INTERVIEW | W/ Spearside
- SHOWGRAPHERS
- Aug 28
- 7 min read
In the wake of Ireland’s thriving guitar renaissance, Spearside have carved out their own lane with a sound that’s equal parts raw power and melodic bite. Formed by brothers in Trim and forged in the DIY spirit of their home studio, the band blend punk urgency with pop sensibilities, nodding to hardcore and psych along the way. After a brief hiatus, they’ve returned with "Hatchet Man", a heavier, more abrasive EP that reasserts their identity while pushing their sound forward. We caught up with Spearside to talk about their journey so far, the importance of visuals in their storytelling, and what’s next for the band in 2025.
Hey Spearside! For readers just discovering you—can you give us a quick introduction to the band and how it all started?
The best description I can give is that we are two brothers who have played music together since we were kids. We’ve always been in bands but Spearside came about post covid as a vehicle for our love writing heavy pop songs. All our music is produced by us in our home studio in Trim, Ireland.
How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard your music before?
We’ve always been a punk band at heart but we love exploring the various types of music we love in our own songs. Power pop, hardcore, and psych are all elements of our sound that always seem to emerge when we get into the studio. Loud and catchy is what we chase (just like every other band that’s ever existed I guess).
Between August 2022 and January 2024, you released a string of singles—but then things went quiet on Instagram. Now you’re back with a bang and a new EP, Hatchet Man. What happened during that break, and how hard was it to pick things back up again?
It wasn’t really a planned hiatus per se, we just fell into it for a number of reasons. Cian had to do postgrad work, I went to Rome for a while and then spent some time in Massachusetts. We also had some lineup changes that stalled us for some time. After the break we wanted to come back with something abrasive and fresh, but of course you don’t want to completely alienate the people who’ve followed and supported us from the start. It’s always a challenge but I think we achieved that balance on this EP.
Tell us about the making of Hatchet Man. Where was it written and recorded? Who was involved, and what were some of the biggest challenges—or breakthroughs—you experienced in the process?
The two of us recorded the whole thing at home. We came into it feeling like there was a whole side of our band and our taste that wasn’t being represented in our earlier releases. People would come to our gigs and say we sound a lot heavier than they thought we would based on our singles. We listen to a lot of heavier music, we’ve always been a loud, heavy band. We think it makes sense for us to lean into that more on record for now at least. I think we were a bit too cautious when we first came out a couple of years ago. We almost tried too hard in a way. It can often happen to bands. Recording this EP felt like one big sigh of relief.
Where do you see Spearside within the current wave of Irish guitar bands? Do you feel connected to a wider scene, or are you deliberately carving out your own path?
We’ve always been somewhat on our own for whatever reason. There are small pockets of bands who clump together and we have friends in bands we love such as Beauty Pageant and some others who we’ve worked with in our studio over the years like Unstuck but I couldn’t say we’re part of a distinct and active scene of sorts.
Has being from Ireland influenced your songwriting or aesthetic—whether culturally, politically, or sonically—especially when presenting yourselves to audiences abroad?
No matter how far we stray from the path, the Irish tradition of the “song” always pulls at our heart strings. All the great Irish bands, whether it be The Undertones, Ash, Thin Lizzy, The Cranberries, are renowned for their songwriting above all else. I guess that has its roots in our folk and ballad tradition somewhere. It’s something very important to us and something we actively pursue in our own music.
Ireland’s DIY and indie scenes have grown rapidly in recent years, from post-punk to power pop. What excites you most about being part of the scene right now—and what still needs to change?
Even though Ireland is having a guitar boom at the moment, it feels like there is only one big “indie/alternative” scene that encompasses everything. The post punk thing appears to have come and gone as it was always going to. I’d love to see more scenes emerging and getting supported, like the Dublin hardcore scene for example. It’s exciting to be in the middle of a band boom in some respects but I’d love to see more bands moving on to be full-time, signed, touring acts. There’s a lot of incredible people working in the Irish music industry who devote their lives to helping Irish music be heard. It would be exciting to see more bands making the jump to the next level.
