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 Monday’s Child who just released their latest single ‘Problem Girl’.
What was the inspiration behind your artist name?
Jen: Coming out of Covid in 2021 I was working in a cafe and this guy who worked as a full-time musician – currently out of a job as live music wasn’t allowed back on the scene yet – started working. He started up an open mic night in the local bar every Monday night and encouraged me to come down and do a few songs. After he found out I had two sisters who also played he said we had to get up and do a couple songs together.
We would set up in Lauren’s bedroom equipped with gear stolen from our Dad’s van (who also plays music) and amps stolen from his mate and learn a new song or two for every Monday night. After a while we had enough songs learnt to start gigging ourselves. One night we were all sitting in the bar at a Dom Martin gig trying to think of a name and our friend Ashlee suggested Monday’s Child – because we were a product of the Monday club.
You’ve just released a new single. How did it come about and what does it mean to you?
Jen: ‘Problem Girl’ came about in a period of frustration. I tend to feel a lot of things quite intensely and was doing a lot of analysing – I couldn’t figure out if these problems I had were of my own doing or if I was right to be annoyed about them. I wrote the lyrics before I had really made up my mind about it and after I did, it really changed my perspective on things – I stopped taking everything so seriously.
Lauren: I wrote the main riff for this one about a year ago – I’m a big fan of dark-sounding riffs so I was trying to create a kind of unhinged, gloomy mood with the main progression. Listening back to the first voice notes the main parts and lyrics all came together pretty quickly in one day. The lead parts and tempo changes came later on – the abrupt slowdown in the outro is very fun to do live.
Have you any more releases or studio time lined up for later in the year?
Jen: We have just finished a wee bout of recording in Analogue Catalogue with Darragh Tibbs and have a couple of releases lined up for Spring which we are very excited about.
We had such a fun time recording with Darragh that we might book a little weekender over the summer, just so we can get the fire pit going some evening!
Tell us about your song writing process.
Jen: The way it happens a lot is Lauren will have a few riffs she wants to try out so we’ll sit on the floor in the living room, she’ll play one through a couple times until I find a melody that sticks, we’ll bounce ideas between each other and try out different chords.
I always have a lot of ideas floating around my head and can find it hard to pin the words down. I’ll write down random lines here and there, but most of the lyrics get written when me and Lauren sit down for these writing sessions. Once we have a good basis of a song the girls will get a voice note of it to play around with and we all head into practice and rattle it out until it comes together.
Sometimes songs come together in 30 minutes, sometimes I’ll be sitting on a song for weeks or months before it starts to turn into something I’m happy with. When we were recording the last song on our EP, we had tracked all of the music and I still hadn’t finished the lyrics. It wasn’t until about 5 minutes before we were tracking vocals that I got something I was happy with and they turned out to be my favourite lyrics in the song.
Who were your favourite artists/bands growing up? Have your influences changed over time?
Lauren: Our parents brought us up listening to a lot of rock music from the 60’s and 70’s, pretty classic stuff like The Mama’s & the Papa’s, Simon & Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin and Eagles. Nirvana was the first band I felt I discovered independently at about 13 that led me down the path I’m on now, and I was a real 90’s grunge girl during my teens (Alice in Chains forever)… my listening now is definitely wider, recently I’ve been loving getting into classic jazz, newer rock bands like Momma, Pet Fox, Mannequin Pussy… and Queens of The Stone Age, always.
Jen: Being raised on the same music and spending so much time together, we’ve all developed pretty similar tastes and a real openness to new genres which is handy cus there’s always someone who will go to a random gig with you. Pearl Jam ‘Alive’ was my gateway into Seattle Grunge and it all snowballed from there. I am currently really into 60’s and 70’s psychedelic and folk rock, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Joni Mitchell have been on heavy rotation the last few months.
What’s been your favourite local release from the last twelve months?
Lauren: My favourite of the past year was ‘I Did It To Myself’ by Lord Jane, super catchy with a great riff! The album ‘Take It Or Leave It’ by Cherym from last year is also amazing, I love how they write great punk songs with such beautiful vocal harmonies.
Jen: Sister Ghost’s album ‘Beyond The Water’ is amazing, the whole sound is really reminiscent of all the 90’s artists I listened to non-stop in my teens – and where we get a lot of our own influences from. We got to do a gig with her in the Nerve Centre on Halloween night which was unreal and the perfect setting for a Sister Ghost gig.
If you weren’t musicians, what line of work would we find you in?
Lauren: All of us are working full-time right now… I work in research, Jen works as an interior designer, Clara is studying zoology and works in retail and Caitlin is a radiographer!
If you could collaborate with one artist or band from NI, who would it be and why?
Lauren: And So I Watch You From Afar are class, their practice space is near ours and I love getting to hear them rehearse! I would love to do something with them some time.
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?
Lauren: We got to play at Output Belfast last year and it was such a valuable experience, both learning from the sessions during the day as well as getting to play in the evening and see the range of different acts performing across the city centre. One of the biggest things I took away from it was the rich music community we have in NI, with so much talent across all areas – I think it would be great to see more events like this, but on a local scale throughout the year to really build that sense of community.
What does success look like for you?
Jen: Working full-time and being a musician, you tend to feel like you’re always switching between two personas and it can be exhausting. When I’m writing and playing I feel like I’m sort of honing the most authentic version of myself, and if I get to a place where I can dedicate most of my time to developing this part of myself, instead of working down a path I don’t really feel aligns with me – I would consider that successful. I’m also dying to travel so if our music can take us around the world I could die happy.
Lauren: Ditto!
You’re going out on tour and can have anything you want on your rider, what would we find on yours?
Lauren: Early on as a band we took to getting jagerbombs after we played a set, so a few of those set up in the dressing room would be nice! For old time’s sake…
Jen: Pre-show spicy margaritas!
Clara: I’m a big advocate for a sweet treat so I would have to have some snacks. Can’t beat Milky Way stars!
Where and when can we next catch you live?
We’re playing the next GIFTED show in The Empire on 20th February, with TRAMP and Martha Greer – really excited for this one! Beyond that we’ll be announcing some live dates soon, so keep an eye on our socials…
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.
