Dominda is a five-piece indie band from Dublin, which is comprised of Ruaidhrí Whelan on guitar and vocals, Luke Cunningham on guitar, Barry Lysaght on guitar, Stephen Curtis on bass, and Sean Curtis on drums, who are known for transcending their light-hearted fun onto their audiences at their energetic and engaging live shows.

Today, after two years of gigging in the Dublin music scene, the band dropped their semi-eponymous debut EP, Don’t Mind That. Post-Burnout caught up with the lads over the week to discuss the EP, forming during the pandemic, working a five-piece around everyone’s schedules, their live shows and sense of humour, their upcoming EP launch show at the Workman’s Cellar, and more.

_____________________________________________

Before I begin, I want to make sure that I’m getting the pronunciation correct, which I’m probably not. Is it ­doe-mean-dah?

Ruaidhrí: [Laughs] It’s doh-mine-dah. It’s…

Oh! “Don’t Mind That!” OK! Jesus! [Laughs]
Sean: Yeah, we get that a lot! Don’t worry!

That makes the EP title a lot more…Because it said “semi-eponymous,” and I didn’t understand. It’s like, “OK, now I get it!” [Laughs]

Barry: Yeah, I came up with “semi-eponymous!” [Laughs]

Well, I’m just stupid, so it’s fine! [Laughs]

Barry: We’re the stupid ones! [Laughs]

Actually, I wanted to talk about how the band started before we get on to the EP. Yeah, so my understanding is that it started in 2022 – so, it’s a relatively new band, right? – but you guys have kind of been in projects together. I don’t know if you’ve been in a project collectively before this or if this is the first one?

Ruaidhrí: Well, we were in secondary school together, all in the same year, and we played through orchestras, wind bands, trad bands; all together but as single entities. And then just in the lockdown, we decided it was about time that we got together, properly. It was just really necessity out of boredom, I would say.

Barry: Yeah. [Laughs]

Ruaidhrí: And then it’s gone on from there, and, really, it’s what we’ve been wanting to do, even if we didn’t know it before that.

Barry: Yeah. It was something we talked about before – actually forming the band – but I think not being able to do it in the lockdown is really what drove us to do it, afterwards.

Yeah. So, what was that like, starting in the lockdown? So, the starting date is 2022, and I guess at that point restrictions would’ve been eased, but did the idea kind of crop up before that or do you say that 2022 is the official [beginning]?

Stephen: Well, Sean and I are cousins and we lived next door to each other during lockdown, we had played in a band together previously, and then, obviously as we said, we were in school together, so I’d play with Ru a couple of times. I had probably played with Barry a couple of times with Sean in a load of different versions of pretty much the same band. So, during lockdown, I was living next to Sean, then we were allowed to have three, four people in our house, so we probably invited Ru and Barry over just to have a jam. We were bored out of our minds. [All laugh] We all had similar interests and we sort of started playing covers mainly, like glam rock and stuff, which was pretty funny! We were obviously going a bit mental, because of lockdowns [Laughs], so I’d say that was probably the main reason. But then we kept playing. Once lockdowns had opened, then we started rehearsing in a rehearsal studio. Ru had written a lot of songs on his own – sort of more acoustic songs – and brought them to the band, and Barry plays lead guitar, so he started putting some riffs over it, maybe some solos. We just started developing more and were like, “Alright, screw it. Let’s just play in town,” you know? Because Fibbers will pretty much have anyone, so…! [All laugh] There’s no vetting process by any means, so we can just show up and play, regardless! But, yeah, that went really well – well, in our minds – and we loved it, and Fibbers is always full, so you’re always playing to some decent crowd; especially when Brazil are in the semi-finals of the World Cup. [All laugh] It’s rammed, so that was our biggest gig to date! And then we kept playing, and then we were friends with Luke, and I actually moved to London, then, in September of 2023? No, 2022. So, obviously, it wasn’t ideal with the band. I guess we weren’t really as serious then, so it wasn’t a big deal, but the lads asked Luke to join then, playing bass, and I obviously got extremely jealous of that, so I said no. And it turns out Luke is actually class at guitar; he just failed to mention this!

Barry: Yes. I think we were at Luke’s second or third practice, and he had been playing the bass, and then he was like, “Man, can I get a look at that guitar, there?” and then he just played for, like, two minutes, and I was like, “OK, I think we can play with three guitars, yes.” [All laugh]

Actually, when I listen to your music, it seems just very fun and very free-flowing in a way. It doesn’t take itself too seriously but, at the same time, it’s not a comedic band either, but it does have a light-hearted element to it, I think. I was just wondering, from your perspective, how does this band differ from other projects you might have been in?

