MacD on Music: Never Let This Go

Over the years, three-piece bands have been responsible for some of the greatest music ever committed to tape. Groups such as Motörhead, Rush and Blink-182 have shown that you don’t need a huge band to make a huge impact.

This week, I’m talking to a group that are keeping this three-piece tradition alive, Derry’s own Parker. Parker are Dylan Bradley (guitar/vocals), Eoghan Donegan (bass) and Michael Brown (drums) and, as you may have seen in the last few columns, are about to release their debut album, ‘Never Let This Go’, on the 30th of this month. I caught up with Dylan and Michael recently to talk about the album.

Speaking about the recording, Dylan tells me: “In January 2022 we laid down the album and we’ve kind of been sitting on it since then, going back and forth over mixes and stuff and getting it edited and put together. We actually got the final master done at the end of last year, so we've been sitting on it for about six months.

“It's been a long time in the making because we started writing it in 2020, during the Pandemic.” Michael adds “it’s a Pandemic baby”.

Dylan continues: “it's been a long time coming now. I can’t wait to get it out there. We’ve been playing these songs for three years and we’ve started writing the next record now, before the first one’s out. It’s a funny feeling, because we know we're gonna be touring this album. We’re not going to be releasing any new music after this comes out for probably six months or whatever. So, we're only gonna be really playing this live.”

Dylan continues “We recorded in a place called Badland Studios. Cahir O’Doherty produced it and Alan McGreevy engineered it. Caolán Austin mixed it. It was a lot of fun to make.

“There's all these songs on the record that we knew were never going to be singles that nobody’s heard and I can’t wait to hear what people think of them.” Michael says, “the album sounds like all the bands we listened to over the Pandemic.”

Next, we moved onto the topic of live gigs. Dylan says, “Our first year of existence, we had no music out and we played a load of gigs.”

Michael adds: “It’s always been that way though. Me and you have been doing this for eleven years now and any gig that was ever thrown our way we’d just say ‘yep, let’s go’. It’s the best way for people to get to know you if you don’t have music out.” Dylan continues “the shows have been great.

“We haven't played Derry since the Fighting With Wire show in October last year. We’ve been mostly playing Belfast and down south, but we’re back on home turf now.”

Speaking about that much-anticipated return, Dylan then spoke a bit about the album launch itself, and the brilliant line-up that’s going to be playing there. “We’ve got TRAMP, we’ve got Ferals and we’ve got Tomcat.

“I think it’s a great line-up. If I wasn’t playing, I would definitely be going to it. Obviously, everybody knows TRAMP, they’re one of our favourite bands. So are Ferals. I actually wanted to do this gig with them specifically because we’ve basically been playing shows with them since we started as a band.

“TRAMP and us started at a fairly similar time. Ferals have been going for ages, but we used to play with them in our old bands. I went to see Tomcat play in Bennigan’s a couple of weeks ago and they’re class.”

Finally, Michael said, when I asked if they had anything else to add, to “keep listening until we have loads and loads of money.” Dylan, answering the same question, said, “we’re going to play new music for the first time since we’ve been a band.

“There’ll be at least one new tune. We’ve been playing the same songs since we started in 2021, so for almost two years we’ve been playing the same songs, but we’re going to play new music at this gig. We’ll also play all the songs off the album, even the ones we don’t play live usually.”

Parker’s much-anticipated debut, ‘Never Let This Go’ is out on the 30th June. It can be pre-ordered now on the band’s official Bandcamp page (bandcalledparker.bandcamp.com). They play Bennigan’s that night with what must be one of the best line-ups this side of Stendhal, featuring TRAMP, Ferals and Tomcat.

Find them on Facebook and Instagram @bandcalledparker.