Named in honour of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, this Limerick based group have been consistently living up to the talent behind their namesake. Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets (DF&DP) are dominating the Limerick indie-rock scene, and with incredible accomplishments made over the last year, their best has just touched down in the form of their debut album, how are you feeling today?

Kicking around since approximately 2018, the group met in college, losing and gaining various members over the years. The outfit now stands with Dylan Flynn as frontman, Keagan Forde on lead guitar and backing vocals, Emmett Ryan on bass and backing vocals, Evan Forde on drums, and Chris Britton on keys and saxophone.

“Covid kind of decided the band,” Flynn commented. “Our previous drummer Gavin was the last to leave the band, and that’s when Keagan’s brother Evan joined.”

“Nepotism, ya know,” Keagan laughed.

“I think this line-up has allowed us to hone our craft that bit more especially because we spend so much time together,” Dylan added. “We’ve been really able to get into the knack of song writing and recording and producing.”

Emerging from the pandemic as a finalised ensemble, the quintet has barely had a chance to catch a breath since.

“Coming out of the pandemic, we did our biggest shows ever, like straight away, between supporting NewDad and then the Frank and Walters. It was strange at the start, but we got some momentum going and then we didn’t even have time to think about it,” Dylan remarked. “We went from playing those gigs to releasing more singles, then to releasing an EP, then to our first tour. It wasn't ‘til after we finished the first Irish tour where I was like, ‘whoa, that was a lot.’

“Then we got the Arts Council funding, and we went going straight into recording our album. That time really gave me that energy of like ‘something’s happening now, and we need to make this out best work.’

“Since then, we’ve had even more incredible gigs like supporting Milk, BitDepth, and playing with Kingfishr, and then the Milk Market which was our biggest gig to date. It’s been a whirlwind and it's been hard to take it in. You do need some time to decompress and process everything that's happening. And I think I've made myself aware of that. I'm very much a person that likes to be going all the time, recording something, writing something new, you know, working on a video, and I think I've had to let go of that a little bit to take the downtime, because if you don't take that downtime, it's really hard to appreciate everything that is going on.”

Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets by Jamie Moore

“And we all have our own separate projects as well,” Keagan chimed in. “I don't ever see Chris not working on music. Then Evan and I are always gigging in Galway with our other band, Evøke. Emmett is always writing; Dylan is always writing. Dylan and I both work in music generation as well so that's like constant music, music, music. There's so much music in all our lives, sometimes the important things can get diluted.”

DF&DP were one of the lucky few to receive the Agility Award from the Arts Council. This governmental support allowed the group to find their own studio space and put the work into their debut album.

“We found out about the funding just before our headline Dolan's Warehouse show at the end of our Irish tour last year,” Dylan fondly recalled. “It was perfect timing as we had been going through all of our songs with our producer, Mike Gavin, trying to decide what to do next. We had so many songs, but we wanted the timing to be right for our first album. Between Mike encouraging us and getting the funding, it became the right time.

“The funding opened up a lot of doors for us and allowed us to invest a bit of money in other places, whether that be marketing or buying gear or releasing more, better quality videos. Even being able to bring in Mike as a co-producer as well.”

Dylan and Keagan met producer Mike Gavin as a lecturer in the Technological University of the Shannon, previously Limerick Institute of Technology. Taking the step to bring in a producer was a big step for the band, as they had self-produced successfully for a number of years. However, with Mike, their whole sound seems to have clicked.

“Mike was there every step of the way,” Flynn confirmed. “It was so nice to have an extra set of ears with us and to lean on someone with so much experience in producing. Mike felt like the right choice for us, especially because we already had that relationship built up with him from college.”

Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets by Jamie Moore

“Mike was, by far, one of my favourite lecturers in college,” Keagan admitted. “It was so enjoyable to have him involved, it didn’t feel like we had brought anyone external in. We weren’t dealing with hoping someone else would understand what we were looking for when recording, it just fit.

