Parkgate don’t really remember a time before they were a band. They talk about themselves the way childhood friends do – because that’s exactly what they are. Officially, Parkgate began last year with a debut gig in Bello Bar. Unofficially, and more truthfully, it began when they were sixteen, and even before that, when they were four years old and already orbiting each other’s lives in Donegal. “Our friendship has always been the foundation,” they tell us. “I think that if we didn’t have this band we would all still want to be friends, which is always a nice thing.”
Photo Credit: @chris_theintern
Donegal gave them identity, but Dublin gave them opportunity. Back home, the only gigs were birthday parties and the odd venue in Letterkenny or Derry willing to take a chance on loud guitars. In Dublin, suddenly there were rooms full of people who wanted exactly what Parkgate were making.
“Parkgate is a post‑punk/indie rock trio from Donegal, but living and performing in Dublin,” they tell us. But that sentence doesn’t capture the real story: three people who grew up together and grew into musicians together.
Studying at BIMM became the ignition point. “We are all incredibly proud of the fact we come from Donegal, but there'sonly so much you can do to try to make it in the music industry there,” they say. Dublin offered stages, collaborators, and the sense that the band they’d always imagined could exist.
They speak about each other with the kind of admiration that only comes from years of watching someone grow: “Kaelig has always been an incredible bass player, even back when we first started playing music together at sixteen. She has this incredible ability to create bass lines in a matter of minutes that would take anormal person days. She is one of the most talented musicians I have ever seen. Feargal the drummer is incredibly level-headed and pragmatic and is always there making sure we're doing the right stuff and not just what's easiest. Feargal is always pushing us to do more with what we have, so that the songs sound the best they can. Oisin the vocalist is incredibly good at knowing what to do within the music scene. He is great at reaching out to people to help the band, and at sorting things to do with recording and gigs. Without him I don’t know how far we would get.”
“It brings back nostalgia from when we were younger, practising in Feargal’s kitchen.”
Ask them what still lives from their earliest days and they don’t hesitate: experimentation, curiosity, and a song they wrote as teenagers that still appears in their setlist. That willingness to try anything remains their engine.
“This song embodies who we are and what we’ve learned in Dublin.”
After years of talking about projects, college deadlines and jobs that kept pulling them away from the reason they went to BIMM in the first place, their debut single “Empty” marks the moment the band said ‘enough waiting’. So they booked studio time in March, recorded “Empty,” and tracked their next single too.
The song began as a last‑minute addition to a gig setlist, but grew into something sharper and more vulnerable. “The song is about the helplessness of being in love with somebody,” they explain, a universal ache, sharpened by new lyrics and a lead guitar line from their friend Jasper Ryan (Wifeswap, Jackie’s Parents) that stitched the whole track together.
Cover Art for "Empty"
“We hope to God they’re connecting with the music.”
Selling out two Bello Bar gigs before releasing a single is no small feat, but Parkgate don’t overthink it. They laugh about it, then get serious. Some of their favourite artists make music that feels like personality made audible. That’s what Parkgate want too. Onstage, the friendship becomes visible. “We just want our audience to understand who we are and what we stand for.”
Parkgate are restless in the best way. They want to experiment and to see what happens when they stop playing safe. “In music it’s always worth trying something and taking a risk. That’s where the best stuff comes from.” An EP is on the horizon, but they’re not rushing it. Right now, the focus is on building a catalogue that feels honest and unmistakably theirs.
EMPTY OUT NOW.
Words by
Marie Müller, 2026.