READY FOR THE NEXT STEP
AFTER YEARS ENCHANTING FANS, BRAY’S WYVERN LINGO RELEASE THEIR DEBUT ALBUM THIS FRIDAY, MARY FOGARTY REPORTS
ON the eve of the launch of their debut album, Saoirse and Caoimhe of Wyvern Lingo reflect on growing up together as musicians.
‘We’ve been together since Loreto Bray,’ said guitarist and singer Saoirse Duane. ‘Myself and Karen (Cowley - keys, vocals) went to St Patrick’s together and then we found Caoimhe in secondary school and we held on for dear life.’
They had discovered kindred spirits in each other. The three girls had a mutual obsession with their parents’ vinyl collections.
‘As soon as we met we were 12, 13 and getting into music in a big way,’ said Caoimhe. ‘It was a thing we did on our lunch breaks and stuff.’
This Friday they launch their self-titled album with a sold-out show at the Button Factory.
On Thursday night, they will perform for their Bray fans at hometown headquarters, the Harbour Bar, coinciding with their appearance on Other Voices.
Last weekend, it was a rightof-passage appearance on the Late Late Show, the Hot Press cover, an in-store appearance at Tower Records and all the while, ‘I Love You Sadie’ remains on the short-list for this year’s Choice Music Prize.
Their music has been played on Irish radio, and they have ‘ levelled up’ after the sweat of their brows.
Their creative energy and time have been well spent, with a complete piece of work now ready to be heard.
‘We have this thing that’s about to unleash,’ said Caoimhe. ‘I hope it gets the traction it deserves. I think it’s great, I’m proud of it,’ she said.
They borrowed their name from the ‘Wyvern’ monument on the main street in Bray, outside McDonald’s. Commonly known as the ‘devil’, the misunderstood creature is in fact half-dragon, half-serpent and a symbol of protection.
Three years ago, Wyvern Lingo decided to dedicate themselves full-time to the band.
‘We got ourselves together to put together The Widow Knows EP,’ said Caoimhe. ‘And off the back of that we met our manager, we met our label, so we said let’s do this, let’s be a full-time band.’
When they were putting together their album, they went way back through their back catalogue, reflecting on some years of writing.
Listening back to music they hadn’t spent any time with for years, with a distance between themselves and the songs, they selected a collection to put together.
As well as urging themselves and each other to be creative, the musicians are also keen to sharpen their musicality and skills as an ongoing project.
‘It’s easy to be creative once your brain can tell your hands to do what you need on the guitar or, drums. If the level of skill is holding back your creativity that’s really inhibiting, that’s a real problem,’ said Coaimhe.
They all sing, and occasionally play instruments other than those specifically allocated. ‘Caoimhe plays a little bit of guitar,’ said Saoirse. Karen changes between keys and synth bass and bass guitar. They say it’s nice for the shows, rather than everyone being ‘at their stations’.
‘It keeps the show energetic for us and I can only imaging that translates to the audience,’ said Coaimhe.
They just got the vinyl album in their hands last week, a moment for pause on the work they had done to get to that point.
‘ The process was very chilled, but hard work,’ said Saoirse.
‘We recorded in Hellfire studios with a producer called James Kelly who’s amazing.
They went alone to Caoimhe’s auntie’s house in Donegal where they built a blanket fort and recorded vocals. This was for sound quality rather than whimsy, but fun nonetheless.
‘I think everybody liked making a fort,’ said Caoimhe. They begged and borrowed equipment and took themselves off to work together, before coming back to real life and some fin- ishing touches in the UK.
‘We were so lucky with the people we worked with,’ said Saoirse. ‘ They really got it and got us.’
‘ The songs are from when we started taking it seriously,’ said Saoirse. ‘We had loads of songs to pick and choose from. It was more about what suited this album.’
Caoimhe did the artwork for the record. ‘With the help of a designer, to neaten it up.
‘It’s an important element of our visual stuff, that we’re in control of it and all of our stuff is always done with a lot of sincerity and packaged from a very sincere place.’
They love performing live, they’ve toured with Hozier and James Vincent McMorrow, and are looking towards a busy touring schedule. ‘ The Button Factory gig is kicking off our Irish tour, our UK tour and then our dates around Europe,’ said Caoimhe. ‘ The calendar just keeps filling up. Once the album is out we’ll know how busy our year is going to be.’
The songs, they say, come to life on the stage.
‘ The Harbour will be an exclusive gig for the Bray lads,’ said Saoirse, on this week’s gig. ‘We love Bray and It’s to promote our album in our hometown.’
Bray gets first pick to physically buy the album, and those sales will go towards the charts.
To find out more or pre-buy the album, visit wyvernlingo.com.