In our recent chat with the Galway trio, they opened up about what makes them tick as people and as a band
I recently sat down and chatted with our latest signing - Galway noise punk trio Punching Peaches. They were super generous with their time and their insights into the band, their songwriting and future plans. It's all beautifully wrapped up in episode 24 of our podcast and here's the top eight takeaways!
1. Punching Peaches line up (L to R) as Jack Sinnott on guitar/bass, Conor King on vocals and (sometimes) bass/guitar and Naoise Cavanagh on drums.
As well as drum duties, Naoise reveals he obsesses over mixes before remembering his main role is really as driver for the band. Conor is frontman (AKA glory boy), sometime guitarist/bassist and the main lyric writer. Jack, now the proud holder of a degree, also plays guitar/bass and mixes and produces all their tracks.
2. The band was previously called Fro. They decided to change the name and had a 2 week deliberation process where they went endlessly through daft names. There was a fourth member of the band, a friend Aran Casey, who has now left Galway to pursue his own music. He still collaborates with the band on artwork. He had written a track called Punching Peaches and they settled on that as the final name. No more changes!
3. Their logo is designed by Conor Ostheimer who also did the artwork for Turnstiles first release Wasting Away/Moving Forward.
4. The third track they released as Fro was Stacy and it was recorded by Daniel Fox from Girl Band. He also features on the track 'playing' a tape delay and the noise appears in the background of the recording.
5. Their next single Billy? is entirely improvised and was written about 18 months ago. Naoise started by laying down the driving beat and Aran who was still in the band added a bassline. Although Jack started with jazz style chords, there’s a definite Gang Of Four influence in the scratchy guitars. Next up Conor on lyrics.
He relates 'I had the idea of a dog looking for its chew toy but subverting audience expectations by making it sound like a killer looking for a body.' He wrote the lyrics as they were playing and the song was done in 5 minutes making it easily the quickest song they have ever written.
6. In a lovely part of the podcast Conor opens up about how he has changed his approach to lyric writing so he can do justice to the song and the subject matter. Of an unreleased track Unknown he says 'I'm talking about quite a sensitive subject. I wanted to treat those lyrics with the seriousness that they deserved so I did sit down to think how do I want to tell this story ... so that people are going to get it, in a way that is also interesting, hasn't been said before and is also emotionally evocative.'
7. They're good at making plans but not necessarily at executing them. Having made about 100 plans they reckon that some of them should stick. They feel they know what the next 5 or 6 songs are going to be but that could change as they have so many songs (lucky them!) that things could change at anytime.
8. You may see them in a shop window in Galway in the near future as part a promotional campaign and an alternative to doing social media. You heard it here first.
You can catch Punching Peaches live at
Boom! vol 2 at The Grand Social in Dublin on October 9 with Suga Knuckle - tickets
Róisín Dubh, Galway with Static Vision on November 15 - tickets
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