Interview
CxC | As you said after your interview in The Guardian, the creation of Flood was done in 2016 after an evening in London with NKC. What was the mindset around the creation of the label? Does the label make it easier for you to express yourself and to put the spotlight on the Irish scene?
Doubt | The main idea behind the label was to give myself, Tension and Syn a platform to share ideas and share releases through. By forming Flood we were able to properly develop releases rather than just putting them up on SoundCloud and hoping for the best! At the time we were the only people we knew doing this kind of stuff in Cork and because we were close friends too it made just made a lot of sense for us to form a collective.
How is the Irish scene evolving? Do you feel that there is an increasing enthusiasm around your Cxnt parties in Cork?
I think that the scene in Ireland is doing great despite the challenges it faces due to lack of venues, public funding, artists emigrating etc. There’s a lot of really talented people and groups doing amazing things for club culture in Ireland like Club Comfort, Dublin Digital Radio, Gash Collective who have all been pushing things forward for a few years now. That list isn’t exhaustive either there’s plenty more that I haven’t mentioned!
It’s been really heartening to see the response to CXNT in Cork, a real sense of community and inclusivity has developed around it and it seems to be growing in strength with each party. The fact that a small space for these kind of sounds has been carved out in the heart of the city has made me really happy because I honestly didn’t think it would really catch on here.
Let’s talk a bit about your personal work, your last EP « Steam Cycle » was released in October 2019, what feedback have you had from this project?
So Steam Cycle was the culmination of well over a year of work, before it came out I had gotten pretty jaded with the tracks (except for the Suda remix) given I’d sat on them for so long so it was a major relief when we finally released it. The reaction I’ve gotten has been amazing and I’m really grateful for it, it’s a great feeling when you get something out there that you’d been really unsure of and the response ends up being positive.
How do you approach the creative process of your songs?
I don’t particularly have a specific process when it comes to writing tracks. Like sometimes I can go a couple of weeks having written nothing and then another week manage to knock out 4 or 5 solid ideas. I think I definitely need some kind of inspiration before I start anything though, whether it’s being inspired by a party I’ve been to, other people’s tracks or just something that’s happened day to day, there needs to be something initially that sparks an idea.
Listen to Doubt’s Couvre x Tape, 30 minutes mix of fast drum, tracklist here.
What will be your next individual releases and the next ones on Flood after Ovid’s excellent EP?
We’ve got several releases lined up for the rest of the year that I’m really excited to share. I can’t really go into too many details about the next one but I can say it’ll be dropping in April. Then we’ve Tension’s debut album which will be coming later in the year as well as something new from myself and a couple of other singles/EP’s from people outside the usual Flood roster. 2020 is definitely going to be the busiest year we’ve had so far!
Are you thinking of developing projects around other musical genres beyond hard drum?
I’ve got a few ideas for projects that I’d like to eventually develop in the future that are a bit more out there and experimental but for the time being, I want to focus on the pile of unfinished tracks that have built up over the last few months haha. Once they’re all wrapped up and released into the wild I’ll start thinking of taking it in another direction.
You regularly post economic and politic news about Ireland on Twitter or Instagram, do you feel involved in the development of your country, and how does it relate to that with your music?
I’ve been involved with activist groups in Cork over the last few years that have organised around issues like the housing crisis, the campaign to repeal the 8th amendment which prevented legislation for abortion in Ireland (thankfully it was repealed in 2018!), anti-racism and so on. There’s definitely been some crossover between music and activism for me as well through playing fundraisers and making music for charity compilations like the ‘Solidarity Vol. 1’ compilation which came out on SESH FM in aid of Palestine. I think it’s important to be involved and speak up if you’re able to but I definitely understand why people keep their distance from anything to do with politics at the same time given how exhausting and disheartening it can be.
