Having already found love and support from the likes of Steve Lamacq, Clash Magazine, The Irish Times, The Metro and many more for their work in recent years, Dublin-based outfit Brass Phantoms now blast back with the release of their latest anthemic belter ‘Hurricane’.
Lifted from their forthcoming debut album ‘Holding Out For Horrors, which is due out on the 18th September, ‘Hurricane’ makes for a very fun and vibrant introduction to their new full-length. With soaring pop-rock tones reminiscent of Sea Girls and Circa Waves, their newest gem will surely keep your toes tapping throughout.
So with their new single available now, we sat down with them to find out more about their new release and what they have in store for us in the future.
Words by Chris Bound
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
Chris) Hi guys, how are you today?
Brass Phantoms) Hey Chris, we’re good, thanks. Hoping the same for you. Still trying to make sense of everything but that’s part of the daily routine now I suppose. Just going through all of the album prep now and trying to cover whatever ground we can cover.
For those that haven’t heard of you yet, how would you best describe your sound and who have been your biggest influences so far?
I like that you’ve included the words “so far” in this question. I think that’s the whole point in terms of art. Keep growing with it. It's more about figuring it out than waiting for whatever inspiration. In terms of the whole band we tend to bring our respective influences in. Ryan (frontman) has been listening to a lot of Mitski and IDLES, my recently played has a lot of War On Drugs and Phoebe Bridgers, then other members might be on a hip-hop or pop music buzz. It changes pretty regularly.
Brass Phantoms has an indie rock sound with some punk influences. I feel we would be on the more melodic side of that, maybe a little moody at times. And fingers crossed we’ve captured some cool hooks in the tracks.
You have just released your new single ‘Hurricane’. Can you tell us how that track came about?
Sure thing. Hurricane is the lead single for our upcoming album. It's one of my favourite Brass Phantoms songs. It’s a pretty energetic one, nice melodies with cool guitar parts. It has some indie vibes for sure. Lyrically it’s a bit of a love song, but also wanting to grow or get past something. I think it's pretty honest. So far the reaction has been really uplifting at an otherwise challenging time with the pandemic and everything. It's great to see people here in Ireland enjoying it, as well as seeing it getting some love around the globe too.
And was there a particular style you were looking for when you wrote it?
No, not really. Some of the songs are older than the others so we’ve kind of grown with the album in a way. I don’t like the idea of setting out to match a sound. It doesn’t sit as well in terms of letting something flow. I think if you try to fit a certain category it can get manufactured, and then you’ll miss out on some of the best parts.
Someone might come in with a song and have something in mind but once we all get into it the direction will shift towards how it sounds as we all play it together.
Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
Our album Holding Out For Horrors comes out on September 18th. For now just a digital release. Really excited to get it out though. It’s a weird time to release an album but also I don’t see the point in delaying it.
The coronavirus outbreak has obviously affected everyone’s plans, but what have you got in store for the rest of the year?
Gigging doesn’t look feasible or attainable in 2020 anyway. Which is a bummer because it would be fun to play the new songs and just to get onstage together. Right now it's all focused towards the album release on September 18th, we haven’t really thought a whole lot beyond that as a band. There’s always new music in the works though so we’ll see where we go.
And finally, what is your dream ambition to achieve as artists?
Grammy and number one hit… No, sorry. Honestly, if we could make enough of a living to keep doing it that would be pretty rad. Personally I want to keep writing better and better music. I feel I’m getting better. I have a bunch of songs to record and flesh out a bit more. I’d love to collaborate with different artists. I had a jam session with friends not too long ago and it was the first time plugging in and playing with people since before everything shut down. It felt great. So just to keep creating with people. There’s some Brass Phantoms material that’s not on the album and I’m sure each of the five of us have different ideas that might work, so once there’s a better grasp on where we’re all at we can hopefully get back doing something new. But right now it's definitely about getting Holding Out For Horrors out there.