FEATURE:
Spotlight
M(h)aol
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THE superb band M(h)aol…
have been together for a while now (though their line-up has changed since their formation). That said, they are in the spotlight and being tipped for 2022 because of the release of the Gender Studies E.P. last year. The band (their name is pronounced ‘male’) consist of Róisín Nic Ghearailt, Constance Keane, Jamie Hyland, Zoe Greenway and Sean Nolan. They divide themselves between London, Bristol, Dublin and Cork, and they are definitely primed to make big steps this year. I will come to a couple of reviews for Gender Studies, in addition to a fairly recent interview. The first piece I want to source is from 2020. M(h)aol came back after the release of their debut single, Clementine. Perhaps not the most ideal year to put out new music – as the pandemic put a damper on any touring ambitions -, it was good to see the group refocused and primed for a new chapter. The Thin Air spoke with the promising and hugely impressive young band in 2020:
“As you well know, the intervening years in a post-referendum and post-Girl Band Irish landscape have seen a seismic transformation – with peak post-punk dude fecundity. Things were supposed to improve. Women were to experience something resembling equal representation on every level of society and art. M(h)aol’s job was done.
Instead, the five years since their emergence has seemingly directed the zeitgeist back at them, their abrasive, hypnotic vitality captured in return single ‘Laundries’, which we’re delighted to share with you today for the first time. Minus guitarist Sean Nolan, Stevie Lennox had a chat on their absence, return and the need for artists like M(h)aol, with singer Róisín Nic Ghearailt, bassists Jamie Hyland and Zoe Greenway, and drummer Constance Keane – currently based across Dublin, London and Bristol.
It’s been five years since your first and only single, ‘Clementine’. What have you each been up to in the time between?
C: It’s weird, releasing Clementine feels like both a month ago and 20 years ago. Since then I’ve been working on my solo project, Fears, and working in other aspects of the music industry, in management and at labels.
R: Jesus, that’s a big one. Musically, nothing. M(h)aol is 100% my only foray into music. It’s not something I would do of my own volition which is part of what makes being part of this project so special. It’s so removed from the activities that I get up to in my day to day. In terms of what I’ve been up to in my personal life, well, I just finished a MSc in Gender Studies and International Relations so just deep-diving into feminism.
J: There has been a lot of hiding in the shadows of studios for me. I managed to get out and play a few gigs for Gash Collective over that time but yeah, mostly hiding.
Z: I’m currently finishing up an MA in Cinematography in London, but before that I was working in film production in New York for a few years and living with Róisín. But having two members in a completely different timezone isn’t really conducive to a consistent band practice! It just seemed to make sense that we’d go on hiatus for a while until we’re all in the same country to start playing again.
Your new song concerns the Magdalene Laundries and their toxic role in the Irish theocracy. Like your live show, this song feels like a physical and emotional expulsion – did you feel you had something more to say?
R: We actually wrote the first draft of this song five years ago in what felt like a much more optimistic time. It was just after the Marriage Referendum and it really felt like things were changing for the better. Fast forward five years and we are looking at a radically different political landscape. The lyrics of the song have changed for me and are no longer strictly about the Magdalene Laundries, they seem more urgent now, almost a warning to ourselves not to forget our past.
Some of the lyrics are now related to what’s happening here with Direct Provision which I think stems from the same mindset whereby rather than create a society where the goal is that everyone can lead a life of dignity and respect people are sequestered off in an ‘out of sight out of mind’ mentality. One of the verses I say “fallen in love with a new god’s spell” which for me means these kinds of neoliberal values that we’ve replaced the Catholic Church with.
Within neoliberalism there’s a promotion of a scarcity mindset that creates a culture where there is the impression that there are not enough resources for everyone. You can see that reflected in the housing crisis here, the resources are there, what’s holding the government back is the idea that they are not or the financial gain that comes from pretending they aren’t there. The Magdalene Laundries may seem like ancient history but we are seeing events playing out here that I think stem from a similar toxic belief and political system.
C: This release is coming out so soon after the 24th anniversary of the last Magdalene Laundry closing. That’s younger than every member of the band. I think Irish society likes to treat it as “old Ireland”, when really the same attitudes have just focused on different targets.
