'Cold Water' may be the title of their latest single, but things are looking hot for Dublin's Odd Morris

Words: Linn Branson 

Ahead of their sold out London show tonight (March 4) with The Murder Capital as part of the Annie Mac Presents festival, and another date in the capital tomorrow, Dublin post-punks Odd Morris are already looking like there will be plenty more trips across the water, as proved by their recent outing with their first single of 2020, 'Cold Water'.

For those still swinging on the coat-tails of Fontaines D.C., Thumper, The Murder Capital and Just Mustard - hold the bus. This bunch of new Dublin kids on the block could just be on the same route out of their home territory as taken by the aforementioned.

Should you want a starting place if, like the majority outside of Eire, you have never heard of Odd Morris - yet! - here might be a good place to start. Remember how early in 2018 a certain young band performed one song for a Soma session, that led to their quickly being noticed by the music ears of the public further afield as well as tastemakers across the English Channel, and within a year were selling out shows months on advance and saw their debut album chart in Ireland's Top 10 and the UK's Top 20?

Odd Morris, who, like The Murder Capital just alluded to, also started out early with a Soma session last year, and during 2018 joined live bills opening for Fontaines D.C. at the Roisín Dubh in Galway and The Murder Capital at The Workman's Club in Dublin.



Performing 'The Nothing New' in a session recorded in Black Mountain Studios by acclaimed Irish producer James Darkin, vocalist Daragh Griffin says the song is "an ode to our city, and to the times spent with friends here over the last two years, but really it’s a bittersweet reflection on losing our mates.

"The song title is a metaphor for Dublin," he continues, "and is derived from the opening line of Samuel Beckett’s novel Murphy: 'The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.' Beckett’s ability to transform a seemingly beautiful event into something bleak is what inspired the song.

"We wanted to write on a dichotomy, on something that evokes both joy and rage. For us it’s Dublin city, a place full of beautiful memories but it’s a place that’s forced some of our closest friends to emigrate due to unaffordable rents."

Fronted by Griffin (he and fellow bandmates having first met durung their schooldays in their hometown of Swords, North Dublin, before forming Odd Morris in 2017), while the band may come out of the same rehearsal space as their contemporaries Fontaines D.C, et al., Odd Morris stand firmly in their own boots in their sound.

Their debut single 'What Might Be' arrived in March 2019. A brooding landscape with an inescapable opening bassline and a gritty rawness that you are at once drawn into, it made for an impressive entry.

Take a listen to 'Lilac Leaves', from later last year; a comnanding slow-burner in its post-punk sparsity, tightly wound guitars, dark driven drums and poetic lyrics: "And now my warm breath breaks upon / the blade of midnight air / I hear lilac leaves rustle through the wind / let speak the wind to me / New secrets swim through me / So adorn this place with memory."

“I wrote the lyrics to 'Lilac Leaves' while I was sitting at my window-sill in my bedroom at home, looking out into the garden,” explains Daragh. “A friend of mine had said over a pint that his relationship with a family member was the greatest lesson in empathy he ever had, which really struck a chord with me. Writing 'Lilac Leaves' was my way of acknowledging forgiveness within a turbulent relationship before I moved out of the house I grew up in.”



Recorded by Mark Healy and bassist, Ciarán McCarthy, the intense and gloomy ‘Cold Water’ is the band's third single to date, released at the end of January. The dissonant opening guitars send a shiver down the spine before even the tightly wound drums and Daragh's restrained vocals get to work their way in. Lyrically, ‘Cold Water’ is Daragh’s view on relationships, laid out in poetic expression:

"Your blue eyes choir rang loud with me / It taught me how, and ways to feel / Like sudden breaths in cold water / Everything feels real"

“I just tried to explain what that felt like, and, to me, it was a shock to the system - like how people suddenly gasp in shock when they hit cold water," he relates.

In the second part of this feature, we talk more to Daragh Griffin about the band and his artistic motifs.



Live dates

MARCH
04 London 100 Club AMP Presents
05 London The Windmill Brixton
13 Dublin Workman's Club
28 Listowel Mike The Pies

MAY
12 Dublin Vicar Street w/ Shame
19 Manchester Gullivers
23 Amsterdam London Calling

Odd Morris are: Daragh Griffin - vocals, guitar; Kris Hassett - guitar; Ciarán McCarthy - bass; Sam Martin - drums