LIMROCKERS Sweets released their highly anticipated eponymous debut album this month on Tragic Figure Records.
Members of Sweets (Liam Marley – Guitar/Vox, Lorcan Bourke – Drums, Keith Lawler – Guitar and Bertie Kelly – Bass) have plied their trade in a number of highly regarded bands from this parish, Tooth, Giveamanakick, Windings and Japanese Jesus among many other lineups.
As that musical DNA would suggest, Sweets make a guitar driven racket with a pounding rhythm section with vocals layered into their sonic texture.
Listening to Sweets on record is an exhilarating experience and their headline show this weekend will be a celebration of this extraordinary record.
This nine track album features songs that were only completed in the recording sessions and some tracks, part of which have been around since Liam and Lorcan played with Limerick rockers Golf with Mark O’Conner.
Limerick Post sat down for a chat with vocalist/guitarist Liam Marley this week.
The band’s origins lie in Liam and Lorcan’s writing and recording sessions at Bourkes Bar over ten years ago. The duo envisioned two separate projects, one leaned into a riff orientated sound verging on hardcore reflecting their love of metal in their early days, the other project was an effort to move away from the heavier stuff to material with more melodic songwriting elements.
Givamanakick drummer Keith Lawler joined the duo on his return to Limerick, playing guitar in the band. Eventually they made the decision to add a bass player, Lorcan invited Bertie Kelly, who has been making amazing records with his duo Japanese Jesus. He said he was pretty busy but he would give it a go and the band quickly became a cohesive unit with a name change from Glory Hunter to Sweets.
Liam remembers, “the tracks sounded really good with the four of us. It really worked. We are going to have to record something because we are not going to be able to play too many gigs, we all have families and pretty hectic schedules.”
Lorcan suggested that tracks such as ‘All Is Moderate’ would fit into the new lineup. He passed on the “shelved mellower project” to Keith and Bertie, “they were like yeah, we are doing this.”
The rehearsals developed and the band decided it would make one album using tracks from the two ongoing projects. The result is a fresh sounding album that embraces its rock, metal and indie contrasts and delivers some killer tunes.
The album was recorded and mixed by Ben Wanders at Wanderland Studios and mastered by Richard Dowling at Wav Mastering. Additional musical contributions came from Padraig ‘Podge’ O’Donoghue (Violin on Watertown) and Ciaran Culhane (Saxophone on Ing Ya).
Sweets made their entrance in throttle to the floor style on their debut single ‘Charm Offensive’ just two years ago in 2022.
The single and video for their May 2023 single ‘Ing Ya’ was set in the band’s hometown of Limerick.
Liam explained, “The lyrics are a stream of consciousness. I just got an image in my head and started writing about that. For ‘Ing Ya’, I have an image of walking around town on a rainy day and just seeing some characters around. It is kind of about someone on the drink wandering about town.”
“Coincidentally, the video was made by Keith Lawler and it is based in the same part of town that I had in my head.”
Sweets guitarist Keith Lawler took an RTE report on breakdancing in Limerick in 1984, filmed on O’Connell Street where the Rugby Museum is now situated, and re edited it to suit the music and used some AI trickery to superimpose the faces of the band members into the mix of this classic clip of Limerick cultural history.
As for the song title ‘Ing Ya’, that was Lorcan’s name for it before any lyrics were written and it stuck.
“It’s a nickname for the song based on the rhythm of the riff – and a reference to a scene in the movie Dumb and Dumber where Harry (Jeff Daniels) and Lloyd (Jim Carrey) pick up a hitchhiker and sing ‘Mockingbird’ to him.
We have nicknames for songs that we don’t have lyrics to, that’s how we remember them – so that’s the Ing ya song.
Among the riffs and drums, Liam’s vocals are embedded into the music, so much so you won’t always know what you are listening to lyrically.
He says, “That’s intentional, yeah. That’s always been my approach to vocals because I am never quite comfortable with them. But bands I’ve liked over the years like Fudge Tunnel, their vocals were always sitting underneath everything else.
“I don’t know exactly what he is saying but I kind of like that.
“Like one of the first bands I did sound for – Girl Band (now called Gilla Band) in Bourkes Bar
“What they wanted were bass and drums up here, and guitar and vocals underneath. And it’s something I like as well.”
Second track on the album ‘All Is Moderate’ is the more melodic side of the band, albeit with a very tasty repeating guitar line.
Liam explains that it is a nostalgic song recalling long hazy summers hanging out with friends. Shane Serrano’s video picks up the theme as the band wanders around the city on bikes and at an arcade – it is a dewy-eyed film reminiscent of rambling hometown videos made by indie bands on a budget in the 1990s.
Closing track ‘Watertown’ completes the album on a reflective note with lyrics written right at the end of the recording sessions.
Liam remembers, “I’m in the vocal booth and I’m telling the lads to take a five minute break because I am changing the lyrics.”
The words were written in the shadow of the current genocide in Gaza – with the repeated refrain “I welcome their hatred”.
“We are not an explicitly political band but obviously what was happening around the world when we were recording was in my head and at the front of my thinking. That situation is inescapable.
“I would like people to be able to take a message from it, but their own message. They don’t need to know exactly what I am talking about. The lyrics are about sticking up for yourself.
“If you are hated for something that you believe in or something you think is right, I welcome that hatred and I will stand my ground.”
Sweets, with special guests Some Images Of Paradise, play Dolans Warehouse this Saturday July 27.
Vinyl copies of the debut album which include the lyrics on the sleeve design and t-shirts will be available at the gig.
