WORDS Alana Ryan
Expansive, exuberant and emotive, the music of Dublin and Wicklow natives John and Rian, is nothing short of epic. The duo, who met in audio engineering college, have garnered significant acclaim since their formation in 2010, creating a sound which fuses synths and live instrumentation, employing both analogue and digital recording techniques. In Rian’s own words, “we have an affinity for anything that suggests imagery, and try not to be restricted in our approach to that . . . You could say there’s a tendency towards saturation, distortion, damage etc. We love texture”.
Texture and depth are prime features of Solar Bears’ music. Their 2010 debut She Was Coloured In is beautifully subtle, a great record which merges soft, often slightly plaintive, sounds with purposeful strong rhythms and hazy synths – yet it still manages to sound spontaneous and fun. How do they achieve such a sound? “We’re always working as fast as possible to avoid any stagnation, and taking frequent breaks to avoid objectivity loss. Sometimes it’s an idea we have on the day of working, sometimes an idea we’ve had for a long time but never found a place where it fits.” Yet Rian is quick to deflect attention from John’s and his undoubtable talent. “Since the beginning, many good people have helped us out in many ways. We’re indebted to them, and always try to remember that our current position is largely the result of the encouragement people showed to the project.”
As an interviewee Rian is incredibly humble and generous in his praise of others. Given that his Dad is a notable composer who worked with the likes of Kate Bush and Paul McCartney it seems fitting to ask how much of an impact his family life had on his musical interest. His answer left me only the slightest bit jealous: “The house was always full of engineers, producers and musicians because of this. It was a kind of hub for my friends to come and start projects too. Both my parents are incredibly kind people. They have always showed undying support for their children. My dad would bring me to recording sessions at a very young age. He was enthusiastic about me watching how he worked. An amazing person. I feel incredibly lucky to know him.” Similarly, when I asked him how he felt about the current Irish music scene he’s quick to highlight other artists’ work. He elucidates clearly that Solar Bears are “huge, huge fans of Sunken Foal, [he’s] completely doing his own thing. We think he is incomparable.”
The duo have just released their new album Supermigration, with Cosmic Runner already doing the rounds as their lead single. A track fuelled by an insatiable rhythmic structure and an eerie melody, it’s definitely worthy of countless repeat plays. Rian elaborates that Supermigration is very much a progression rather than continuation. “We started writing and recording in a well equipped studio, whereas, before, we were using pretty basic gear in an attic space. We’d constantly be discovering things about the equipment as we went along this time round, which made for a lot of happy accidents and strange, unorthodox ways of tracking . . . We also fell in love with vinyl sampling and female voices on this one.”
It’s always difficult to pick from the whole host of new Irish bands that continue to emerge, but Solar Bears are surely close to the top of the pile. It’s hard to pinpoint if it’s their innate sense of melody and rhthym, their professional production values the diverse nature of their influences – few bands appear to have such a fervent love of cinematic film scores – which gives them the edge. But what I can say with authority is that if you’re not listening in you are missing out.
Supermigration is out now
Solar Bears play The Button Factory on April 26th – tickets.ie/umack
