We started out about a year and a half ago rehearsing Irish trad songs at myself and Maddy’s place. But after a couple of months, we started to incorporate our own ideas into the set list which in time became our main focus. We just couldn’t stop writing new songs. Months after that we had about 20 original songs, a great start for a debut album. We started recording all the tracks but because we couldn’t stop writing as I said, we ended up not using any of them. The songs on the EP are songs that came about in the last two months. We are a bit all over the place, but I guess there is a method to everyone’s madness.

Choosing to release an EP as Rirà’s first step for mankind on the web wasn’t a lazy approach, it was a decision we took that originated from my 15-year boys’ suggestion that ‘less is more’, ‘consistent interaction’ and ‘ongoing material’, is what people want nowadays.

Myself and Yann are in our 50’s so I guess it’s not a bad thing to listen to the new and up and coming generation from time to time who know their shit when it comes to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram etc. Yep, 6 songs are definitely less than 13 and a lot easier to manage in terms of the continuity of concept. So, thanks Zach, if you could only get out of bed everyday before 3 o’clock that would be consistent also.

                So, this is the first finished batch of six songs out of a repertoire of 30 songs that we have recorded over the last year. 

All the songs were recorded between two home studios that of myself and Yann. I’ve known Yann for about 8 years now on and off but only really got to know him since we started the group and I can tell ya this; the worst present to get this guy is a loop pedal, you wouldn’t see him for months. He would probably end up handing in his notice at work. Thank God he has only two arms because if he had more, we would probably end up fucking him out of the band. Once everything was finalized in terms of arrangement and parts, it was 3 days of mixing at Yann’s, then a couple of days more at Yann’s for the mastering. Maddy overseas everything which is great. She has the last say in a way. Because myself and Yann are obsessed with hitting this button and that button and adding this and adding that we would be there for years listening to the same song if it wasn’t for Maddy to tell us right lads that’s it. 

You are never really a hundred percent happy when it comes to the end product but you have to stop at some point and let it go for what it is. I know this from experience. The day all is finished you are pure excited. You are there in the studio listening away to the track saying to yourself, ‘Jasus, the songs are brilliant, we’re fucking deadly’. You then go back home and stick the cd on, sit back with a beer and enjoy the experience. It’s a great moment. However, a couple of months later, it’s not quite the same experience. Having not listened to the CD for some time, you put in on for the first time. The beer this time around doesn’t quite taste the same and you are saying to yourself, ‘man that sounds shite, how did we manage that, the vocals are out of tune in some parts, certain instruments are not loud enough, and the general vibe of the sound is so polished it sounds like a really bad boy band’. This doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens. But when you are Fifty, all of this stuff doesn’t matter. Well, when I say it doesn’t matter, I mean that it’s not the be all and end all if we don’t get it right. You have the same enthusiasm but the idea of becoming the next big thing doesn’t really matter anymore. And I think that makes a big difference. You are more relaxed and playing music for what it is. Years ago, ‘the ticking clock’ in the studio was money and ‘time’ in general was something you didn’t have much of with family life and work etc. Nowadays most of us have home studios which makes recording a lot easier. And at 50 you have a little more time on your hands.