“Come over x”: Discovering Intimacy and Infinity with Modernlove

Photo Credit: Marc Shelly

The 4-piece Irish band that will have you feeling everything all at once is composed of Barry Lally (lead vocal & guitar), Graham Fagan (guitar, synth & vocals), Danny Rooney (bass, synth & vocals) and Cian McCluskey (drums & vocals). With a ‘90s twist and an indie-rock groove, Modernlove is here to bring us a softer side to their repertoire with a song that holds the romantic irony of a late-night booty call however, still in pair with an intimate longing with that person. The Drogheda, Ireland artists release “come over x” which tells the story of sincerity of modern love in a modern world. They write “come over x” as a love ballad, sprinkled with the words of a monochrome blue state of mind. The boys describe to us what monochrome blue means to them and how the sentiment of a longing for that person is scattered throughout the EP. Modernlove isn’t afraid to step out of their comfort zones as they dip their toes into multiple styles and genres of music. They provide an amazing storytelling atmosphere for all the 20-something year-olds who are stepping out into the world on their own as they describe “come over x” as a classic love ballad, in the context of today. 

To celebrate the release of the monochrome blue EP, the band will be playing a Dubline headline show on November 5th in the Workman’s Club and their first London show at The Social on November 12th, 2021.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Is there a story behind how you all met and started Modernlove?

[Cian]: Barry and I have known each other since we were about 4 or 5-years-old, but we never really played music together. Then I met Graham when we were about 12, and we started jamming out in our mates tiny little studio playing Van Halen and Led Zeppelin and loads of rock stuff. 

[Barry]: And I couldn’t sing any of that stuff so I think we had to change our music style.

[UNPUBLISHED]: What’s the indie music scene like in Ireland?

[Barry]: It’s sort of a bit non-existent! They're some really good bands and stuff but it’s such a small, small world over here. There’s only a few good places worth playing, the only place where there’s enough people to play a few gigs is in Dublin. There is really just that little scene in Dublin. A lot of Irish bands need to go over to the UK or to the states to reach their fullest potential. That being said though, there are a lot of really cool bands in Ireland.

[Cian]: It’s definitely better than it was, even about five years ago, there’s definitely a lot more cooler music coming out of Dublin than there has been.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Since there are 4 of you, how do you balance out each other's ideas and what does the songwriting process look like?

[Barry]: We all kind of write everything. We have our roles when we play on stage, but then Cian for example, plays drums on stage, but he could start writing a song - the guitar, the bass, vocal melodies - or I could start writing a song too. We record on our laptops, as we write - that’s sort of the way we do it. Usually, one person will bring the bones of an idea to the band and the band will all have a go at it and see what we can add to it. 

[UNPUBLISHED]: Can you walk us through your up-coming single “come over x”?

[Barry]: Yeah, “come over x” is probably our softest, sweetest, and most intimate sounding song. I think it’s ironic because if you listen to the lyrics, it’s about a booty call, so you know it’s about someone that you’re seeing and you ask them ‘hey, come over’. At the same time, it is very sweet and romantic - it’s a love ballad. The way we tried to write it was like a love ballad but in the way that young people now act in relationships. 

[Cian]: I think it’s one of my fond memories of recording as well, we did it over the span of a weekend. We were in my house, then Barry’s house and then Graham’s house. Barry would have an idea and then Graham or I would record it and do a bit of mixing to it. We’d just pass the laptop around to each other. The whole songwriting process was very quick, and very fun - I enjoyed it a lot!

[Danny]: It’s nice because a lot of those recordings are in the main mix of the song. It remains the bedroom vibe.

[Cian]: We have a quite tight connection with that song from the guitars we recorded at about three in the morning, are still in the actual song, which is nice.

[UNPUBLISHED]: If there was one thing listeners could take away from “come over x”, what would it be?

[Danny]: I think up until this point we’ve released a lot of ‘in your face’ indie pop songs. We were always sending demos to each other where we mess around with different genres that we haven’t shown anyone else yet. So I think that releasing this one will show our softer side a little bit so I’m excited to see the reaction to that.

[Barry]: I’m excited for people to see us when we’re sappy, we haven’t really done that too much yet. There’s also a hint of a low vibe to the EP and this single.

[Cian]: We’re definitely not a straight-up, ‘in your face’, dance pop band - I think this is a nice, different direction that people can see. Like ‘oh, they have more layers to them than one idea’.

[UNPUBLISHED]: I wanted to chat a bit about the 3 themes that are evident throughout your songs: romance, rejection and 21st century communication - why do you feel like these three areas speak to you so well and are important to bring into conversation especially for the 20-something youth?

[Barry]: It really just sort of happened. When I’m writing lyrics, it’s not a conscious decision to focus on those things - it’s just on every 20-something year olds mind all of the time and [the themes] just came naturally. It was only after we came up with the name that we realized how well it fits and that’s what we have been writing about. Cian and I were watching How I Met Your Mother, and there was a song that was played in and we were like ‘this is a class song, I want our band to feel like this song’. So, we looked up what the song was called and it was “This Modern Love” by an English band called Bloc Party. Then we were like ‘okay, let’s call the band Modernlove’. After that, we realized that every song we write, whether it’s about love, drinking too much or anything - it’s always set against this backdrop of young people in nightlife, texting someone or swiping through Tinder. That’s what we realized we were always writing about, it was just modern love songs.

[Cian]: I don’t think you can actively try and do that because people who are listening to your music will instantly say ‘that’s fake, they’re just trying to be something’ and we don’t try to do anything. We have no intention of ever making anything sent a particular way. Whatever comes out is what we do and it’s nice that it happens to tie in all together.

[UNPUBLISHED]: What does the title of your debut EP monochrome blue mean to you?

[Barry]: I actually just got [monochrome blue] tatted on me over in London, so we’ve committed to it now! The words monochrome blue are lyrics from our single “come over x”. The original idea was from this painter called Yves Klein, who has this painting called “Monochrome Blue”. He has loads of these paintings that are all blue and nothing else, which we actually saw over in London. When he talked about it, he was saying that the blue represents the closest thing a person can envision when they think about infinity. The blue of the sky is the closest you can visualize something as infinite. Then, in the song, it’s those lyrics [it stretches out forever, all alone in my room, without you always monochrome blue] - it was this infinite sadness without that person and this infinite longing which I thought was really sweet.

[Cian]: There’s a lot of that ambiance and the overall atmosphere that the monochrome blue sentiment is scattered throughout the whole EP.

[Barry]: Yeah, we thought it captures the mood of the EP fairly well. There’s a bit of moodiness and sadness in all of the songs

[UNPUBLISHED]: Is there a track off of monochrome blue that was the hardest to produce?

[Cian]: “I know it’s tearing you apart” was a bit of a nightmare.

[Danny]: Yeah, during the lockdown we couldn’t actually go into a studio, so we had to find a roundabout way to record drums. We had to use MIDI mapping and all these boring technical words, but it was just very tricky to get the drums right.

[Barry]: It was an old song as well that we always had, so it was tricky to do it in a new way that sounded great. 

[Cian]: Everything else we were so locked down to, we knew exactly what we wanted for every song and because “I know it’s tearing you apart” was so old we could take it in about seven different directions. We weren’t 100% sure what it was actually going to sound like when it was finished.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Speaking of lockdowns and the pandemic, how did your writing process and preparation go for the EP during that time?

[Barry]: “lmk (if you wanna see me)” was the first song that we all wrote together in lockdown and that was the first song that we released. That was actually the song that our label, who we recently signed with, heard. It was a weird one because obviously no one wants to be in lockdown and isolated from their friends but that song that came out of all of that for us was the one that got everything going for us. So, we made the best out of a bad situation I think.

[Cian]: I think our writing process hasn’t changed that much, we did always write on our laptops and send stuff to each other 

[UNPUBLISHED]: Do you have any musical inspirations?

[Cian]: We’re inspired by so much different music. I think the modern way to make music is that we don’t try to sound like anybody or sound like just one thing anymore. We could go from writing a Prince or Michael Jackson style of song to a Blink-182, pop-punk song to a Cocteau Twins style song. It’s really whatever mood we’re in, all four of us have different inspirations - it’s whatever we’re feeling on that day, that’s our look.

[Barry]: I think because a lot of what we’re inspired by is indie music - Bombay Bicycle Club would be a big one and again, Bloc Party - all of these UK indie bands. We were very big emo kids back in the day, metal heads, as was Danny. Graham was a bit cooler.

[Cian]: Yeah, Graham was into rock n’ roll - Prince, Pink Floyd and My Chemical Romance.

[UNPUBLISHED]: I know some bands will use live shows to test certain songs to see the audience's reaction prior to release, is this something that you have done before during gigs?

[Barry]: Yeah, I mean we’ve always done that, we’ve been playing gigs long before we ever released music, I think when we were sixteen or seventeen. We like playing gigs as well, we started the band to do just that. We started like any other young band, playing covers just for the enjoyment of playing. Usually the feedback from people on the songs that they don’t know, that we haven’t released is pretty good. You know the audience is into it when they’re singing back and having a good time. When it’s a song they haven’t heard, everyone stops dancing because they want to hear it and know what it’s all about - so you’re wondering ‘do people like this, do they not?’. If the gigs go on a bit later, everybody’s had enough to drink so they’re just jumping around anyway!

[UNPUBLISHED]: Do you remember the first gig that you went to and when you knew you wanted to pursue music?

[Graham]: I think mine was Busted or something but I knew I always wanted to play. By the time I met you guys, I was playing already so I’ve always been there.

[Cian]: We all come from musical families so even before any of us went to a gig, we knew that this was realistically the only thing we wanted to do. 

[Barry]: I think the first gig that made me want to do it was our own first gig!

[Cian]: The first four people we played to really rocked the house!

Follow Modernlove on Instagram and listen to Modernlove’s new single “come over x” here!