Happy 1st Birthday Human Recommendation!
Life is all about little milestones and a small one coming up for me is that my radio show The Human Recommendation turns 1 next week. I want to say a big thank you to the FLIRT FM folks for giving me an opportunity on college community radio.
In that past year, I’ve presented 30 radio show episodes (I know I’m still counting but I’m not sure why) and I have posted 40 episodes of my interview podcast over on Mixcloud
The Human Recommendation | Mixcloud
The Human Recommendation is on Mixcloud. Listen for free to their radio shows, DJ mix sets and Podcasts
Looking back I cringe a little at the earlier shows, but I’ve learned a lot and made lots of mistakes learning by doing. Finally, I’ve gotten past the sound of my own voice but I’m delighted I gave hosting a radio show a proper go, even from the viewpoint of a personal development exercise.
If you are a regular listener, casual observer or just new to the show recently thanks for your company. It would be super if you could join me again this Monday the 15th September to celebrate the year with another stacked radio show, bursting with the best indie and alternative music from around the globe. The show is available on 101.3 FM in Galway city and streams from flirtfm.ie at 8pm
Recent Interviews
In recent interviews, I have spoken with acclaimed cellist, composer, pianist, producer and environmental activist Rebecca Foon ahead of her new album release 'Black Butterflies' which releases 24th October. She’s spoken at the UN, exhibited large-scale environmental art, scored award-winning films and documentaries as well as co-founding the climate action group Pathway to Paris.
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The Human Recommendation interview #38, with Rebecca Foon by The Human Recommendation | Mixcloud
The Human Recommendation is a weekly radio show on Flirt FM 101.3 in Galway city showcasing the best of indie & alternative music from Ireland and around the globe. But in this special interview side project, host Damien had the opportunity to talk with acclaimed cellist, composer, producer, and environmental activist Rebecca Foon. Her luminous new album 'Black Butterflies' will be available October 24, 2025. In a Rebecca spoke about stepping out of her comfort zone to make this new dream-pop re...
Also, I posted a conversation with Calgary's Oranje this week. Their debut album 'In Irons' drops independently Oct 17th. It’s jazz infused math rock/emo and it’s a lot of fun!
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The Human Recommendation interview #39, with Calgary's Oranje by The Human Recommendation | Mixcloud
The Human Recommendation is a weekly radio show on Flirt FM 101.3 in Galway city showcasing the best of indie & alternative music from Ireland and around the globe. But in this special interview side project, host Damien had the opportunity to talk with Oranje, a Calgary EMO math-rock outfit. The trio is composed of Joseph Bahhadi on guitar, Michael Buie on bass, and Andrés Mira on drums. The three musicians met during their time at the University of Calgary, in which they were all members of th...
More interviews to come in the next week, including Toronto’s Heartrunner and New York based singer mer marcum.
Live Music
Grassroots never stops, here’s a look back at the GAZEFEST festival which was spread across 2 days in Dublin and Belfast.
Dublin event Day 1
I took the train to Dublin and tried to dodge the rain unsuccessfully. It was my first time in the Grand Social venue in Dublin for the GAZEFEST event. Day one featured headliners Whitelands from London, Virgins from Belfast and Dublin act Skyless who opened the night.
Skyless are a shoegaze band who have a strong local following in Dublin are getting better each time I see them. They delivered another tight set with some new material added last minute and they continue to impress. I look forward to hearing more from them when they release their new music.
One thing I did find a little strange for a paid event was that many of their own local fans didn’t wait for the other bands to play and had moved on to the next late night stop.
Belfast based act Virgins are shoegaze purists and you can learn more about them in my conversation with guitarist Michael Smyth. Along with familiar numbers from their ‘nothing hurt and everything was beautiful’ release that you should check out, they also introduced a few new tracks with “Crucible” and “Reverie”. Both tracks have potential but need more time to lock down fully. The band sounded much better than the last time I saw them at the Roisin Dubh in Galway for the Blowtorch Records show case event and they were in great form on the night.
This was Whitelands first performance on Irish soil and they went down a storm to an audience split between music fans familiar with their music, especially their debut album, to new curious fans there to check them out. The band were in buoyant mood and sounded crisp, warm and especially uplifting. As much as I loved their debut record, I underestimated just how soulful they would be live! I left that night with The Prophet & I stuck in my head.
