The Altered Hours: "Distortion to me is the sound of beautiful rebellion"

For over a decade, Cork shoegazers the Altered Hours have been select purveyors of noise. Albums In Heat Not Sorry and Convertible marked them as cult masters of atmospheric guitar ballads, with the voices of duo Elaine Howley and Cathal MacGabhann purveying slacker rock harmonies redolent of The Pastels, The Pixies and Sonic Youth.

They’re good at what they do, that much is clear. These days the fun lies in keeping things fresh.

“When you start, you’re just excited to get anything out,” says MacGabhann, the band’s chosen emissary for a video call. “As a band progresses, you find new ways of challenging yourself. The engine that the first two records were based off of was starting to burn out.

“This is a different type of album for us, just to make sure we don’t rest on our laurels or copy our past records. It feels like chapter two – like a real page turn. I might be pressing that upon it, just to trick my own brain into progressing… But it feels like chapter two for me.”

Chapter Two entails putting themselves out there more than they have before.

“I wanted to push our vulnerability to the fore,” MacGabhann continues. “I tried to challenge myself by being more upfront about lyrics and putting the vocals higher in the mix. I was afraid of that, and I wanted to go towards that rather than go with what’s comfortable.”

Most of the recording was done in a week, and to tape, adding to that real feel.

“We’re in the era of AI and climate collapse and political unrest,” MacGabhann explains. “It’s a good time to put something out in the world that’s based on the human heart, blood and guts, and emotion. That really worked for us.

“We are essentially a live band. That’s where our hearts lie. We came alive performing together, so it was definitely my favorite recording experience I’ve ever had.”
Doing the bulk of singing and writing are the aforementioned duo of MacGabhann and Howley. Is it a competitive dynamic?

“No,” Cathal smiles. “We have a laugh about it, but no, I wouldn’t say so. We back each other and enjoy singing together. A lot of the early jams of the band were sitting room sessions with guitars and us singing harmonies. It was very much born out of that, so it’s natural for us to share duties

“Honestly, sometimes it can be a bit confusing. It could be easier to market a band with one singer. But I don’t really worry about that. We’re not in this to make sure we have a perfect branding campaign.”

It’s a refreshing take in an era of social media strategies and intrusive fandom, where mystique is rare. Sometimes lack of knowledge is power, exemplified by MacGabhann’s interest in Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era – compilations of obscure psych and garage rock cuts from largely unknown ’60s bands.“I’m very much someone who goes song by song,” he explains. “I don’t have the attention for long albums. I really enjoy buying seven inches and having one single of a band that I don’t know. The Nuggets collections were a huge influence on me when I was at my formative age of listening to music.

“I love not knowing anything about a band and hearing a song. I don’t need to know if the band is from Philadelphia or Auckland. It starts to shape it. You get preconceptions, which can be very powerful and influential, but for me the song is enough.”

How a band sounds can tell you plenty about them, including where they’re from. Whether it’s My Bloody Valentine, up and comers Just Mustard, or indeed, The Altered Hours, there is something Irish about swelling guitarscapes and moody atmospheres.

“Absolutely,” MacGabhann nods. “The cloud cover alone is like a really good distortion pedal. Looking out the car window when it’s raining and you can barely see the car in front of you on the motorway – that’s shoegaze. That lack of light.

“You have to reflect that somewhere. The claustrophobic elements of shoegaze, the crushed distortion, does that. Distortion to me is the sound of beautiful rebellion. And it’s fun as well. It’s a mixture of those two things.”

• The Altered Hours is out now via Pizza Pizza.