Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Last month, Galway-based outfit In Athens released Mirrorism, a four-track, debut EP laced with notes of post-punk, shoegaze and fuzzy, experimental rock.  They are the latest band to be added to the roster of Blowtorch Records, the influential west of Ireland label that has championed the likes of Nerves, Slyrydes and Pebbledash. Mirrorism is on streaming sites and available in 12” vinyl via Blowtorch.

In celebration of the landmark, In Athens are working their way through an Irish tour that will eventually take them to the Róisín Dubh on Sunday week, November 23.

Guitarist Manolis Pates, explains that the group started to come together after lockdown.

“We started this project essentially as a way to start playing music with other musicians after the pandemic,” he says.

“Mosey [Byrne], our drummer, had a grand scheme of getting all his favourite musicians together and trying to create a new project based in Galway. I joke that when they weren’t available, we were the ones that stepped in.”

Mirrorism was pieced together in Darklands Recording Studio in Dublin, produced by the much-lauded Dan Doherty, who has worked with the likes of Fontaines DC, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Hope Sandoval.

“One of my favourite producers would be Steve Albini, and I noticed a lot of parallels between the way Dan worked and the way Steve Albini worked,” Pates says.

“He was very much about getting the sound in the room right and we took a lot of time doing that. Then he hit record and we went from there.

“It was very much the opposite of ‘We’ll fix it in the mix’. We were up front about getting good sounds down. He’s also one of the easiest guys to work with. He welcomes out of the box thinking and crazy approaches to doing stuff, which is brilliant to work with. Someone that’s that enthusiastically creative with you.”

Gráinne Bleasdale’s dreamy vocals sit as a nice contrast on top of In Athens’ noisy instrumentation. It is a style that has worked well for a variety of shoegaze-y bands, but Pates explains that they were conscious of employing Bleasdale’s sound in their own way.

“We wanted to go for a heavier sound but with the more delicate vocals on top,” he says.

“I just like the juxtaposition of that when it’s done well. But we were very conscious as well of trying to move that to its own area. We would have used vocals like that on songs that weren’t exactly in the shoegaze realm.

Pictured: In Athens…Galway gig marks debut EP release.