The duo, consisting of 21-year-old Ruairi Coyle and 23-year-old Lorcan Hamilton, are very much influenced by Joy Division, while Ruairi’s drumming influences come from such unlikely realms as jazz and metal.
In order to achieve an authentic lo-fi sound, Fabric recorded their five-track EP Happenings in the unlikeliest of settings: “We recorded it in my living room with just two vocal mics and it turned out to be awesome,” Ruairi recalls.
When the pair are in the process of composing songs, the lyrics stay on the backburner until the music’s written. “We come up with all the music first. Usually I’ll have a drum beat or Lorcan will have a bassline. We play together and then Lorcan goes home and he digs up the lyrics in some mystical place.”
Bands like Belfast’s And So I watch You From Afar and Dublin outfit No Spill Blood are firm favourites with the duo, but Fabric are a totally different animal to the other Irish bands out there, according to the young Derry man. “The main thing that sets us aside from a lot of bands is our sheer level of noise – it envelops everything. Volume is important,” Ruairi explains emphatically. “Then there’s our freedom. Whenever we play live the song structures kind of go out the window.”
See: Fabric play Reverberation Festival at The Grand Social, Dublin on April 8
Hear: Jungle, available to buy on bandcamp.com