Cliffords. If you haven’t heard their name – stretched on billboards and blasted on the airwaves – yet, it’s only a matter of time. Last year, the Cork band released their debut EP Strawberry Scented, a self-financed labour of love that earned some glowing critical notices.

They've followed it up with an excellent sophomore EP, Salt Of The Lee, which is only a few days old when I meet singer Iona Lynch and keyboardist Locon O’Toole over Zoom. When it comes to milestones such as these, it’s not uncommon to reflect on obvious creative growth, which runs parallel to the personal growth of your twenties.

“Strawberry Scented follows us as teenagers and has a very nostalgic, sweet sound,” Lynch recalls. “But this one has a lot more real problems and dark moments. So the sound definitely reflects that.”

“We wanted a bit more edge with this one, and to experiment with a much heavier sound,” O’Toole adds.

“The EP was made over the last three years. We were in college and coming to terms with a lot of things that happened in our life,” Lynch follows up. “I suppose you could call them our first ‘adult’ problems. All of this was set against the backdrop of Cork City. We were heavily inspired by the music scene there, it’s where we grew up”.

Among the heavy hitters on the tightknit Cork scene are Cardinals, Pebbledash, I Dreamed I Dream and The Love Buzz.

“It’s such an amazing scene,” enthuses O’Toole. “There’s so much talent and everyone’s so supportive of each other. You go to a gig and there’s at least 10 people from other bands in the crowd. Everyone’s always going out to support each other.”

For the Leesiders, that support extends beyond the Rebel County to the wider Irish scene, and it certainly goes beyond the music itself. Recently, Cliffords signed an open letter supporting KNEECAP, who came under fire in the US media following their Coachella set, where they displayed visuals that read “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine”. For Cliffords, supporting the Belfast trio was an obvious step.

“A great point that’s been brought up is that the coverage has been so heavily centered around KNEECAP, and not the genocide,” Lynch asserts. “I think what Kneecap did was incredibly brave, but what’s more important right now is the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Not enough people are talking about it.

“People aren’t outraged enough and we can’t just sit back, watch this happen and dissociate because it doesn’t feel geographically close to us. It is real and it is happening right now. We have to continue talking about it. The real point is not to be outraged by what some people are saying, but to be outraged by what’s actually happening.”

When it comes to artists with a platform to speak out and protest the status quo on a variety of fronts, Lynch thinks “it’s incredibly important”.

“I’ve always been really passionate about sexism in the Irish music scene,” Lynch adds. “Every year these statistics come out about the lack of representation of women and nonbinary acts on Irish radio. And it is improving, but it’s only improving by a small percentage. Last year, it was less than 3%, this year it’s 5%. It’s improving, but it’s still not good. I think that if you have the privilege of having a platform and an audience, you should utilise it to the best of your ability.”

Salt of the Lee is out now