Photo by Luke Conroy
Dublin duo Barnburner have unveiled their debut EP Nothing To Hold, a five track of intimate alternative folk soundscapes. Pippa Molony and David Mac Dhubháin deliver twenty minutes of intricate guitar work, intimate vocal performances and an experimental undertone that inspires more than a simpler folk collection might.
There’s a thread of deep closeness throughout the timeline, a raw honesty. Within that, they show flashes of the complexity and talent that allow for that deep sense of familiarity to bubble to the surface. A nature that is hushed, dreamlike, delicate, but nonetheless strong, is present across the blurred genre boundaries track to track. The pair, alongside the production team of Daniel Montague O’Brien, are careful, in a beautiful, conscientious manner.
In their words, “The five-track EP is a culmination of everything we’ve made so far. There are songs that feel more Irish folk adjacent, and then there’s stuff that leans more pop/country. So it has a lot of variety, though it’s small. I think it’s our best work. Looking back on the project, a lot of the songs circle around the idea of transience. That’s particularly strong in our song Hills. There’s this feeling in the song of something being over, I think it is lamenting that perhaps this amazing time away has ended. The EP title comes from a line in that song: ‘a long drive home, your shoulder on mine, nothing to hold.’”
Already with plenty of press attention and festival appearances, the Irish duo have come on leaps and bounds since their 2023 debut, with a presence on the Irish circuit with venues like The Cobblestone, The Workman’s Club, and Whelan’s under their belt.
Listen below…
