Despite being self-professed “fresh-faced newbies” to the Dublin music scene, Banríon have taken the industry by storm, with Hot Press describing them as “one of the most thrilling new forces in Irish indie rock”.
In October, Banríon graced Dublin’s newest live music venue, the Workman’s Cellar, which is a brand new venue beneath Workman’s Club, erected for the purpose of hosting up-and-coming artists. This seemed then, a fitting location for the band’s first-ever headline show, which was facilitated by the Sleepover Club. Speaking with The University Times, stellar front-woman Róisín Ní Haicéid acknowledges how this was “a really nice turn of events” considering that the first gig she ever played was for the Sleepover Club in September 2019.
With a name that is quickly gaining traction across the capital, Banríon’s clever, alternative mixture of the rock, pop and indie genres seems to be accelerating their imminent success. With a “smart-as-heck debut EP”, new music and undeniable style under their belt, Dublin’s most-loved live music venues should be grappling to host the return of Banríon.
Ní Haicéid relays a surprisingly positive attitude toward the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the band: “It turned out to open things up for collaborations with other Dublin artists and boosted the old confidence in my songwriting.” In October of this year, the four-piece marked their “great return” to the stage at the Workman’s Club “Indigo Sessions” and they have not lost momentum since.
Ní Haicéid notes how, after an extremely difficult year for the music industry as a whole, “everyone in the band really needed to be reminded of the fun times. All through the summer, it’s just been the tough stuff, practising for hours at a time in a room with no windows … we were losing it a bit”. A physical return to the stage brought with it a “huge lift” for the band, insists Ní Haicéid. “It made us so excited to make music again.”
As the band’s leading singer and songwriter, Ní Haicéid talks of her excitement of finally having a platform to once again showcase live music. “I’m most looking forward to playing our new music, even though they’re not polished or even completely finished. That’s what I love about playing live, we have a bit of a flame up our arse. We get to try a load of different things, we then have something to work for and towards, trying new sounds and new songs. There are two new ones that I am particularly excited to play live.”
Ní Haicéid expresses her excitement toward what is to come for the band: “I am so, so excited for our future in music and for the future of music in Dublin. Just in the past month or two, seeing all the gigs going up has just cemented how much I love this job, how much I want to pursue it. That is a nice realisation, to recognise that it’s not just a crazy delusional idea to pursue music.”
As the band prepares to headline the Grand Social’s newest indie night, “Why Not”, in January and brace themselves to go on tour with The Pillow Queens at the start of December, one cannot help but be baffled by the fact that this group is still in college. With a fully formed individual sound and an air of professionalism that is beyond their years, there is no doubt that we will see their names in lights very soon.
