So, on the far side of the room we have Robert McFarlane’s The Old Ways – one of the literary high watermarks of 2012. An ecstatically written (and ecstatically imagined) prose poem which finds the author seeking neglected pathways, over land and sea, that still manage, through lore, deep resonance and sheer geographical imperative, to exert a powerful, almost pagan hold.

Standing opposite: Finding St. Kilda, the debut album from Belfast based post-hardcore trio, Axis Of.
If The Old Ways celebrates silence and rumination, Finding St. Kilda is all about the noise. If The Old Ways is the product of years of heavy research, Finding St. Kilda was knocked out in a fortnight of studio time. If The Old Ways was given a huge PR push, Finding St. Kilda may find it a little harder to get heard.
But, but – and maybe no-one else will notice, because no-one else is reading one while listening to the other – there’s a spark there. It’s conceivable that their eyes, even if only fleetingly, could meet over the heads of everyone else in the room.
Ewan Friers, the band’s lyricist and main vocalist, hasn’t read the McFarlane book, but as he talks about what motivates the band creatively – a fascination with off-road life, local histories and the hand-weaved personal mythologies of characters they meet along the way – he’d maybe appreciate a copy for his birthday.
“As far as we’re all concerned, the travel – the opportunity to meet different people, see different places – that’s the whole reason for being in a band,” he explains. “It’s an organic thing: we tour, we meet people; then we write and record songs about those people and places, and that allows us to go off and meet lots of new people in new places.”
“... who we’ll then write about in our new songs,” adds guitarist Niall Lawlor.
Drummer Ethan Harman nods sagely in agreement: “It’s great. I really can’t think of anything we’d rather do”
Not everyone will buy into the band’s romantic take on trench level life, but the trio seem unconcerned with showbiz ambitions.
“I can see the appeal of that kind of A-list life,” says Ewan, “and how all the sleeping on couches would be someone else’s idea of hell. But we love it. I think we all just like meeting people. Drifting in and out of someone else’s life: seeing different lives in miniature, finding out about local history. I mean, at what other point in your life would you find yourself waking up in Angers in France, hanging out with the loveliest people in a medieval house? Of course, you meet the odd prick too – but even then, you’ll probably get a story out of it.”
“We’re glorified tourists, really,” says Ethan. “Not the usual tourist who only goes to the Eiffel Tower. We’ll be in some grim back-street. I think we use being in a band as an excuse to see other people’s lives to be honest.”
Teeming with noise and personality, and with a cast-list and set of locations that would turn the production team on a Hollywood blockbuster cross-eyed, Finding St. Kilda is a brilliant depiction of life on the indie margins. One that’s probably best summed up by a line from its opening track, ‘Cardiel’: “There’s plazas with marble and markets with garble/there’s buses to Edam and train lines to Sweden/the shower’s free/this maps yours/call me on your next tour.”

Axis Of give Finding St. Kilda a live airing in Nancy Spain’s, Cork (March 20); Dolan’s, Limerick (21); Workman’s, Dublin (22); Roisin Dubh, Galway (23) and Empire, Belfast (30)