As your music starts reaching beyond Ireland, how important is it for you to preserve an Irish identity in your sound and visuals?
Whenever we travel we realise just how Irish we are, and the last thing you want is to end up selling some gimmicky version of Irishness to audiences abroad. That said, we make no effort to disguise who we are. We’ve always been very proud of our Irish identity. Like most things band related it’s about finding a happy balance between authentic and contrived.
Let’s talk visuals: how central is visual storytelling to the Spearside experience?
It’s massively important to us. We always try to bring in elements of our lives outside music into our visuals where possible to add shape to our story. It also helps to work with visual artists who know you personally, which we’ve always been lucky to have. Our long time friend Sam Geraghty-Cohen has done a lot of our artwork over the years. He did the cover art for Hatchet Man which is an old family photo of our dad’s marching band, the Breffni Boys Band. He is one of the boys in the photo playing the accordion and our grandfather was the bandmaster who drilled them. It’s exciting to find new uses for those old photos, especially when they help tell our story.
Could you walk us through your recent promo shoot—how it came together, how it evolved with the music, and who you collaborated with?
We’ve done a couple of photoshoots with our friend Joshua Mulholland, who is an incredible young Irish photographer. Our last shoot was done in Dublin right around the venue I work at and where my brother also worked during college. We try to have photoshoots in locations we are intimately familiar with. It’s easier to be photographed in a space where you feel a sense of belonging I think. The photos come out more natural and they help tell more of a story when you’re photographed in a space you’ve spent a lot of time in.
When it comes to live photography, what makes a shot stand out for you? Is it about lighting, movement, energy, crowd interaction, or something more abstract?
Our favourite live photos are from hardcore shows. The connection between band and audience in hardcore is something to be cherished, and it’s a shame it’s so unique. The cover of Break Down the Walls by Youth of Today has to be one of the coolest live shots of all time, every time I see it I try to imagine what it would’ve been like to be at one of their early shows. Same with the cover of Bringin’ it Down by Judge, you need to see the sweat in a live photograph for sure.
What would be your dream setting for a Spearside photoshoot—somewhere that fully reflects your sound or visual mood?
It’s hard to pick one place that represents us fully. I suppose it would have to be our shed gym at our house, as underwhelming as it sounds. We’ve listened to a lot of music in there, and come up with a lot of ideas too! It’s cramped and doesn’t look great so we haven’t photographed it yet, might be worth a try during our next shoot to see if we can pull it off. If not maybe I would say our studio where we record all our stuff. That too is small and doesn’t look too visually impressive. I feel like one of those would be the epitome of what I was saying about being photographed in a space where you belong and that is intimately part of your story.
If you could collaborate with any visual artist or photographer—past or present—who would it be, and why?
I’ve always loved the photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson, but who doesn’t? The way he captures split second moments in spaces is similar in ways to how live photography works. Maybe he would’ve been a great photographer for hardcore shows! On a more realistic note, one day I’d love to collaborate with one of my close friends, Luis Enrique Delgado. He’s an extremely talented and inspiring visual artist, so hopefully we’ll find the right project to collaborate on with him soon!
What do you hope fans feel when they see a Spearside image? Are there particular moods or atmospheres you aim to evoke visually?
We try not to consciously evoke too much in our images from a mood or atmosphere standpoint. Our goal is to try to keep things as natural as possible without being dull or boring. Our band is very much us trying to be ourselves as honestly as we can. We want our visuals to reflect our own story, not something contrived.
Looking ahead—what are your plans for the rest of 2025? Any new music, videos, or tours on the horizon that you can share with us?
We have a second EP set to be released later this year. It’s pretty much a “part two” companion to Hatchet Man. We recently put out a golf themed video for Hatchet Man that people can check out if they swing that way! I swear that’s the first and last time I will ever make that joke….