MacD on Music: Take It Or Leave It

We’ve officially made it through the many months of January. It’s been a long journey but we’re finally at the other side, and February is so far shaping up to be a great month for music lovers.

So far to look forward to, we have new music from Cora Harkin (‘Back of My Mind’, out on the 16^th), a brilliant gig featuring Quentin Wylie’s bands GETNER and Sad Sells (in Bennigan’s with The Switch, also on the 16^th) and, the subject of this week’s column, CHERYM will be releasing their much-anticipated debut album ‘Take It Or Leave It’ (any guesses as to what date? Yep, the 16^th).

I spoke with Hannah Richardson and Alannagh Doherty (guitar/vocals and drums, respectively) about the album ahead of it’s launch this week in the Nerve Centre:

Hannah: “The album is a series of stories about our lives up till now. It’s a wee bit more, people would say, political, we would say just issues that affect us directly. It’s very raw. We talk a lot about issues that affect us as people, as human beings, as three queer people, as neurodivergent people.

"We really felt like we were taking a risk with some of the topics. There’s some songs that touch on women’s rights in this country, abortion rights. Trans rights is another topic that’s covered within the album. We felt like it was really important to speak about these things.

"People have always called us a political band, even before we put that stamp on it ourselves and then, with this album…”

Alannagh: “Everybody called us a political band just because we were three fem-presenting people and we’re three queer people but really, what the matter is is, the person is political and they have made us political so we were like, we’re going to be political, we’re going to throw it back at the people who were calling us political for no reason.

"Now we’re going to embrace that political side of us that shouldn’t even be political to begin with.”

Next we spoke about the departure of founding band member Nyree, who recently announced their departure from the group:

Alannagh: “There’s two very specific songs that relate to Nyree directly on the album, and they were such a huge part of it. Before the announcement, we had the time to come to terms with the fact that Nyree couldn’t carry on with their chronic illness, touring was just not for them.

"We’re going to massively miss them, and being part of the touring party and writing songs with them and just having the craic with them. The three of us always had the craic wherever it was, whether it was on stage, in the green room, in the practice room.

"It feels weird, but everything has kind of worked itself out where we all know that it’s for the best for the band and for all of us personally, just to be able to carry on our lives to the fullest that we can and we can’t really drag Nyree with us in something they physically can’t be capable of any more.

"It’s heartbreaking, but we all understand why it needed to happen.”

After that, we talked about the launch gig:

Hannah: “We got really lucky with the support we have for this show. We’ve got the amazing Problem Patterns, that have been literally like our twin band from ever we started as a band. We’ve always been moving up alongside each other. We love them so much.

"Obviously we’re very similar in the way that we’re all queer and we’re all just wee working class Irish people just trying to make a career in the music industry and finding it really difficult and getting shot back every time.

"We just have a really lovely bond with them. We were absolutely delighted when they were like ‘Yeah, we’ll come and do the show’. For anybody reading that haven’t seen Problem Patterns, you are in for a treat.

"Then we have the amazing Reevah as well, who we love and adore so much. She’s just released her debut album, ‘Daylight Savings’ and it is off the charts. I think, whenever the album came out, I listened to it five times back to back. I just loved it so much. I love how her sound has changed sonically into this amazing, beautiful pop.

"We’re so excited to have Reevah there with her full band. We couldn’t have got luckier with the supports we have for the show.”

And unfortunately that’s all we have room for from CHERYM, but they will be playing the Nerve Centre for the official launch of ‘Take It Or Leave It’ this Friday with support from the brilliant Problem Patterns and Reevah. The album will be released on the 16^th February and should be available in Cool Discs. The group’s new single ‘Alpha Beta Sigma’ is also out now.

Finally, CHERYM can be found on Facebook and Instagram @cherymofficial.