Rising: Gurriers are soundtracking what it means to be young in Ireland today

On their imminent debut album, Come and See, Irish five-piece Gurriers pair political lyricism with pent-up, cathartic rage

Years ago, when Dan Hoff and Mark MacCormack were working at a 24-hour McDonald’s south of Dublin, they would chat endlessly. They’d recommend new films and ask big existential questions, but most of all they would talk about music. The pair would share artists they had recently discovered, like Roy Ayers and Kerri Chandler, and hip-hop, funk and disco records they’d come across. “We would sit on the grill and be like: ‘Do you believe in organised religion? Have you seen the new David Lynch movie? There’s a new Radiohead album coming out!’” Mark recalls.

They also dreamed of making their own. “We always talked about starting a band but it took us years to finally make it happen,” Hoff says, surrounded by his now-bandmates as the lead singer of Gurriers. The five members are reclining on a sofa in an ornate west London house, as they prepare for a live session on BBC 6 Music. Hoff and MacCormack – the band’s lead guitarist – formed the group with drummer Pierce O’Callaghan and second guitarist and backing vocalist Ben O’Neill. After a few tries at a bassist, they now have Charlie McCarthy.

Gurriers first got together in January 2020, but were almost immediately ground to a halt by Covid lockdowns. Following sporadic sessions and more time talking about music on Zoom than actually making it, they didn’t play their first gig for nearly two years, to a packed out The Workman’s Club in Dublin on Halloween 2021. “It was fucking mad,” says Mark. “It was the first week after restrictions were lifted in Ireland. We’d released two demos and got a bit of radio traction, and combined with the fact that post-Covid everyone wanted to go mental, we sold 300 tickets and it was completely rammed.”

Now, Gurriers are set to release their debut album, Come and See, on No Filter this autumn. Full of pent up, cathartic rage and rooted in acerbic, noisy post-punk, the music draws extra layers from the band’s divergent influences; from slinky shoegaze in Prayers to splashes of industrial techno found in the relentless, booming kick drums of Close Call.

It announces them as the latest alums of Ireland’s rich musical underground, following in the footsteps of rehearsal space neighbours and guitar-driven envelope pushers Fontaines D.C., The Murder Capital, Pillow Queens and Gilla Band. “There’s actually so much good music coming out of Ireland and it’s not even just rock music – Bicep are one of the most interesting arena-level electronic music acts, with hip-hop you’ve got Kneecap and Kojaque,” Mark adds. “We’ve always punched above our weight – shoegaze comes from Ireland [with] My Bloody Valentine, I don’t give a rats that two of the members are English.”

Like many of their contemporaries, Gurriers use their music to interrogate what it means to be young in Ireland today. Des Goblin laments the reliance on online validation, while the opener Nausea is written about two friends who work in online content moderation and are faced with censoring traumatic videos and photos each day. “All designed to sign the lines of a sickening mind/ Online, we pass the time/ Sifting through abhorrent crime,” Hoff half-sings, half-yells.

In the album’s penultimate track, Approachable, Hoff takes on the character of a far-right online rage-baiter. “The song was built out of the fear of the far-right in Ireland, which was very small at the time,” he explains. “Now a few have actually won local election seats, which is scary.”

The music is urgent and political – a fitting soundtrack for the times. “There are just really bad living conditions in Ireland, and there are a lot of angry young people singing about it,” Hoff says. “There’s a lot of hate from the far-right, and there is a lot of disillusionment. A lot of bands are feeling this and pumping it into the music, so it becomes much more authentic and real.”

As Gurriers gear up for the album’s release and an accompanying tour across Europe, the UK and Ireland, Hoff is itching to get on with things. “I think it’s going to be life-changing for all of us,” he says. They’ve certainly come a long way since they were daydreaming together while working the fryers. “We’re finally doing the thing – the big childhood dream.”

Sounds like: Abrasive, yearning noise-injected punk
Soundtrack for: Raising a middle finger to 2024
File next to: Fontaines D.C., Squid
Our favourite song: Approachable
Where to find them: @gurriersband