Off the Record! Breaking the barriers of pop with Soda Blonde ahead of Limerick gig

AS PART of their winter tour around Ireland, Soda Blonde will play in Dolan’s for Seoda Shows. Ahead of their appearance in the Treaty City, lead singer Faye O’Rourke caught up with Limerick Live.

After emerging from their former band, Little Green Cars, the Alt-pop band released their debut album. An entirely self-produced compilation, Small Talk touches on their “flaws and insecurities, lingering together by the bar at a big social gathering, waiting to integrate with the wider world.”

Through the tracks of Small Talk, Faye O’Rourke, Adam O’Regan, Donagh Seaver O’Leary and Dylan Lynch, explore pop while dangerously flirting with melancholy.

According to lead singer Faye O’Rourke, their sound is dark, honest, and eclectic – quite the refreshing cocktail. “I think writing is a place where I feel like I can be my most honest, perhaps it’s easier to do that in writing sometimes than in real life. I’m laying my sailings out there, in quite a bare and exposed way.”

At times, she finds it difficult to expose her feelings, particularly when addressing people who are pretty much still part of her life.

“That can be quite difficult because I am talking about my personal life, and I am talking about my family and my relationships. So, I think when you still have connections with those people, the most difficult part is exposing yourself,” she admits.

All of which is worth it, as Faye believes you have to remove yourself from a song once it’s written.

“The idea is that somebody else will insert themselves into the music and find solace in the song. I think that's sort of harder to do now with social media and because of the pressure on musicians to be influencers. It’s really like an over saturation of personality. There used to be a little bit more of a space for people to insert themselves into.”

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Since their early teens, the band members have been playing together, and as a result, have watched each other grow.

“We're kind of reworking out what our roles are, and our relationships with each other. We went through a real process of getting over a lot of hang-ups we had with each other in the previous band.”

From alcohol dependency to having no degree, to sabotaging relationships, Small Talk touches on many topics. Because of the album’s title, this reporter can’t help but wonder: does Faye like to indulge in small talk?

“I've definitely gone through periods of my life, maybe when I've been not in the best of mental health, where I found small talk actually more difficult than just talking about my feelings. It’s definitely an art form, you know?”

The singer-songwriter feels like working on the album brought the quartet closer. A self-produced record that was five years in the making and “had every fibre” of their being within it.

“Nobody might have heard it, and it's hard to get anybody to even listen to a full album any more. I think calling it Small Talk was just a clever way of acknowledging that what's huge to you could mean nothing to somebody else.”

And for Faye, this is the important part as a creative; knowing you could never be heard by anybody, but doing it anyway.
The four-piece thrives when they have creative control, including on their music videos.

“You could have 10 million different people telling you what the imagery should and shouldn't look like. Particularly, being kids, we always wanted to have darker themes and people always protested that.”

With Small Talk, the four friends took the reins. “If you look at any of our music videos or any of our imagery, it always has a slightly dark connotation, but it's always in some kind of relatable domestic setting,” Faye explained.

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“It was really important for us to prove ourselves that we didn't need anybody else's help to make something of such a high standard. It’s about quality over quantity, we’re not really concerned about how quickly it's coming out.”

Keen to push and break the barriers of pop, Soda Blonde wants to make challenging music that has multiple layers.
In 2023, the band will release their second self-produced album, a departure from their previous record.

“I think we've made something that's really pushed the boundaries of what we even thought we were capable of making. For the second album, there were no barriers between us at all. I felt a closeness with the guys that maybe I hadn't felt before”, she concluded.