Waterdogs on their debut EP release: "People are really going to relate to these songs on every level"

Amidst the rush of Waterdogs releasing their debut EP, Midnight Loser, I sat down with vocalist Kat Casey and guitarist Aaron Griffin to discuss writing, performing and what it’s like to be a band on the verge of a serious breakthrough in Ireland right now.

A good place to start is the beginning. Who are Waterdogs? The four-piece alt-rock band are based in Limerick. Consisting of Kat, Aaron, Ciara Maria Hayes on bass, and Eoghan Creedon on drums, they are ready to take the Irish music scene by storm with their debut EP.

What can we expect from the EP? Kat assures me that it is an eclectic range of songs that encapsulates the band's sound perfectly.

“It basically consists of four songs, two of which we have already released and two that are unreleased. It’s kind of a mix-up of loads of different types of music. Each song is different from the last.”

 

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With the band forming less than a year ago, this is a promising start for the Limerick natives.

“We only came together properly in January and we didn’t expect to have everything move so quickly and to already be doing so well. It’s pretty cool,” Kat explains.

It’s easy to knock heads when you have four creative people coming together to make music, but Waterdogs run like a well-oiled machine.

Aaron explains, “The lyrics either come from myself or Kat, generally. Not that we would shoot down anyone else's ideas, that's just the way it’s been. We’ll then try to figure out the melody or we might already have something in mind for a guitar piece, we’ll then come with that to the rest of the band and let everyone have their own input on what each instrument is doing so that everyone gets their say in the music. We all suggest things but at the end of the day the drummer decides the drums, the bass player decides the bass and everything. We never want it to feel like a dictatorship, basically.”

After sitting on the EP for so long, there’s no feeling like finally releasing it for everyone to hear.

“It’s so exciting. It’s like we know all of our songs. We know how excited they make us but nobody has heard them yet. It’s just exciting to know that the stuff we have worked so hard on is actually going to be out there and everyone will be able to listen whenever they feel like it.”

Of course, it can be hard to replicate the sound of a studio recording on stage. Aaron explains how different the music can sound live.

“Well, for the last song on the EP especially, it’s going to be very different because a lot of production ended up going into that. There are different guitar tracks with acoustics and electrics, there’s shakers, there’s tambourines and three-part harmonies. Just a lot of stuff we don’t have the ability to do live – but we’re going to try and get it as close as we can but, obviously, the studio recordings are going to be a bit different. You can kind of make it a bit bigger than you can with just the four-piece band live.”

There’s no doubt that Waterdogs upcoming gigs will do the EP justice.

And it’s no secret that Ireland has a surplus of talent waiting to be discovered – but it's not always easy to stick out from the crowd. Kat gives us her two cents on what it’s like as an up-and-coming Irish band.

"If you’re not into music it can be hard to just stumble upon the Irish music scene. I feel like in the past year or so it has taken off a lot more, I feel like that’s down to social media. I think that has opened people’s eyes a bit and got people thinking that the Irish music scene is actually, really cool. You wouldn’t realise how many local bands there are unless you’re really paying attention.” The pandemic also put a lot of artists on hold in terms of gigging, Aaron explains. “I think it really took a minute to really take off again after covid. It took people a while to get back into the groove of gigging and stuff again.”

Social media is a great tool for artists to market themselves but it comes with its own set of obstacles.

“Social media can make or break you,” Kat says of the struggles of trying to promote yourself online. “You can post as much as you want about your music but if it doesn’t go viral within the first two or three days you’re kind of like, “uh oh”. I don’t even think there’s logic to the way that happens, it’s just whatever way it goes.”

Something you can always expect from Waterdogs is music that speaks straight to the listener. For them, “It’s more about making relatable content. We’ll choose songs that we know people are going to relate to. From personal experience that always draws me in, if I hear something and think, 'Oh my God, I completely relate to these lyrics,' I’m going to listen."

 

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After the rush of releasing the EP, the Irish rockers are going to take a well-earned break until the new year, when they will sink their teeth back into writing music.

The band will play two headline shows on December 1 and 2. The first show sees the quartet partner up with Wired FM in Pharmacia, headlining a packed line-up which features Annie Cheevers, Misvanity, and The Luminesc.

Saturday, December 2, sees the four bound for Cork’s Fred Zeppelins, joined by Wise Up and The Luminesc.

“It’s just all so exciting," Kat beams. "I would really like to see different faces at these gigs because we’re going to be playing songs we have never played live before. People are really going to relate to these songs on every level which is going to be amazing.”

Waterdogs debut EP, Midnight Loser is out now – listen below: