Wicklow band Florence Road on supporting Wolf Alice, their 'Fall Back' mixtape, and what's next for DIY's Class of 2026 • Cover Feature • DIY Magazine

It has, unbelievably, been 10 years since journalist Teresa Mannion entered the upper echelons of the internet hall of fame, fighting against Storm Desmond by a Galway road and pleading with viewers not to take treacherous journeys. The coinciding of not only that anniversary, but the arrival of Storm Claudia with the release of Florence Road’s latest single, ‘Storm Warnings’, is - as bassist Ailbhe Barry deadpans - the sort of promotional happenstance only a well-paid Etsy witch could bring about.

“It was kind of hilarious, because we did a text out [to fans] saying ‘storm warnings!’, as a hint,” she grins. “Initially we thought, ‘oh my god, people are gonna think it’s an actual storm warning’, and, looking back, it was!”

When they weren’t turning their hand to meteorology, the band (completed by vocalist Lily Aron, drummer Hannah Kelly and guitarist Emma Brandon) have spent 2025 on a run of globe-trotting tours supporting Wallows, sombr and Royel Otis - not to mention opening for Olivia Rodrigo in London’s Hyde Park - before recently joining Wolf Alice for a jaunt across the arenas of Europe.

“It’s literally bonkers,” Lily grins, reflecting on sharing stages with their teenage heroes. “[Wolf Alice] are so, so lovely as people, and also incredibly talented musicians, so it’s very cool to be in the same world as people that used to just be on your phone.” “It is the dream tour,” Ailbhe nods. “But, like, in a cool way.”

The band may be sitting down to chat in the echoing, empty halls of Amsterdam’s AFAS Live ahead of tonight’s show (the slate grey skies and ice cold November rain outside rules out anything more picturesque), but they started the year in the cosier surroundings of Lily’s garden shed in Bray, County Wicklow - a convenient practice space that now doubles as something of a spiritual home. “What is it called when you put a council thing on it [so it] can never be bulldozed?” she quips. [A listed building, perhaps? - Ed]

“The Shed has everything we could need - it’s got a shop nearby that makes phenomenal rolls,” Ailbhe insists, specifying the need for the capital T, capital S. “We are so lucky to have it. A lot of bands that we know have to rent out spaces, and that is so expensive. We just have The Shed.”

“ “It’s very cool to be in the same world as people that used to just be on your phone.” — Lily Aron

A group of friends starting a band, naming it after the street their school was on, practising in the garden and performing to crowds of their own classmates is twee enough to be worthy of a coming-of-age film; so much so that it’s essentially the premise of Sing Street, the 2016 musical comedy set just half an hour up the road.

“It’s sort of unbelievable,” Lily nods. “When I tell the story, I’m saying it and I think, ‘it does sound like a movie plot!’ It’s quite amazing to see that, as four friends who love playing music together, that can actually take us somewhere, and people can listen to our music. It’s mad.”

An early plot point in Florence Road’s story was winning a competition that enabled them to record and release their first single: 2022’s ‘another seventeen’. The bouncing ode to teenage angst may be charming, but wasn’t quite them, so after an extended writing period (characterised by Ailbhe as “a lot of throwing spaghetti at the wall”) they emerged with a distinctly rock-driven new sound, held up by heavier guitars and belt-along choruses. Between them they’ve cited influences from beabadoobee and The Beatles to Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC, The Kinks, Alanis Morissette, The Cranberries and Florence Welch, but it’s a heady cocktail they’re usually able to balance without thinking. “We never question things too much or overcomplicate it,” Lily explains. “If it feels good, that’s it; it’s right. I feel like people connect with that and feel like there’s a bit of them in the songs.”

Despite the decisive shift, which saw ‘another seventeen’ fall off their setlist, the song does still hold a place in their hearts: “It’s such a reminder of where everything started,” Lily says fondly. “Me and Hannah both have ‘17’ tattoos - I think it’s important to see the growth, and it’s a nice marker.”

“Something that blew my mind in Australia was when we’d be talking to people after the show, and they’d say, “oh my god, I never thought you’d come to Australia, I’ve been listening since ‘another seventeen’”,” Ailbhe recalls. “I was like, ‘you have that down here?!’”

Armed with their new material, and having signed to Warner at the end of 2024, the band would reintroduce themselves to the world in March with ‘Heavy’, a staggering track with a heartache-ridden chorus to get under your skin. They followed it with the softer, acoustic lament ‘Caterpillar’, before returning to their grungier instincts for ‘Figure It Out’ - a track which, Ailbhe notes proudly, “really resonated with the dads”.

“After gigs, parents would come up and be like, ‘loved that one’,” she recalls, beaming. “It’s like, yeah, it’s for you!” “I do trust their taste, because I feel like they’ve been around,” Hannah says. “They’ve seen the gig scene - they wouldn’t go to just anything.”

The band soon cemented their arrival (or return?) over the summer with the release of their ‘Fall Back’ mixtape, a tight six-track project where more obvious pop tendencies swirl among crunching guitars, thrashing crescendos and, on opener ‘Break the Girl’, festival-ready “la la la”s. Keen not to lose any momentum, they’ve unveiled two more singles since then: the brooding, grief-stricken ‘Miss’ and the soaring, auspiciously timed ‘Storm Warnings’.

