There are some bands that feel placeless, their music not tied to any one city, country or scene. Others, though, feel intrinsically linked to where they’re from, the streets and sights they’ve grown up on as much a part of their DNA as the artists whose music they’ve absorbed to make their own. Cork four-piece Cliffords very much fall into the latter category: Ireland’s second-largest city subtly weaves its way into the lyrics, melodies and perspectives that make up the band’s majestic take on indie.
It’s there in ‘R&H Hall’, the jagged opening track of their recently released second EP ‘Salt Of The Lee’. The song is named after an animal feed company, whose now-demolished grain silos once stood tall on Cork’s skyline, its storyline beginning in the rubble. It rears its head on the heady ‘Feels Like A Man’, from 2024 debut EP ‘Strawberry Scented’, as singer/guitarist Iona Lynch recalls being led up the city’s steep St Patrick’s Hill by an intoxicating partner. ‘Salt Of The Lee’s title – borrowed from a lyric from ‘Bittersweet’ – nods to the river that runs through Cork. “It’s a freshwater river, so I thought that was funny,” smiles Lynch. “There’s no salt in the Lee.”
“Everything I write is informed by my surroundings,” she nods between sips of iced coffee in a bustling Brighton café. Lynch and her bandmates have momentarily decamped to the English seaside to play its annual new music festival, The Great Escape, but during our conversation, home is never far away. “It’s the place where I fell in love with music,” she continues, growing more animated as she speaks.
“When I was a teenager, the bands that I thought were the most famous and coolest were local Cork bands. I wanted to turn 18 to go to [local venue] Fred Zeppelins to see them.” When the band eventually got to be a part of their local scene, it was everything Lynch had wanted: “There were about two years that, to me, were like gold dust – beautiful times when we were all out all the time with all these bands playing.”
Although it’s still early days for Cliffords, their story so far reads like one of a group destined to do something big. They formed in 2020 after being inspired by the 2016 film Sing Street and, following some fluctuating line-ups, played their first gig two years later at University College Cork’s battle of the bands. Despite their inexperience on stage, they emerged victorious – early recognition of their potential.
Since then, they’ve cemented their line-up with Lynch, guitarist Harry Menton, keyboardist Locon O’Toole and bassist/trumpeter Gavin Dawkins, and begun to earn a reputation as a band who could be their country’s – and certainly their city’s – next great export. Talk to them for any length of time and you’ll soon realise that they share a dedication to and a love of being in a band that will be vital in helping them achieve that.
That passion fuelled last year’s ‘Strawberry Scented’ EP, a collection of songs documenting their late-teens that they self-funded and self-released. “We’ve never taken a cut of the money that comes from gigs – we’ve got a band fund and we put all the money in there,” Lynch explains. Making cash from band life wasn’t a primary concern for them; more bothered about being able to do their songs justice with “well-produced versions”.
As today’s designated interviewees Lynch and O’Toole talk, they often focus on the idea of bettering themselves. Cliffords have an album of the week club; recent selections include Divorce, Ethel Cain and Tom Waits. The club helps make a “massive difference” to their songwriting, the keyboardist says, “because there’s so much music out there and it helps you understand [it better]”. Their first experiences recording helped boost their abilities as musicians who could “think about [our music] on the next level”. Ask what their ambitions are, and after joking about mansions in Miami, they keep things simple. “I want to get better and play shows,” Lynch shares. “I want to make a really good album and I don’t care how long it takes for us to do it.” Across from her, O’Toole nods: “We love the process, that’s the thing.”
“Everyone keeps questioning what’s happening in Ireland right now, but it’s always been happening – you’re just looking now” – Iona Lynch
Given how much new music is being put out these days, the band are well aware of the need to make themselves stand out – but you get the impression they’re not willing to compromise on their art to do so. Dawkins’ arresting trumpet lines add an unusual, emotional extra layer to songs like ‘My Favourite Monster’, but the band aren’t going all-in and making it their gimmick. “Every song, he’ll go, ‘I hear a trumpet line’,” Lynch says, jokingly rolling her eyes. “We’re like, ‘Not in every song! You have to play the bass sometimes.’”
Right now, it feels easier than ever for Irish bands to get a look-in where they may previously have been overlooked, thanks to the country’s culture having something of a capital-letter Moment. For Cliffords, the opportunity is a double-edged sword – something they’re grateful for, even as it points to a prior ignorance and narrow-mindedness. “Everyone in the industry keeps asking this question of what’s happening in Ireland right now, but it’s always been happening – it’s just that you’re looking now,” Lynch says. “There’s almost a fetishisation [of being Irish], it’s kind of othering. You wouldn’t really say that about bands from England. I do find that frustrating, but I also get it because I don’t know about lots of places in the UK.”
‘Salt Of The Lee’, though, is strong enough a record that it could grab the attention it deserves, whether the world was focusing on Ireland or not. Its closing track ‘Dungarvan Bay’, a moving exploration of grief that was started one week after the death of a close friend, is some of Lynch’s best songwriting yet. She returned to it a year later with a new perspective on loss.
“I don’t think you move on from grief, it just becomes a part of you,” she begins. “I’m devastated he passed away, and I think of him every day, but you can’t change those things in your life, and you do have an option of what you do about it. I didn’t want this song to be that version of grief that’s super devastating and all-consuming. There were parts of it that were really beautiful – as friends, we went camping in Dungarvan for a week, and we had some really great nights out. I wanted it to reflect this growth of it still being there, but changed.”
Although Lynch says she no longer relates to a lot of the songs that Cliffords have already released, she’s happy to have them. Her role as a writer, in her mind, is to chronicle her life. “Songwriters are publishing their own autobiographies as they go, depending on what kind of songs they’re writing,” she reasons. “My grandma went into poetry only a few years ago, and it’s so lovely to see her archive of her life now – she’s in her eighties and writing poems about her first kiss when she was 13. That’s something I’d like to do as I go, and then when we get to the end, we’ll have loads of albums that’ll tell our story.”
Cliffords’ ‘Salt Of The Lee’ EP is out now via Soil To The Sun