Sweet Neptune are an exciting new band from Belfast. They blend the grit of post-punk, the warmth of folk-rock, and the improvisational spirit of jazz, all wrapped in their trademark mischievous edge.
Their debut record, Tridents, Pints + Fegs + Horses, is a voyage through satire, identity, and modern absurdity. From playful chaos to dark dissonance, the band’s tidal range of sound is on full display.
We asked them to share some insights behind each track on the record and they’ve kindly obliged.
Hello again
This one is the song where we tried to write something a bit more serious in tone, it’s about a friend who had recently gone through a breakup and the feeling of wanting to help that friend but also give them the space they need.
Complicated
This song is about the complications of being stuck in something you know isn’t right but you don’t know how to get out of it. It portrays the mental whiplash of going back and forth on the emotions you may feel in this scenario.
Spike’s Song
We decided to dedicate a song to our beloved friend whom we affectionately call Spike. The song is about how friendships can turn into obsession and what obsession can do to some people. Also the main goal of the song was to genuinely just freak out our friend spike by making him the subject of the song. It worked lol.
Falling Down the Stairs
A true tale of unnamed member of the band, this sad story of a drunk man falling down the stairs naked is turned to a triumphant manifesto on how he will never again allow himself to get so drunk, that he throws up all over himself, takes his sick covered clothes off and in the heat of it all, fall down the stairs.
Musically this song came about as a Jam, messing around with stuff and just grew naturally from there
Tea Candle
Tea candle was inspired by a tiktoker called Barneyplease and his invention the “tea candle wall heater” in which he has a biscuit tin nailed to a wall that he places a tea candle in to heat his home as well as videos of his cat Eamon and his dog Eugene. We originally just had the music to the song and lacked lyrics and at the time we were watching these videos that Barney put up and we just thought they were just so obscure and funny and in the moment we jokingly added references in practice and it ended up becoming the main theme for the song.
Funny fact is that during the last verse where it’s said “Baby won’t you come on down” was actually “Eamon won’t you come on down’ in reference to Barneys cat eamon being stuck on a roof but we changed it as it was too niche.
Pints of G and the late night chippy
This song really is what the title says, it’s about drinking pints of Guinness and getting a chippy afterwards, it’s an insight to the brilliant concept of drinking and eating takeaway food, an anthem for those brave enough to face the demons of the night (bartenders) and to come home with a full stomach.
Shame
This is a classic song about heartbreak, the lyrics talk about how love isn’t fair and you may not always get what you want. Towards the end of the song, the tone changes more into a moment of self reflection with a good chant of ‘that’s who we are’ acknowledging that everyone may be at fault and that both parties are capable of doing damage to each other in ways they may not think about.
Skipper
This song is about the son of a captain of a pirate ship who wishes one day to be the captain of the ship, but when his father dies suddenly and leaves him in charge of the ship. He has no clue on how to run the ship, and is afraid that this will be the end of the ship, as his crew does not respect him like they respected his father and drinks all of his rum.
