MELTS Tickets

Dublin’s independent music scene has coveted increasing attention from eyes overseas recently - and rightly so given their growing list of idiosyncratic post-punk, alternative, and shoegaze exports that includes the likes of Fontaines D.C., Just Mustard, and Gilla Band. Quintet MELTS have themselves been swirling around the scene for several years, and fully intend to share a sizable portion of the city’s spotlight alongside their peers by blending elements of krautrock and psychedelia with the storm of sonic power that Dublin has become synonymous with of late.

Formed in 2017 by drummer Gaz Earle and guitarist Hugh O’Reilly, it took a period of experimentation with a revolving door of local musicians before settling the lineup that’d take the project forward. After recruiting Robbie Brady (keys/synth), Colm Giles (bass), and Eoin Kenny (vocals) it wasn’t long before Melts outgrew their initial intentions of being a garage rock band. But despite unlocking new potential with the new additions, the five-piece held close the ethos of keeping their creations raw, simplistic, and primal.

“Repetition is definitely the key to Melts,” says drummer Earle. “It’s about just keeping it simple and driving and fucking stomping. We wanted to keep the rhythms just really straight and hypnotic. The aim of the game was to try and get people into a trance when they are watching the gig.” The expansion of their sound into immersive, pulsing grooves resulted in their debut single ‘Skyward’. Causing a stir in the scene almost immediately after its 2018 release, a sold-out date at the city’s famed venue Whelan’s followed suit, seeing Melts snag support slots on domestic tours with Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Warmduscher, TOY and fellow Dubliners Fontaines D.C. off the back of their burgeoning word-of-mouth reputation.

Sequencer-driven psychedelia and hypnotic krautrock became the basis of Melts’ 2022 debut album Maelstrom, which was produced by Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox and was released on Irish independent label Mother Sky. Lyrically however, disarray and helplessness - felt on both a state-of-the-world scale as well as a deeply personal, introspective level -  factored into Eoin Kenny’s writing. 

On one hand there’s the title track ‘Maelstrom’, complete with its driving, crisply produced rhythm that centres around an irreversible change to someone’s order of life, and dealing with the “frustrations felt by someone who feels powerless against the effects of the upheaval.” The likes of ‘Spectral’ are far more intimate - unravelling steadily with Kenny’s resonant vocal, the track is dedicated to the loss of a friend to suicide. “The theme of the record is kind of based on coming to grips with the world around us,” Kenny admits.