The Point of Everything

Belfast-based Morgana released her debut solo album The Whole Thing Was Very, Very Emotional on October 9. One half of Saint Sister, she talks about highlights for 2026 so far, from supporting Snow Patrol in stadiums to playing gigs in the Amazon in Brazil. We explore her creative process, CMAT and other influences, and the evolution of her music and stage persona. Buy The Whole Thing Was Very, Ve...

Limerick/Dublin band girlfriend. released their second album Carousel on September 4. Hana Lamari talks about the journey to making it, recording with producer Chris Quigley, the realities of being a small independent band - work, tour life or lack there of, breaks, mental health and more. Buy Carousel: https://girlfriendmusic.bandcamp.com/album/carousel

Dublin-born, London-based artist Lucy Rice aka Last Apollo released her debut album I'll Walk Towards You on September 4. A collage of grief and care and honesty, it's an artefact of love that took Rice on a journey. We talk about the road to get there, influences, playing with the Glasshouse ensemble and other acts, and lots more. Buy the album: https://lastapollo1.bandcamp.com/album/ill-walk-tow...

Dublin-born, Brighton-based Sarah Crean released her second album Heirloom on September 18. It's a concept album based on the myth of Calypso, using her story as a lens for Sarah to explore loss, escape, and reclaiming her own voice. It's also entirely made by women, which was a very deliberate move. We talk about Sarah's journey, the viral success of the 2022 single 2am which led to her getting s...

Loah released her debut album Materia Medica on June 5. She says: "The ambition was to create a hypermodern body of work that sonically exemplifies the changing definition of what Irishness is, what femininity is and indeed what musical ‘genre’ is and its flexibility in the modern context. We have many excellent producers and musicians on this album - it is a collage of sound!" The album features...

Really Good Time (Diolmhain Ingram Roche/Wastefellow - vocals and guitar, Ado Tornado - drums and Jacque le Coque - bass) released their debut album Affirmations on August 7. Affirmations sits with the temptation to disengage - from the news, from other people, from the relentless grind - a rejection of navel-gazing nihilism, delivered with black humour and no small amount of noise. They say: "Thi...

Wallis Bird released her eighth studio album I Can See Your House From Here on her own label, Bród Records, on June 5. She says thr album serves as a celebration of the life of her late friend and collaborator Kevin Ryan and a way to process grief as it also reflects on the war in Gaza. the challenges of addressing political issues in her music. Over nearly two decades in music, Wallis Bird has bu...

Ae Mak released their long-awaited debut album Folk Songs for Mama and Papa on May 29. The songs were written in the winter during a time of deep emotional pain and self-questioning. Living alone in a Berlin apartment, Ae Mak began writing at a friend’s piano, singing poems formed over a year of heartbreak, anxiety, low self-worth and self-reckoning directly into melody. The music came quickly, no...

Ross Hamer aka Hamer Place released his debut album Specials in April. A heartfelt tribute to Gerry’s - the beloved Dublin café on Montague Street that has since closed - it was recorded by Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox at Sonic Studios. The Hamer Place band features Niall Murphy (Oh Boland) on guitar and Jack and Fionn (Search Results) on rhythm. Ross has been a mainstay of the Irish music scene for ye...

Fifteen years on from their debut album Yeah Nothing, Dublin band Squarehead released Ossory Road in December 2025. Their fourth full-length record, it was written during the Covid era and finished in a whirlwind burst of recording before two members became dads within weeks of each other. On this episode of The Point of Everything, frontman and guitarist Roy Duffy takes us on a chronological deep...

Gemma Hayes celebrates 25 years in music with a special show as part of the NCH Landmarks series next Tuesday, May 12. She’ll be playing debut album Night on my Side in full, plus rarities and b-sides from that era. The record went on to be nominated for the Mercury Prize and took Gemma Hayes on tour around the world. Now based in West Cork, she returns to it with fresh perspective for what promis...

Gemma Hayes celebrates 25 years in music with a special show as part of the NCH Landmarks series next Tuesday, May 12. She’ll be playing debut album Night on my Side in full, plus rarities and b-sides from that era. The record went on to be nominated for the Mercury Prize and took Gemma Hayes on tour around the world. Now based in West Cork, she returns to it with fresh perspective for what promis...

