MacD on Music: Bringing Werewolf Pop to the Masses

Over the years, Irish musicians have been blazing a unique trail around the world.

We’ve had Bono giving the world one of the few good versions of ‘Hallelujah’ (other ones include Jeff Buckley’s, Raul Esparza’s and, of course, Leonard Cohen’s original), Saint Sister bringing rock and roll harp into the mainstream and Sinéad O’Connor just, well, being herself.

The group I’m talking to this week are one of the leading forces behind Werewolf Pop, Strength NIA. I met with Rory and Brendan from Strength recently, them having just returned from a three date tour in Prague and Berlin.

Our first topic was, of course, the tour. Rory told me “The first show was in a basement of a tenement block. They’d converted it into a venue and there were a lot of people from the tenement block at the gig. It was kind of in a local area, so there were a lot of local people at the show.

It was really nice to get that experience of being in a local area with local people and playing local songs about Derry. The second show was in a strange clothes boutique. Out the back, they’d made a little area for performances. That was an intimate gig. The third show, we played in a place called Loophole in Berlin.

A lot of Irish people came to see us that night.

Following on, I asked about their international audience: “We’re big in Mongolia” Rory says, “and outside of Mongolia we’re big in Strabane. It was our first time playing on mainland Europe”.

I comment on how they’re “bringing Werewolf Pop to the masses” and Brendan told me “There was actually a fella from Transylvania showed up to the gig in Prague, so maybe there next.” Rory continued “the last Bennigan’s gig we did, there was a guy from Alares, in the north-west of Spain, which is reference to our song about the Spanish Werewolf, so all the dots are connecting. The stars are aligning”.

We next moved on to Lockdown, always a fun topic. As some of you may remember, Rory and Brendan did car sessions, to try and fill that horrible, gapping void left by the absence of live music. I asked them how they found this and Rory told me “I loved it!” Brendan adds “the car sessions were a lot of fun,” to which Rory responded (laughing) “No they weren’t, they were awful! I actually didn’t mind the Lockdown, to be honest.

"We’re probably never going to see the likes of it again in our lifetime. The camaraderie that happened communally, I remember chatting to my neighbours in the street, I’d never really talked to them before. Hearing the birds chirping in the trees, everything slowing down, I just thought it was nice, the pace of life, we were able to take a bit of a breath. Musically, we just had to adjust to the situation.

"We did the car sessions, making videos, learning how to do stuff ourselves, which was productive.“

Talking about the (slow) return of live gigs, Rory said “We went out and started doing some shows, we were down in Dublin, and people were sitting down, and it didn’t feel too good.” Brendan adds “the Limelight, they were sitting down too. It was like playing to a school assembly or something”. I asked them if things were now back to normal for people like themselves. Brendan told me “I don’t think things have ever been normal for me, but they resemble a familiar state of abnormality.” Rory continues “We’re looking forward to playing more gigs, and not having the burden of restrictions. It’s nice that live music is kicking off again. Things are looking positive.”

Next, we spoke at great length about the tragic lack of newsagents left in the town. Unfortunately, I don’t have space to write about that here (although transcripts are available upon request) so I’ll move on. We got onto the topic of Cool Discs, and it’s staying power. “It’s amazing that the likes of Cool Discs is still there. Virgin and HMV were in Derry and Lee’s still going. Our album is in Lee’s, ‘Ulster Is Dance Master’.” 

Our chat closed with them wishing to give thanks to a few people. Rory: “I’d love to just say a big thanks to 3 South and Banana, for bringing us to Berlin and setting the gig up, and also to Diane and Anita and Arthur, for helping us set up the gigs in Prague.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a wrap for another week. Strength NIA are playing in Limelight in Belfast on the 26th November with Amy Montgomery. They can be found on Facebook and Instagram @strengthnia_. Their music, as mentioned above, can be found in Cool Discs.