tracklist. “So, I think it’s probably the closest to how we sound live, these sets of songs that we’re doing on the EP.
“I mean, I think we all came into the songs at different points in our lives. Like, ‘Desk Lamp…’ has been in the works for a hot minute.” “That was one of the first songs we played together,” adds Conor.
Fittingly, the song they were referring to, “Desk Lamp Night Stand,” is one of the first songs Lisa brought to the band, is the first song on the EP, and is also the first of the EP’s songs to be released.
Released as a single back in March, Lisa says of the song, “It was [when I was] in a relationship, missing having one-night stands! [Laughs] It was like, ‘I miss who I was!’, then like, ‘Jesus Christ! Who you were was not good, man!’ […] I can be wistful about anything awful!”
Lisa feels that the song was elevated by Thomas’ additions, as she had purposefully crafted it to allow space for his ideas. “That’s, typically, the way it works,” says Thomas of their process. “Lisa will show me a song, sit down with me, and we just bang it out. Some things need tweaking, but it’s usually just me and Lisa gelling very well.”
“A lot of instinct,” adds Maeve. “We all have a lot of freedom in what we do. Lisa brings the lyrics and the tune, and we all get to fuck around with it. [Laughs]” “I have a policy of, ‘You find your part,’” explains Lisa. “‘I’m not going to tell you your part; you have to find it!’” “My running joke is, I write the parts that are like, ‘What is Lisa trying to play?’” laughs Thomas.
The EP was produced by Conor. Explaining the process of making Saphic Failings, Conor details, “I recorded [Milk Rain’s debut single] ‘Gedrosian’ with Lisa, back in 2022. So, I’ve been producing the EP as well.
“It’s been recorded between a view different places. We were up in Paradise Studio. That’s where we laid down a bunch of the drums, as well as a couple of other bits. Then, we kind of recorded between the house that Lisa and I used to live in, as well as where I’m living now.
“So, it’s kind of been a bit all over the place, just setting up amps in different spaces, and recording extra percussion in bathrooms, and a lot of fun stuff. Then, Lisa went off with the mic themselves and recorded some of the [material] in their bedroom, which I think gives a very direct and intimate feel to it, as well.”
While Saphic Failings’ release date is yet to be announced, the band will be hosting a preview event for the EP this Monday at the Winding Stair bookshop in Dublin. After its release, they will resume touring for the rest of 2026.
“Come to our show on the 20th of April,” Lisa says. “Also, the one on the 22nd of May. And there’s going to be more music videos. Keep an eye on the YouTubes. One thing we’re keen to do is release music videos with pretty much every song we put up, which is [Laughs] pretty ambitious, but also funny!”
Milk Rain’s latest single, “Desk Lamp Night Stand,” is out now. Their EP, Saphic Failings, is expected to be released soon. Keep up with the band here.
Milk Rain will perform at:
April 20th – Dublin – The Winding Stair (Saphic Failings Sneak Peek Party)
May 22nd – Dublin – Anseo (w/ Slapneck)
Tune into POSTBURNOUT.COM Interviews… tonight at 21:00 (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.