I meet Jamie and Richie officially for the first time in front of the Hot Press reception desk with a smile and a handshake, but we’ve met unofficially a good three years before that. Back in college, when I was doing a bit of blogging for my university radio station in Portland, Oregon, they followed my Tumblr page, and for that I suppose I owe them a thank-you as much as an apology for all my exam-stress blogging. I reached out to them for an interview, which we did over email. But most importantly, they agreed to speak to me, even though I was (still am) a kid who didn’t know what she was doing. From then to now, though they’ve released a full length album, played on Other Voices, and sold out stages here in Dublin and abroad, they remain a band that believes in connecting with their audience, even when that audience is scattered all over the world. Responding to messages and even sending handmade art prints in the mail to fans, they’ve always been building a relationship with their listeners. Even though their horizons are ever-expanding, they’re still always coming back to that relationship with the audience. They’re playing a gig in Whelans Upstairs soon in March, and, as Jamie says, “We’re really looking forward to just going back to connecting with the audience in an acoustic environment, and have it be very intimate.”
“It’s an opportunity for us as well to test drive some songs we’ve been working on, some new material we haven’t played for anybody yet,” Richie says. “When you’re doing something for the first time, it’s so important to bring it close to people, you can get feedback so much easier than if you brought it out to, say 500 people. We’re looking forward to doing that.”
When we sit down to have a chat, we’re gathered in office chairs among stacks of stored magazines in the Hot Press studios. I’m recording the interview on my phone, and I ask them to each say their names so I can (hopefully) tell them apart when I’m going through all this later. They introduce themselves, though as Richie points out, “We sound very similar, though, sorry about that,” he laughs. They do, it’s true, but it’s both the similarities and slight differences in their voices that allow their vocals to work so well together musically. Listening to their record, their harmonies come together to meld into a complete, resonating voice. Even just when we’re talking, there seems to be a distinct intuition between the two of them. They pick up each other’s sentences, finish each other’s thoughts. Both their relationship as siblings and their musical partnership seem to have given them a better understanding of each other. But, working as siblings, isn’t their the danger that you’ll have those times that everyone has with their siblings, where you just want to kill each other?
“Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t,” Richie says.
“Depends on the day,” Jamie responds.
“It’s like any working relationship, you know, but brothers and siblings, they’re more likely to want to fuckin’ kill each other,” Richie laughs. “You can’t be like that with strangers, people you don’t know, but you can be like that with your family. And yeah, of course there’s some days we do want to kick the hell out of each other, but then there’s some days that are great. That’s just the way that it is.”
Jamie chimes in, “And the flip side of that is, you’re sharing a history with a person, so your approach is from the same place. There’s a dark and a light side to it, like everything else in life.”
The great days seem to be outnumbering the bad ones, as in the last year Cry Monster Cry have released their first full-length record, Rhythm of Dawn. “It was an experience where we felt like we were starting again, with these songs,” Jamie says of creating the new album. “When we released our first EP The Fallen, it sort of took us by surprise the amount of success that it had. It was the first thing we’d ever released, and people just started immediately asking for more music. So we said, okay, well, let’s do an album. But it ended up taking nearly two years, it was a process where, as I said, we were both writing and recording at the same time. It was very much an album that evolved during that process. And again, just like the EP, when we released the album, it seemed to travel to every corner of the world. We didn’t know people would hear us.”
Following the success of Rhythm of Dawn, Cry Monster Cry will be releasing a new single in January titled “Things We Can’t Take Back,” and according to Jamie and Richie, the new music will show a personal side to them that hasn’t been reflected in their music before. “Looking back at the album that we did last year, even the personal growth just between the two of us, we’re completely different people, we’ve got different things to say, and you know, you want to say them in a different way,” Richie explains. “As artists, you’re constantly evolving. That’s the whole nature of the beast. You can’t really stay the same all the time. The album was a really nice thing to do at the time, and I really enjoy listening back to it, but now, at the moment, I feel like we’re in a different place where the world’s changed a little bit, we’ve changed, we’ve grown up. Things have happened in our lives, and you know, it’s happened to us all in the last couple of months. So I think it shapes you. The stuff that we’re doing at the moment…”
“I would say the stuff we’re doing now is probably the most personal stuff we’ve ever done,” Jamie chimes in. “The album we approached from this folk-songwriting view where we wanted to tell these stories and work the stories of our own lives into that. Now I think we, as Richie said, we’ve grown and experienced new things and we’ve taken a step into sharing parts of ourselves that we haven’t shared before, which is sort of a bit more vulnerable, but it’s more honest.”