I also think there’s a serious need for women to be making music that sounds like we do, and the more the better. I started this band years ago from a real frustration about how I was treated as a woman in music. Sure, some small things have changed since then, but the fundamentals are still fucked. It’s now “cool” to call yourself a feminist. But now we have men openly calling themselves feminists, and then supporting abusers. We have men calling themselves feminists, but doing absolutely nothing to empower anyone that looks different to them. I personally want to challenge that. You’re calling yourself a feminist, but what does that actually mean? What are you doing in your privileged position as a white straight cis man in a successful band, to support and promote anyone that isn’t a carbon copy of yourself? Where is your safe space policy for your shows? You watched ‘The Punk Singer’ one time, but are you working with the numerous amazing organisations who work to make gigs safe for people who aren’t straight white cis men? This scene is lazy as hell and full of people who think they are challenging the status quo, while literally being the status quo.
J: Is there ever NOT more to say about the institutional oppression of women?
You played your fundraising reunion show at Christmas. What triggered your decision to play again, and can you tell us how that came together?
R: Ok! So memory is subjective but how I remember it was, I was in Bristol (where I lived before lockdown) and was showing my housemates the video for Clementine and was saying to them “you know I will never play again” and then literally texted Connie and was like “SHOULD WE PLAY AGAIN?!?” and it snowballed from there. Also, Christmas 2019 was the first time in like three years where the whole band was in the same country at the same time so the signs felt auspicious. The fundraising element of it, I think as an all-white group who truly believes in intersectionality you need to look at what you are doing as a band to recognise your privilege and do what you can for other causes. MASI is an incredible organisation who are doing necessary and vital work.
C: I really missed playing together. I was in work, messaging Róisín last October and we were like “would it be absolutely insane to book a show at Christmas, given that we haven’t practiced in like three years?”. Jamie organised the show, and it made total sense for us to use it as a chance to raise funds for MASI. We all lived in different cities – London, Bristol, and Dublin – so we could only fit in one practice before the show. Then I got the flu, so the one practice before the show ended up being a few hours before the show itself with me zoning out in the corner. Full transparency – I remember very little from that evening, but I remember it felt amazing to be together again.
J: It was the first time, as far as I know, that we were all going to be in the same place for a long time. I think Connie never really gave up on M(h)aol being a thing so I think it was her who put the feelers out again to see if we all wanted to do something together.
C: Generally speaking, I don’t know when to give up.
Z: It was really nice because it feels like there’s so much more of a purpose to play when you’re fundraising, especially around the holidays.
Did you make the decision to start writing together again before or after your return gig?
R: Definitely after, for me there was the fear that things wouldn’t flow or that the last three years had changed everything.
C: Yeah I totally agree with this, I had essentially zero concept how that first time back together was going to go and I didn’t want to get my hopes up.
J: We hadn’t actually written a song since some time in 2016. Myself, Connie and Seán went into the studio I was working out of at the time and hashed out a couple of songs. I still have demos of them floating around old harddrives… “risk taker” and something about “feminist” branded items from unethical, fast-fashion stores.
C: Oh yeah, ‘risk taker’ is about when you’re on your period and you’re having a shower and you didn’t bring a new pad/tampon/menstrual cup into the bathroom with you and you have to do that little run from the bathroom to your bedroom without blood flowing down your leg and onto the carpet.
How was it when you got back in the room together again? Did things flow?
R: Oh my god absolutely like M(h)aol is a much more enjoyable project for me now. I can’t speak for my bandmates but I am coming to it from a much better place mental health wise and confidence wise. I’m much happier to play around and add nuance to the lyrics that I just wouldn’t necessarily have done before and generally just have the belief that we have something worthwhile to say. I think it’s growing up, you go out into the world and experience things that strengthen your convictions. Everything matters, I know the music I listen to has influenced my political beliefs so much. It all means something and to have the chance to come together with people I really care about and respect is (not to be cringe here) just such an honour. The session where we recorded Laundries was by far my favourite one we’ve had. It felt like magic.