The Scratch return to the TPOE podcast for the third time to chat about their third album Pull Like a Dog, released on March 13 on Sony Music. Gaz and Cathal talk lineup changes, world tours, politics, getting heavy on the new album as well as introspective, the amazing story behind record closer Ringsend and lots more. The Scratch play Momentum Festival in Oranmore, Co Galway, on Monday, May 4, w...

Kenmare/Cork artist Laurie Shaw released his latest record Felted Fruit VI on April 3. Felted Fruit VI is the latest installment of the Felted Fruit canon sprinkled across recent years. Here's the idea behind it: "Felted Fruit has moved to a New Town. With an efficient train service that gets you to and from the city every day. The neighbours have “It All”. But what is “It All” and why do they fee...

David Kitt released The Big Romance (KIttser's Version) on April 8 via All City's Alchival label. The original record, which has featured in a number of ‘greatest Irish albums’ lists, marks its 25th anniversary this year, having been released on June 18, 2001. Following his home-recorded debut Small Moments, 2001’s The Big Romance marked Kittser’s first experience working in a professional studio....

Belfast singer songwriter Joshua Burnside released his sixth studio album It's Not Going To Be Okay via Nettwork Music Group on March 20. This is a record born out of loss and the fragile act of continuing. Written and recorded in the wake of the death of Joshua’s close friend Dean Jendoubi, the album is his most stripped-back and unguarded work to date. “It’s a grief record but also a love record...

Cork artist Pat Carey calls himself the creative director of How I Became a Wave, who release their self-titled debut album on Friday, March 27. Lush in strings and pedal steel, the nine-track album features contributions from some of Ireland’s most accomplished musicians and featuring string and piano arrangements by Cormac McCarthy (RTÉ Concert Orchestra). Carey says: “I have sat with these song...

Dublin four piece Big Sleep (Rónán Connolly, Matteo Poli, Aidan Gray, Naiara Clarke LaFuente) released their debut album Holy Show on February 20 via LAB Records. They say it's an album about transience; the messiness of love, the beauty in impermanence, and the constant transformation that occurs as we stumble through connection, heartbreak, and growth. On this episode of the TPOE podcast, Ronán...

Dani Larkin is a songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in Belfast who released her second album Next of Kin on January 30. Co-produced with Ruth O’Mahony Brady, Dani says it's intended as a companion throughout the different stages of life from birth. On this episode of the TPOE podcast, we talk about touring, sustainability, burnout, building a studio, the creative process, influen...

Irish/Portuguese Kraut/psych rock band pôt-pot released debut album Warsaw 480km in September 2025. It's nominated for Irish album of the year at the Choice Music Prize which takes place at Vicar Street tomorrow, Thursday March 5. In this episode of the TPOE podcast, Mark Waldron-Hyden, the brainchild of pôt-pot, talks about his journey from Cork to Lisbon, the creative process behind the band, an...

Cork band Cypress, Mine! released their second album pulling all the clouds apart on February 13, 2026 - nearly 40 years after their debut Exit Trashtown. The current lineup is Ian Olney (guitar), Ciarán Ó Tuama (vocals), Mark Healy (bass), and Morty McCarthy (drums). They say the songwriting on the new album has changed significantly, focusing on themes of strong women, struggles of physical/ment...

London-based, Dublin-born singer songwriter Ailbhe Reddy released her third album Kiss Big via Don Giovanni Records on January 30. Kiss Big unfolds as a breakup record - but not the tidy, acoustic kind. It lives in the messy middle: the disorienting period when the life you built with someone collapses, and you’re left trying to figure out who you are on your own. Written between Dublin, London, N...

Paul Noonan and Brian Crosby aka Pilgrims release their debut album Wintering on Friday, January 30. Built around hushed piano and an intimate vocal, the album prizes space and atmosphere. Over nine track,s it moves from tender stillness to shimmering moments of euphoria. Paul and Brian were in Juniper together in the 1990s before continuing with Bell X1 into the 2000s - Brian left the band in 200...

Dublin artist Ian Nyquist is a composer who released the album Gilded in September 2025. It's focused on the bodhrán, pushing the instrument 'beyond its ordinary confines' channelled through modelling software. During this conversation, Ian talks about his upbringing, how he came to the bodhrán (only about three years ago), why limitations on music-making can be revelatory, the Irish artists inter...

On their first podcast together of 2026, Eoghan and Cíara run through the best new Irish bands to keep an eye on in 2026