In recent years, the Irish music scene has dominated British airwaves, with artists including Fontaines D.C., CMAT,and Inhaler stirring up a storm from across the Channel. The name that ought to be on everyone’s lips, however, is Cork based band Cliffords.
After forming in 2022, the four-piece released their debut EP two years later to critical acclaim, and have since followed it with Salt of the Lee which came out this May. All four tracks on Salt of the Lee can be read as odes to the band’s hometown, featuring lyrics imbued with place and personal experience. They also function as powerful pieces of poetry, not just music, demonstrating a literary flair that lead singer Iona Lynch has inherited from her family and place of origin, as well as wider influences.
Speaking on the Irish music scene, Lynch admits “We’ve always looked up to the bigger bands”, most of which are based in Dublin, “But also Cork has a really interesting scene, so we’ve always kind of looked up to the bands within our own scene too. We kind of don’t shut up about it”. Evident from the very title of their second EP, the songwriting behind Clifford’s songs displays frequent references to their hometown: “I really like burning place names into songs, and I love listening to other songs with place names because it seems so personal to someone else” said the lead singer.
Being from Ireland doesn’t come without its challenges, however: Lynch wrote her university dissertation on sexism in the Irish music scene, focusing on the lack of female voices heard on Irish radio stations. “Sexism culture is still incredibly prevalent”, Lynch points out, “and [it is] something that I’ve noticed more recently when we’ve been gigging more. This year has been our best year, with five percent of songs broadcasted on Irish radio from Irish female artists, which is still terrible. The last five years have been two percent or under, which I’m still shouting about. I’ve never understood why Irish bands get played on UK radio first and then, once you become famous, Irish radio starts playing you when there’s already a thriving scene at home”.
“There’s definitely new problems that have showed up for me that I’ve experienced now we’ve been playing festivals, but I still just don’t shut up about it and I don’t think we should have to. I’m very lucky I’m in a band with lovely boys who are very supportive of me, and they’re fighting the same fight”.
On the topic of festivals and radio, Cliffords had a busy season this summer, which included appearances on the BBC Radio Introducing stage at TRNSMT, as well as Reading and Leeds. Speaking on this experience, Lynch reflected that “It’s been amazing to get on those stages, and for them to play us on the radio. It’s something we looked at years before and wanted to be a part of, so it’s been fantastic”.
One thing that was noticeable at Cliffords’ Leeds Festival set, in particular, was the wide range of demographic in attendance, attesting to the band’s ability to bring different groups together in the spirit of music and community. “When we did our first UK tour”, Lynch says, “I was completely surprised because our Irish shows were always attended by young people our age. And then we came to the UK, it was all these kinds of people of all age demographics like the BBC Radio 6 dads who we love and bow down to. That’s not really a thing as much in Ireland, so I was shocked when it first happened, but we get to meet such a wide variety of people who love our music. I think it’s so funny that a man in England in his fifties can relate to something I wrote when I was sixteen about kissing girls. It’s beautiful — that’s why everyone does music, for that feeling of community and for wanting to share something about you”.
Elaborating on the band’s debut UK tour, which took place in April and included a stop at Manchester’s Deaf Institute, Lynch confesses that “there was a lot of learning that was done on the road: you shouldn’t drink that much and you will lose your voice. We saw some parts of the UK that we’d never been to before; I like walking around with my headphones in and exploring. It’s still kind of crazy that anyone’s listening to us, so going to cities like Southampton and Nottingham and having people there to see and hear us was wild”.
“We have a long history with the great city of Manchester. The first time we ever went, we played YES Basement and we had a really good show, but then we had a day off and we went and played crazy golf. And we watched Joker 2, which is the worst film I’ve ever seen. It was horrible, but it was also my birthday; all my friends flew over and my boyfriend had flown too to surprise me. We got really drunk in Mulligans — they sell Cork beer. At one point I remember I was so drunk and this guy walked in in a Fontaines shirt, so I forced him up on the stage to sing Fontaines. I just held the microphone in front of him, like, keep going. We loved Manchester”. This suggests good things for Cliffords’ return to YES where they’ll be playing the Pink Room next month, although maybe it’s best to avoid any Irish bars once the show is over, especially if you plan on wearing Fontaines D.C. merchandise.
Cliffords’ upcoming tour was planned in support of Salt of the Lee, which features ‘My Favourite Monster’, a powerful song that shares parallels with Mary Shelley’s nineteenth-century gothic classic Frankenstein. “I was reading Frankenstein at the time, and it’s one of my favourite books of all time”, Lynch says, confirming that the similarities were a conscious decision. “The kind of story that I tell on stage is about this guy who I hate. But, to me, Frankenstein is also about that kind of thing, being fuelled for a long time by mutual hatred. I wanted to kind of write a song that was thinking about hatred in a more nuanced way, as a kind of obsession. My dad always said there’s a thin line between love and hate”.
When asked if this was the first time literature had inspired her work, Lynch responded in the negative, stating “I read a lot; reading is one of the most important things. Reading for me as a writer is where I get most of my inspiration. I’ve quoted a lot of Adrienne Rich in some of my songs. My grandmother’s a poet, so I sometimes steal some of her lines — calling it homage, but really she’s just a better writer than me. I’ve recently been trying to read more poetry: Wordsworth; I had a whole song I never released called ‘Tintern’, which is about Tintern Abbey. I’ve done some songs about The Bell Jar”.
As the conversation drew to a close, Lynch mentioned her plans for the evening: “I’m going go to wing Wednesday, where chicken wings are twenty cents. You buy a pint and you get twenty cent chicken wings”. Maybe Manchester could take some notes. This final offhanded comment illuminates what makes Cliffords so attractive: they’re young and relatable, fun, but literary and intelligent. This shines through in their music, but also in Lynch’s observations and discussion. She encapsulates the perfect frontwoman, making Cliffords all the more remarkable in sound, style and demeanour.
