Cork band Cliffords are back with their first new music of the year, the single ‘Rod For My Back’. It’s out now via Soil To The Sun / Relentless Records.
It was recorded in London with producer Kev Jones (Wunderhorse, Little Grandad), and comes almost a year to the day after their last single, ‘Marsh’, in November 2025.
The four-piece have spent much of 2026 writing and recording their debut album and relocating to London. They’ve also just finished a UK tour supporting The Mary Wallopers.
‘Rod For My Back’ is raucous, melody-heavy indie rock about feeling like an outsider. The band explore their discomfort with the identity pushed on them, from growing up in small Irish towns to navigating the music industry.
Vocalist Iona Lynch says it’s “a story about being misunderstood and commodified for a culture in which we always felt like outsiders.” She adds that when they started touring the UK, they and their Irish peers were quickly put into a cultural box.
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It also acts as a preview of what’s to come from the band in 2027. Earlier this year, Iona told us the music she can’t stop listening to ahead of Momentum Festival in Galway.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. Niall is the chost of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and host of monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
