This, That & The Other - On Our Radar Q&A: "Cork is always evolving, always bringing new talent"

What can you tell us about Fishbowl World?

Saoirse: These songs have been with us for quite a while because they’re all self-produced. Jamie from M(h)aol is helping us master it. The whole concept of the album is derealisation and depersonalisation. It’s that feeling of living in a fishbowl. Living in modern society, you’re on the outside looking in, or sometimes on the inside looking out. It’s a bit disorientating.

You guys handle all your own production. How does that shape your sound?

Jose: It has its pros and cons. It gave us freedom in the creative process, helped us discover our sound, and showed us how a song transitions from a demo to the final product. Between those two points is long - that’s why it took us so long to release this album. But having the tools to produce ourselves is great. We can work in our own time, in our home studio.

Saoirse: The cons are timing and the fact that we all work full-time jobs. I’m a secondary school teacher, Jose works in tech, and our drummer works on construction sites - we’re all full-on 9 to 5. But without that space, we wouldn’t have had those euphoric moments of sitting behind the laptop thinking, “Whoa, we did it!”

What’s your take on the Irish music scene?

Jose: In Cork, it’s evolved a lot over the years. There was a boom with bands like Cliffords, The Love Buzz, Little Gnome and The Cardinals - we’ve shared stages with all of them. Our learning curve and development have been different, since we’re completely independent and limited with our time and budget.

Saoirse: In Dublin, we have a good connection with Left Iris - they’re like our sister band. As for the Irish scene in general, I was born and raised in Cork City. It’s such a musical city, and so many good bands hail from there, especially with the School of Music. Cork is always evolving, always bringing new talent. Ireland itself is doing fabulous, the scene is hopping - look at the likes of CMAT.

Your album launch show kicks off in Cork this October, with more dates to follow. What can audiences expect?

Saoirse: We don’t have the exact dates yet, but we’ll be doing an Irish tour - Cork, Dublin, Galway, maybe Limerick and Dundalk. When it comes to the live shows, I like to think we put on a good show and have strong crowd interaction. I’ve started learning to script a bit before going on stage - sometimes I can talk absolute waffle, and so it can kind of lose its mystic!

• Fishbowl World is released on September 30.