Laois-based punk, metal, rock and dance band, Chiral, is just back from a flying German tour, supporting ska band The Legendary Hackers.
Chiral officially launched in January, releasing its debut single I Bring Chaos and has plans for new releases with videos later this year.
The band was formed by guitarist, producer and sound engineer, Gary Duncan from Portlaoise, a producer at Red Lake Sound locally, and vocalist Adam Brewer, originally from Dublin.
They were later joined by drummer, Eddie ‘Graveyard’ Delaney who has since left the band, and been replaced by ‘Spooky’ Chris Craig, and bassist Al ‘Buster Bhoy’ Tierney who is based in Portarlington.
The 30 and 40-somethings have been involved in music all their lives. “We all have various jobs, some in music and entertainment and technology. All of us have had outside projects before coming together on this one,” said Gary.
“For instance, ’Spooky’ who lives in Portlaoise, is an animation artist who plays guitar for Vendetta Love.
‘Bluster ‘Bhoy’ has his own songs he performs under that name and he also works for a chemical company in Dublin.
Myself and Adam who is a graphic designer and cyber security technician, have had multiple side projects in and outside of the studio,” he said.
“As time progressed and the project developed we found our feet and the pieces fell into place. We spent some time writing back last summer experimenting with the music and vocals.
“We arrived at a very unique place with that particular batch. I Bring Chaos, Digital Whispers and Kubrick’s Odyssey was born from that moment in time,” said Gary.
“We spent a few months jamming and writing mostly. With the lead up to the I Bring Chaos video, we didn’t do any gigs that year,” he said.
“Right now we are all taking a long deserved break and we will kick start everything again in July.
“We are all enjoying the current release In the Company of Wolves which broke through the PureMzine top 20 music video chart, reaching the number nine position, and still climbing.”
Replacing Eddie was a challenge but having ‘Spooky’ take over on the guitar has been a very positive move for the band, Gary remarked.
“We are planning a few more releases this year, with music videos.
“We plan on having an album ready for release early next year on vinyl along with an Irish tour next February, before we set off across the sea to the UK and Europe for more shows and festivals.”
Chiral takes inspiration from a slew of sources. “The ones we all share are: Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, Metallica, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine and Tool,” said Gary.
Videos are important to the band. “When we first began working on the song In the Company of Wolves we always had the imagery of Little Red Riding Hood as a character.
“We also imitated the sounds of wolves through the instrumentation and the movement of the characters through the music, telling the story with sound firstly. We thought it would be cool if we had a twist on the original story,” Gary recalled.
“Our inspiration was taken from a mixture of various sources for the video. We liked the idea of having the video in pantomime style so we shot the video in a theatre.
“We talked about imagery from old movies such as Nosferatu, Tales from the Crypt and Evil Dead. The wolves were based off Eyes Wide Shut.
“We shot the entire video with the old backlighting technique that would have been used in The Wizard of Oz movies, making the imagery more cinematic. Also using 25 frames per second was instrumental.
“The entire video which stars Rebecca Deegan, an artist here in town, is a twist on the older original versions of the fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood.
“Of course with the Chiral twist on the end, where Red takes back her revenge, regains her power as a young woman overcoming the wicked wolves taking away her innocence and purity.
Check out Chiral’s new music video ‘In the Company of Wolves’ on YouTube, www.chirallabs.ie
Instagram @chiral.labs
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