The Dublin-based music writer James Hendicott is releasing issue 1 of his new music magazine Intervals this Valentine’s Day.
Intervals is a new publication featuring long-form writing about music, “by people who make, promote, host, analyse, or otherwise engage with that music”.
“It’s written from the heart, with no punches pulled,” says the blurb.
James is a music and travel journalist (Dublin Gazette, NME, Clash Magazine, Sunday Business Post, Irish Independent, Lonely Planet, ex-State Magazine) and says:
The idea of the publication is to remove the media magnifying glass from the way the music scene if portrayed in print, by allowing collated contributors to say what they want to say, minus the filter of an interview process or editorial direction.
Over the past few months, I’ve been collecting stories from musicians, and other people associated with Irish music. I’ve asked them to write what they know, and given them the space to put together anything from a few hundred words to several thousand about something they’re passionate about. I’ve been lucky enough to have several major names in Irish music agree to take part, but the stories are chosen based on interest first: every person featured has something important to say.
Together with some of my own words, it’s all been pulled together into… well, something between a book and a magazine. I am calling this first offering ‘Issue 1: ‘Passion’, in the hope that there will be an issue two, though that will very much depend on whether this proves to be financially viable.
Intervals issue 1 features writing from:
- Áine Duffy explores her inventive, alternative approach to the challenges of being a woman in music, in her piece ‘Don’t Touch My Knob‘.
- Paranoid Visions guitarist Peter Jones (PA System) explores his road from Dublin punk’s outcast DIY scene to running several record labels, in ‘On Vinyl, Independence, and Independent Vinyl’.
- KK Lewis explains the roots and development of the wellness-meets-music event taking Dublin by storm, in ‘Sunflower Sessions: Our Story’.
- An exploration of the life of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, and a album exploring his romantic life, by Mustafa Khetty, in ‘The Unfinished Symphony’.
- Music writer James Hendicott explores explosion and disappearance of The Cast Of Cheers’ debut album ‘Chariot’ from the Irish music landscape, in ‘Ireland’s Great Lost Album’.
- An exploration of msuic and the flow of Dublin’s capoiera scene, in ‘Studioes in Rhythm, Culture and Distance’ by Marc McEntergart.
- The owner of the Roisin Dubh in Galway, Eoghan ‘Gugai’ McNamara, explores his early days on the West coast music scene in ‘The Days Before the Roisin Dubh’.
- Siobhán Lynch, aka Baba Music, explores the heartwrenching influence of the passing of her son and birth of her daughter in her debut album in ‘Truth, and Everything Before’.
- Irish language music sensation Lisa Murray – sometimes jokingly called Gaelgoir Swift – explores Irish language pop in ‘Uaigneach to Abhaile: Rediscovering Irishness Through Music’.
- G-Star – Graham Sharpe to his mother – recalls the chaos of defunct Wicklow festival KnockanStockan in ‘A Long Time Ago In A Field Far, Far Away’.
- A soul-led environmentalist in a scene that’s… well, something else, Danny Groenland writes about his journey in ‘Soul In A Guitar-Led World’.
- Husband and wife duo Linda and Carl Plover talk over their journey with Celtic Punk in Cork, in ‘WASPS v HUMANS: Carefree Punk Embedded in Irish roots’.
- Exploring her campaign to bring about radioplay fairness for Irish female artists, Linda Coogan Byrne advises on the challenges she faces in ‘Life As A Modern Day Activist’.
- Meryl Streek goes existential and explains his approach to life and music in ‘We’re All Going To Die, Sooner or Later’.
- Former Dublin tech man Hari Shenoy, a.k.a Thought Brownie, takes a philsophical journey on life post the grind, in ‘From The Corporate World to Hip-hop, a Journey of Self Discovery’.
- Rural glamping site owner and electro-pop man Wes Pollington, a.k.a Death Milkshake, explores creating his own scene in ‘Making Things Happen in Roscommon’.
- Music management guru Mark Gee creates an online festival visiting every timezone in ‘How 24:1900 Music Festival Came Kicking and Screaming Into The World’.
- James Hendicott attempts to explain why we still write about music, despite the obvious inadequacies of it all, in ‘Music Writing Sucks. I Love It.’
There may be more if all goes well.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host 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 monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
