Two years ago Bleeding Heart Pigeons three young lads from county Limerick produced ‘Is’ one of the most assured debut albums released in this country since the turn of the millennium. The album was greeted with critical acclaim & the band were rewarded with support slots with the likes of Pixies & Father John Misty.

Currently the band are putting the finishing touches to their follow up to ‘Is’ and were in relaxed form when we caught up with Micheál, Brendan & Cathal in Pharmacia ahead of one of only a handful of live dates that they are performing prior to the release of their second album.

Before discussing the new release they reflected on their experience of releasing their debut album - “Signing the contract with Virgin was a dream come true for us and we were delighted with the way the first album turned out and the reaction to it, but we feel that we really should have pushed it more.

We should definitely have toured more extensively which is certainly a lesson learned for the next release but it was amazing to play on the same bill as The Pixies. We were blown away to get such sizeable crowds come to see us at those gigs and were thrilled with the reaction of die-hard Pixies fans. Add in having Pixies drummer Dave Lovering doing magic tricks for us & chats with the self effacing Joey Santiago, it was an amazing time for us.”

Moving on to the new album the band were keen to talk about a slightly new approach to its creation - “The album is all recorded, we spent the last year working on the writing and production at our home studio which we have updated with some new equipment and cool new mics.

We took a different approach to this album in that for the most part we worked on one song at a time and only moved on to the next one when we felt we were more or less done with the track we were working on.

It was a much more comfortable, organic approach that we all really enjoyed and the fact that we built our own studio meant that we managed to stretch our recording budget as far as possible. The label have again taken a relaxed approach, leaving us to our own devices which is great for us.”

Given that their debut LP contained no less than five tracks clocking in at six minutes and over (some over eight minutes) there was also a change in their aim for the new album - “We wanted to write more accessible songs, to strike a balance between songwriting and experimentation. We really wanted to understand how to structure a song, we made music on the first album where we were more focused on creating songs on this one. It was also a reaction to what we’d done before as we didn’t want to just repeat what we did on the last record”.

John Foyle who has worked with the likes of Damon Albarn & Maverick Sabre is currently mixing the album with the lads anxious to get it out “If it was up to us we’d have it released this week but we understand that that can only happen when it’s 100% ready and mixed to everyone’s satisfaction, but once it is you’ll be hearing it as soon as possible”.

The band have also embraced the musical renaissance that is happening in Limerick at the moment - “There is certainly a brilliant buzz around the city with people looking to help and collaborate with each other, Marty (Ryan) and the DIY LK team have done a great job in making that happen and it’s special to be part of that. Up to a few years ago we felt like outsiders to the scene in Limerick coming from the county but we now feel very much part of a new community of young musicians and we think that will definitely influence us going forward” (already Post Punk Podge has contributed violin & viola on the new album).

As for their plans for the rest of the year “We’ve a few gigs here and there over the summer, as much as we aim for perfection in the studio we do try to have fun particularly when we are on stage so we look forward to those dates and then the focus will be totally on getting the album out”.

Later that night as part of a DIY LK bill with These Are Atoms & Field Trip, Bleeding Heart Pigeons knocked out a fantastic performance which saw them showcase no less than five new tracks - all very well received by the enthusiastic crowd - along with some intensely epic renditions of ‘A Hallucination’, ‘Vapour’ & ‘I Visiting Myself in Hospital’. You can catch them live in Whelan’s upstairs on Thursday, July 26th.

Bleedding Heart Pigeons play Whelan's on July 26th. Tickets €12 on sale now.