It may come as a surprise to some that this is Dea Matrona’s first album. The Belfast rock duo comprised of Mollie McGinn (24) and Orlaith Forsythe (23) are very well-known to the people of Belfast, not to mention their sizeable international following. Having busked on the streets of Belfast since their teens, the pair have also accumulated millions of YouTube views.

In addition, they’re the most viewed act on the Hot Press’ YouTube series ‘Rave On Van Morrison’, which led to the group landing a support slot with Van himself. While it’s safe to say YouTube and social media have been instrumental in getting their music out there, there can be unwanted attention with that level of exposure.

“It’s disheartening as musicians when you’re trying to be taken seriously and people just comment on how we look,” Mollie explains. “I mostly avoid them, because you come across ones that are creepy and you just don’t want to see it. It’s not a good vibe.”

“You can have a hundred comments in your post and one of them says something that just winds you up and you’ll think about that for the rest of the day,” says Orlaith. “It’s not nice to read because we’re only human.”

Highly skilled multi-instrumentalists, both Mollie and Orlaith grew up in musical families. Mollie’s father, Finn McGinn, played guitar for Tiberius Minnows, who were signed to Terri Hooley’s Good Vibrations label.

“I do come from a very music-loving family who talk about music a lot, and my sisters are musical, so that was a fun part of growing up,” says Mollie.

“My mum sang and played a little bit of guitar, but in my wider family, there’s a big appreciation of traditional Irish music,” says Orlaith. “I was brought up playing that, and the fleadhs and everything, so it was part of my life from an early age. My grandad used to be in a sort of Clancy Brothers-style band, so I was exposed to that too. Then I got into the rock and guitar stuff when I met Mollie. That’s how we bonded.”

In truth, Dea Matrona came about by accident...

“We actually started out as rivals, because we were in the same year in school,” Orlaith laughs. “I remember seeing Mollie playing all this crazy piano stuff and all this amazing guitar, and I thought, ‘Oh I need to up my game here!’ I can still say Mollie is a way better musician than I’ll ever be!”

A twist of fate that brought them together as a unit.

“We wanted to do the school talent show,” she says. “But there was only one space left, so they said, ‘You don’t do it at all, or you do it together’. So the two of us stood there, singing Dixie Chicks’ ‘Travelin’ Soldier’ beside each other, like, ‘UGH!’”

“That was when we first became friends,” Mollie adds.

Being at school together spurred them on and gave them the confidence to perform.

“We never decided to put ourselves out there really, we just decided to go busking,” Mollie reflects. “Other people put us out there when they filmed us busking, so we decided we should try to make a name for ourselves.”

While some may have originally known Dea Matrona as a trio featuring Mollie’s sister Mammie on drums, it was never Mammie’s dream to be in the band.

“People forget that Mammie was 14 when she started playing with us, so it was no surprise when she didn’t want to do it anymore,” Mollie explains. “She only originally agreed to go busking with us for one summer. I was egging her on to do more gigs, but we always knew music wasn’t her passion in the same way it was for us.”

Mammie remains a huge supporter of the band, contributing the artwork for their latest two singles.

So after all these years of gigging, busking and single releases, how do Dea Matrona feel about the release of their debut album, For Your Sins?

“It’s been a while coming, so we’re very excited,” says Mollie. “It felt like we had all the right tracks and a body of work, which is what we always wanted.”

While they’re best known for rocking out on the streets of Belfast, there’s an undeniable country flavour to tracks like ‘Glory, Glory (I Am Free)’ and ‘Dead Man’s Heart’.

“I like that you noticed the different genres on the album,” says Mollie. “Our favourite bands are Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac, and they weren’t afraid to show their different sides. We didn’t want just to meet people’s expectations. We have such varied influences and that was something we really wanted to get across. I grew up with a lot of country around the house – Dolly Parton was the first show I ever went to with my grandparents when I was seven.”

While they’ll always be influenced by their music heroes from the ‘60s and ‘70s, they also have a huge passion for the music of their contemporaries.

“We love The Mary Wallopers, Kneecap, CMAT and other acts like Royal Blood,” Orlaith enthuses.

Not only have Orlaith and Mollie written all the lyrics and played all the instruments, they also decided to self-produce the album.

“It was recorded in lots of different places,” notes Orlaith. “In the back of our van, the corner of a garage, hotel rooms, everywhere!”

“We had suggestions of producers to work with, but it just felt right to do it ourselves,” Mollie explains. “We knew the vision we wanted to capture, and we’ve been honing our craft as a production and songwriting team for the past four or five years, so we felt our production could convey what we hear in our heads.”

Dea Matrona have gone full-on DIY, self-releasing the album too.

“We were offered a record deal for the album, but we felt it was right to stay independent,” says Mollie. “We don’t know how we’ll feel with other albums, but having that control and being able to do it our way, was what it was about. It’s hard to know where things will go in the future, whether we’ll want to expand our team. For now, it did really feel like the right move.”

Lyrically, For Your Sins is full of love and lust, whilst simultaneously featuring a huge amount of religious references.

“Looking back at our lyrics, we found there was a lot of religion, which we never really noticed, but that’s how we chose the album name,” considers Mollie. “We both grew up going to church. I used to be an altar girl and in the church choir, so I’d be there twice a week. So it must be one of those subconscious things. We always try to write from the heart – our album feels very authentic.”

Like their Fleetwood Mac heroes Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie, Orlaith and Mollie make a great team.

“We’ve always seen eye-to-eye on a lot of things,” Mollie tells me. “We’re really proud of the fact that we are a team and that we write everything together – it’s very 50-50. We inspire each other. We don’t fight or argue at all, which I know is rare because I’ve got four sisters!”

“There’s never been any big fallouts... yet,” Orlaith teases.

How have they found navigating the music industry as two young women?

“You do hear of people who’ve had really bad experiences, so we have been lucky in a lot of regards,” reflects Mollie. “But I guess sometimes as a woman, you can feel like people pay attention to how you look, more than the fact that you produce and write your own songs.”

Orlaith thinks things are changing for the better.

“You could argue the two biggest breakout acts of the past few years are Wet Leg and The Last Dinner Party,” she says. “That might get rid of the term ‘girl bands’. Hopefully we’ll see a shift where there’s just as many bands with women as men.”

Dea Matrona have been working hard on translating their huge online following into selling gig tickets. On their 2023 tour, they had three sell-out shows and their upcoming London date has already sold out.

“The first time we played in the UK, a lot of people came from finding us online,” recalls Mollie. “It was the same when we were playing places like Latvia, Poland and Estonia – there were Dea Matrona t-shirts in the crowd. When we go into the stats, 60% of our followers are in America, so getting over there is something we want to do.”

2024 is set to be a big one for Dea Matrona. They have a busy summer ahead with multiple festival appearances, including Spain’s legendary Azkena Rock Festival.

“We’re also playing Night and Day festival and a few more in Ireland, but some of them aren’t announced yet,” notes Orlaith.

“This is just the beginning for us,” Mollie insists. “This album solidifies the fact that we are a band and we’re not just in it for the singles or social media. We want to have bodies of work and be seen as a serious act.”

For Your Sins is out now. Dea Matrona kick off their Irish tour in Cyprus Avenue, Cork, tomorrow (May 18) – following by shows at the Róisín Dubh, Galway (May 19); The Workman's Club, Dublin (May 21); and the Limelight 2, Belfast (May 22).