There’s a poem by Sylvia Plath, which thousands of ex-Leaving Cert students will be familiar with, entitled ‘Elm’. Dark, murky, and, like much of Plath’s work, obsessed with questions of identity and selfhood, it shares a name with a Dublin six-piece with many of the same concerns. Dylan Walsh, lead vocalist with Elm, says that guitarist Aidan Clancy and himself encountered the work when they were in school. “We were studying Sylvia Plath and we came across this poem called ‘Elm’, and we were just like ‘ahh, this is us, this is our music’".
Without labouring the point too much, it is possible to draw some parallels between the band and the work which gifted them their name. Elm build much of their sound - as in debut single Amends - around a few core elements, like Walsh’s haunting, intimate voice, and the cello of Gary Molloy. A deeply introspective song, its video features a female figure trapped in a physical manifestation of the psychological torment the lyrics imply. Amends is to be followed on 30 May by a second video, for their song Concentrate. The new video depicts a young woman coming to the realisation that she is trans. The vaguely Plathian lyrics about “the battle with the inner self, the dark demon inside that you’re trying to hide” align perfectly with the video’s theme, says Walsh. “It shows her everyday life, how normal she is, and how upset she is with herself”, before a more hopeful ending witnesses the move to self-acceptance. “We wanted to make this less abnormal, we want to make this a normal thing”.
The group came together mainly via different educational institutions: Walsh and Clancy met in school, the pair of them met Ruth Cronin (synth) and Cathy Ahearne (drums) in Dublin’s BIMM campus, while Walsh met Molloy “at a scauldy after-session”. Walsh claims not to have paid much heed to Molloy being a cellist, but “then I saw him play and he is like the most talented musician, he’s incredible”. Molloy is key to the songwriting process, says Clancy, providing arrangements and chord structures because “he’s got that mathematic mind when it comes to music”. Clancy himself will generally generate “the core of the song” including lyrics and basic chords, before the rest of the ensemble bring their own skills to bear on it. The group appear supremely confident of their own abilities in this regard. Cathy Ahearne, the drummer, adds that “we’re coming from different backgrounds as well, different influences and I think whatever that combination is, that’s what happens when we get together”.
Meanwhile, the jury may be out on the value of ‘rockshool’ type courses along the lines of BIMM, but Elm are full of praise, to a point. “They’re really supportive in every way”, says Walsh, providing advice, resources and opportunities, for example recording a previous version of Concentrate with Mick Heffernan, who has produced for The Script. On the other hand, Walsh says that the music school “don’t push you to the top”, and that work ethic is just as important as raw talent in advancing acts’ careers. To really get noticed, bands need to “get outside of BIMM as well”.
“There’s so many, dozens, hundreds of really talented musicians and some of them just don’t have the work ethic”. Again, Elm are full of confidence and self-belief in the knowledge that this is a quality they possess.
Since the release of Amends a few months ago, the band say that “it’s all blown up after one little single”. Recent highlights have included a soggy performance at Other Voices in Dingle in the middle of Storm Desmond in February, and a trip to Toronto in May for Canadian Music Week. Going over with acts including Meltybrains?, Daithí (who produced his own remix of Amends), and Overhead, The Albatross, Elm played four shows, including one at Google’s local headquarters, met with industry figures and, says Walsh, generally “felt like Kim Kardashian”.
The band have no immediate plans to release an album, but are keen to get back into the studio to record. In the short term, the summer is chock-full with gigs and festival appearances at home and abroad. They head to London for a show on 31 May, and “nearly every weekend in June and July we’re playing a festival”, including Knockanstockan, Indiependence, Body & Soul, and Vantastival, where they play Goldenplec's stage on 3 June. “It’s always been a really upbeat festival, loads of fun”, says Ahearne, while Clancy says they’re hoping for sunshine, unlike “last year’s fiasco” where the festival was “awesome, but it was in about two metres of mud”.
The group do seem to be on an upward trajectory, with a bevy of festival appearances likely to solidify their place on the domestic scene, and they appear to have the necessary self-belief to bring them as far as they can manage. “I think we’re this new feeling, I feel like it’s fresh and it’s fun”, says Walsh. “I’m excited about us”.
Surely, an important first step.