“Throughout the four years in college, Mike had a big impact on our music - the way our music is recorded and the way we write, Mike was there as we grew. So, to have him there with us, it was like having your ‘aul lad there. He comes from a place of deep love for music and even curated that love for music in us. So, by the time this album came around, and we had to work with someone else, I don’t know who else we would’ve gone with.”

“He just gets our sound so well,” Dylan gushed. “Like he'd been mixing a couple of our tracks even before we started working with him as a producer and straightaway, he knew what we were going for, without even us having to tell him that much. And it was the same with this album. We're getting mixes back now and they’re almost perfect straight away. That says quite a lot because we've worked with people in the past and it would be 12 mixes in, and we would have to just scrap the track. It gets to a point where you're like, ‘does this person even know where I want to go?’ That’s initially why we decided to self-produce, so it was a big thing to bring in a new person, but Mike was definitely the perfect fit.”

how are you feeling today? came out on March 10 with a track list of 11 brand new songs. Singles ‘running away’, ‘life’, ‘more’, and ‘nowhere to live’ were the first to spark an evolving interest in the outfit, with the band claiming these tracks represent the album perfectly.

“It’s really exciting knowing there’s such a big body of work for people to listen to,” Flynn beams. “The record feels really cohesive as we've worked on it as a whole package and we've never done that before. In the past we’ve recorded a single then another single and another single, all separately. I liked doing it that way as well, there's a certain pressure to recording like that that’s interesting, and each product turns out slightly different than the last. And that's cool. But this time, it was it was nice to have a solid throughline throughout this album that ties it all together in sound and in themes and in its overall direction.

“What's really helped with that idea as well is our bass player, Emmett. He's a graphic designer and he's always done our design and our branding up until now. Having him decide the creative direction to go with all the artwork, the merchandise, the visuals, the music videos, even how our socials look, that has all been taken into consideration as a whole piece of art, as well as the album. So, it's nice to create almost a whole universe."

how are you feeling today? cover by Emmett Ryan

“Bringing Emmett in was such a great decision,” Keagan piped in. “He's obviously a phenomenal singer and a phenomenal musician, but he's also a phenomenal graphic designer. He's just got a great value for art.

“Then we also have Jamie Moore, the photographer, who's been with us from the get-go. He grew with us, you know? Between Emmett, Jamie, Mike, having our own studio and having everyone so involved, it created, like Dylan said, a universe.

“Some of the EPs before might have felt a bit disjointed, and that’s not to take away from them at all, but this feels different. This feels like a collection of work, it isn't just about the songs anymore. For such a big body of work, it feels so smooth, it's the smoothest we have ever felt or sounded.”

This “smooth” sound and cohesiveness could be down to the change in the group’s recording process.

“We've never sat down and been like, let's change, but this album was the first time that we've recorded live with all of us standing in one room playing,” Dylan shared. “I think that’s been really refreshing and allowed us to not lean on production as much.”

“Tracking it live was such great craic because it gives you a confidence playing in the studio live together,” Keagan added. “We're feeding off each other. So, it mightn’t be perfect all the time, but it pulls and drags where it needs to. And then when we go on stage and play the songs live, we’re all used to it. It’s not like Dylan’s doing all the recording and the rest of us go up on stage like, ‘feck, how do I play this?’”

Frontman, Flynn, laughed and added: “That was an issue in the past where we'd record an EP, and then we’d have to learn how to play the whole thing. This time around I'd say there’s maybe only two or three tracks that we haven't played all together off the album. I think the song writing process hasn't really changed for this album, but the recording process definitely has changed.”

This need for change stems from the band searching for a more authentic sound, Dylan shared. While the over-reliance on production can work for some bands, there is a heartening element that comes with a more paired back, genuine recording.

