Pinhole are an avant garde act from Cork, and the product of a life in music. Taking in an incredible blend of grunge, Georgian folk music and Irish trad, Ciara O’Flynn and Mark McLoughlin blend experiences from their youth with freeform jazz, and cover topics ranging from the war in Gaza to treatment of the elderly. The resulting album is called ‘Sweet Spot’.
“‘Sweet Spot’ is our latest body of work with some slightly older songs,” O’Flynn says. “So really it’s tracking us as artists over the last four years or so. We were due to launch our debut album two weeks after the lockdown was announced, and it was really hard because we had to just sit on it. We continued to write during lockdown and because it was very much limited to Mark and I as a duo the new songs started to take a new direction, so we scrapped the old record and made ‘Sweet Spot’.”
“Personally, I use creativity to understand the world better,” O’Flynn continues. “Mark and I are campaigners at heart, so most of our songs are attempting to understand or express feelings on many contemporary societal issues, rather than just the personal. The songs are about gay rights, the malignancy of social media, treatment of the elderly, societal apathy, parenting… and so forth.”
“I think our art careers and my time in Windmill Lane have been the biggest feeders of what we do now. Then from a more lyrical point of view, our mutual passion for human rights feeds in and out of the lyrics,” McLoughlin adds. “The vocal is also treated as an instrument and like our instruments we push it and find creative ways of using it such as singing through the violin pick up, etc.”
The pair use stream of consciousness as an unusual element of their songwriting, adding unusual quirks in the process. “What I love about that particular process is that the feelings and topics around the songs organically bubble up,” O’Flynn says. “I rarely start to write with an idea of what I want to write about. That brings in a stiffness that just doesn’t work for me. I much prefer to listen to what Mark brings to the table first in terms of a few musical sequences, turn off the left hemisphere of my brain and just see what emerges. Usually it’s something I’m concerned about but not necessarily consciously ruminating on. For me it brings a genuineness and depth of feeling to the process.”
“There’s definitely a low-down, dirty blues aspect to some of the music with influences from Tom Waits through Nick Cave, Beth Gibbons, St. Vincent etc,” McLoughlin adds. “It’s important for us to keep a raw and feral aspect to it.”
‘Sweet Spot’ is partly the product of the Basic Incomes programme that supports some artists, something which has played into the sound. “We are really grateful for the opportunities we have had from that fund, because there was no way we could have afforded to make this album and videos without that support,” they explain. “It made all the difference. Making albums is expensive, so really it made the difference between being able to do it or not. Playing music costs at every turn: rehearsal spaces, renting venues and sound engineers for gigs, travel, accommodation, recording studios, graphic design, etc.”
“We’ve put decades of experience and years of creative wandering into it,” O’Flynn adds. “I’d be so delighted if it catches the ears of people and brings joy. Other folks’ music elevates me when I dig it. And we’re always open to new opportunities, the idea of writing for other art forms like theatre and film interests me, too. Making bags of money we can send to Gaza would be great.”
