Merricat, gaze infused alt-rockers from Dublin, Ireland, met as a group of students in late 2024. They began taking their project seriously since 2025 and have been working together ever since. Their music draws inspiration from a wide range of bands and genres, with key influences including DIIV, The Smashing Pumpkins, Julie, and Mary and the Junkyard. Their two recent releases, "springfield glen” and “merrow”, mark important milestones in the band’s evolving musical direction and will be included on their debut EP, which is out now.
We handed over the mic to Merricat, who were kind enough to break down their brand new EP in limbo for us.
Photographer uncredited
"This debut EP has been an ongoing project for us over the past months, and we’ve put a lot of time and effort into it. It’s a collection of songs that are just the beginning for us, showing how much we’ve worked on and developed our sound. I’d describe the EP as melancholic
and moody. All the songs are very emotion-driven, which you can hear in both the music and the lyrics. Storytelling plays a big part in helping translate the emotions behind each song. While the lyrics have their own stories, we also felt it was really important to let the melodies and music speak for themselves too, helping create the melancholic atmosphere of the EP.
A special thanks to AJ Das for recording and mixing the whole EP, and to John Kirk for mastering. AJ really helped us get the sound we were looking for, let us experiment during the recording process, and kept everything sounding cohesive."
Track 1- virtue
"virtue is probably my personal favourite track on the EP. We decided to put it first because we felt it did a good job of setting the overall tone, moving from ambient sounds and soft vocals to more powerful, louder vocals towards the end. The song itself is about grieving your home and feeling like you don’t belong. I was specifically thinking about Ireland when writing the lyrics, and how we can sometimes choose to be ignorant of current affairs to give your home the benefit of the doubt. It plays with the idea that even if you feel like you want to stay, you don’t really feel like you belong."
Track 2- we have always lived in the castle
"we have always lived in the castle is a re-recording of our second release ‘merricat’ which is where the band name originated from. This song is a rendition of Shirley Jackson's book We Have Always Lived in the castle. Before we had a band name I wrote this song which is my own interpretation of the ending of the book. Having not finished the book yet, I decided to write my own ending in the form of a song where I focused on the character of Merricat. In this rendition the character goes missing after a game of hide and seek, leaving her sister behind to fend for herself alone without a family. This track is probably the most story driven on the ep and we tried to match the pacing of the story with the music when writing it. The intensity of the music builds as the song goes on and as the story progresses."
Track 3- springfield glen
"springfield glen is probably one of the more upbeat, lighthearted tracks of the ep. This was our first single release from the EP and is quite different to the others. The name is actually a bus stop on my commute to Kells. I was writing the song on the bus and based it on a house I always admired when driving by. The song is about being in a state of confusion and frustration with not knowing what the future holds. I also just play with the idea of letting your superstition make your decisions for you sometimes."
Track 4- merrow
"merrow was our second single release from the EP. This song is very emotive and we tried to capture a lot of that through the melody and music itself. It's a song about frustration, feeling misunderstood and all the emotions that go along with that. While I wanted to keep the lyrics minimal in this track, I also wanted to tell a story, so I chose to base it on the Irish mythical creature, the merrow, as these creatures were often misunderstood and mistreated in Irish folklore."
Track 5- soot
"soot is an older song that I wrote when I was younger and brought to the band at the very beginning. It’s gone through a lot of reworking over time, including during the recording process, but we’re happy with where it is now. At its core the song is about grief and loss and the many forms they can take. Lyrically, it’s a more personal song as it was originally written as a solo piece. Being one of our first songs we played together and jammed on, we thought it would be nice to include it on the EP as a nod to where we began and the direction we’re now heading in."
IN LIMBO OUT NOW.
Photographer uncredited
Words by
Marie Müller, 2026