Dublin alt-rock four-piece Melts traverse new terrain on their barnstorming, face-melting sophomore LP Field Theory. A follow up to their well-received 2022 debut Maelstrom, the small scale interactions which shape our lives are put under the microscope this time around.

“Initially, it came from how we were interacting with each other in the studio,” says singer Eoin Kenny, discussing the album title. “When I was putting lyrics together, it became more about how our relationship with the outside world is coloured by our interpersonal relationships, the insular relationships between everybody around us, and the importance of different people within our lives, how we miss them and how we love them.”

The emotional nature of the subject matter may feel particularly resonant to the band, who overcame dreadful personal struggles in the lead up to the project.

“We were meant to record the album in April, and in March, my wife lost a child at 26 weeks, which was just awful,” reveals drummer Gaz Earle. “Had we recorded it then, we’d have a shit album, so we pushed it back.”

While the recording itself was delayed, the practice sessions, according to Gaz, played a vitally cathartic role.

“The rehearsals are what brought me up,” he continues. “I had a safe space within those four walls. It was a way of getting out of the gaff, instead of lying in bed going, ‘Why did this happen?’”

Emblematic of music’s unending potential for emotional release, Field Theory already promises to be one of the best rock offerings of the year. Throughout the record, there’s pounding drums, mind-warbling synths and wailing post-punk guitar. It sounds, looks and feels like what (one imagines) goes on inside the Hadron Collider.

Like all great albums, there’s someone behind the desk helping to knit it all together. In this case, it was renowned local producer Daniel Fox. With this his second time embarking on a full-length with Melts, the Gilla Band member leaves his signature on most things noisy and good coming out of Ireland these days.

“He tells you when it’s shit,” quips Gaz. “He’s super easy to work with and he’s up for anything.”

“He really understands other kinds of artists, genres and styles,” adds synth-man Robbie Brady. “I think that’s why people are going back to him. He listens to what you say, you can reference anything you want it to sound like and he nails it. It’s difficult to find someone who’s willing to do that, and also who can actually pull it off.”

The album’s creation is made even more impressive by the fact that Melts churned it out whilst juggling full time jobs and busy private lives.

“You can’t survive in Dublin unless you have at least two or three grand coming in a month to pay the bills,” says Robbie.

“Even if we were playing 200 gigs a year, we’d be struggling to pay rent. Back in the day, you could have a seven-inch single and pay off a mortgage. Now, with streaming, you could release an album like Taylor Swift and get a packet of crisps out of it. It feels like it has to be a hobby, especially in Dublin.”

“I think Spotify is great for putting your music in front of people, but even artists who are on the road all the time are finding it really difficult to make music,” adds Eoin.

The financial plight of the modern artist makes recent protests at SXSW (during which every single Irish act billed at the festival pulled out, due to sponsorship from the US military and arms manufacturers), all the more significant. Having played the Austin showcase event in 2022, Melts understand the scale of the sacrifice more than most.

“Fair play to them. It’s such a fucking milestone to play there,” says Gaz. “We got our label from it.”

“I know how much going over there would have meant to them, to represent themselves and the country,” adds guitarist Hugh O’Reilly. “It wasn’t an easy decision for anybody, but it was the right one.”

“It’s art-washing by the US military,” adds Eoin. “It’s cunning. They justify it by ‘making connections with the tech scene’, but that’s all so they can build a drone that’s better at killing people, and when it comes to Gaza, killing kids. So I think it’s great what they [bands at SXSW] did. It also felt like a very Irish thing. Because of our colonial background, people really get it.”

• Field Theory is out now.