Nuala Honan and the potent protest post punk rock of "Part Of Something"

"you wanted to be part of something"

Nuala Honan's track Part Of Something from her upcoming sophomore album "Doubt & Reckoning" (dropping August 21st, 2020) is a decidedly heavier side of the Bristol-based, Australia-born artist. The shuffling snare heavy beat, the driving post punk nature with lapses into sonic screams and squeaking guitars musically veers into Pixies land until it descends into art psyche rock affections painted against sock hop punk frames fluttering into another sort of Pixie land. All the while, Honan pushes her vox into really interesting places. I don't think of her as a wailer (though she can wail) but more so, she gutsily pushes her middle voice into a high register sort of baroque pop rock scream in a purely potent way. Her vocal control and range is formidable and hearing it as a sort of rock spearhead at the front of this driving song is pretty radical indeed. Maybe spearhead is the right descriptor here as Part Of Something had political implications (see below).

[“Part Of Something” is a call to arms; it started to germinate at Glastonbury 2016, amid collective despair at the Brexit referendum, and it continues to resonate. “All that weekend I saw artists throw their preparations and plans to the wind and express that shared devastation. PJ Harvey's set in particular stuck in my mind - there was a kind of relentless and hypnotising tension to the performance”, Honan recalls. She headed home, muddy and downtrodden, but inspired, to channel and recreate the sound of that relentless tension and urgency. She found herself making a track of such fierce kinetic energy that it took on a life of its own and presented new challenges in production and mixing: “It seemed to have this rage of its own that would trick us - if we touched something here, it would just rear its head over there!”]

‘Doubt & Reckoning’ album has been set up for pre-orders (Pink Gatefold Vinyl, CD, Digital & Ltd edition Deluxe Bundles) available now via Bandcamp.

Nuala Honan is also going to be performing a live FULL band performance on Friday July 8PM (UK Time). Expect lush visuals, ALL LIVE streaming in a multi-camera TV / Film quality way- enhance ore that your average online stream. 
Tickets on sale now from www.nualahonan.com/livestream

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

Scaling new heights of noise and pop production following her former incarnation as a much-loved acoustic folk artist, 2020 sets off a new chapter for Nuala Honan. On her new music, mellifluous voice and harmonies play off finely crafted lyrics and strung-out guitars. It’s a sound that transmits the raw energy and dynamism of her band, a crack-team of creative musicians from the alternative scene who complement Honan’s acute talent as a live performer – a talent that she has nurtured over more than a decade spent building a following for her exceptional vocals and magnetic connection with audiences.

Nuala Honan is set to launch her second album in 2020 - following a spell of personal recuperation and creative evolution for the Bristol-based, Australia-born independent artist.

Recorded between Canyon Sound and Geoff Barrow (Potishead)'s Invada Studio, the record was realised in collaboration with a live band featuring Luke Cawthra (The Brackish) Matthew Jones (Zun Zun Egui), Ben Winter and Stevie Jo Dooley (Toddler), and co-produced by Honan and Alice Low (Low’s Museum).

The power of compassion and connection with the world around us, the struggle of choosing vulnerability over fear - and of embracing community - are themes that run through her new work.

Originally from rural outback Australia, Nuala Honan was awarded the South Australian Music Industry Award for Most Outstanding Female Vocalist before moving to England (aged just 19) to be closer to her family's Irish musical heritage and an adventurous music scene. Settling in Bristol, she became a fixture in the city’s music community as both a performer and promoter, as well as programming stages at festivals including Larmer Tree, and co-founding an initiative to advocate for and represent women in the music industry. In short, a DIY dynamo.

After self-releasing her 2013 debut album ‘The Tortoise’ (to heavy support including the likes of BBC Introducing, Fresh On The Net and Spindle Magazine); followed by a busy spell of touring and playing on some of the UK and Ireland’s biggest festival stages including Glastonbury, Green Man, Shambala, Bestival and Electric Picnic; Honan recently took some much-needed distance and time out from the mental and physical realities of life as an independent troubadour.

She started working as a lifeguard at a swimming lake in north Bristol – an old flooded quarry with Victorian-esque diving boards and lawn. She found perspective, and calm, on surrounding herself with and surrendering herself to the therapeutic benefits and the here-and-now of outdoor swimming in all weathers. She stripped her creative world down to the basics and built it back up in a sustainable, joyful, communal way. And she now returns from her sabbatical with a reawakened sense of purpose and a fire in her belly.

“When I stopped I realised I wasn’t making the music I listen to, and want to hear – the sounds that inspired me to make music in my youth. This new music feels like stepping into the most authentic version of myself, which is terrifying. But artists like St Vincent, Angel Olsen and tUnE-yArDs empowered me to have confidence in my ideas and be radical with my songwriting and production.”

On her new material Nuala harvests all her experience to date, and her gift for timeless songwriting, into a sound that lies somewhere between her rural desert upbringing and her fearless pop contemporaries.

Driven by post-punk rawness, yet still letting fly with moments of audacious, operatic singing over the tumultuous drums, Honan wields her Telecaster and leads a killer band in a pop-drama, exploring the strength in vulnerability and connection.

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