Cork shoegaze quartet Ways of Seeing have shared new single Last Wave ahead of the release of their sophomore album The Inheritance of Fear, due for release on 10th October via Joyful Hour Records.

“‘Last Wave’ is about the things we inherit but never asked for—the fear, the darkness, the faults and the complicated legacies of the past. I was especially taken by Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s poem ‘An Experiment to Engineer an Inheritance of Fear’, which reflects on the Irish Famine and its lingering wounds that still remain today,” explains singer James O’Donnell.

“The song examines our Irish identity; a colonial past and Catholic upbringing – how there are parts of our history so intertwined in our culture that to leave it behind completely would almost seem like a betrayal. That perhaps to live with the darkness is to live more fully, and that without it, we are left with something devoid of meaning… somehow. In the song I’m examining my makeup – what I can let go of and what must I hold dear? Writing it was my way of acknowledging those existential burdens, while also searching for release and healing.”

The time-frame of writing and recording The Inheritance of Fear was punctuated with several devastating blows. O’Donnell struggled with an illness that impacted his vocals and was coming to terms with the death of close friend and former Hush Cry War bandmate, Eoin French of Talos. In processing his grief and to celebrate his friend, O’Donnell revisited the outline of a song which became the beautiful instrumental, ‘Solat’.

“I was writing that instrumental maybe two or three years ago, and I felt that it was something that Frenchy would write,” O’Donnell reflects. “When I was struggling with my vocals, I heard that he was sick, and that prompted me to revisit the track. I wanted to finish that instrumental because, as well as being a nice piece of music, it allows you to catch your breath in the middle of the album. It was important, also, to have something on the album for him, and I wanted to dedicate that moment to Eoin because he was a big influence on my songwriting and we learned how to write songs together when we were younger.”

O’Donnell collaborated with producer Daniel Fox (Sprints, Silverbacks, Lambrini Girls), who mixed the guitar-steered arrangements. Having admired Fox’s work for many years, O’Donnell describes the opportunity to work with the in-demand producer as the “silver lining” on a turbulent time in his life.