Please tell us a few words about the new release, about the music on it as a whole or a few words on each track in part. How are you happy with the final release?
Rinne mé iarraidh is a collaboration between Orla Cadden Patel and Fionn Murray. The album presents a radical fusion of sean-nós singing, doom/drone metal, and ambient electronica, inspired by Sunn O))), Bloody Panda, Boards of Canada and Solar Fields. We set out to create something which was very atmospheric and mournful, but also very different and weird, and we think we’ve succeeded, at least in the latter goal.
How would you describe/label the music on it? Does it sound like anything we might have heard before?
We’re using the term “drone-nós”. The album is a fusion of sean-nós singing, drone metal and ambient electronic music. Sean-nós is a kind of traditional Irish music, and is a genre of a capella vocal music in which a solo singer avoids a strict rhythm and metre, and focuses instead on expressive ornamented melody and restrained emotion (usually in the Irish language), in order to convey a mournful, sorrowful mood. We don’t think anyone has done anything quite like this before, but it could be compared to bands like Primordial and From the Bogs of Aughiska.
Where was it recorded and how much time did it take you to record it? Any interesting stories from the recording/producing the material?
The vocals, guitars and bass were all recorded by Michael Richards at Trackmix studios, here in Dublin. Michael recorded lots of renowned Irish metal bands such as Cruachan, Old Season and Dead Label, so he was an obvious choice. Michael was responsible for mixing as well as recording the album. In addition to the vocal, guitar and bass tracks, there are a lot of field recordings included which Fionn carried out.
The recording process was quite atypical for a metal album. How it usually works is, the band writes the songs, the band makes a tempo map of the songs to create a click track with, the guitarist goes into the studio to record a scratch track along with the click track, the drummer records their parts to the scratch track, the bassist records their parts, the guitarist records their parts, then you do vocals last. In this case, Orla’s vocals were the first thing we recorded, and everything else was built around those. In Trackmix, we recorded Orla singing the four songs without a click track (because sean-nós singing is completely arhythmic without a fixed metre), then Fionn spent about a year building arrangements around the vocals. Fionn recorded demo guitar parts, then added in layers and layers of electronics, field recordings, percussion and so on. After all the electronic arrangements were complete, Fionn went back into Trackmix to record the guitar and bass parts, and then Michael mixed the whole album. Finally, mastering was carried out by Richard Dowling.
What can you tell us about the cover artwork? Is there a link between the artwork and the lyrics? What are the topics of your lyrics?
The cover art is a simple photo of a plaque depicting two hands clasped in prayer. The plaque is sort of a family heirloom which was lying around in Fionn’s childhood home, which belonged to his grandparents. Fionn isn’t religious, but a lot of the lyrics on the album are concerned with religion and mourning, so it seemed appropriate.
The four songs on the album are traditional Irish folk songs sung in the Irish language, but with radically different arrangements. Hence, the lyrics are about typical themes in Irish folk music, like religion, patriotism, grief, emigration and the Irish nation itself.
What do you expect to gain through this release? What are the band's aims at the moment?
Rinne mé iarraidh was intended to be an experiment, to try something very different from what all of the individual musicians involved have done before and see what the end result is. We’re hoping to turn a few heads, and if it sparks a bit of interest in traditional Irish music as well, that’d be even better.
Where and how will you promote this new release?
The album is premiering on March 13th via www.comeherefloyd.com, and then is available for download the day after.
Where can we order it from?
https://fosmetal.bandcamp.com
Video sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUGnxhx0QB0
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fosmetal/
Bandcamp page: https://fosmetal.bandcamp.com/
February 2020