Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Galway three-piece Shark School are closing out a debut year that has seem them fast earn a reputation as one of the city’s best live acts. This Friday, they play the Róisín Dubh alongside The Love Buzz and Adore. Consisting of guitarist and vocalist Nora Staunton, bassist Peggy Ford and drummer Ronan O’Connor Mahony, the Sharks have packed a host of gigs into 2023. Among the biggest were appearances at Fall Right into Place, Free House Fest, Going Coastal and playing a support slot for NewDad.

With such a hectic schedule, the abstract garage rock outfit have not yet found time to release a single. It is something of a throwback in approach and it has allowed the band to grow more comfortable and exploratory with their setlist without being tied to any specific recording.

“When we do release music, we want it to be an accurate portrayal of what we sound like live,” Peggy explains. “The party vibes have to be in there. It’s also that we’ve been so, so busy with gigs. It’s so hard to squeeze other stuff in like recording.”

“They’ve gotten a lot better,” Nora says of the songs. “It’s like they started off as babies and now they’re full-grown adults with jobs and kids. They’re on their own now.”

“I feel like they’re teenagers with jobs,” Peggy disagrees. “You can definitely tell the feeling of playing them live has brought different [things]. They feel a lot more full if that makes sense.”

Both Nora and Peggy have built up live experience with other emerging bands – Puck and The Pages respectively – and Shark School’s cohesion and charisma onstage belies their infancy. It was something of a struggle to get the act up and running but they already feel like a name that has been around Galway for a long time.

“It’s been a lot of trial and error,” Nora says. “Me and Peggy started it first. We had multiple members, but people are so busy it was just quite hard to get it going. Ronan went to the same college as me, so I know him from there and that’s kind of how we became Shark School.”

Pictured: Shark School…at the Róisín Dubh this weekend.