- Music
- 12 Jun 18
After getting the travel bug out of their system, the band got together in real time in 2016 and started recording their first songs!
Normally, bands starting out live within close proximity - or at least the same country. But this wasn't the case for The Magnapinna; they originally formed when all four members had emigrated from their native Cork to locations as far flung as Brisbane, Iceland, Tokyo and Brighton.
"We had all emigrated at the same time," explains vocalist Daniel Howard. "We kept in touch through the internet - we'd write stuff down on the phone and send it to each other"
After getting the travel bug out of their system, the band got together in real time in 2016.
They quickly recorded their first demo, Sex Tapes, in - fittingly, a bedroom.
On latest EP This Is No Wave meanwhile, raucous heavy metal guitar riffs mix nicely (well, nastily) with Talking Heads-style vocals.
"We've all been in metal bands over the years," notes Howard. "I think with the newer stuff, there'll be a lot more pop-oriented songs. The heaviness is going to slightly filter out as we go along."
The frontman also says that The Magnapinna aren't tied down to any specific genre:
Advertisement
"That's important to us. It's not just music for ourselves - we want everybody to be part of the party."
Since getting together, the band have played the length and breadth of the country, including a Dublin show in Whelan's which Howard fondly remembers.
"It was really great to get in front of a Dublin crowd," he says, "and to really see the appreciation for what we're doing". Following the release of the latest EP, Howard says the group are already planning to record new material. "We won a competition and part of the price was two days in the studio, which suits us perfectly. We're ready to go again - we have six or seven songs we wanna get down."
This Is No Wave is out now!