Day 2 of GAZEFEST
The following day, I took the train again this time to Belfast and the carriages were packed with American tourists. The city has a complicated history but it’s brilliant to see it back thriving.
Huge credit to Michael Smyth from Old Crows Promotions for organising an “all day'er" shoegaze event in Belfast showcasing all the different things and variations that are possible within the genre. He had stressed to me the importance of the all ages show and it was incredible value at £20 which kept is accessible to those youngsters. Michael explained to a me in a recent interview,
“The only reason I’m 40 and still doing this is because whenever I was 13, I got to go to an all ages punk venue every Friday and Saturday night. I got to see bands from all over the world, meet people from all different walks of life and be exposed to all this culture and “for lack of”. So, it’s vital to me that the all ages thing is a part of it”
Day 2 took place at the Oh Yeah Music Centre which is an amazing arts/community space. The Oh Yeah Music Centre “was founded in 2005 with the belief that music can transform lives and communities”. Snow Patrol front-man Gary Lightbody, broadcaster and journalist Stuart Bailie, music manager Davy Matchett, and digital entrepreneur Martin Neill were the founding forces behind the centre”.
They had the foresight to imagine a place where young musicians could access rehearsal spaces, mentoring, gigs, studio time and industry support and it’s a real credit to them.
It teemed rain again as I made my way to the venue but I didn’t want to wait out the weather as I had interviewed producer and songwriter David O’Farrell-McGeary earlier in the year about his new self produced 'Haunted Images' album and I was keen to hear those tracks performed live. He didn't disappoint and the day of music was off to a flying start.
As well as organising the event Michael Smyth was also playing in two bands on the day, starting with Silk where he was hyper on stage letting loose on guitar. Their sound is on the heavier noise side of the shoegaze genre which definitely engaged with some of younger fans.
Someone I wasn’t familiar at all with was ‘how r you’, a Belfast based slow-core side project of Irish singer-songwriter and producer Thom Southern. There was just Thom and Richard van den Bos on drums, but they created this spellbinding set that was so unexpected and it really took me by surprise how hypnotic this low-fi sound was. I’ve been since wading through their music catalogue since especially the album ‘for james’ I highly recommend listening to it through headphones, it is perfect accompaniment for commuting. This was exactly why I went along to the event to discover more bands like this.
Thom posted on Instagram,
“it was honestly a gig that makes you still feel that smaller venue live music matters a lot and that most of all people matter. so cool to just see lots of different age groups talking to each other and connecting through music”
Gush were another Belfast band I wasn’t familiar with, and they had a strong local following also. They are not quite a shoegaze band per se, they are more an alternative, grungy punk rock with some shoegaze elements and lots of noise effects that had the mixed age audience rocking!
Sunstinger were a band recommended to me as a must see. Hailing from Fife, Scotland they produced a killer set that was post rock infused shoegaze with a wall of sound from all their guitarists on stage. There were a couple of Italian shoegaze bloggers at the front of the stage who had made the trip over especially to see the band and it was fun to see their enthusiastic, boisterous support.
Wynona Bleach, are also Belfast based, this five piece were a band I hadn’t heard before. The decibel level went up as they powered through a set that was a mix of indie/alternative/shoegaze and power pop. I’m definitely checking out more of their music. I had the chance to chat briefly with their singer Melyssa Shannon afterwards. It was lovely to hear her local insights into the venue and the Northern music scene.
Virgins played the second night, back on home turf now and were tighter again . They blazed through their set and unveiled their new tracks thrilling the local fans in the process as well as old favourites.
Before I knew it, the day had turned into night as the time had flown by and Whitelands took to the stage to headline again. They are such a good band live consisting of 4 different integral parts that bind together as this unit of love, in a dream pop shoegaze with so much soul. It was such a pleasure to see them again and to meet Etienne, Jagun, Vanessa and Michael in person.
Overall it was a great day of music and so many thanks to all the awesome bands 🎸that performed ✨ and the friendly welcome from all the gang from Belfast. A shout out to Mike who I had connected and spoken to online through Twitter from a shared interest in South American indie music!
I hadn't visited Belfast for more than ten years and I definitely won’t leave it that long again. We need more of these types of events on the island.
We need to get more people off the couch and supporting live music from independent artists. I guess that starts by becoming taking the time to become familiar with all the new emerging talent by taking charge of listening habits and continuing to reject the lazy algorithmic curation of streaming platforms!