LIMERICK duo Pity Of The Sea will celebrate the release of their debut album called ‘Incessant’ with a gig in Dolans this Saturday October 22.
Incessant is an album for music lovers. Those who stay for the ride. The music and lyrics are uncompromising in their quest to produce a truly authentic sound. The album and its artwork hint at echoes of their childhood home, Limerick City. It is reflective of the raw vibrancy of the place, the light and shade.
Pity Of The Sea was formed as a studio project between musicians Ger Cremins and Tony Monahan. Their shared love of art and music has formed the basis of this collection of uncompromising songs, gathering their influences both artistically and sonically.
From the opening track ‘Think Twice’ with its earworm chorus to the epic closer ‘Headscarf’ the duo create a pulsating wide screen soundscape made to be heard loud.
Limerick Post put a few questions to POTS this week and they were generous with their time and answers.
Has it been a challenge to bring a studio project to the live stage this Saturday?
Tony: It was and is a real challenge. Myself and Ger wrote the album and recorded with just the two of us. We started with some basic loops. Then I added guitar, bass, synths, programmed drums etc. Ger added his vocals and some bass synth lines. We then asked Bryan Ronan from Protobaby to add drums to 5 of the tracks on the album and that completely transformed those tracks.
We knew we’d want to play them live eventually but didn’t exactly write with that in mind.
When the time came to try to reproduce the songs live we went through a few different approaches.
Eventually we settled on a format, still using Ableton but one that was more comfortable for us and less likely for us to have a nervous breakdown (particularly me) in advance of a gig.
Having Bryan play with us live was a huge boost too. He’s a powerhouse of a drummer and is really good with arrangements and using click tracks. That really helped. There’s still room for things to go wrong but not as likely.
‘Think Twice’ is a stunning opener to the album, what is the inspiration for that track?
Ger: As a band we have always talked about the difficulty of stating to the listener what our songs are actually about. Needless to say the general themes to me aren’t so subtle: the chaos of politics this side and the far side of the pond, the dangers of religious oppression and the questions on how we cope with grief.
Lizard Tits is a fabulous grungy tirade, who are the zealots in that song creating so much anger?
Ger: I’d rather not say directly but this isn’t the first time those types of themes have been written about by Pity of the Sea. I was inspired to write the lyrics to our song ‘Headscarf’ when an Iranian artist presented her Hair Headscarf piece at Limericks EVA exhibition in 2019. The same issue of women’s rights in Iran has become even more highlighted this month. t was also fascinating to both of us that Anne Marie’s album cover (which she created totally independent of us) touched a nerve with us and matches so well with what was the inspiration for songs like Lizard Tits.
Tony: Nothing to do with your question directly but that song was so much fun to make! The bass and guitar on it are the takes I played as we were writing it. There was an energy in those takes that we couldn’t exactly replicate later.
I love the hidden pattern in the lyrics. That was a really clever move from Ger. A free album to the first reader that can decipher it!
Any other business to tell us in the run up to Saturday’s debut gig?
Tony: We would love to give a shout out to Anne Marie Morrin who designed the albums artwork.
Our music is influenced by the visual arts and to have an artist the calibre of Anne Marie design our cover was a huge deal to us. Anne Marie was very patient with us. She sent us lots of images. They were all beautiful but when we saw the image that we ended up using on our cover we both knew.
As Ger said it was like an instant connection to our music and the themes running through the album. It’s a fantastic piece of art, as is the inside sleeve image designed by Anne Marie also. I don’t think the album would have been the same for us as a complete package without it, especially the vinyl version.
Anne Marie’s son Eoin Ryan (50 Foot Woman) will be opening for us.
Eoin is a fantastic songwriter with a bright future and is definitely worth checking out! So get in early!
The album will be launched in Dolans this Saturday October 22 Live at The Kasbah.
There will be an After Show Party on Dolans Terrace right after the gig playing alternative and indie with DJ Eric Fitz.