“It’s definitely the most honest stuff we’ve done,” Richie echoes. “Instead of trying to mask whatever it was, having the listener read into the songs for the stories behind them, it’s more laid out on the table, that this is what it is.”
On the day that I’m here catching up with Cry Monster Cry, they’re just played Vicar Street alongside Glen Hansard the night before. The gig was a tribute to the talented songwriter Mic Christopher, who passed away suddenly fifteen years ago, and whose music has made an invaluable impact on the brothers’ lives as musicians. As Jamie explains, they’ve been keeping track of these tribute concerts, which have become somewhat a tradition, for years now. “They did one five years ago as well, for the ten-year anniversary,” Jamie recalls, “and they did one fourteen years ago, for the release of Skylarkin. When he died, Glen and all his friends released his album, Skylarkin, they sort of finished it off and released it. And that one, I was at. I was a fourteen-year-old, and I remember just looking up on the stage and seeing all these musicians and just being in awe of them and of the music they were playing. So, for us to be there last night and to take part in it, and to honour Mic Christopher’s music, which was such a huge influence on us, it was a really emotional night. Everyone was really feeling the vibe in Vicar Street.”
It was a moving experience by all accounts, especially for those who knew Mic well, like his good friend, Glen Hansard. “He was very emotional, cause, like, Mic Christopher’s family were there, and all his friends, and these are people Glen grew up with,” Jamie says. “And I think he was very conscious of getting the night running smooth, giving something to the crowd and giving something to all the musicians who’d taken their time to be there.”
Seeing as Mic Christopher’s album Skylarkin was such a formative record for the brothers as musicians, the performance at Vicar Street stands as an opportunity for the brothers to look at how far they’ve come. “It was just such a massive moment for us on the road of what we’re doing now, that night, when we went to see the release of Skylarkin, fourteen, fifteen years ago,” Richie remembers. “So just to be up on that stage last night, with all of these amazing Irish musicians, was a really special thing for us.”
Cry Monster Cry show no sign of slowing down on this road they’re on, even after playing such an important gig. They’re heading to Dingle for Other Voices this weekend, with a set booked in The Other Room Saturday, and another set on the Music Trail Sunday afternoon. It’s their second year playing at the festival, and they’re excited to get back into it. “Other Voices is like a different world altogether,” Richie says. “It feels like Christmas, but it’s not Christmas. Even the drive in, the scenery is incredible. It’s in the valley, you kind of come in down over a mountain, and then you see the town. It’s just a great feeling, the whole Other Voices project, what they’ve been doing for, it’s the same thing as last night at Vicar Street. You know, when we were growing up watching tv and watching Other Voices, it’s such a massive program here. So just to be part of it now, to be featured in it now this year, it’s just a massive, massive thing for us.”
“Last year, we went down for the first time, and we did the Music Trail, which is the festival now that just sort of goes on for the weekend,” Jamie remembers. “We played Dingle Courthouse, and the place was packed. It’s just got to be one of the most unforgettable gigs we’ve ever played, I think, like this huge courthouse full of people.”
It’s an opportunity for them to connect with some of their own favourite performers as well. “This year I’m really looking forward to seeing Lisa Hannigan,” Richie says. “I haven’t actually seen her live, doing her own stuff at least, in a couple years, so I’m really looking forward to seeing her.”
“And Imelda May,” Jamie adds.
“Imelda May, is obviously amazing,” Richie agrees. “She’s done a lot of great performances, and her new stuff is very very different. The beauty of Other Voices is that you can go down to it and discover new music as well, so that’s half the fun it, of bouncing around from venue to venue.”
“Yeah, Music Trail is fantastic,” Jamie says. “You spend the day just going to gigs, all for free during the day, all throughout town.”
“The ethos of this whole thing is, the people who run it, they put so much love and care and attention into this project, and it really really radiates and shows,” Richie says. “It stands out on its own, I don’t think there’s anything else happening in the country that’s quite like it.”
If you’re lucky enough to be on your way to Other Voices this weekend, catch up with Cry Monster Cry at The Other Room for Other Voices in An Chonair Bar, 3.30 Saturday afternoon, or on Other Voices Music Trail at the Dingle Brewing Company, 2:00 Sunday afternoon. Cry Monster Cry will play Whelans Upstairs on March. Look for their new single, “Things We Can’t Take Back,” in January.