Dublin pairing Sally Ó Dúnlaing and Luke Foley (AKA Scenes From a Break) are released their debut single 'Silly Little Games' this Friday, which Hot Press are delighted to premiere.

The collaborative project began when Foley posted online that he was in search of a vocalist to help him demo some tracks. When Ó Dúnlaing reached out and the pair started working together, they found songwriting together so seamless that they decided to form a new band.

Bray native Ó Dúnlaing has spent the last number of years releasing music under the moniker of ÓDÚ, sharing her debut single ‘Different’ a number of years ago. This was followed by ‘The Conversations EP’ in 2017, which was widely acclaimed upon its release, with Hot Press remarking that ÓDÚ had a “non-ironic, unapologetic penchant for crystal clear pop”. Since then, ÓDÚ has released ‘Roots’ in 2018 ‘Roots’ and ‘The Feeling’ in 2019, which saw her play a UK and Ireland tour in June and July of that year.

“Scenes From A Break is a whole new thing where I get to wallow in the sounds and vibes of bands that I would never quite be able to fit into an ÓDÚ production such as The Cure, The Cardigans, Pale Waves, and Tame Impala," Ó Dúnlaing said of deciding to release music distinct from the ÓDÚ name.

"It also gives me the opportunity to cosplay different scenarios in my head because the music inspires a completely different response from me.”

'Silly Little Games' documents the moments of realisation that come having moving on from something that is causing you pain, and the sense of growth that comes from such moments.

“You see all the things and people and places that used to trigger all the bad feelings within you, but for the first time in a long while, they have almost no effect on you anymore” Ó Dúnlaing notes of the track.

“You're a different person than you were before, hence the lyric 'You wouldn’t know me at all, if you saw me now'.”

The lyrics are framed as a conversation between the person walking away and another struggling to keep their sense of control. The track delves into the contrasting emotions that come from such a moment, and the bravery it takes to take a stand and begin moving on from a traumatic time period in your life.

“I just heard a melody in my head and the lyrics poured out of me” Ó Dúnlaing explained, “They were never based on any particular personal experience but just the feeling I got from listening to the music that Luke had created“.

'Silly Little Games' was recorded entirely remotely, with Foley producing the instrumentation and Ó Dúnlaing recording her own vocals. From there, they got Darragh Nolan (aka Astakalapa) involved to develop the track’s warm, live band feeling.

“It was the first time I had ever worked on a track for release like that and it was a great boost to my confidence to have been able to do it” Ó Dúnlaing explained of the production process.

Luke Foley utilised his experience in visual effects to curate the track's psychedelic lyric video.

"Sally and I had originally intended to make an actual real life music video for the song, as we hoped things might have re-opened earlier in the year, but it soon became clear that we wouldn't be an option," Luke tells Hot Press.

"I used to work as a visual effects assistant so I know how to edit and composite videos. We decided to use the single artwork (designed by Irish photographer Patricia McCormack) as a back-drop for the video as we both loved the vibe of the image. Then the goal was to keep the actual text to an organic, distorted aesthetic somewhat matching the band's logo."

"With some playing around I managed to achieve a cool, wavy ripple effect which you see on the text," Luke adds. "The last thing to do was to make the background more dynamic, I sourced some royalty free footage, overlayed it on the background and added digital distortion so that it looks like Trish's image is fading, like it's underwater. We were delighted with the overall result."

Scenes from a Break are taking things day by day, rather than looking towards the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 into the unknown. Watch this space...

"We have three or four more songs written we plan to release in the coming months, but we're very much taking it one song at a time right now."

Check out the full lyric video for 'Silly Little Games' below: