Band members: front (l-r) Rob Gaffney, Craig Hoey, Leigh Walsh. Back Lorcan Bowens, Donal Bowens.

Idle Discourse proving to be everything but idle

When the Meath-based band Idle Discourse approaches venues to perform they describe their style to promoters as “Luke Kelly and Slipknot meeting in Dublin for pints and ending up at a drum and bass rave".

The five-man band is made up of Balrath brothers Lorcan (24, guitarist, electronics and vocals) and Donal Bowens (27, drums), Leigh Walsh from Bettystown (26, Bass & Electronics), Rob Gaffney Drogheda (26, guitar) and Craig Hoey (stage name Sea High, 28 vocalist) from Dublin.

The band can trace its roots back to when Rob and Donal met in BIIM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) and formed a band called Antidotes, where they met Leigh. Lorcan later joined in 2019.

Antidotes broke up in 2019, but from the ashes rose the current group, with one problem, they had no singer.

“We were left writing songs with no singer and tried a few different people before we met Craig in 2020 through a Facebook group. He’s a rapper, which is something we didn’t envisage using before but it worked out well”, says Donal.

The move proved to be a fruitful decision for both parties as Craig felt the hip hop scene was already overflowing with performers, as he outlines himself.

“Hip hop is all beginning to sound the same now, it's very saturated, so I was looking for a different direction, and so were the lads. I came and they started playing and I started shouting over it.”

The band reviewing video footage

However, Craig had an inauspicious start to life in the band, as only weeks after he joined the entire world and especially the music industry was plunged into a time of uncertainty with the emergence of Covid-19.

“We got a few songs going then all of a sudden we couldn’t leave our homes, said Craig. Eventually, restrictions were lifted during the summer to the point where we could jam, so that’s where the EP was born, we continued to write it over the three lockdowns.

Idle Discourse's genre is a hard one to define.

The group refuse to be boxed off by normal conventions and dabble in a broad array of styles from across the musical spectrum.

“It's difficult to say what we are,” says guitarist Rob. “It's easy to say that we're rap metal or new metal. But we're not that at all. It's difficult to say without giving a false impression first. If we say we're metal it turns people off, but if we say we're hip hop it will turn others off as well.”

We don't have a genre. The first track on the EP is a techno track, there's spoken word, which our singer Craig did before, and so we play to our strengths as much as possible. When we don't have a genre we can do what we want. We have different backgrounds, Craig and Lorcan have hip-hop backgrounds which they can bring in. The industry is keen to categorise you and put you in a box. But that can be restrictive, we prefer to remain more open-ended.”

Live gigs are key to the group’s future success, but given the Covid induced embargo on live music that was present for much of their existence, opportunities to perform were few and far between. This is beginning to change now and the group have a few performances lined up over the months.

“Gigs have been sparse. But when we do play it's good”, says guitarist Rob.

“We just want to get in front of people, we can promote it all we want but once we get in front of people they seem to like it.

“Every gig we play everyone can take something from it. We played for 12 people and got 10 new followers on Instagram within half an hour, so people like us.

“We've played at Fibber Magees, we have a show in Whelans next month supporting a band called Baler who are big on the metal scene and we're also playing at Vantastival in Drogheda, which will be our first festival. We also just got invited to do a gig with a band called Neon Empire”.

Live shows are essential to accessing new fans due to the nature of the group’s sound.

“When people see it you can tell if they like it by when their eyes light up. Because we're a bit heavy it's hard to get into radio, we can play with indie, death metal etc. which isn’t very mainstream.”

Their name is a direct quote from Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot that reads “Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! Let us do something, while we have the chance!” and is a tongue-in-cheek reference to their belief that too much time is spent talking about idle, trivial matters.

“We went a long time without a name”, says Craig “because we didn't have a genre."

“I was reading one day and stumbled across the line. I thought it was poignant and describes the world. We thought it had a lot of Irish identity and Irish people. We love to talk and give out”

“It’s both tongue in cheek and serious,” he continues, "because we know we're giving out about things in our music but we're shouting to people who are jumping around enjoying themselves.

We’re passionate about what's going on around us, but I don't want to be all doom and gloom, we want to tackle big issues in a way that's relatable and close to home. It's not about taking a stand. We're in a mad environment with mad things happening and we just hey look at this, it's a messed up, we're not saying stuff about what's happening in American politics, it's about stuff that's closer to home.”

Being in a band requires a big commitment, they aim to practice at least once a week as a group at least once a week, but this is only a fraction of the time the group spend trying to improve.

“We’re always working on different things to bring to the group,” says Rob “whether it’s lyrics or beats or stuff like that. We all work full-time jobs, but that’s partially to fund what we do here. We’re all very invested in it. We were playing golf last week myself and Leigh spent the outing talking about merchandise. We’re always in contact, whether it’s on WhatsApp, in person or on the phone.”

In an ideal world, the group say they would like to earn a living full time from playing music, but they’re under no illusions about how difficult this is, as Rob explains.

“Even if it pays for itself then it would be ideal, you can’t look to make money, anyone who learns an instrument to be rich and famous needs to get out of it. It’s not for the faint-hearted. You have to go into it with the mindset that you want to have fun and you love it”