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 Ballistic who just released their latest single ‘Butterfly’.
What was the inspiration behind your artist name?
Our name Ballistic, came very quickly to us, by our guitarist Brady Hughes. Our idea behind this name was due to our extremes when it comes to writing music, with each song being vastly different in genre and sound. It also fits with our general sound as a lot of our songs have some sort of very heavy part, like getting thrown into a “ballistic rage” of sorts.
You’ve just released a new single. How did it come about and what does it mean to you?
Our newest song Butterfly is the second single towards our debut album Burn Brighter. Butterfly’s writing began on the 3rd of November 2023, and tackled the emotions one may feel on how they’ll destroy a relationship they’ve recently got in, reminiscing on it before it’s even over. We recorded this song, as well as Adored and the rest of our debut album in Manor Park. It was produced, mixed and mastered by Neal Callderwood.
The song was initially written by Lead Singer Ray Kelly, and was finalised once he brought the song to the band. We feel this is our strongest written song, with the instruments weaving in and out of each other and great dynamic shifts, akin to a butterflies sporadic movements through the air. Our bassist Ryan says “ this single feels like our first step into becoming a professional band”.
Have you any more releases or studio time lined up for later in the year?
As for studio time, we are done with recording for a little while to focus on life. We are considering going back to record a few songs that we haven’t gotten done yet. In terms of releases, we have our debut album coming out, called Burn Brighter, on the 22nd of August 2025. With that, our previous release Adored, and newest release Butterfly will be alongside 7 other songs named, Reforged, Stop and Stare, Paper Hearts, I Can’t, Eyes, Burn Brighter and Desires.
Tell us about your song writing process.
All of our current songs since we started began with our singer Ray. He would come up with the ideas, bring them to the band and take them from there. Some songs had been written over a decade ago, when Ray was 9 years old learning Bass. When it comes to proper structuring of the songs, our drummer Eoghan Campbell is in charge of that, from there, it’s deciding what the lyrics of the song will be. Ray usually tries to incorporate multiple themes within the songs, giving them multiple meanings for listeners to interpret.
An example would be a song coming out on our album, called ‘I Can’t’. I can’t has a main theme, and an underlying theme to boost the main telling of the emotions. Its main theme is of split personality disorder, dissociation and derealisation. Feeling that you aren’t actually where you are, and struggling with making yourself aware of your surroundings. To support that, we have the idea of Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil. Which ties in very well with the emotions previously mentioned. Speaking on the inability to share what’s going on in your mind, people not being able to see what you’re going through, and the unwillingness for people to listen to you on your struggles once you open up.
Who were your favourite artists/bands growing up? Have your influences changed over time?
Ray: For me, I’d have grown up with a lot of My Chemical Romance, Pearl Jam, Panic! At The Disco, Type O Negative and The Cure for bands. For artists, I listened to a lot of Bruno Mars and Charlie Puth growing up. My influences haven’t changed drastically honestly, Pearl jam is still my favourite band, followed by My Chemical Romance. A newer one through the past few years for me has been Polyphia, I’ve always been keen to learn harder and harder material to hone my skills on guitar and bass, and their catalog is perfect for those who want to dive deep into extreme techniques on their instrument.
Ryan: My influences have changed almost completely, I grew up listening to EDM with artists like fox Stevenson and Alan Walker but now i listen to a to ton of different stuff like bear ghost or Johnny manchild
What’s been your favourite local release from the last twelve months?
There’s a lot of incredible music that comes out of Northern Ireland, so it’s truly hard to say what’s our favourite without picking our friends bands. So here’s a few that we’ve heard this past year that we’ve fallen in love with:
Tune you have to dance to – Cloakroom Q
Summerhouse – Disorder
I’ll Be Happy Again – Shane G
Jacket – Jet Black Tulips
Disconnected – The Thing Is…
Just to name a few, it’s hard picking a favourite though, there’s simply so many amazing bands sprouting out of the country.
If you weren’t musicians, what line of work would we find you in?
We imagine we would end up working very similar jobs due to our shared love for computers. Of course they wouldn’t be the same as Ray is very into programming, where as Samuel is all into the spreadsheets.
If you could collaborate with one artist or band from NI, who would it be and why?
Ray: Out of all artists and bands who’ve came out of Northern Ireland, it’s truly a tough call to make. But as far as general likeness in sound and similarities within the other band and our own, it would have to be Cloakroom Q or The Thing Is. For the past 2 years of this band’s existence, Cloakroom Q have been massive influences on who we are as a band, and how we sound.
We’ve played alongside them a couple times in Newry, which is ours and Cloakroom Qs home town, and in Belfast, supporting them in the Queens Students Union. The Thing Is, is a band that we feel sounds very very similar to a lot of our material, with big dynamic shifts and deep lyrical meanings. We’ve also played alongside their drummer Tom Clarke many times, to where we considered him an honorary member for a long time.
Ryan: It’s probably impossible but I would love to work with two door cinema club, I love there combination of electronic elements and instrumentation
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?
Ryan: I’ve no idea, maybe creating more opportunities for small musicians to be heard by a larger audience
Ray: I feel there’s a severe drought in local gig promoters throughout the country, speaking from my own hometowns perspective, it’s only been about a year and a half since monthly gigs have started in newry due to promoters Yew Tree. Up in Belfast a lot of gig promotions have died down, only really seeing monthly shows put on by the likes of BGO and SONI. I feel it may be due to prices to hire venues, in tandem with the turnaround for people showing up. Low turnouts mean having to put up ticket prices on down the line, which in turn would deter more people from going.
It makes it difficult for those promoters to stay afloat and keep doing it as much as I’m sure they want to, without people coming to support the music. So I wouldn’t say it’s directly a problem of investments from other places, and putting in money, but more-so as a community, supporting each-other, giving each-other the opportunity to flourish and boost morale, in turn striving everyone to push and become more successful.
What does success look like for you?
We think as a general rule of thumb, if you’re able to keep a roof over your head, feed yourself, and feel happy in your situation, That’s success. For myself (Ray) I feel like I’ve succeeded as a musician already, the songs that I’ve crafted throughout my whole life are coming out for the whole world to listen to. We’ve all had such great reception on Adored and Butterfly so far, and it’s all we’ve ever really wanted from the band. That doesn’t mean we stop there though, we strive to be the best we possibly can, we plan to continue to release music far into the future for the world to hear, and enjoy.
You’re going out on tour and can have anything you want on your rider, what would we find on yours?
Ryan: A Kepler pedal is the only thing I would take with me other than my bas
Ray: as a singer, I feel there’s not much that needs to be brought. When I was lead guitar in the band, I would have said my Marshall amp would be going everywhere with me, but now I think I’ll take a lil bag of lemon and honey lockets, and a few teabags with honey.
Where and when can we next catch you live?
Ballistic celebrate the release of their debut album, Burn Brighter on Friday 22 August 2025 in the Union Bar, Belfast. Support comes from Cavalier Attitude and 4AM Club. Tickets are available here.
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.
