MacD on Music: Two's Company - Laytha

Bands can come in all shapes and sizes. Groups like Santana or the E Street Band have a stage full of players every night while others can get by with only two.

Duos have been a part of music since time began, with groups like Simon & Garfunkel, Saint Sister and tessio creating a magical sound with minimal participants.

This week, I’m talking to Laytha, made up of cousins Niamh Carney and Philana Nolan, another duo who have been making waves in recent times.

Their latest EP ‘Daphne’ (out now) continues to showcase their beautiful harmonies with songs that study themes such as fate, love, time and death.

I caught up with Niamh and Philana recently to talk about it and their own journey as a group. Niamh:

“We’re cousins, and we kind of grew up like siblings. Our family raised us all very close and one day I literally just heard Philana playing the guitar and I went in, and we both started singing together, so then we’d just jam in the house together.

“Then, we had a family party one night, years ago, and they made us sing together. That was the first time we’d sang together in front of people, and we started gigging and after that we’d started writing and recording and that’s how that came about.”

I asked them about their songwriting process: Niamh: “Recently what we’ve been doing is meeting up for maybe a week or a couple of days and we’d isolate ourselves and just write together and really focus on the harmonies, the lyrics, the melodies and even work on ideas for production and things like that but I’d say it starts with the two of us messing around. It all starts with fun little ideas, and we just see where we can take them.”

Next, I asked them about their main influences. Niamh: “For this EP, when we were writing we were listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ album and a lot of Hozier.

“I feel like we really tried to tap into the way he writes lyrics and stuff, so we tried to get ourselves into that kind of world.”

Philana: “We’re also listening to some nice, acoustic, finger-style music like some of Fleetwood Mac, some of Iron & Wine and Laura Marling and people like that for this recent EP.”

I asked next about what they’ve got planned for the future: “We’re hoping to potentially tour these songs in the New Year so that’s in the works at the minute, but for now we’re trying to focus on our socials and how to push ourselves this side just before Christmas, because obviously when you go out everybody just wants to hear Christmas tunes, so we’re trying to think of creative ways we can stay on the radar over Christmastime.

“Hopefully in the New Year we’ll just tour and do lots of gigs and continue to write and continue to record.

“We’re very lucky too. We got a grant from Help Musicians, so they’re really going to help us out.”

Finally, I asked them what other artists they’re into at the minute: “Ciaran Lavery has some amazing stuff going on at the minute. He’s releasing like a machine. It’s insane.

“Joshua Burnside also has announced a new album, so that’s cool. Then we love the CHERYM girls [who’s debut album ‘Take It Or Leave It’ is available in Cool Discs]. There’s so many. Polar Bolero, at the minute. We saw them at Stendhal. They were so good. It was class.

“There’s actually another artist from Cork, Rua Rí. He’s unbelievable. We played a gig with him last year and then he played Stendhal last year too.”

And, with those recommendations of who to look out for, we leave Laytha. Their new EP ‘Daphne’ is out now on all good streaming platforms.

READ MORE: MacD on Music

Now, onto other business. tessio have recently announced the release of their highly-anticipated debut album. The self-titled album will be released on December 20th, and they’ll be playing their Big Christmas Jamboree in Bennigan’s on December 28th, with support from Polar Bolero and Cathal Francis. The gig has already sold out but there will be a limited number of tickets available on the door on the night. As someone who saw them opening for GETNER recently, I can safely say that this is not a gig to miss.

Finally, Selador (the band who followed tessio at the aforementioned GETNER gig) have recently released their debut EP ‘At Start Together’. One of the best live bands in Derry, the EP comes ahead of the release of their debut album ‘The Mascot’ (due at the beginning of next year).

And now, time for the socials. Selador can be found on Instagram @seladortheband, tessio @tessio__ and Laytha @laythamusic.