- Culture
- 27 Oct 21
M(h)aol's debut EP 'Gender Studies' will be released this Friday, October 29th via TULLE.
Five-piece post-punk heroes M(h)aol have returned with fierce new single 'No One Ever Talks To Us', accompanied by blood-soaked visuals in a forest.
Currently based between Dublin, London, and Bristol; M(h)aol is composed of Róisín Nic Ghearailt, Constance Keane aka Fears, Jamie Hyland (AKA Girl Band’s ‘Holding Hands With Jamie’), Zoe Greenway, and Sean Nolan.
Pronounced “male”, the Irish outfit burst onto the scene earlier this year. Consistently ready and willing to expand and implode the genre of post-punk itself - a notoriously male-heavy, white, cisgender scene in most countries - M(h)aol's latest track is taken from their brand new EP Gender Studies.
‘No One Ever Talks To Us’ addresses the value of being in a mainly female band in a genre known for mainly men, and feeling bored of the conversation we’ve been having for decades.
"’No One Ever Talks To Us’ is an amalgamation of our own personal experiences of being in a predominantly female band in a predominantly male genre. It's also a synthesis of the autobiographical experiences of Carrie Brownstein, Kim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna etc, and how so often your value in this industry is based on whether the (men) around you find you attractive," singer Róisín Nic Ghearailt says.
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"I wanted the vocals to sound in parts like I was bored, which is true. We've been having this conversation for decades. It's time to move it on."
The video was made by the band’s own Zoe Greenway, and inspired by a combination of Barbara Creed’s The Monstrous Feminine, Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror and Megan Fox in Jennifer's Body.
Rolling around in the darkness, surrounded by trees and atmospheric broodiness, Greenway's video sees a trio of women covered in blood-soaked white linen dresses. The clip is interspersed with red flashing light, sparklers and less clothing. Victorian clothing conjures up images of witchcraft and poison, rewriting the narrative of powerless, weak, fragile characters in 19th century male literature.
“I think somewhere inside of every girl they can relate to this idea of feeling like ‘My power has been taken away from me and what would I do if I got all of that power and then some back'," Megan Fox said of Jennifer's Body. "I imagine that’s one of the things that they relate to: That vicarious letting loose, what’s referred to in our hippie circles as ‘the inner wild woman,’ ‘the inner wild witch’ that we all have. That is an archetype."
M(h)aol's debut EP Gender Studies will land digitally on 29th October with a limited edition Dinked vinyl arriving on 14th January via Tulle.
On the EP, lead vocalist Róisín says, “Gender Studies weaves past and present in an exploration of how the construct of gender shapes our lives. From feeling like you're not performing your gender right to the way it shapes how we move through the physical, sexual and romantic sphere it marries urgent lyrics with a threatening yet (blank) sound."
Check out the horror-heavy new video below: