It’s been a few months since the release of the release of Hope, Amongst Other Things – and boy what an EP it was. But it seems like Somebody’s Child can’t stay still for long, announcing a November tour and a sparkling new EP this Autumn. Yesterday the band dropped CRAZY, the first taste of Staying Sane – and we must say it is absolutely stellar. We had a chat with Cian Godfrey about the upcoming EP, the liminal world of small beach towns and ignoring other people’s opinions.
We start with the matter at hand: two EPs in one year? “I guess I’m pretty prolific with regards to writing,” Cian laughs. “I mean, for every song that comes out there’s probably 20 written! It takes some time to filter through the crap in order to get to the good stuff…” And we can’t help but wonder – is that why the band have stuck to EPs thus far? Has it been a conscious effort of siphoning down ‘the crap’? To a degree – but Cian sees the EPs more like time capsules; with each EP so far there’s been “an element of moving forward that needs to be addressed”, Cian notes. “20 Something was the first time that we felt that ‘these songs deserve to be with each other’. And then Hope, Amongst Other Things was more about the journey… or a transition from, like, old-school sounds like Top Drawer Romance and Lost, which I wrote at the very start of the pandemic, to Brother which was, five or six months prior to the release.”
So how does Staying Sane differ from these past EPs? “I’m not sure if it’s more ‘Somebody’s Child’ than what we’ve ever done before but it’s definitely more of a concept and I’m kind of enjoying that process. Visually it’s really easy to see the tracks together and it seems to make sense, again, as four song.”
The concept is inspired by a road trip along the west coast of Ireland the band went on last summer, immersing themselves in the liminal, ‘dreamlike state’ of a “small town by the beach”; “it’s like where all the people from Northern Ireland go on their holidays… It can seem a little tacky at times but I kind of love that,” Cian laughs.”A lot of people just smokin really old, manky cigarettes and kids just being able to go about without any worries. It’s kind of like you’ve travelled back in time to the 60s or something”.
To help capture this beach-y, ‘dreamlike state’, the group have taken inspiration from the likes of the Beach Boys and The Drums. “It’s a lot more summery than other stuff we’ve done before,” Cian admits. Despite the summery feel, there’s still some introspection nestled within the airy, summery vibes. CRAZY is undeniably light and breezy, yet the fears explored are quite raw. “CRAZY touches on these fears of mine of going crazy, which I’ve felt the last few years… and it’s just been this huge feeling, this fear.”
But, still, Cian insists the EP will show a lighter side of Somebody’s Child; “it shows a more lighthearted side of my songwriting and my personality…” – he pauses before adding – “which is obviously important because I’m not always upset or depressed or broken up with.”
Somebody’s Child’s writing (despite how upset, depressed or broken-up-with it may feel) is undoubtedly mesmerising. “A lot of the time songwriting is like therapy, y’know… you’re just talking and as it’s coming out you realise how you’re REALLY feeling.“ And sometimes it takes a while for these feelings to even register; “sometimes six months later you’re like ‘God, that’s what this is about!’ and it finally makes sense. For every song it’s a puzzle …some words will come one, some sounds… and then it’s your job to kind of piece them all together.”
This makes us wonder… has Hope, Amongst Other Things transformed in Cian’s mind since its release? “It’s funny, as soon as stuff gets released I tend not to listen to it at all,” he admits, “I tend just to kind of leave it as it is… because it’s not really mine anymore, y’know.”
But, while the creative process is in motion, the tracks are very much the sole property of Somebody’s Child – Cian is set on never letting outsiders influence the band’s creative process. “It can be quite detrimental,” he admits, “people will say ‘you need more songs like Toes, you need more songs like this…’ and when you’re just getting into [the industry] you’re like ‘oh, shit, no I SHOULD do this’ and it can confuse you!”
“There was about six months of my life where I could not write a song because people were like “what’s your sound?”… and I was like “I don’t fucking know” – but the band are way beyond that hurdle now. “What I’m doing now, with this EP, it feels great, it feels natural.”
So, buckle your seatbelts – Staying Sane is set for release this autumn, with a debut headline tour scheduled for November. And, with the very reassuring promise that “the first gig is either gonna be unbelievable, or absolutely terrible”, it would be a crime to not grab yourself a ticket.
CRAZY is out now, and tickets for tour are available here.
