Lucy O'Toole

1 week ago | hotpress.com | Lucy O'Toole

As Self Esteem releases A Complicated Woman – her powerful follow-up to the Mercury Prize-nominated Prioritise Pleasure – the artist also known as Rebecca Lucy Taylor reflects on success, self-doubt, and the current pop landscape… From the stark statements about autonomy and desire that punctuate her songs, to the warts-and-all reflections she throws out in conversation, there’s always been a rare, overriding sense of honesty to everything Self Esteem approaches.

3 weeks ago | hotpress.com | Lucy O'Toole

His approach may be more ‘backgarden-country’ than ‘bedroom-pop’, but Gareth Hamilton – known professionally as simply Gareth – has, within the space of a year, clocked up the kind of online following that most aspiring musicians on social media can only dream of.

1 month ago | hotpress.com | Lucy O'Toole

Embarking on a 32-track album project would typically, Cathy Jordan admits, be considered “a form of madness.”But the Roscommon-reared singer and multi-instrumentalist – who rose to prominence in the early ’90s with the world-renowned traditional group Dervish – has never been short of energy, or inspiration.

2 months ago | hotpress.com | Lucy O'Toole

Music 05 Mar 25 The Murder Capital: "This is music I’ve wanted to make with this band for a long time" The Murder Capital. Credit: Hugo Comte As they unleash their powerful third album Blindness – and gear up for their headline show at the Iveagh Gardens this summer – The Murder Capital sit down to discuss indulgence, Shane MacGowan, misguided patriotism, Palestine, and touring with Pearl Jam and Nick Cave.

2 months ago | hotpress.com | Lucy O'Toole

A quarter-of-a-century ago, Bren Berry “literally hung up” his guitars, he tells me – with no real intention of ever picking them up again. The Dublin native had spent the previous decade immersed full-time in music – “and full-time on the dole,” he adds. He first put in the hard graft in the late ‘80s, as a member of The Coletranes, who scored a No.5 single with ‘I Wake Up’, released via the U2-founded Mother Records imprint Son Records.