Brave Young Soldier on I Live Here.

What attracted you both to work so heavily with drum patterns and synthesizers on this EP? Were there specific influences that led you here, or did these decisions fit a musical feeling you had in mind?

Brian: Living in a city and making music predominantly in our bedroom with minimal space means smaller and cheaper instruments like synths and drum machines lend themselves better to our environment. Living in such a dense, built up and erratic place definitely pushed us towards and intense, electronic, club like atmosphere in terms of musical feeling I think.  

Viva: At the time Thom Yorkes Anima had just come out which we were both rinsing, as well as the modular greats like Laurie Speigel, Suzanne Ciani which definitely informed the final sound.

I am really interested in the relationship between this being your first project together as a duo and the themes of home or internal and external divides that I took from the EP. This kind of zoning out that can occur during a fruitful relationship of a world outside of it-it’s an incredibly exciting feeling to listen to. Was there a particular way you approached beginning this project together?

V: When we arrived in New York we were very much in the early stages of our relationship, living together as well as getting used to a new city. Looking back on what we ended up making over this time, you can find threads like those you mentioned that we couldn’t have preconceived. Or if we did it wouldn’t have turned out as well. I feel like the project began as Brian bringing me in on something he’d already had on the go, as in he had the bones of the production down for one or two of the tracks. More songs materialised until it became the collaboration that it is. It began tentatively I think, I was self conscious and couldn’t have him in the room when I was recording at first. When it came to arranging the music I feel like I often didn’t have the language to explain what I wanted even though in my head it was clear, Brian was patient and definitely held a lot of space for my inexperience at it all until we found some kind of flow. Again being new to each other and to the city and to working together I think invoked a care with which we handled the project and each other that maybe would be different if we tried again now haha 

I really liked the repetition in ‘The Crane’-’it helps, it helps'. Crying at the same things ‘over and over’ this kind of adaptation to sameness, in our surroundings or skylines and finding an antidote in human connection within these spaces. How did you both musically approach conveying feelings of space or home?

V: Home is something you never have a keener sense of then when you are somewhere new. For me it was less a theme I tried to convey and more the only thing I could write about at the time. I remember I used the name brave young soldier as a way to write through a character, in the end it always had my voice. Every time you move away your concept of yourself and the island you have to build yourself in order to survive is deconstructed. I think being as that was the headspace we were both in, the outcome was somewhat inevitable. 

B: Yeah, again the link between place and music is something I’m really interested in and I don’t think we would have made this in Dublin. After living in a few different cities, you notice how your listening patterns change depending on where you are and I absolutely believe the EP is a product of our surroundings at the time. Musically, I will often have an idea or feeling or something I use to guide the instrumental parts. This is just something that I find helps the production process move easier and we were definitely using the themes you hit on there. 

Could you talk a little about the recording process?? 

B: We recorded ‘Stitch Them Up’ in our bedroom in Brooklyn on a zoom and a basic mixer I bought from a guy on wall street haha. We planned to re-record it better but ended up liking the roughness of it. Luckily, I was working in a nice post-production studio in Hells Kitchen with professional vocal booths and we were able to record the rest of the vocals there. We did them all in two evenings I think. 

V: The last recording we managed to get in was the day before I was due to fly home. We’d said all along that it was a New York project and continuing in Dublin wasn’t an option. So the deadline was me leaving. I think the structure that gave us was crucial.

I wanted to talk about the layering of vocals on some tracks on the EP, In ‘stitch them up’ in particular, there are moments when the whispering of Viva’s voice, or in and exhalations  in the track seems less like a contradictory inner voice and more like a private repetition in a space that feels safe, what attracted you towards this really specific vocal delivery?

V: I think stitch them up is very much a internal conversation trying to make your mind a safe space as you say or talking myself back from something. In the beginning the whispering we tried out for texture more than concept and then once the song came together the narrative was clear. Again it is very telling of the specific headspace we occupied at the time. The repetition I think came as a natural self soothing, parental kind of voice that you have to become for yourself in unfamiliar circumstances and in the face of things you feel ill-equipped to handle. 

What is exciting about both of your quarantine existence?!

V: At the time of this interview I’m studying for my final year exams in college, so I’m very excited to be finished and to decompress. We’ve been making an effort to listen to full albums together often which is great, and something we’ve both neglected. I’ve developed a plant obsession which brings me a lot of joy. The money we’ve made so far from our Bandcamp sales will go towards some new gear which could mean the start of something new. I started a ddr show I’ve been sitting on (Hold Me) which I’m really enjoying umm what else most of all I’m excited for quarantine to end to be honest. Every day I can’t dance my soul withers a little more haha 

B: Been reading, running, listening to music and watching a lot of films. As Viva mentioned, we have been listening to a lot of full albums in the park which has been great. I kind of stopped listening to full records by accident and it’s been very refreshing to return to. Listening as an activity rather than combined with something else (running, cleaning whatever) is really important to me. Just sitting and really taking it in, what a concept eh. Some other highlights from quarantine in no particular order: Enda Epoch on ddr., Portrait of A Lady On Fire, Ray Bradbury, Grief is the thing with feathers, Withnail & I, most things on Mubi, Studio Ghibli, TG4 Docs, Normal People, Succession, ddr. fam, war memorial gardens & phoenix park…