Ruaidhrí: Well, I can just say that it’s a lot more fun and it’s a lot easier when you’ve known each other for so long. When Luke came in, what Luke really did was solidify the vision and drive us towards what we should be doing, which is recording music [and] putting the music out, which I think was nearly a far-fetched dream for us, originally, before Luke joined the band. But, yeah, it’s different because we want to be doing it every day, you know? Whereas, in the past, it was a slow burn or we were playing sporadically, individually. But now that we have each other and we’re together, it’s really worth doing, I’d say.

Stephen: I think a good factor for the differences in our songs, as well – this is just my opinion, now – but I think Ru writes songs that are quite deep and metaphorical and has all these nice phrases that are quite ambiguous [and] up to the interpretation of the listener, maybe. And Luke, his songs I think are very situational, so it’s something that may have happened. Like, we have a song about a night out. Luke and his mates got kicked out of the pub and Luke wrote a really satirical, sarcastic song about all the different events that went on that night. So, the sort of mash-up of those two things I think lends to the contrast in the different songs that we’ve put out so far.

Yeah. Actually, what I think is kind of interesting – going back to that sort of laid-back element – I would exemplify it with the grasshopper joke that’s featured in one of your songs for example. [Responding to their reactions] Oh, was that a creatively divisive idea, or was that pretty unanimous? [Laughs]

Luke: I don’t think so. We recorded that in my bedroom. [All laugh] But, yeah, I would say – like you said – that you can hear that we like to have a lot of fun in the music and stuff, and I think that’s because we often…like, one of us has an idea and someone jumps on the back of that idea, and it snowballs really, really quickly. And we all find each other very funny, so we don’t have anybody to say, “Stop!” [All laugh] And then you end up with a joke in the middle of the song, and we’re like, “That is the best thing we’ve ever done!”

Barry: The laughs in the background afterwards are 100% genuine! Like, it was just a hot mic.

Ruaidhrí: It was constantly needing a bridge.

Sean: We didn’t have one for ages.

Ruaidhrí: We had two songs that very different…two sections of the songs that had completely different timing to them, BPM, and then we didn’t know how to bridge that gap, so the only thing we could think of was a “Grasshopper walks into a bar” joke. [All laugh] Which, to be fair, works every time! People love it!

Barry: And, in fairness, we are self-critical to an extent, because, Ru, I think you originally had a much longer joke?

Ruaidhrí: Yeah, it was four-and-a-half minutes! [All laugh]

I like the idea of perhaps using a joke or an anecdote as a guitar solo next. Or like a supplement for a solo.  Just get really experimental with where you can bring jokes. [All laugh]

Ruaidhrí: Don’t tempt us, Aaron! Please!

Barry: I’m going to write that down!

That’s the concept! Yeah, you were mentioning it was during lockdown when you guys started. When you guys started getting to play live, did you find that that fun transcending into the audience? Did you think the people you were playing to were receptive, when you were doing support for the Brazilian semi-final?

Ruaidhrí: Yeah. You know, being in front of people is always a new experience – because it’s always a new crowd, realistically – but the fun, really – as Luke often says in all the info we send out; the literature – we try to be infectiously fun, and people can tell if we’re having fun on stage. And that’s really the main thing for us, is that people should be leaving your shows happy, excited, full of energy, as opposed to down, dower, whatever else you want to do. And the very first point of that is you should be having fun, otherwise, how can anybody else?

And talking about your EP, then. So, it comes out Friday as we’re recording this. How long was the EP cooking for? How long did it take to get out from beginning to end? Was it a long process or was it relatively quick?

Ruaidhrí: How long was it? When did we start recording? We had the songs…

Barry: Yeah, we started recording in September.

Luke: The start of September.

Barry: Yeah. And the songs were in existence for a while before that; some of them longer than others. Some of them were relatively recently composed, just before we recorded them! [Laughs] Well, not “just before,” but…

Stephen: Yeah, like the first single we released, “Meet Me in the Morning,” is the first song that Ruaidhrí brought to the band. So, previously, it was just an acoustic song with Ruaidhrí and his guitar, and then he brought it to the band, and we sort of…You know, we changed sections; it wasn’t completely the exact same. Like, we have a solo section; originally, we had a totally different bridge, and, actually, during the recording process…Well, actually, we had a lot of input from our producer, to be fair to him, and he sort of gave us suggestions here and there, and we went away with those suggestions and sort of changed it up for listenability, and I guess it made far more sense after we made the changes.

Barry: Um. But, in terms of the process itself, we started in September. I think we got the first draft of the tracks back…was it December, I think?

