Exciting west of Ireland band Bees & Sawdust, will debut their new EP, Euphoriac, in the Roisin Dubh on Thursday, January 19. The band, who became official in 2021, have been working hard on their music and live performing, and have already played the Roisin Dubh many times - which has helped them develop quite a loyal following. In their own words, they love hard tunes, cold brews and long walks on the beach.
Ahead of their next Galway gig, where they will be debuting their second EP, we sat down with Bees and Sawdust, comprising of Oliver Kelly (vocals ), Tom Kavanagh (lead guitar and synthesizer ), Daragh Sweeney (rhythm guitar ), Fionn Ryan (bass guitar ), and Ruby Lynch (drums ), for a quick chat.
Tell us a little more about the band?
We have existed in some form since around October 2021, but we really didn't start gigging and releasing music until June or July 2022. Most of us are from Galway, one of us is from Sligo. We were writing music and jamming for 6 or 7 months without a drummer, and it wasn't until May when we finally got a drummer we were able to start putting on shows.
We're actually all in college, and we all work too. A few of us work in a bar, so our time is pretty evenly split between work, school and the band - there's not really much room for anything else!
Where did you have your first gig?
We played a very small charity gig in Aras na Gael. We were we were third or fourth on the bill, and there were bigger bands playing after us, but we still managed to gather a crowd of friends.
We actually recorded an EP before we ever played a gig. That first show was also the release date for our first EP, and it went infinitely better than expected! We're all fairly hooked on gigging now. Once that first one was done, we ended up getting a few more lined up in quick succession and most of them were in the Roisin Dubh.
We love the Roisin as a venue - it has that raised stage, so when you're looking out into a crowd and the room is full, it feels very energetic.
What music do you like listening to yourselves?
There is probably a big overlap in what we like to listen to - most of us like emo rock, bands like My Chemical Romance. Outside of that then everyone has radically different musical taste. Some of us are into weird electronic music, some of us are into rap. I think there's an element of every genre in the stuff we have released so far, you can hear the varying influences.
Tell us about the new EP, Euphoriac.
We've been waiting for its release for so long. We're so excited for people to hear it because we think it's so much better than our last EP. We're very happy with our last EP too, but what we had to work with for the second was a lot better and the songs themselves sound a little different to what we've released before. We're very proud of it. It's going to be released on Spotify the same day as the gig in the Roisin (on January 19 ).
What are your plans this year and what kind of things are you hoping for in the near future?
I think one focus for us over the next year is breaking into the Dublin scene a little bit more. Four of us live in Dublin, so it practically makes sense, but also there's just such a nice mixture of great venues up there. By summer time, we'd love to try and get ourselves on the bill at a few festivals - that's a big goal.
Bees and Sawdust play the Roisin Dubh on Thursday January 19. Doors at 8pm.
Tickets are €10. You can get yours here: www.roisindubh.net
