Throwing Snow & Daragh Fleming - On Our Radar Q&A: "'Pedalling’ is childhood memories and nostalgia, whereas what we’ve been working on recently is dealing with difficult subjects"

What was the inspiration behind ‘Pedalling’?

Ross: I have a good friend called Philippa Batty, who does these mad extreme cycling races. I wrote her an eight-and-a-half-minute track at the right tempo so she could pedal up a hill. It was originally called ‘Cycling’, but when Daragh and I first got chatting, I immediately heard him on this particular track.

Daragh: Ross sent me over ‘Cycling’, and I was brought back to my own experience with cycling, which was predominantly in my childhood, across beaches in Waterford. That’s where the inspiration for the lyrics came from. And then I sent back my recording and titled it ‘Pedalling’, because that’s what the poem was going to be called.

What was it like, Daragh, to make music for the first time?

Daragh: It was ‘ignorance is bliss’, because I don’t really have any understanding of the industry. It was just a fun opportunity to do my work in a new stream. It’s still writing poetry, but it’s with the added complexity of original music and writing for a specific piece of music. When I’ve used music in the past, I’ve written a poem and then tried to find a track that will fit the poem. Whereas this is the reverse of that.

Can we expect future collaborations?

Daragh: We definitely will be working on more stuff; it just may take many forms.

Ross: Definitely. We seem to work really well together, which is rare. This new project has got a different direction – there’s more of a varied message. ‘Pedalling’ is childhood memories and nostalgia, whereas what we’ve been working on recently is dealing with difficult subjects.

• ‘Pedalling’ is out now.