In Conversation With: Madams Last Discovery

Photo Credits: Carrie Davenport

If you have ever wondered what it might sound like to trap Shaun Ryder, David Byrne, Grian Chatten and the devil in a Belfast bar crawl, Madams Last Discovery may have already done it and recorded the soundtrack.

Your band bio reads like a fever dream – it does sound like a night out we would enjoy. Who wrote that line, and how close is it to your actual creative process?

Madams Last Discovery: That quote comes from a friend of ours, Taylor Johnson. He is a radio presenter for BBC Introducing and is in a brilliant band called Brand New Friend. He wrote it in a press release he did for us a while back, and we thought it was so funny. I think it describes our sound quite well, as we take influence from so many different areas in our music. In the end it comes together as a random combination.

Quick fire to get to know you – one word to describe your sound that isn’t a genre?

Madams Last Discovery: Ecstatic.

You mention a lot of creative firsts for your new single “Orange Juice”. What cracked that door open? How did you decide what to change? What else did you challenge yourself to do on your upcoming EP?

Madams Last Discovery: When we wrote Orange Juice, we had been on a hiatus from the studios so when we got back into writing we wanted to try something new. We had just started using a MIDI keyboard in our rehearsals to try and bring in some new sounds, and this was the first song that used it. It started with me (Nathan), Flinn and Fion just messing around with riff ideas until something stuck. The lyrics were then written by Flinn, where he was trying to stray away from his usual conventions by not referring to a person as “I, Me or Them” but rather using the word “One”.

I think our attitude of ‘trying not to do something that we would usually do’ stuck throughout this EP., We don’t want the whole thing to sound like one song.

Especially banning “you, me, them” from the lyrics is a very interesting choice. Can you tell us more about that?

Madams Last Discovery: I (Flinn) came up with this idea as every time we had started to write a new song, I would make up some basic lyrics to figure out and decide a rhythm for them. I noticed every time these random lyrics would always go to the same place, using you, me and them. As much as these words are critical to songwriting and feature heavily in our other songs, I just needed to change something for this track, I didn’t want to repeat myself. In doing this though I repeat myself several times singing the word “One”.

You’ve said “Orange Juice” became your live opener. What does it do to a room that made it the obvious choice?  

Madams Last Discovery: We’ve played it a number of times now to a live audience, and every time we can see that it grabs the audience's attention. Especially with it being paired with our intro track, which we made with a sample from an old movie, “Plan 9 from Outer Space”. It immediately draws the audience in, and I think it gives a good taste of our sound as a band. It gives the right impression that we want to get everyone on their feet and dancing.

If “Orange Juice” had a cinematic twin – which film would it be, and why?

Madams Last Discovery: That's a tough one. I can’t think of a specific movie that would be its cinematic twin, but I would love to see someone take the song and make a movie out of its story. We pay a bit of a homage to Edgar Wright with the name of our EP being inspired by that, so I’d like to see what he could make of it. Maybe Trainspotting?

On your new EP – what can listeners expect after “Orange Juice”?  

Madams Last Discovery: There will be three other tracks, two of which we have been playing live for a while now and one which was only recently debuted at our gig in the Limelight on the 17th of December. All the tracks on the EP tell their own story and have a unique sound. There was a lot of experimentation with synths, guitars and effects, so definitely an EP for those who are into that. The last song is one we have been excited to record for a while now. It has elements to it that we have never tried as a band before, so I would keep your eyes peeled.

What do you want people to feel – emotionally, physically, spiritually – when listening to your debut EP for the first time?  

Madams Last Discovery: We want people to feel like they must listen again. It would be great if they could find something within our music, a lyric or even just the sound of the song that they can connect with. It's a busy world and a bit of a chaotic time to be alive with a lot of people constantly feeling under society's pressures, I’d like our music to make people feel like they aren’t alone in that, and sometimes you just have to get your energy out through music, whether that be dancing, singing along or writing it yourself.

And finally, new year new me, as they say. What are your New Year’s resolutions for the band? What’s the year looking like?  

Madams Last Discovery: We’d love to just get playing to more new audiences. We’re so lucky to have people who care about our music at home, but we’d love to show people all over the world what is going on in Belfast. Remembering to print set lists could be a good one as well.

ORANGE JUICE OUT NOW.