When Chordblossom came into existence, it was always our aim to shine a spotlight on the artists and bands that make up the music scene in Northern Ireland. We’ve been doing it for over ten years now and one of our favourite methods is our Introducing feature.
Put the kettle on, curl up on your sofa and and join us for a quickfire Q&A with some of our favourite new musicians. Who knows, maybe you’ll even discover your new favourite artists.
This iteration of Introducing features the musical talents of Madam’s Last Discovery who just released their latest single ‘Work of Art’.
What was the inspiration behind your artist name?
Nathan: We spent months trying to think of a new name after being called ‘Soul Purpose’, and I was looking through favourite albums of mine for inspiration and stumbled across ‘Last Discovery’ by ELO and thought that I could do something with that. We just stuck the word Madams on the start as it had a cool mysterious vibe to it.
You’ve just released a new single. How did it come about and what does it mean to you?
Flinn: ‘Work Of Art’ is the first song was all wrote together when Fion joined the band. It has changed a fair bit over the past year and half we have been playing it, but we are really happy to finally get it released.
It has been the intro track on our set for a long time and has always been good at grabbing the crowd’s attention immediately, especially with the change up when the first verse kicks in.
The song is based off the pressures of the unrealistic expectations that platforms like social media hold everyone to these days, expecting everyone to be a ‘Work Of Art’ and the effect that can have on an individual.
Have you any more releases or studio time lined up for later in the year?
Yes! We are on the Scratch My Progress talent development programme this year part of the Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast. It is absolutely brilliant course and through it we will have a new song coming out in March this year.
Tell us about your song writing process.
Flinn: Our song writing process can be different for each song and constantly changes. For most of our older songs, they were wee tunes I had written on an acoustic guitar in a singer song writer style that I brought to the rest of the members of the band and everyone added their own influence and ideas, changing the songs into something entirely different.
But newer tracks can tend to start from small riffs that Nathan has written, that are then built up in the practice room, with lyrics thrown on to create a full ballad. Even some random jams while messing about have morphed into songs.
The new single, No More, I think has some good aspects of each technique but was definitely written much more as a band throwing loads of different ideas together.
Gigsy: I would like to think our song writing process changes with each song. Some songs being brought by Flinn starting off on his acoustic to which we all individually give our input to and work on our parts to create a full song, and some songs being written completely in the moment, starting off from Nathan riffing on the guitar or Fion coming up with a cool drum groove to start the creative flow.
I think some of our most unique and interesting songs have been written in the moment without plan, and this technique allows each one of us to have our own creative input on the song.
Who were your favourite artists/bands growing up? Have your influences changed over time?
Nathan: For me ‘The Who’ would be a big one, loved them from when I was born pretty much. Bands like ‘Supergrass’, ‘Led zeppelin’ and ‘Pink Floyd’ came along after a while and ended up just getting into more psych rock and funk rock over time.
I think as a band we started with more of a 90s Manchester sound whereas now we’re really getting into the more groovy, psychedelic side of things. I think we all tend to find a common band we all like every once in while and sorta dissect what makes their songs so good.
Fion: My favourite artists/bands at the moment would be ones such as Queens of the Stone Age, Demob Happy, Jeff Buckley, Led Zeppelin and some older artists like Luther “Snake Boy” Johnson.
What’s been your favourite local release from the last twelve months?
Nathan: I would say in terms of singles released this year I’d have to go with ‘Tell Me’ by Chalk, I love how the underground club sound that they have going on while still keeping their post-punk roots.
For the album, it would be ‘nothing hurt and everything was beautiful’ by Virgins. I’ve been a fan of their music for a good few years now and it’s great to see finally release an album. We have performed with them twice now at Gazefest 2023 and 2024, it is always a brilliant show, definitely one to check out!
Gigsy : I’ve honestly got to say Esmeralda Road’s single Esmeralda, I’ve enjoyed their more chilled-out, soulful sound that they’ve had going on recently, but you still never knew where the song was going to take you next. In terms of album and EP releases TRAMP’s debut EP, Bimbofication, stood out to me due to the driving song format and creative and powerful lyrics.
If you weren’t a musician, what line of work would we find you in?
Flinn: Fion makes a cracking bowl of pasta and I make a good bowl of cereal so we could probably run a wee cafe or BnB. Gigsy also worked at McDonalds so he would have all that cheffing experience.
Fion: I think if I wasn’t in the position I am in now, I would like to do drum tech for touring bands.
If you could collaborate with one artist or band from NI, who would it be and why?
Fion: I would love to work with a band from Ireland called The Wood Burning Savages as they have such a unique sound and in my opinion are a very underrated band from here. They deserve to be doing much more and should be recognised for that and I think the style we have would create a very interesting song if we collaborated.
Gigsy: I think the sound of Franklin really stands out to me, I was blown away at the quality of the songs and the stage presence they showcased when I saw them live recently. I think our styles of music are compatible and it would be great to get a collaboration going.
It is intensely difficult to be successful in the music industry. What does NI need to do to invest in/develop to boost your chances?
Flinn: The NI music scene already has some great projects and schemes to help musicians and everyday there are more coming out, I’ve always thought there should be a night for bands that is dedicated to promoting new artists so it almost didn’t matter who was playing and just over a year ago there was the first LEVELS night at Mandela hall which is trying to do just that so definitely check it out!
A good investment could be more artist and manager development courses to teach artists how to manage their time and resources especially now as an artist you have to be a manager, social media expert, promoter, editor and on top of it all a half decent musician and performer sometimes it can all just be too much to do.
Nathan: I think it would be great to see some more smaller venues, especially in Belfast, it’s good for bands who are starting out and don’t feel they could fill a 150+ venue.
What does success look like for you?
Nathan: I think it would just be having people connect to your music and having a good time listening to it or seeing your shows, no matter how many it is. It’s a great feeling whenever you see people singing, dancing or on occasion moshing to something that you and your mates threw together purely just for fun.
Fion: Success for me is to hopefully be touring with my band full time where I can make great music and memories with my friends while seeing the world and meeting new people. Then make loads of money so I can buy Stormont and live in it, but hey at least someone would be using it!
You’re going out on tour and can have anything you want on your rider, what would we find on yours?
A bottle of Echo Falls, a pack of the cheapest beer and Tesco blueberry muffins.
Where and when can we next catch you live?
We have our first headline show of the year in The Union Bar in Belfast on 29th March 2025.
If you enjoyed this feature and fancy discovering some more new artists, we suggest you jump on over to our archive of Introducing pieces.
If you are a band or musician based in Northern Ireland interested in taking part in our Introducing feature, we recommend submitting new music to us via our Contact page and if we enjoy it, you’ll no doubt hear from us.