Sean: Yeah, we got the [Inaudible] or something, was the deadline we gave him. We were hoping we would’ve got them released by December. [Laughs] Yet, here we are!

Barry: I think everyone told us December is an awful time to release music!

Yeah. December and January, I’ve always heard, don’t do it. [Laughs]

Barry: Yeah, yeah.

Ruaidhrí: But we learnt. We learnt.

Which kind of seems like a smart idea. Like, if no-one else is releasing it – given the conventional wisdom – just go, “OK! We’ll do it then! There’s nothing else!”

Barry: Maybe a Christmas album at some stage?

Ruaidhrí: A Mariah Carey Christmas album, at some stage.

Stephen: We also think it’s a good time, because January’s dull – no-one’s really doing anything after Christmas; no-one’s really going out or anything – so, we think now people are ready to go again, coming back into semi-decent weather and people are bit happier and recouped a bit of cash after Christmas and are ready to go; spend it all on gig tickets! [Laughs] So, yeah, we’re pretty happy with the time, I think.

Barry: Yeah, and I think the music is very spring/summer, in terms of its vibes.

Yeah, it’s good for the transitional period, which is spring, I guess. [Laughs]

Barry: Yeah.

Yeah. What are the expectations from the EP coming out? Do you have any or are you just kind of releasing it and letting the chips fall where they may?

Luke: International stardom, I think is probably [All laugh] the main aim! Nothing else will suffice! No, I don’t even know how to answer the question. [Laughs] I think, to be honest, it’s the same with everything we do; we just want to play shows and have fun, so I think a large motivation for us is that we wanted to play festivals during the summer, and that’s a big reason that we were trying to get an EP together. That’s even why we recorded the singles last year, because we felt that we needed a body of work for our portfolio to be able to put forward so we can actually play gigs and have fun, effectively.

Barry: We were enjoying playing live; we just kind of had to have the stuff online to back that up.

Luke: And it’s hard to get shows if you don’t have stuff online, for people to look at.

Ruaidhrí: Very hard. Sure, we were sending Whelan’s messages, being like, “Let us play,” and they were like, “You have nothing! How could we let you play?!” [All laugh] And we were furious! We’re really good!

Barry: We had a recording someone took off their phone, yeah. [Laughs]

Stephen: Being told we need to practice more was very humbling. [All laugh]

Yeah. Now, with the EP coming out, it kind of gives you – as you were mentioning – the live opportunities and a semblance of a portfolio. Do you find live performances – especially because you guys were mentioning festivals and stuff – do you find that even though there’s so many means of getting your music out, in terms of all the streaming platforms and YouTube and things like that, do you still find that live is the best way to accrue new fans, I guess?

Ruaidhrí: I think live is by far the best way to accrue new fans, because, at the level that we’re at now, you have so much one-on-one time with the people who are listening to you, and that’s kind of our whole thing, and we’re always, always talking to people and always trying to plug and always doing that, and it’s a lot easier for someone to root for you if they feel that they know you. And we just prefer doing the live shows. What’s the point in sitting back and watching numbers slowly go up when we can play to thirty people, twenty people, ten people, a hundred people? It doesn’t matter.

Stephen: I think it also goes back to saying the fundamental aspect of our music is trying to have fun and have the craic, and you can only put that across to a certain extent on, like, Spotify and stuff, so I think the actual live shows definitely portrays it from our side of things a lot more, and people can get involved with that.

Barry: I think that’s what kind of turns someone from being someone who listens to your music to a fan. Doing it live is a much better way to do that. It’s creating that personal connection.

Yeah, I find that, too. I find a lot of the times when you go to see a live performance, it does have that kind of personal connection in a way, where it’s more of an experience or something.

Barry: Absolutely, yeah.

I can’t really explain it. Maybe it doesn’t need to be explained; maybe we should be content to let it be what it is. [Laughs]

Sean: In fairness to Ru, he’s our frontman and he’s very engaging with the crowd, which is always great because they feel like a part of the show. Like, a lot of bands will just play and then get off, whereas Ru really connects with the audience, I suppose, and they love it. They love getting involved, even when Luke and stuff get down into the crowd, that’s a new experience for them. [Laughs]

As people who’ve known each other for a while, through secondary school, when it kind of came to playing in a band together, did you find that you guys got to see parts of yourselves that you hadn’t seen before? Like, did you know, for example, that Ru was going to be such an amazing frontman?