“A big thing that’s that stuck with me for a long time is the way The 1975 approach their music and how they don't let the genre hold them back,” Dylan explained. “That's been a big thing for me the whole time – I never want to be like, ‘this doesn’t sound particularly like us so let’s cut it.’ If I ever did that, we would have four or five songs, there wouldn't be an album. I don't think we sound like them that much, but that ethos of treating the way you write and what you put out has definitely stuck with me.

“Other than that, I was listening to a lot of bands like Pinegrove, and The War on Drugs and Big Thief when I was writing the album - bands that definitely made me want to go for more natural and a rootsier vibe.”

“Yeah, we focused a lot on production in the past,” Keagan furthered Dylan’s point. “We focused so much on that, that it probably took away from the instrumentation. We all come from quite different musical backgrounds, so we all give a piece of ourselves to the songs. The way we recorded this time left a piece of each of us in the tracks which has never really happened before, and it was quite refreshing.”

“I think this time we just wanted to sound like a band,” Dylan continued. “We wanted to let the instruments do the talking rather than adding in all this extra production that doesn't necessarily need to be there. That's only clouding the songs in general. So, I think we really tried to strip it back and just become confident with the parts that we're playing.”

The band are following the release of their first album with a tour – adding a London date to the line-up, as well as all around Ireland. After this, the band have one other big Irish goal.

“Festivals,” the pair almost shouted in unison.

“We've kind of done everything else in Ireland other than festivals,” Dylan elaborated. “We just want to play in front of as many people as possible and have a good time. So, the only other thing we really want to do is play as many festivals as we can this Summer. Like EP, Indie, All Together Now, Sea Sessions, Body & Soul, literally anything. We’ll take anything anyone wants us to play at. If you want us to play in your shed, we'll play in your shed.”

To play festivals, you must stand out from the crowd. So, what makes DF&DP different? Why should festival bookers take them on?

“Watch the Catholic guilt kick in now. Ah we can’t talk about ourselves like that!” Keagan chuckled.

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Forde took a moment to discard his Irish instincts, finally commenting: “There are some bands who are totally different people on stage to who they are off stage. I have great respect for that, that’s like theatre, and that definitely has a place. However, I think when we're on stage, and we're playing live, the one thing that might set us apart, and I'm not blowing smoke up our own arses here, but I think it’s a very authentic thing when we're on stage. We're not playing to impress anyone; we're not trying to be anything that we're not.

“I can only speak for myself here, but I know for a fact that when I'm up on stage, I'm literally walking over here and running over there, but it's never a conscious thing. I'm not trying to do that. I'm just trying to have the most fun I possibly can onstage. And I think that translates.

“I think each of us tries to have fun in our own way. For example, Chris onstage might be quite reserved, but he's so focused on his parts, and he really wants it to sound good. And that's where Chris shines through because he's clinical about these things. Whereas my fault would be that I’m far less clinical than Chris ever will be. I might make mistakes, but when I’m onstage I just love every minute of it. If I make a mistake, I'll just have a laugh with everyone.”

The guitarist reflected on what he would want from a gig, as an audience member: “If I'm at a gig and I’m giving it socks and the band on stage couldn't care less to be there… I don't care how good their songs are, that’ll taint my experience of going to see them.

“I think we're very much ourselves when we're playing and even if you don't like our music, or the songs aren't for you, I invite you to come to one of our gigs and try to have as much craic with us as we're having with ye, because I think that’s really where we really shine. If that isn't reason enough to come to a gig, then what are you going to gigs for? There's something in it for everybody. You mightn’t love all of our tunes, fair enough, but it's still a fun experience to go to one of our gigs. If I was in the audience watching us, I think I’d have craic - if I can say that and stand behind that statement, why not give us a chance anyway?”

how are you feeling today? is out now and you can catch the guys on tour from March 24 – April 14.

DF&DP Tour Dates:

March 24 - Whelan's (Upstairs), Dublin
March 25 - The Loft, Galway
March 30 - McHugh's, Belfast
April 2 - De Barra's, Clonakilty
April 7 - Dolan's Warehouse, Limerick
April 14 - The Waiting Room, London