Madra Salach break with tradition on tongue-in-cheek “Blue & Gold”

This anthemic roar of a debut single is nothing short of incredible. On one hand, it immediately reverberates the many timeless old folk standards rooted in tradition, mythology, and the beauty of the Irish countryside. On the other, it trades tender hearted familiarity for tension, texture, and contemporary edge. Like Lankum or Lisa O’Neill before them, the six-piece have studied the legendary bodies of work that brought them together before breaking them open, looking inside, and reassembling them as new, strange, intuitive post-rock creations.

It’s folk at its core, certainly songwriting wise, but it stands strong as a modern-sounding melting pot of heavier electronic, ambient and shoegaze inspirations – bands like Boards of Canada, My Bloody Valentine, Just Mustard. “Analog synths, stacked and layered pedal distortions, tape loops, all that good stuff,” explains bandleader Paul Banks. He’s what the lads describe as the connective tissue of the group, and it’s his guttural battle cry of a voice that wonderfully accompanies the track’s disorienting drones and mesmeric guitar melodies.

Detailing the group’s decision to explore the experimental Irish folk route, Banks states “to be completely honest, it was just gut feeling. There’s something in all folk music that connects universally, that’s arguably its defining characteristic. And we were all so taken with the more experimental stuff that was being released at the time, we just wanted to be a part of that body of work, to contribute our own take on it.”

Banks and his fellow bandmates are all very busy with different coinciding projects. Fizzy Orange, Sultan Leroy, Ten Hail Mary’s, Softdrink Millionaire, even one third of experimental hip hop outfit Lowkick. For Banks, the hugely influential music scene in Dublin “is just about it’s only saving grace at the moment. It’s very polyamorous, and our shared calendar is very colourful.” They’ve been in loads of bands and have gotten to know each other by playing the same venues and band showcases, sharing communal practice spaces in their old stomping ground that garnered them local interest and grassroots buzz.

Originally a three-piece, Banks, guitarist Adam Cullen, and drummer Dara Duffy were playing pub gigs in Raheny, Dublin, for the guts of two years, before Brian ‘The Furrier’ Furlong gave the lads their first gig in a pub called The 1884. Then came Jack Martin (mandolin/tin whistle/synth), who “wanted to make weird experimental folk music with synths like John Flynn”. Maxime Arnold (harmonium) joined “basically to put weird chords behind the simple direct songwriting”, with Jack Lawlor coming on board “to play bass in big rooms”.

Madra Salach officially came together as a unit in 2023 and gigged infrequently until T-Time's Erin Barker became their manager. “We filmed a live session with a Dublin collective, Lips2Ears, which got an unexpectedly enthusiastic response, and earned some decent support slots off the back of it,” says Banks. “The reaction to the video gave us an inkling that there was some potential here worth pursuing.”

From there on, the group have stayed gigging as consistently as they can, running head first into a busy festival season. The response has been huge for them, drawing crowds in multiple sets at All Together Now and Electric Picnic, this summer was a sign of greater things to come. They’ve confirmed Ireland Music Week, The Great Escape’s First Fifty, Left of the Dial in Rotterdam, and support for folk-punk hybrid Brògeal on Scotland and Ireland tour dates.

Shedding light on where priorities lie now for each member of Madra Salach, Lawlor offers “when the project started we were all working and in other active bands. It’s always going to be hard to find time for something that’s only in its infancy, but Paul's been really determined about the intention and potential of the group from the beginning. As it’s picked up steam, we’ve all joined in lockstep. It’s completely democratic now, which is obviously really important to maintain any sort of longevity in a project.”

Songwriting is absolutely a collaborative effort among the group, a mutual appreciation of alt-country singer-songwriters like MJ Lenderman bleeds into their interpretation of Irish folk. “We all try to contribute our own secret bit of sauce into every song”, says Lawlor. “In much the same way that a truly delicious meal is prepared in many stages, and features many various flavours, ingredients and spices, we try to put our own ingredients of music and creativity into each song. In order to concoct a sublimely delicious classic flavour.” They had to have a bitta craic with one answer.

The track draws on Banks’ early twenties, in the absence of any lucrative career path or generational wealth, he leads with endearing personal reflections involving a ‘get rich quick’ ritual. He details “it’s about a very menial gambling habit. But in the process, I suppose some themes of communication breakdown in a relationship and delusions of stability came out. Looking back to when I wrote the song, they were definitely unintentional confessions. It’s always interesting when you write a song that you think is something external, but it’s actually just a mirror to the threads in your own head. Pretty much always happens that way.”

“Blue & Gold” is a bold calling card and a brave gamble that pays off in spades. If this is just the beginning, then Madra Salach are about to hit the jackpot.