“It was really great to finally be releasing music again - it was a goal of ours for a long time,” Lily says. “‘Storm Warnings’ was actually the second or third song we’d ever written, so we’ve had her in the bag for a while. She’s had a few renaissances; we’ve tweaked her along the way, and it was really cool to play her live for so long and really get a feel for it. It’s just nice to have it out and have an old one be new again.”

“ “We were on the other side of the world and people knew who we were. It was very surreal.” — Lily Aron

Florence Road’s reception among their fans - who refer to them affectionately as Flo Ro - has been as remarkable as the quality of their output. A delve into their social media comment sections finds a sea of all-caps declarations of love and obsession; pleas for new releases, and demands for live dates from Cardiff to Brazil. When they played their own pop-up headline in Sydney during their supports with Royel Otis, they expected only a couple of dozen people to show up, but were met with a crowd of fans, records in hand, knowing every lyric.

“That really blew our heads off,” Lily grins. “It was a really cool moment, because we were on the other side of the world - we were upside down! - and people knew who we were. It was very surreal.”

The quartet put their connection with their audience down to authenticity - something they try to centre in all that they do. Behind the carefully-styled photoshoots and slick on-stage performances, these are, after all, still four girls in their earliest twenties, well-versed in internet humour and the art of not taking anything too seriously - that is, apart from their “hype playlist”, which is discussed (all four of them lean forward with their elbows on their knees) with the kind of committed fervour usually reserved for defending a PhD thesis. (‘Candy’ by Robbie Williams is the headline entry; it’s joined by a motley collection including One Direction, Kneecap, Westlife, CMAT, Little Mix and “a lot of 2010s bangers”.)

It’s this side of their personalities that manages to come through on their TikTok page, where the 0.5 wide-angle videos covering the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Gigi Perez and Paramore that first garnered viral attention have slowly been replaced by clips of their own songs, tour buses and airport vlogs.

“Once we started releasing music we wanted to shift from being seen as a cover band online to being taken seriously; that was always a worry of ours,” Lily says. “I think we have a good approach to it and understand its value - and, in the grand scheme of things, it is easy to film a 30-second video and post it. We’re not doing open heart surgery! We’re able to have our fun with it, which is good. It’s never that serious.” “I feel like [TikTok] is a part of the ecosphere,” Hannah agrees. “There’s playing live, writing, social presence, promo - it all just works together.”

Of all the moving parts, though, playing live takes firm precedence - if their packed touring schedule hadn’t made that sufficiently clear. “That’s the most important [part],” Emma nods. “Even when we’re writing songs we’re thinking, ‘how is this going to go live?’”

“As a concert-goer, hearing live music is just like nothing else,” Lily gushes. “It’s amazing, and to play your music live is just so great. You think you’ll get bored of it, playing the same songs, but it’s so much fun.” “She keeps on crying,” Ailbhe sighs.

“I haven’t had a full breakdown on stage, but it’s coming,” Lily grins. “We have a big headline show in Dublin [at the end of the month]. It’s our biggest headline ever, and I just feel like it’s brewing already.”

“ “We’ve done so much travelling, and it’s been incredible, but we’re all looking forward to it just being the four of us.” — Hannah Kelly

After a year of bucket list shows, 2026 is teasing much of the same: they’ve already lined up their first American tour opening for The Last Dinner Party - another band they’ve long-idolised, and who stand as an example of the success young female-fronted guitar bands are capable of.

“It’s great to get the opportunity to hear their music every night for a month and be in that same space,” Lily says. “We’re gonna be in Houston for Emma’s birthday - 21, baby! It’s gonna be busy, but insanely good.” “We don’t know what’s on the cards yet,” Ailbhe says of the rest of the year. “We didn’t know, in January of this year, what was going to happen.”

“We just wake up every morning and get told,” Emma grins. “It’s kind of the dream,” Ailbhe nods. “But in a cool way.” It’s a clarification littered throughout our conversation - if this band could have sunglasses permanently photoshopped onto their faces, they probably would.

For now, there is at least one other commitment locked into the calendar: they’re headed back to The Shed. “We’re going to do the great lock-in of 2026,” Hannah declares. “Just two months, back to back, of concentrated writing in one place. We’ve done so much travelling, and it’s been incredible, but we’re all looking forward to it just being the four of us.” “Just staying in Ireland for a few days,” adds Emma.

Returning to the place where it all started won’t just be a well-earned break for them - it’s also an important ingredient to keeping the quintessential Florence Road energy alive. The day they stop writing in The Shed, Emma jokes, is the day that they’ve lost themselves.

“It helps us to be grounded because, to us, it’s the same as it was when no one was listening,” Lily explains. “We’re still in The Shed, and we’re still just doing it because we love it. It helps us not get too stressed or overwhelmed, because we’re just having a good time.”

‘Fall Back’ is out now via Warner Music.

Tags: Cover Features, Features, Class of 2026, December 2025 / January 2026, Florence Road, From The Magazine