Always look at the darker side of life
How world turmoil gave birth to ‘doom folk’ supergroup ØXN
U‘I was a little bit intimidated too – she has such a powerful voice’
ntil relatively recently few people might have gravitated to a genre labelled ‘doom folk’. Then Lankum led us to into the darkened territory and we’ve been all the better for it. But for the fact you might not metaphorically have seen your hand in front of your face, you might previously have found Laura (Cousin of Ed) Sheeran down there and PJ Harvey at certain times. Now dicing with doom and doing it to great effect are ØXN whose debut album CYRM arrives just before Halloween to boot.
Ireland’s latest supergroup of sorts arose out of pre-lockdown jam sessions undertaken by Lankum’s Radie Peat and acclaimed solo artist Katie Kim. They enlisted drummer Ellie Myler and John ‘Spud’ Murphy of experimental rockers Percolator. Murphy also produced Lankum’s Choice Music Prize-winning album The Livelong Day and some of Katie’s work.
‘To use Radie’s term we were set up on a “musical date” by Jonathan Pearson of Islander [production company]. I was a big fan of Radie’s,’ Katie says
‘I was a big fan of Katie’s!’ The Lankum singer avers jokingly.
‘We didn’t know if it would work because we have two such different vocal styles. I was a little bit intimidated too – she has such a powerful voice – but anyway we just hung out in my place playing loads of different instruments and started putting together songs and, after a while, we thought “it works, it works!”’
They did three low-key Dublin shows. Katie then moved to New York for a time while an in-demand Lankum toured extensively, missing their Choice Music Prize coronation in the process. At the same time Ellie and Spud busied themselves with Percolator.
‘Then lockdown happened, so I had to move home from New York,’ Katie says. ‘Everybody had to stop working. But Radie had started working with Ellie on her solo stuff.’
‘Yeah, me and Ellie had started playing together but during the 5km limit thing, Katie only lived round the corner from me,’ Radie continues, reminding us of the minutiae of those miserable times.
‘I was disappointed that our collaboration was cut short. I was proud of what we’d done, but I knew that it was unfinished. I was delighted when we had the time and means of reopening it. It all made total sense. I was already playing with Ellie and we had a two-second conversation, “Will we get Ellie involved?” “Definitely!” And obviously Spud has worked with us.’
‘I was against Spud coming in; he’s the worst!’ Katie jokes and all four laugh on the Zoom call. But why OXN, ØXN or Oxen without
‘You’re not going to put our album on if you are giving a dinner party’
the contraction and CYRM pronounced Syrum which is a Slavic word for dairy products?
‘For the last couple of years I’ve looked at imagery of oxen and cattle; I called my last album Hour Of The Ox,’ Katie says.
The end result is six songs that draw you in just as the nights are. Katie’s own The Feast beds down alongside renderings of traditional songs such as The Trees They Do Grow High, Cruel Mother and Love Henry, the cautionary tale of Henry Lee which in various guises has interested respectively Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and PJ Harvey. Add to that their take on Maija Sofia’s perhaps definitive telling of the shocking story of The Wife Of Michael Cleary and an epic version of Scott Walker’s Farmer In The City and you have an album that is made for the witching hour rather than happy hour.
‘You’re not going to put it on if you are giving a dinner party,’ Katie says about the six songs, which stretch to over 45 minutes ‘It’s not meant to be background music; it’s meant to be an immersive thing.’
Ellie says: ‘You want to respect the original story and the song takes as long as it does to relate the story.’
‘We all decide whether we are dragging the arse out of it or if we need to build more. We kind of feel it out,’ Radie says more matter of factly about an album where ØXN have fashioned a dark delight.
CYRM is out now. ØXN play Dublin’s Sugar Club on Tuesday and Wednesday.