MacD on Music: Useless Information

University has, historically, proven to be one of the most vital tools for making the world a better place by bringing together some of our most beloved bands. Groups like Pink Floyd, R.E.M. and our very own Saint Sister all met as students and went on to create incredible music.

This week, I’m talking to the Belfast-based Schtick, the latest in university-founded bands hoping to make it big. The group, made up of Altan McDermott (vocals), Darragh McGuigan (bass/keyboards), Finlay Graham (drums), Odhran Birt (guitar) and Diarmaid Callen (other guitar), first came together as an ensemble project before deciding to take that next step. Now, after building a name for themselves locally, they have released their debut single ‘Useless’. I caught up with the band recently to chat about their journey to this point.

Altan: “We all go to Queens, and I met Finlay at an Open Day, which was basically everybody meeting each other on the course. I got chatting to him, he’s a pretty cool dude and he’s into the same stuff as me. We exchanged details and then I met Odhran and Darragh at a meeting for ensemble and we started jamming from there. Diarmaid saw us playing in a live performance we did for the college and he joined in so we’ve been playing ever since.”

I asked them how they would describe their sound. Odhran: “It’s probably like a blend of jazz-funk-indie pop sort of stuff.”

Darragh: “We really wanted to make music that’s not really that common on the scene in Ireland now. Right now, Ireland is very rock-heavy and we wanted to come at it from a different angle, to be like more jazz or funk influenced, because you don’t really see too much of that.”

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Next, we spoke about ‘Useless’. Finlay: “We were kind of jamming out to ideas at the time for our ensemble group.”

Darragh: “We weren’t really getting anywhere for a while.”

Finlay: “We had a rest and then I started laying down drum parts. We had a deadline that we had to perform this for an exam, so we were like ‘We need to rush this and get it completed’. Sometimes having a deadline is good for us. It gives you something to work towards. Then we formed the chorus. We had different rhythmic ideas for it. Then the last bit, about two thirds of the way into the track when it switches up, that was originally just improvised and then we set down an actual structure for it.”

Altan: “Because it was initially for university and for this class, in an exam sense, I wanted to not play bass on it. I’m exclusively on keys for this one. I was sort of getting myself a guideline of ‘I need to play keys for this. This would make a cool keys part’. That’s what Finlay was saying, initially it was just a big jam halfway through the song because it wasn’t finished for the actual exam, but that ended up being quite cool and we ended up adding it to the end of the song.”

Odhran: “It was a part of the exam we had over Christmas time. We had to perform for ten-odd minutes, and we already had a song for this. It was a random cover that we did just for marks purposes. Then we decided to go and try to write a song because we thought maybe the deadline would give us inspiration.”

Finlay: “We played it at a few gigs, and people seemed to really love it so we thought ‘Right, let’s get into the studio’ and we went down to Analogue Catalogue and recorded it with Darragh Tibbs.”

Of course, I couldn’t let them go without asking the most important question of all: Did they pass their exam with the song? The answer, not surprisingly, was a collective “Yes”.

And that’s it from Schtick. Their debut single/exam ‘Useless’ is out now on all good streaming platforms.

Now, onto other business. Today sees the release of the latest single from Reevah, her first since her NI Music Prize-nominated album ‘Daylight Savings’. Her new song ‘Take What You Can’ “introduces a fresh chapter...seeing her blend heart-on-sleeve pop with country balladry that bridges her early-era sound with a more refined direction. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Kacey Musgraves, Olivia Dean, Role Model and CMAT, she continues to channel resilience and feminine strength into a sound that burrows deep into the heart and soul”.

‘Take What You Can’ is out now on all good streaming platforms.

Finally, time for the socials. Reevah can be found on Instagram @thisisreevah and Schtick @schtickmusic.