The Murder Capital: On post-punk revivals in the Irish capital

For some bands, an aesthetic takes a while to form. It needs to be hammered out, through experimentation, compromise and failure.

This hasn’t been the case with The Murder Capital. When Hot Press meets frontman James McGovern on Capel Street, he wears an old brown smoking jacket complete with safety pins on the lapel, demure slacks and dark Docs. He’s tall, wears his hair hair tightly cropped, and speaks in a serious, measured fashion. This is a man who knows how he wants to present himself.

This old-fashioned working-class punk look has always been intrinsic to the five-piece. A desire to write ferocious, honest post-punk brought Damien Tuite, Cathal Roper, Matt Wilson and Morgan Wilson together as they collaborated in college.

“We always did originals, so it quite quickly became a collaborative experience. It’s a pleasure to write together,” McGovern says.

By February, they were ready to present themselves to the world.

“We were just waiting for the right band name to come along. We wanted something to reflect the current state of mental health in our country and maybe the certain level of neglect that it’s shown.”

A string of dates with close friends Fontaines DC in March introduced them to stages like the Button Factory.

“It was beautiful, being on stage with your best friends, having a good time.”

McGovern met the Fontaines in November and since then “we’ve been living out of each other’s pockets. We share the same rehearsal room in North Strand.”

The Fontaines’ recent record deal is an inspiration.

“I guess if you talk to 15-year-old me about things like record deals and touring internationally, it seems like a pipe dream or an intangible concept. Now it’s reality – it’s about the work you put in and your integrity as an artist. Girl Band did it. They showed a lot of people that you can make the art that you believe in and people will eventually grab onto that.”

For now, the The Murder Capital’s only consumable output is a an intense live session recording of ‘More Is Less’, a tightly-written song that encapsulates the band’s focus. While Cathal and Damien contribute to the music, James writes the lyrics alone.

“With Cathal and Damien being unbelievable guitarists – technically brilliant and theoretically brilliant too – their knowledge lets me focus solely on lyricism and what I’m saying. Allowing me that focus is important.”

The literary world is McGovern’s biggest lyrical inspiration.

“At the moment I normally carry this little collection of Keats poems. Keats was introduced to me by a friend who passed away earlier this year. I like to go solely into one writer’s world for a number of months, reading, like, five books at a time ‘cos that’s the way my attention span works. I need to have one for different moods – I might have three different ones in my pocket.”

The band are also hugely informed by their surroundings, says McGovern, who grew up between Cork and Dublin.

“Being Irish is a deep well of creative opportunity. The conversations you have in the places you’re hanging out and the history of the city you’re living in bears weight on your shoulders. In the current political climate, it feels like the tides are changing – we’ve been standing at the shore for a long time. People want artists who actually have something to say.”

Like their London friends Shame, The Murder Capital exude intensity onstage – the angst can present a hugely masculine energy. Like Shame frontman Charlie Steen, McGovern has been spotted topless on stage – but only once. “It’s not my thing,” he says, wincing at the memory. “I’ll let Charlie do that!”

Steen made waves when he declared the stereotypical idea of a rock star “offensive” – something McGovern agrees with.

“We’re not focused on making money or getting fucked up every weekend. As young Irish males we’re all very aware of the traps that are set out and all the terrifying stories of addiction – every Irish person probably has a close relative who is an alcoholic. We’re very aware of that.”

It’s a lack of community connection that causes this, McGovern theorises.

“A lot of people’s communities exist in the online world, things have changed very fast in that respect. People going out every weekend taking pills and stuff like that – a lot of the time they’re just having fun, but sometimes there’s something darker behind it. It’s sort of fabricating that sense of community at times.”

Part of the attraction of being in a band, he says, is the opportunity to bring people together, to have conversations with people – building a community (Murder Capitalists? Sounds good to me).

Still managerless, The Murder Capital have managed to build a considerable buzz from a few shows and one live video, bagging themselves a headliner upstairs in Whelan’s earlier this month. Their star is very much on the rise.