Cork, Ireland based Ian O’Callaghan (aka Auld Blue Eyes) has played in hardcore and grindcore bands for about 18 years, supporting bands like Madball, Every Time I Die and countless others at this stage. In the last 2 years, he’s been trying to do something a bit more melodic with this solo stuff, and earlier this month, he has unveiled three new songs under the new wonderful emotive post hardcore EP “Have Angst, Will Travel”.
The new release ranges from upbeat indie rock to middle aged screamo despair and it features Dan Breen from Hope Is Noise on lead vocals on the opening track. We sat down with Ian and asked him about each and every song from this new release and we’ve got a nice track by track rundown below!
Words by Ian O’Callaghan:
As Above, So Below
I’ve really wanted to get Dan on a song since I started doing this solo stuff. I’ve been a huge fan of his band Hope Is Noise for almost 20 years now. I had the honour of doing some shouting on their 4th record a few years ago, and in return my old band Terriers had him sing a song on our album.
I’ll leave Dan explain what this song is about.
Dan: When Auld Blue Eyes, (they’re actually green, but I digress), sent me the music he wanted me to put some words to, I was struck by its unusual structure. It felt like two songs were being smashed together and this gave me the impression of an argument between two people.
So, that’s what I tried to base the lyrics on – two sides of an argument, no resolution, and two different opinions of how the interaction concluded. Ultimately, it is the end of whatever relationship that was there.
There is no real narrative to the lyrics and they are just a patchwork of different emotions and actions that usually crop up during arguments we have, typically with those we are intimate with. We get the angriest with the people we are meant to love the most and act in ways we normally wouldn’t. At the end of every serious relationship, there is always a mix of hatred, love, sorrow, grief, resentment and nostalgia. The title comes from a modern version of an ancient phrase about the relationship between the celestial events/earthly endeavours. It’s really just a way of giving the impression that this argument is the most important thing in the universe – but it’s really just two people taking too long to break up.
Calluses
Ian: I’m getting to that age now where you start to see people close to you getting hit with a lot of loss. If you’re lucky you can kind of coast through your twenties without having the shit kicked out of you too much by grief but it seems like you can’t escape it for ever and the next few decades you’re going to unfortunately see your friends and family get hit with dead parents, friends, partners and pets.
I suppose the song is about me worrying about people as I watch them go through that, and the changes it has on them. When I was younger I used to think it brought on a kind of new coldness to people but in hindsight it’s not that, it’s just a numbing of the senses. That sounds fucking miserable, I’m sorry.
That’s where I started from with the lyrics but I hope that there’s a more hopeful message in there when you listen to the song.
Took To The Bed
Ian: I was having this recurring dream a lot around the time I was thinking about the lyrics for this song. I’d be on a beach with someone, a close friend or family member, always a man, and they’d just peacefully walk away in to the sea as I just stood there helplessly. I’d wake up then, freaked out and have to watch some Seinfeld to calm down before going back to bed.
What do you think that means? Probably that I need to stop eating so much cheese before going to sleep. I thought if I wrote a song about it then it might trivialise it and it would stop happening, so I wrote down exactly what was in my head every time I woke up. Sometimes it was that same dream, sometimes other bullshit.