C: I still can’t believe how quickly we got back into the swing of things. There was a bit of sitting listening to old recordings on our phones to try to remember how to play our songs, but somehow it all came together pretty swiftly. It was the first time I had sat at a drum kit in a few years, so I was feeling slightly anxious about having to perform live around three hours later, and I feel so lucky that it was with such an encouraging group of people.
J: I feel like it’s really telling about the band that as soon as we were in a room together again, it could easily have still been a few months since we last did it and, honestly, the experience took me out of a potentially heavy depressive swing. Do I remember that before I joined, there was a bit of a meme that rehearsals were semi therapy sessions?
Z: It was definitely Sean’s new fashion belt that brought some magic back to the rehearsals”.
I am glad that M(h)aol are still together and, more than that, at their strongest and most focused. Gender Studies was one of the best and most affecting E.P.s of last year. Get in Her Ears spoke to the group last year ahead of a big show at London’s The Shacklewell Arms in November:
“Can you remember who, or what first inspired you to start making music? And can you tell me how you all met & become M(h)aol?
Jamie: I grew up with the radio always on, it would be a very odd moment to not have music playing in the background at home throughout my childhood. I would have heard everything between Bach madrigals, Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, early blues records, Duran Duran albums in passing. I’ve a very vivid memory of watching MTV as a child and hearing Shanks & Bigfoot and that music video, that really sparked something.
I’d been learning piano on my grandad’s very old, very out of tune piano for a while before I got bored of it and my older brother got a guitar and showed me the Pixies and how to play a few guitar lines from those tunes. The simplicity of how to actually play them, but then the musical complexity/impact of them in context was amazing. I first met Connie after a soundcheck eating almonds and playing cards in the back of the Twisted Pepper in Dublin. It took a few years but now she can’t get rid of me and she’s subjected the rest of the band to me as well.
Róisín: Myself and Connie were obsessed with The Punk Singer when we were 21 and she ended up shaving my head and that was the catalyst for M(h)aol. It was a total shock to me that I was in a band. For the first year we just practiced in her gorgeous rehearsal space in Rathmines. For an entire year we just tried to figure out what we were saying and why.
Sean: I was shanghaied by Connie while at work, and joined the band under protest.
There are universal themes within your music (reflections on misogyny and gender-based violence) but there are also strong connections to Irish history too (your band is named after Grainne Mhaol, the context of your track ‘Laundries’), so talk us through the significance of these histories how they’ve informed your song-writing…
Jamie: Irish history is fascinating, at every turn there is something incredible, be that incredibly painful, interesting, or empowering.
Róisín: Growing up in Ireland has shaped us so much for better or worse. There’s so much intergenerational trauma in the country, stemming from clerical abuse etc, but also intergenerational pleasure stemming from our rich history of rebellion and literature”.
Before I round up, it is important to show a couple of reviews for Gender Studies. A terrific E.P. that showed huge intent, there were plenty of positive reviews out there for it. This is what Dead Good Music noted in their review:
“Up for some intense bass-driven post-punk? We’ve got a proper noise of feminist punk for you! Dublin five-piece M(h)aol release their debut EP Gender Studies.
The title doesn’t leave you wondering what this album is about, and it couldn’t be more topical.
M(h)aol, pronounced ‘male’ and translating to English ‘bald’, are the finest Irish feminist post-punk transforming ferocious sound into a political message. Since the band is majority female, choosing a name that is pronounced like ‘male’ comes with an attitude and is a response to how female musicians are seen and treated within the industry.
M(h)aol play it the punk way, namely the music they themselves want to hear. They spread a politically conscious message. And they have an attitude. Not only their name is a statement, but they are also pushing forward in the fight for social justice, animal welfare, and feminism.
Their message should be heard!
The debut EP Gender Studies was recorded in only 3 days, since the band is located in different locations. It covers tough, but urgent topics such as violence against women, misogyny within the music industry, and how to navigate through life when you’re not a suited, white man.
All the songs on the EP are relatively short, most of them under 3 minutes. But they come with a bang.
The lead single ‘Gender Studies’ is a cracker. It’s a crashing sound that comes with fab, disturbing riffs of smashing guitars, a huge bass, and great drums. The message is a shake-up – urgent, and straight to the point. In a spoken-word style, the lyrics deliver how pointless gender constructs and the forcing of gender binaries are. It’s a topical message.
