Dublin's Gurriers on the city's music scene and the political themes of debut album 'Come and See' • Interview • DIY Magazine

It’s no coincidence that Dublin has a habit of delivering when it comes to vital new guitar music. Since the well-documented rise of now-household names, from Gilla Band to Fontaines DC and beyond, the pathway has never seemed clearer for those looking to push beyond the boundaries of the city’s vibrant scene. “It wasn’t always that way,” explains frontman Dan Hoff of Gurriers, the latest bunch to use the community on their doorstep as a launchpad for success. “Ten years ago it felt like there was nothing going on, but now there’s amazing music coming from every corner of the city. Naturally, when you see other bands making heavy guitar music and doing well, the whole thing becomes way more tangible.”

A project born in the depths of lockdown, Gurriers started life as a promise made good. “Me and Mark (MacCormack, guitar) were actually working in a fast food restaurant years ago and we always said we’d make a band,” says Dan. “We just started out together in lockdown where we were our own audience, trying to write songs away from the direction of everything else.”

Given the volume of pent-up frustration being channelled across the world in 2020, making something different was a tall order. But the band knew they had something special when they penned debut single ‘Approachable’. A step away from the more sardonic and spiky punk of their peers, the politically-loaded anthem is straight to the point as Dan draws from online political tensions around a scuzzy guitar line: “Once in a while I blacken out my windows and roll a smoke / Turn on the PC, watch the right-side pixels floating slowly at me.” “That song really kept us going,” nods drummer Pearce Callaghan. “We kept it in the forefront of our mind; it was more than a group of guys in a room making loud music.”

“The undertone of the album is what’s happening around me in Dublin, but I want the songs to be a lot more universal.” – Dan Hoff

This month, debut album ‘Come And See’ arrives to make good on that early promise. There’s a palpable sense of anger across the surface of the record, but amidst the chaos and urgency, the band rarely lose sight of the song. “We love catchy melodies and hooks,” says Dan. “We were developing the songs in a vacuum, being super picky and critical of ourselves. It was all about the songwriting itself rather than the live set dictating it. The songs had to stand up.”

Thematically, ‘Come And See’ aims to stretch beyond the oft-eulogised outlook of their hometown. “The undertone of the album is what’s happening around me in Dublin, but I want the songs to be a lot more universal,” explains the frontman. “People from Dublin are going to get it but it’s relatable way beyond that. ‘Approachable’ was about the Irish National Party but you can see across Europe it’s a universal thing. We also have the single ‘Dipping Out’ that’s a straightforward song about Irish people emigrating [but also about] the wider theme of people leaving home.”

And there’s nuance buried within the anger of the political themes they attack. “I wanted to write about things that I haven’t heard about in rock, like online fear and misery and desensitisation to violence; themes that aren’t really touched on with guitar bands but you hear more of in hip hop,” says Dan. “The internet is a deep dark voyage of information and inspiration I think.”

Giants of the Dublin scene might well have created a slipstream for new bands to follow suit, but Gurriers say it’s the healthy competition currently within the scene that’s propelled them to new heights. “Everybody wants the best for themselves here but it’s not to the detriment of others,” says Pearce. “There’s a whole ecosystem of support.” Heading into their debut, they’re trying to bottle that motivation and winning feeling. “We’ve made so many sacrifices along the way to actually get here so you’ve got to soak up the pay-off, otherwise it can feel like sand in your hands when you’re trying to make it stick,” says Hoff. “We don’t take it for granted at all.”

‘Come And See’ is out now via No Filter.

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