After listening to a band for a long time, especially those who have created a distinctive niche for themselves, it’s easy to forget they might be capable of experimenting with different sounds. With his new electronic and techno project The Null Club, Gilla Band’s Alan Duggan is certainly stretching his creative wings.

Sitting with me in Hot Press HQ on a sunny Wednesday morning, Duggan traces The Null Club’s roots back to his other group.

“With Gilla Band, it’s always been very groove-orientated, and then we layered on top of those grooves,” he notes. “It was similar with The Null Club, except I layered with different synths. It felt similar in a way, even in terms of the production – the way I would play guitar is very effects-driven, and there’s a lot of just turning effects on and off. So I would take a similar approach in the production.”

Duggan says the transition from Gilla Band’s noise-rock to the industrial sound of debut single ‘Slip Angle’ was quite organic.

“I try to listen to as much music as possible,” he notes. “When this track came together, it wasn’t like, ‘Alright, I’m going to make a track that’s really techno-orientated.’ That’s just what happened. And I was like, ‘That moves like a techno track. I definitely got really interested in old drum machines and synths.

“By getting some of those old machines, plugging them in and pressing play, it was just like, ‘Oh, it’s doing something, that’s cool. Let’s try to record that.’ And with the pedals and the set-up that I have, it’s going to sound kind of aggressive as a result.”

However, the track is still recognisably a Duggan effort.

“Even showing it to the lads in the band, they were like, ‘You can really tell it’s you,’” he nods. “And that’s gas, because there’s not a tonne of guitar on it.”

The Null Club - Abigail Ring

In a few weeks, Duggan and his new project are set to embark on a small UK and Irish tour, starting with a date in Dublin’s The Workman’s Club. With the EP, The Null Club, boasting an expansive industrial sound – as well as different guest vocalists – how will he make the record work live?

“The way that I’ve approached it is, if I was given the task to remix all those songs, how would I do it?” he says. “How could I remix them in a way that’s live sounding, that feels like you’re watching something? I’ve got a few different synths and vocal samples loaded up, and I’m using all of those different effects and guitar pedals. I’ve also got a guitar and about four amps, to try to make it sound aggressive.”

In terms of influences for his live shows, Duggan immediately cites improv techno sets, where, it’s “just like, ‘Here’s a lot of gear’. There are samples loaded and ready to go, but there’s real space to open it up and see where it goes.”

Another long term influence on Duggan and Gilla Band is no wave, the intense form of guitar music that developed in ’80s New York, with Sonic Youth among its main practitioners.

“No wave is one of the fundamental influences on what I do,” says Duggan. “The first time I discovered it, when I was 19 or 20, it just made so much sense to me. It really broadened the definition of what punk was, and introduced a way of doing it that’s super extreme.

“What I loved about no wave was that it was genuinely horrible, and that you can have this punishing sound with incredibly groovy undertones to it as well.”

The Null Club is out now – and is available as a limited edition 12" on white vinyl here. The Null Club play The Workman’s Club, Dublin on May 2.