Originally hailing from Cavan, Ireland; The Spiritual Leaders are an indie electronic collective. The band have released their new single 'Shadows and Tall Trees'; the first to be taken from their upcoming album release, 'This Fictional Place'. The band have spent the last 12 months recording the album at JT Soar Studios in Nottingham, UK, with Robin Newman and Rich Collins engineering and producing. Lyrically a rumination on divisions in society through the lens of the classic novel 'Lord of the Flies', the single 'Shadows and Tall Trees' is a musical foray into new sythesizer-heavy territory for the band. It follows the 2020 release 'Albania Away', which received glowing reviews; earned radio play on BBC Radio and 2XM, and a spot on Spotify's 'Alternative Ireland' playlist through its singles 'Picture on the Wall' and 'Underwater with You'.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey The Spiritual Leaders, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. Who are you and what do you do?
Hi Kamil. My name is Fergus Brady. I play guitar, bass and synthesizers, and occasionally sing in The Spiritual Leaders; a band that also features David Reilly on lead vocals and guitar, and my brother Cathal Brady on drums and percussion.
We are all from a place called Cavan in Ireland, and have been playing together on and off since 2009. We released a self-titled debut album in 2012, and followed this up with a mini-album called ‘Albania Away’ in 2020. Recently we released the first single from our forthcoming third album. It’s called ‘Shadows and Tall Trees’, and we’re very excited about it!
What role does the artist have in society?
This is a very deep question! I think the role of a musician or any artist in society is to provide a creative work that can lift people up from mundane everyday life and provide some meaning. My favourite pieces of music and art are the ones that make you think differently about something, or provide a glimpse of something beautiful. We try to do this with our music and lyrics and I hope we succeed sometimes!
Your latest song is 'Shadows and Tall Trees'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
Compared to our older songs, this one was very different one to write and record. I had initially written the song on guitar some years ago, and played it live a few times. Lyrically the song was inspired by a book called ‘Lord of the Flies’ that I had read around the time. The song title is taken from the book.
Just over a year ago, I got some synthesizer plugins on my laptop and started programming the chords in on a rough demo. This transformed the song totally and enabled us to explore some influences we have from electronic and dance music genres. We decided to remove the guitars almost entirely.
Dave and Cathal were excited by the song and we decided to record it properly in our upcoming recording sessions in Snug Recording Co studio in Nottingham, England. In studio our producers, Rob Newman and Rich Collins, took the original demo and ran the various synth loops through various other plugins and treatments to make them sound better. We then added some real synths, guitars, vocals and drums in the studio. Cathal later re-did the drum parts electronically in another studio – Leader Sound Productions in Ballinagh, Cavan. The mixing and mastering process were long for this song, as we analysed every last detail with Rob and Rich. We’re very happy with how it turned out!
What jobs have you done other than being an artist?
Too many jobs: records manager, archivist, English language teacher, stock replenishment technician in Tesco (shelf stacker). Music has always been bubbling away in the background when I’ve been working in these roles.
What do you dislike about the art world?
I can only talk about the music world. The thing I dislike the most about the music industry is how unregulated it is, and how hard it is to make inroads as an independent band with no significant marketing spend behind us. We make use of streaming services such as Spotify because they are the main way that people access music these days. However the pittance that these services pay the actual artists is very insulting. It’s so hard to actually be self-sustaining in the music industry.
Is the artistic life lonely? What do you do to counteract it?
For me, making music in this band is the opposite of being lonely. There is a great sense of camaraderie and it’s great to be able to share the highs and lows with your mates. I also enjoy the collaborative process in making the songs; everyone in the band is very talented and a major contributor – we don’t have any passengers. The best feelings have been shared – whether it’s the aftermath of a good gig or blasting out a song that we’ve just recorded on the car speakers on the way home from studio.
What superpower would you have and why?
I’d love to able to play multiple instruments at the same time. I’d need some more limbs to do this though, so probably wouldn’t look the best.
What is your dream project?
I’d love to be able to record music in a professional studio for approximately 3 months solid. It would be great to record at least 20 songs or so and to be able to experiment with the arrangements without any major time pressures. At the end of it, choose the best 10-11 songs and release them on a new album.
What is your favourite or most inspirational place (in Cavan)?
My favourite place in Cavan is Ballinallen Bridge. It’s on the border between Drung and Bunnoe and goes over the Annalee River. It’s a quaint old bridge over which only one car can pass at a time.
If I’m allowed a second place, I would say the snugs in Blessing’s Bar in Cavan town. This is the best place for alternative music in the area and serves nice Guinness!
What are your plans for the future?
We are planning to release three more singles in the coming months: ‘Hall of Mirrors’ in December, ‘This Fictional Place’ in January, and ‘Past Present Future’ in February. In March we will then release our new album, also called ‘This Fictional Place’, which will feature longer edits of the four singles and five more songs. After that, we will be playing some launch gigs in Ireland.