MacD on Music: Works Of Art

People often talk about first discoveries. We have Roger Ebert first discovering John Prine, Kris Kristofferson also first discovering John Prine (both saw him at an Open Mic night) and Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband discovering a little-known English singer called Paul McCartney (not to be confused with Paul McCartney, of Bam Bam and the Calling fame, soon to be opening for the Undertones in the Millennium Forum on Valentine’s Night).

This week, I’m going to be doing the opposite of this, talking to the Belfast group Madams Last Discovery. The group, made up of Flinn O’Grady (vocals/guitar), Nathan Shawe (lead guitar), Darragh ‘Gigsy’ McGuigan (bass) and Fiontan McAleavey (drums), are fresh off their Éire(a’s) Tour throughout Ireland and have just released their excellent new single ‘Works of Art’.

I caught up with them recently to talk about the history of the group and the new song:

Tell me about how the group first came together.

Flinn O’Grady, Nathan Shawe and Darragh (Gigsy) McGuigan all first met back in school. It started off us just jamming together as Flinn had attempted a short live solo career for a few months. After a much needed change they decided to make the project a band and named it Madams Last Discovery, inspired by the ELO album ‘Last Discovery’.

The band started playing covers together including a few classics like Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles and eventually decided they should probably start writing their own music.

Madams Last Discovery played their first gig at The Sunflower Belfast in September 2022 and kept on performing from there.

In summer 2023 Fiontan McAleavey joined the band on drums and made his debut at Gazefest in the Oh Yeah Centre that year.

Since then, the band has toured Ireland on their Éire(a’s) Tour, supported the likes of Bronagh Gallagher, Sign Crushes Motorists and Dea Matrona at their sold-out hometown show at The Limelight and performed at the legendary Mandala Hall.

Who would you say have been your main musical influences?

Our influences have changed as we have developed as a band. At the start there was a much more indie and Britpop influence from bands like Blur, The La’s and Supergrass.

But as we have continued to play together our sound has evolved and our influences have changed giving us more similarities to the likes of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Queens of the Stone Age and Stereo MCs.

Tell me a bit about your new song.

‘Work Of Art’ is the second release from us as a band and is the first song we wrote together with the new line up, after our drummer Fion joined us just over a year ago.

The track is based on the unrealistic expectations that platforms like social media hold everyone to these days, expecting everyone to be a 'Work of Art' and the affect that can have on an individual.

The verses are based off an individual having a conversation with themselves and battling over what to do when faced with these pressures.

READ MORE: MacD on Music

Also, we just thought it was fun to name a song a 'Work of Art' before anyone had even heard the track, like how pretentious is that?

What would you say have been some personal highlights of your time as a group?

A personal highlight for all of us as a band would be supporting Dea Matrona in The Limelight. We had all seen Dea Matrona develop from busking in the streets of Belfast to playing all over the world, so we were thrilled to be able to support them at their hometown show, celebrating their debut album.

We got to meet Mollie and Orlaith and their band, who were all absolutely lovely to us. When we took to the stage, The Limelight was rammed, and it was our first time playing to a crowd of that size.

It was also the first time we sold merch and sold out of it!

Are there any other acts you think we should check out?

Locally and all over Ireland there are loads of unbelievable acts we love, a few that come to mind include Casual Riots, Shark School, Moon Landing and The Cornerstones

Have you got much lined up for the future?

We have a headline show coming up on March 29th in the Union Bar in Belfast, the gig hasn’t been announced yet but will be soon!

And that’s it from Madams Last Discovery. Their new single ‘Works of Art’ is out now on all good streaming platforms. They can be found on Instagram @madamslastdiscovery.