‘If 50% of people are disgusted by our music, we did a good job’

Ask anyone in the music industry, there is a serious drought when it comes to new bands at the moment.

Of course, bands exist but they seem to be staying far from the charts and struggling to find any mainstream success against the mass of 90s reunions and pop divas.

Kneecap and Fontaines D.C. are the lucky few who have established themselves in the face of nostalgia-drenched lineups but they aren’t the only Irish groups making waves; meet Bricknasty.

Hailing from Ballymun, Dublin, Bricknasty’s newly released mixtape ‘XONGZ አስቀያሚ ጡብ’ boasts a unique blend of influences from jazz to R&B and hip hop.

They’ve been steadily growing in popularity after opening for Coldplay on tour but frontman Fatboy confesses that new artists are ‘struggling’ to keep up with established bands.

‘They are struggling to play their instruments,’ he coolly tells ahead of their first UK tour, which kicks off in Brighton on November 24.

Fatboy continues: ‘They are struggling to use the most technology that’s ever been publicly available, ever to make anything that is pretty cool.

‘If the older lads want to come back and f**king spin the block again, let them like. We should have got busier.’

Bricknasty was co-founded by Fatboy, who hides his identity, and Cillian McCauley after they met through Soundcloud during lockdown.

The duo recorded tracks together before recruiting Dara Abdurahman on bass, Korey Thomas on drums, and Louis Younge who plays saxophone and keyboard.

Producer Cillian had a similarly cutting view of their competition, stating: ‘If newer artists were better and if new music was better, that wouldn’t be an issue.’

While Fatboy declares ‘facts’, Dara gives a more considered approach and shares: ‘As things have become easier to pick up and just do, the quality has dropped.

‘I also think that’s a good thing in some ways, that it’s easier to get up and get started on that stuff, but yeah, a deeper interaction with it would maybe do us good.’

Fatboy, who also plays the guitar, dismisses modern music as ‘disposable’ as he vents about an ‘epidemic’ of people who are in it simply to become famous.

The accessibility of creating music through technology has sparked what Bricknasty see as a little effort or thought being put into what’s being shared.

‘The barrier for entry is so low now,’ Cillian says. ‘People are just locking themselves in a room and doing it by themselves and that’s fine, that is also good.

‘But what you have in a band or a collective format is you’re working with the people that you think are class and you’re getting the best bits of them and the best bits of yourself and it’s a collaborative thing. People are kind of shying away from that now and locking themselves away.’

Fatboy interjects: ‘Everybody wants to be the coolest fella. “I wear the coolest jeans and they’re gonna write my name — the name on my passport — on the big poster. I want my passport name on the big poster and everyone to give me kisses.

‘There’s no fella in the back of the class trying to set the table on fire, and there needs to be.’

Exasperated, he pleads for people to ‘pick the f**king guitar up’ and start making music a more old-school way.

‘Musically or even aesthetically, it all just feels like a lot of the stuff coming out feels filler, feels fluff,’ Cillian surmises.

While the complaints could come off as egotistical, their frustration is clearly coming from the fact Bricknasty cares deeply about music as an art form.

‘There’s not much else in Ireland that’s really trying to accomplish the same thing that we’re trying to do exactly at the minute,’ Dara adds.

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The group splits their live and recorded sounds into distinct versions, aiming to make each a ‘unique’ experience that is distinct from the other.

‘I guess that’s what makes us a little different,’ he says. ‘Just trying to make good stuff all the time is the point, though.’

Their visuals are designed to make you feel ‘disgusted’ while the jazz sound is ‘objectively beautiful’ – it doesn’t matter how you respond to them, at least you’re feeling something.

Fatboy agrees, explaining they are aiming to make something where ‘50% of people are disgusted and 50% of people are elated’.

This distinct vision could be linked to Fatboy’s upbringing in Ballymun, an estate in Dublin famed for high-rise flats and a strong community.

‘It was a really, really unique experience to get and it was a very soulful upbringing,’ he recalled. ‘Ireland is being torn into little America, so a soulful upbringing is going to become nearly impossible to get, at least in Dublin.

‘As globalization continues on and you start to see everything become homogenized and flattened out, you’re going to see that [creativity] less and less and less.

‘I’m very, very blessed and lucky that for the last few years of the flats, I got to grow up there and learn lessons about loyalty and engage in that community that’s been destroyed now. That’s all being stomped out.’

Ballymun underwent an urban planning overhaul beginning in 1997, which locals — including Fatboy — believes has eroded the community spirit.

Fatboy shared: ‘While I’m here, I’m going to sing and build shit that comes from that place that has that set of testicles upon it, and hopefully, it resonates with people.’