Sub Motion are unashamedly serious rockers who take influence from bands like Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters. “Ireland is a big singer-songwriter country,” says Conor McLoughlin from the band. “It’s always been that way throughout its heritage. But there are some strands of rock music in there if you look back on bands like Thin Lizzy. So we’re just carrying on from that.”
Sub Motion won a Searchlight Development Deal back in 2013 and immediately began the search for a lead singer to front their pummelling rock music. They found what they were looking for in the form of Rebecca Geary, now the band’s lead vocalist, who sounds like Karen O, only fiercer, and has become the perfect counterpart for the band’s intense sound.
“Check out our live shows,” Rebecca says confidently. “We’re loud, we’re aggressive, and we’ve taken a lot from the riot girl movement of the ’90s. Me being a female lead singer, one of the things I try to do is use the music to be empowering. It gets the audience on our side and really gets the crowd going.”
The band have spent the last year taking a more serious approach to their music. Conor explains: “I was working at a job 9-5 and everyone had jobs going. We all just had to sit down in a pub one day and say: ‘Look, it’s all or nothing. We have to make a decision about how seriously we want to take this.’”
The result was that Sub Motion decided to make music their whole career, a resolution which, Rebecca tells me, has reached its “peak” with the launch of their single ‘Headchecked’ at the end of this month. With scuzzy, pulsating guitars, riotous singing, and lyrics like “I’m a motherfucking freakshow” and a “freaky little psycho”, the ‘Headchecked’ launch is sure to be a wild night.
See: Sub Motion’s ‘Headchecked’ single launch is in Whelan’s on October 28.
Hear: The video for their new single can be found below.