Stephen: Oh, Jesus, yeah! [All laugh]

That’s a very loaded question! [Laughs]

Ruaidhrí: I had been doing shows for years, like musicals, I had been doing all that stuff, as had Sean and Barry, and Stephen played in the orchestra and all that, but I was always I suppose trying to be the centre of attention [All laugh] for a lack of a better way of saying it!

Barry: I do remember that!

Ruaidhrí: I think it was better for everybody if they just gave me a microphone and let me do what I wanted!

Sean: The four of us are very much heard and not seen, and Ru is very much heard and seen!

Ruaidhrí: That’s not true! But, again, it’s the benefit of knowing each other for fifteen years, that the unseen sides came out a long time ago, you know? If you had of asked us that twelve years ago, sure, we might have said, “Stephen has a habit,” or “Barry has a habit,” or whoever. But now…

Sean: We’re so good at shutting ourselves down as well, which is important!

Barry: It is kind of that you can only really criticise properly if you are actually close to them. [Laughs] Like, I respect the criticism of people I care about more than anyone else.

Stephen: But I’ve been in bands with guys that I haven’t known half as well as the lads, and it makes the process extremely difficult if people are sort of tip-toeing around the point or, like, they have a suggestion or if someone might be doing something that’s not really benefitting the song but you don’t feel comfortable enough to say anything, so you just let it slide. But we can say things to each other and, obviously, you know, it’s not taken as an insult. You know, we can joke about it. But, yeah, I think it definitely adds to the process massively.

And, as a five-piece, how do you guys find working around each other’s schedules? Do you find it difficult, when it comes to doing a show? Do you think if an opportunity was to arise where maybe not everyone could attend, would you still go ahead with the show, or does it have to be all five in a room?

Sean: It’s definitely the hardest for Stephen, because he lives in London, for sure. So, every time we play a gig, he has to fly back.

Barry: And I would say, it’s definitely helped by the fact that Stephen is the most committed member of the band! [All laugh]

Sean: But we played gigs without Ru, before. Because Ru went to Thailand, I think, or wherever, this summer, and we got a few gigs, and we managed to coordinate a whole set without the frontman. And it went very well, I think.

Ruaidhrí: Very successfully.

Barry: We played a gig, as well, and Luke kind of broke a finger. So, that was interesting. [Laughs]

That’s a sign of dedication! [Laughs]

Barry: Yeah, yeah! No, Luke, came on to sing with the hand in the glove!

It would be interesting – to bring it full circle, as a kind of COVID band – if you guys did a full set where, like, one member was on Zoom or something. [All laugh]

Sean: That would be good. Call it “The Pandemic Year.”

Ruaidhrí: Again, don’t encourage, please!

I’m just giving you, like, the worst suggestions! Do with them what you will! I’m not liable for any of them, if you attempt them! I want to plug, obviously, you have a live show coming up. Workman’s Cellar, March 30^th. Is that an album release gig, or is that just a gig that happens to coincide with the release date? How are you viewing it, I guess, because there is a bit of time between the two?

Luke: Yeah, no, that’s exactly it. It’s the big release party for the EP. So, we planned it for that time…Well, to be honest, we wanted to get a good venue first and foremost, so that’s the date we got, but, also, we like the idea of giving everybody the EP and then we can go play it live, and hopefully by then, everyone has listened to the tracks and likes them, you know? I’m hoping to hear some of the lyrics sang back to us. That’s the aim. [Laughs]

That’s perfect. I guess the final thing I’ll just ask is, you have the album coming out in a few days and then the gig next month. Beyond that, what does 2024 have in store for you?

Barry: We’re looking to get back into the studio, I think. There’s a lot of ideas we have at the moment that we’d really love to get recorded and put out, and we love the process.

Sean: And now we know how long it takes to release! [All laugh] If we want to plan for something to be released at the end of the year, we really have to start working on it pretty soon.

Ruaidhrí: Moving on, after that, it’s just gig, gig, gig. You’ll be hearing from us. If you haven’t seen us last week, you’ll see us next week. That’s just the way it has to be, and that’s the way we want it to be.

Sean: And hopefully a festival. Luke said it earlier, about the festival.

Ruaidhrí: Fingers crossed. That’s the real goal for 2024, pushing forward, is let’s get into these things, you know? Let’s really push it.

Sean: Make a name for ourselves.

Ruaidhrí: Yeah, make a name.

Stephen: Hopefully get a gig over in London, as well. [All laugh]

Ruaidhrí: That’s the one we’ll Zoom in for, Ste!

Dominda’s debut EP, Don’t Mind That, is out today. The EP’s launch gig is at the Workman’s Cellar, Dublin, on March 30^th, and you can find tickets here. You can find the band’s music, live dates and social media accounts here.