Last year as a part of a college assignment I had to go to Whelan’s on a Monday night in order to review ‘Song Cycle’. This is their weekly event “to offer a platform for local and non-local acts to experiment, sing and share in the friendly informal setting of Whelan’s front window”.
Thinking back on that night is how I would imagine former soldiers think about the war. What I witnessed that night would make David Bowie roll in his grave. A seemingly never-ending number of indistinguishable ‘singer-songwriters’ took to the stage, in what appeared to be a showcase of the horrors of Ed Sheeran’s impact on the next generation of young musicians.
That night nearly made me lose hope in the young musicians of Ireland; will we ever have another My Bloody Valentine? Thankfully, however, not every up-and-coming young band in the country is a soulless regurgitation of a bad pop trend. Here’s where we come to one of the most exciting new bands making waves in Dublin; Strata.
“They just wanted Ed Sheeran covers, we were different and they had no interest in us” so recalls Strata’s lead, Dylan Corrigan Forbes, talking about the experience of being on a radio show with young presenters.
Strata, in a very to the point manor, describe themselves on their Facebook page as a “four-piece alternative indie group from Dublin. Airy riffs mixed with heavy guitar”.
Those two sentences sum it up better than I can. There are a series of layers of rock in their influences (presumably the origin of their name), with influences ranging from the indie rock of the Arctic Monkeys to the psychedelic rock of Tame Impala.
Put simply, Strata are not your typical teenage band.
Strata’s line-up consists of lead Dylan, bassist Sarah Garrett, drummer Sarah Farrelly and guitarist Leon Doyle, who only joined the band in August, replacing the former guitarist.
The band came together in late 2015, when Dylan got in touch with Sarah Garrett in order to compliment her on her song covers which she uploads to Facebook. He suggested they do a cover together, and a short while later they had begun dating. They are still a couple.
Dylan later wanted to form a band, so Sarah asked her fellow Artane Band member Sarah Farrelly to be their drummer.
Strata played their first gig together in the Grand Social in January 2016. The gig was not a success. It was a battle of the bands at 1.pm on a Saturday. They had little time to practice together, and Sarah had only been playing the bass for two weeks.
The judges told Strata that they had the most potential out of all of the bands who played, but informed them to write their own music instead of doing covers.
They have since expanded their sound and began working on their own material.
Strata’s self-titled debut EP was release on 25th July and is available on all streaming platforms.
The short and punchy EP consists of just three songs; Wasteland, Everything’s Nothing and RECORDING04. I presumed it was recorded in a studio due to its slick production, until Dylan informed me that it was in fact recorded entirely on his laptop.
The EP begins sounding like Bloc Party and ends with an ethereal instrumental reminiscent of dream pop. In the EP’s short ten minutes, it covers a lot of ground and different genres.
It will be interesting to see which genre Strata will move forward with on their next project, or if they will change their sound entirely. They have an eclectic taste in music which leads to the wide gamut of different sounds they appear to have been influenced by.
However, at only 17/18 years old and currently in their final year of school, Strata have plenty of time to figure out what ‘their sound’ really is. In fact, Farrelly notes that half of them should not even be able to get into the venues they play in: “We’ve never been refused because of our age”, she said, with surprise.
I walked into Sarah Garrett’s house at 9.pm expecting to see Strata hard at work in the middle of practice, however, that was not the case. When I entered the dimly-lit room, the four of them were sprawled across the sofas.
It did not surprise me that Strata play in such a relaxed atmosphere, it shines through in their shoegaze-sounding music.
They claimed to have been practicing before I came and were just “taking a break”. The ambience of the room was so laid-back that I felt like an intruder for showing up and interrupting them with my camera and sheet of questions.
However, seeing as I already knew most of the members I was able to relax and engage in a natural conversation with them. They are a nice and friendly group of people.
I tried not to make my questions sound too forced and let them ramble on between themselves, telling anecdotes from their year together.
Following on from their disappointing first gig, they went on to play Whelan’s before summer. They reached the final of a competition, only to be beaten by a band with a much larger group of friends (it was judged by who earned the loudest applause).
They have since played in The Academy to great success
In the period of only a few months, they vastly improved and came into their own as a band.
When asked about their plans for 2017, Dylan says he wants to “put a single out early next year”, while Garrett wryly claims that she just “wants to complete the leaving cert”.
Dylan also reveals their more ambitious plan to “lock ourselves away in the country for a week with a load of equipment and record a six or eight track album”.
When asked about how far they think Strata can go, Dylan replied “all the way”, without hesitation. When Garrett enquired what exactly “all the way” is, Dylan responded that he wants them to be headlining festivals.
The whole band, but Dylan in particular, seems to have an admirable sense of ambition. They want to go all the way, yet they have also retained a sound distinct from other young bands.
Their unique genre-hopping from one song to the next is tied together by the ever-present pop aesthetic in their music.
Much like Tame Impala, I believe Strata have the ability in them to one day create a catchy hit song without compromising their unusual sound.
I honestly would not be surprised to see Strata get their wish of headlining a festival one day. They are an incredibly talented group of gifted young musicians who will only continue to improve and gain momentum. They are undoubtedly ones to look out for in the future.
Strata just have one more gig left this year, playing in the Gypsy Rose on 23 December. It is currently the only gig Strata have planned, so be sure to check them out if you want your faith in the young Irish music scene restored.
Nostalgic Beat 