Hot Press meets September Girls

As history has long dictated, January has always been a bit of a shitty old month (sorry January babies!). However, this year Dublin’s September Girls have heroically stepped in to save us all from this doom-laden period with their newly released, reverb-drenched debut Cursing The Sea. And while 2014 may only be in its infancy, you can count on the 12-track opus having a Godzilla-sized impact over the weeks ahead. When we catch up with bassist and co-vocalist Paula Cullen, she tells us that she’s both happy and relieved to unleash their fuzzy child into the wild.

“This release has been a long time coming, so it’s good to have it finally out there,” she begins. “We wanted to ideally put it out in September. As things went on we thought maybe October, then November. Basically the label, due to their own schedule, felt it would’ve been a rush for them to get it out last year. We thought 'January will do, let's put it out as soon as possible'. We finished recording it in April and it was frustrating having to sit on it. That’s just one of those things really.”

Already on record shop shelves in Japan – lucky fans in the Land of the Rising Sun got their hands on it just before Christmas – Cursing The Sea is a heady, hazy mix of Shangri-Las hooks and shoegaze guitars.

“We didn’t want it to sound too different to the way we do live,” she explains. “It’s got a raw feel to it and that’s exactly what we wanted. We made it very economically between our own rehearsal space and our friend’s rehearsal space. Robbie Brady and Sean Goucher recorded it for us.”

One of the album’s highlights is recent single ‘Heartbeats’. The 2011-founded five-piece also made a super creepy video for the track, inspired by Hammer Horror films and the work of photographers Ryan McGinley and Ellen Rogers.

“Jessie and Caoimhe from the band made it,” Paula informs us. “It’s handy that we have people in the group who are talented in other ways as well. There was a vague storyline in that the star of the clip feels she’s being followed or watched. It turns out that it’s her dark side she’s seeing.”

When added to an image that’s best described as “the characters from American Horror Story Coven made flesh,” (only with a supernatural gift for making great music instead of setting people on fire with their minds, obviously) and an arsenal of songs with a haunting, ethereal quality, would it be fair to say that September Girls have a goth side?

“Yeah, I suppose it would. I used to be a goth as a teenager and I think a lot of the girls would agree that kinda thing has subconsciously influenced us as that was the music we listened to in our teens. On the whole it’s definitely quite a dark record.”
As many readers will no doubt recall, Paula was formerly a member of the much-loved Chalets (alongside September Girls bandmate Caoimhe Derwin) and in 2005, they released one of the best Irish albums of the last ten years, Check In. Does Cursing The Sea feel like another chapter in her musical story or does she view it more as a debut record?

“It definitely feels like a debut for me,” she proffers. “We’ve all been in bands before. This is the first group that I’ve really felt in control of. The music sounds the way I want it to sound and the others wanted it to sound. I definitely feel in comparison to other bands I’ve been in before that this is more what I want.”

With a brand new year just begun, September Girls plan to tour as much as possible. Don’t be surprised if you hear even more new material sooner rather than later.

“We won’t have another album out in 2014 but we’ll hopefully have it written and recorded by the end of the year, depending on how the touring works out” Paula concludes. “We love to tour as far and wide as possible. I don’t see the point in just playing Dublin or even only Ireland all the time. Touring is the fun bit. You might as well do that as much as possible.”

Cursing The Sea is out now on Fortuna POP!

September Girls play Menagerie, Belfast (February 1) and Geoff’s, Waterford (8)