The single is accompanied by a great video in a film noir style where the constraints of gender roles and social expectations are portrayed powerfully.
The opening track is a teaser for the other tracks of the album. This isn’t a quiet ride. Instead, it’s a fierce bass-driven race.
There is this insane pounding dark bass in ‘Desperation’ that leads through the entire track. It hits us with distorted sound and destroying energy, strong drums, and great vocals.
‘Kinder Bueno’ is short and sweet and definitely not about chocolate. It’s 52 seconds of again, dark pounding bass, blended with crashing guitars and ferocious drums.
A slow mysterious start comes with ‘Laundries’. But don’t worry, the song paces up while it progresses, and gets faster. The vocals are calm first and then go wild, which leads to a disturbing sound where the distorted bass drives the song and takes the lead. It’s a powerful track full of dark energy and raw dissonance.
“No one ever talks to us / unless they wanna fuck” is the bitter truth of ‚No one ever talks to us’, the second release from the album. It emphasises how often women are only considered interesting if they seem attractive to the male’s eye. It’s a track that builds upon noise and distortion in the middle and to the end and again offers that great disturbing, crashing guitar sound.
After all the wildness and high volume, the EP comes to a rather quiet end with the very atmospheric cover of ‘Óró sé do bheatha bhaile’ (English: Oh, welcome home). This is an old Irish folk song about Gráinne Mhaol, a pirate queen from the sixteenth century. Well-known in Irish folklore and another inspiration for the band’s name. The perfect ending for the EP.
M(h)aol create the soundtrack for a revolution we desperately need. They transform their notes into political messages. They are authentic, radical, and resist social norms and expectations. Their music is a call on all women out there to stand up and scream along.
The EP is released digitally on October 29th. A vinyl release will follow on January 12th. It is released via the record label TULLE that supports underrepresented voices within the music industry – another great statement by the band!”.
GIGWISE also sat down and had their say about an E.P. that I first hard last year but am still playing. It is a great work that everyone needs to investigate and spend time with:
“There is certainly something in the water across the Irish Sea, something that breeds next level post-punk. From The Murder Capital to Fontaines D.C. and everything in between, Irish punks are making a big splash. None more so than M(h)aol, whose debut EP channels political rage, with cutting lyrics set to industrial post-punk.
The EP opens with 'Desperation Desperation', an upbeat number with overarching menace. M(h)aol don’t shy away from discussing topics that other bands may steer clear from, such as gender, violence against women and the mysoginistic nature of the music scene. This is without doubt a vital piece of feminist work, set to staggeringly good punk noise.
The title track is a real standout from the EP—the cut channels the sound of Interpol, with vocalist Róisín Nic Ghearailt discussing gender identity over scratchy, fuzzy guitar and feedback. M(h)aol don’t hold back and they don’t give you a moment to collect your thoughts before they launch into 'Kinder Bueno', a 50-second cut that sounds like Nirvana basement tapes with thunderous drums and guitar that soon dissipate into nothingness.
'Laundries Laundries' is a haunting number, raging against the violence that women face on a daily basis, as well as speaking on the Magdalene Laundries, whose violent and misogynistic methods tormented Irish women for decades. M(h)aol tackles these topics tactfully, but they do not hold back when it comes to slamming sexist practices in the modern world and music scene.
Latest single 'No One Ever Talks To Us' follows this pattern by calling out men who are only interested in talking to women to use them for sex. The EP closes out with the hauntingly beautiful 'Oro Oro', a track that would be at home on the score of a tense thriller flick: the melodic vocals and the tense, anxious feedback make this a beautiful closer to the Gender Studies EP.
M(h)aol have hit the nail on the head here. They take on issues of gender and sexism with righteous anger, representing the violence that women face daily. Gender Studies is one of the most important pieces of political art released this year”.
If you have not discovered M(h)aol and are no familiar with them, go and listen to their music and follow them on social media. A terrific group who have a strong connection and a sound of their own, they will be arming and readying themselves ahead of festival season. They are already confirmed for Green Man. They produce a sound and sensation that is precisely…
WHAT the music world needs.
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