Interview with The Rosecaps: ‘The songs we’re writing now are faster than anything we’ve ever written’

Three-piece independent rock band from Loughrea, Co. Galway, The Rosecaps, are gearing up to release their next single ‘No Guts, No Glory’ on 7 December.

The band comprises Daniel O’Malley (vocals and guitar), Shane Fahy (keys) and Emmet Feerick (drums), who began as childhood friends. Realising that they had a shared love of music, they began writing songs together three years ago and joke that they started playing gigs as a way to fund their nights out: ‘That’s what we tell people but we enjoyed playing music as well,’ Fahy said. Feerick describes their band name as ‘needing to think of a name that nobody had’: ‘We took two words and crammed them together (laughs),’ said O’Malley. Fahy laughs: ‘We had other ideas but they were taken,’ he said. ‘Our first name was Idée Fixe, after Berlioz, we played a couple of gigs as that.’ (Berlioz uses the term in his ‘Symphonie fantastique’ and other pieces to describe a recurring theme in a piece of music that depicts a person or emotion.)

‘Empty Wrappers’ marks a slight departure from the usual high-energy tracks that they release, chronicling the story of a hopeless romantic fixating on his ideal soulmate yet cynically questioning everything that he sees: ‘I came up with the original idea,’ said Fahy. ‘It marks a departure for us, we just decided to venture out and do more styles. The character in the song is a hopeless romantic fighting with the idea that he wants it to work out like in the movies. He knows he’s one of many but he wants to stand out with his colourful socks.’ O’Malley nods: ‘He’s full of cynicism and self-deprecation,’ he said. ‘It’s like a factory-line of people but he wants to get noticed.’ Fahy agrees: ‘Our songs aren’t based on our own experiences; they’re more of a collection of what we’ve experienced and we lean on that.’

It starts off as a stripped-back track, with just an acoustic guitar and O’Malley on vocals but as the song progresses, more and more layers of instrumentation are gradually added, creating a really heartfelt and bittersweet song due to the sweet lyrics and jangly chord progression.

‘He showed us a neon sign… and we decided we needed to write a song about it’

Next up will be their single ‘No Guts, No Glory’, which O’Malley describes as ‘easy listening but more uptempo than ‘Empty Wrappers’.’ Fahy weighs in: ‘We got the title from one of our friends, Ethan, a photographer living in Austria at the time. He showed us a neon sign saying that and we decided we needed to write a song about it (laughs).’ O’Malley jumps in: ‘We wrote it about him as well, he was working as a bartender at the time, looking at couples going on first dates and things on the other side of the bar but it was never him as he was always on the wrong side.’

Recently, Fahy has been experimenting with synth sounds on his Casio keyboard with a view to adding a plethora of new synth sounds into the mix: ‘The first song we wrote ‘1800 Hours’ didn’t have a synth in it until we got into the studio, we added it and thought it sounded great,’ O’Malley said. ‘It was in a different key at the time.’ Feerick joins in: ‘Yeah, we were drumming along to the riff.’ ‘It is one of their most story-led songs. Starting off at 18:00, as the title suggests, it captures a heavy night out, right up until a drunken punch is thrown at the end of the night: ‘It’s about a guy going out to a nightclub to meet a girl,’ Feerick said. O’Malley gives me the backstory: ‘There’s a good story behind that. It’s a made up story about this guy we knew. We were out the night before we wrote it and saw him chatting to a girl and he didn’t seem to be interested until he saw later that he wasn’t getting anywhere with anyone else and became more interested, like in the bridge of the song (laughs).’ Fahy jumps in: ‘It’s about a type of person, an observation on nights out as lads and what makes them tick.’

I say that I get the impression that the stories that unfold in their songs are the driving force for them and they all nod enthusiastically: ‘We’re definitely story-driven instead of using random lyrics,’ Fahy said. ‘We kinda write a storyline without any lyrics and develop the character we’re talking about.’ They even take it one step further: ‘We have a storyboard session, like a mini movie,’ O’Malley explained. Fahy chips back in: ‘We don’t always agree (laughs) but we’re often of the same mind. We’re not fast to shut ideas down, if we don’t use an idea now we’ll keep it and might use it later.’ O’Malley agrees: ‘When it comes to lyrics and chords, we’re more strict.’

Other tracks, such as ‘Daisy’s Party’, have a more humorous origin: ‘It really is about a party that we didn’t get invited to,’ said O’Malley, laughing. Feerick nods: ‘It was an excuse to write about it!’ Fahy agrees: ‘We exaggerated the idea but it was based on a real thing.’

‘People say our songs at gigs are rockier and heavier’

Their upcoming songs will dial it back up again sonically: ‘The songs we’re writing now are faster than anything we’ve ever written,’ said Fahy, looking delighted. O’Malley agrees: ‘People say our songs at gigs are rockier and heavier. We have a song ‘System’, well, that’s what we call it, it’s not death metal (laughs), it’s just synth rock with overdriven electric guitar and bass on top.’

The band released their debut EP ‘Before You Grab Your Cigar’ in early 2021 which amassed over 45,000 Spotify streams and featured their first single ‘1800 Hours’. They later released their second single ‘The Wall’ in mid-2022. Taking inspiration from bands such as The Killers, Arctic Monkeys and The Cure, they each contribute equally in their songwriting process, both lyrically and musically. They collectively look up to and respect other Irish bands such as The Academic and The Coronas, and hope to follow in their footsteps. Fahy is a big fan of The Killers and both O’Malley and Feerick are huge Beatles fans and Feerick is also a massive fan of Oasis.

If they could for a pint with anyone, Feerick is quick to say Liam Gallagher: ‘I’d want to know what it was like with his brother and about his voice, how he sings. They’re very funny.’ Fahy has other ideas: ‘I’d say Alex Turner, he’s just so cool,’ he enthused. ‘He’d be an interesting person. I’d like to find out what makes him tick, he’s quite a reserved person.’ O’Malley plumps for Johnny Marr from The Smiths: ‘For the way he composed bass, drums and guitar,’ he said. For their dream line up, Feerick picks The Beatles to headline and Fahy goes with Arctic Monkeys: ‘They could warm the crowd up,’ O’Malley said cheekily. ‘We’d let The Beatles have a few songs first!’

(Photo from left to right: Daniel, Shane and Emmet.)