Featuring their nostalgia-laden single Connect 4, indie duo PostLast’s debut EP ‘Pull Me Into The Open Sea’ arrived last week. The underground supergroup comprised of Irish music stalwarts Julie Hough and Stephen McHale sees both artists heading in new directions, with Havvk singer Hough exploring lighter, almost ethereal vocal textures, while guitarist McHale shies away from his signature swishing R’n’B style that has made him one of the most in demand session guitarists and musical directors in Ireland over the last decade.

The project was initially floated by McHale who had been experiencing a crisis of musical confidence. “I definitely hit a bit of a wall with music. I wasn't enjoying it any more and I thought maybe I was done and 'This is not for me any more,’” he explains.

“It started off with me getting the itch to write songs again. I got the feeling that I wanted to do it, but I didn't have any outlet or any idea of what exactly I wanted to do so I kind of just imagined that there was a singer involved”

Having assembled some sketches, McHale sought out Julie Haugh, having been impressed with her vocals on the Havvk track Static, which showcased a softer side to her vocal range.

“As soon as we started working it just seemed to go very well, very quickly, and just be fun, which was the main aim for it at the start, to enjoy the process,” he notes.

Meanwhile, the uber busy VETA Records label boss Hough was excited about the idea of stepping outside of her comfort zone on another musical venture.

“I was really flattered to be asked,” says Hough. “I think you can pigeonhole yourself musically and it was really nice to be asked to do something so different from what I was used to.”

“I was losing my mind with the 60 other things I had to do and I was like ‘What's one more thing?’ I think when we came out of Covid I was really, really hungry to be working on things. That was the headspace I was in.”

Initial demos, musical motifs and chord progressions were shared on Google Drive, allowing Hough to interpret them and mould them in her own individual way. “I was just trying to gut feeling respond to them,” explains Hough. “It was kind of like sending something off into space and seeing what would resonate.”

As McHale explains, the group’s name sprung from this initial pool of ideas and the feeling that this could be his last swing at songwriting. “Post Last Project was the name of the folder, so I suggested it as the name to Julie.”

“It's kind of existential,” adds Hough,“and it's kind of positive as well, which I think are two words which sum up the music really well. I like the paradox of it.”

Although much of the work was done in isolation, they didn’t progress without direction, with a vision board by way of playlist assembled to help steer both parties.

“Men I trust, Metronomy, bands like that we definitely referenced in terms of the specific sound of the recording.” offers McHale. “In terms of the writing, there's the sum of all our influences that we listen to generally and there's a 90s indie rock/pop thing that we both grew up with that has come out in it.

"It wasn't planned, but when we were talking about songs, we'd always have some sort of reference: ‘What about this song by Whipping Boy?’ and we'd both be like ‘Cool’.”  

Julie Hough believes the project has worked so well this far because of the mix of their different musical brains.

“I don't have the jazz and theoretical background in music that Stephen has so I think it means that I never respond (to an idea) how Stephen thinks I will because I don't understand the rules. I'm just like, 'What would feel nice here?' I just get to throw caution to the wind and go with my gut feeling, stream-of-consciousness of how I respond to the music.” 

“I know I spoke about that feeling of sending off the ideas, but I really love that feeling. It's got this effervescent feeling of pressing send and it being gone now and thinking 'What's he gonna say?'" 

“I remember the first time I sent you something and you said: ‘It's nothing like what I expected but I really like it.' I got a bit more confident from there on.”

PostLast’s nostalgic debut single Connect 4 arrived this April catching the Irish music scene completely unawares.

“I think it was a good place to start because we wanted people to know that this is intentionally different,” explains Hough

“We thought a lot about Connect 4 as the first thing we were putting out there, and when we decided to put the visuals around it we really wanted to lean into this kids TV show. It does have that quality of TV theme because of the physicality of the music.

“There's a little bit of a slapstick quality to it, so I think it tied quite nicely into what the vision for the song was and we really wanted to bring out the playfulness of it and the idea that we're advertising a board game.”

From the pat-a-cake drumbeat to the pitchshifted vocals, Connect 4 is reminiscent of Kelly Watch The Stars-era Air, but despite the nostalgic presentation, the track tackles the epidemic of loneliness and the difficulty in making friends later in life, something that was exasperated by the pandemic.

“I think moving around a lot for me has meant having to start again in terms of making friends,” explains Julie Hough. “I've found that quite easy in London and Berlin because the ex-pat culture there is very vibrant. Ex-pats are always looking for each other to hang out with, but in Dublin, even though I found it very friendly and I have a music community, most people already have their friends so I was really having to be shopping around for friends, putting myself out there.

“It was the most I'd had to think about it in terms of making an effort so that was a big inspiration and certainly, Covid did not help me there - it made it way more difficult.”

As the songwriting progressed, Hough's melodies where not the only surprise, and a nautical lyrical theme emerged with the original white noise machine, the sea taking centre stage.

“If you find yourself by the sea, you find an ability to contemplate your problems a little bit differently,” states Hough. “All of the songs are really about growing up but retaining a sense of childhood curiosity. It's not really about childhood, it's about being a grown-up but trying not to be so hard on yourself or so heavy about the world.

“It's this idea that you go to sea and you'll be blown away by it like a child and I think it's this great equalizer throughout the tracks. A couple of them are about the sea, but a lot of them are more about life and the world. I think the sea is a great through-line for putting all of your shit into perspective.”

One of those songs about the sea proved to be a lighthouse for the project as a whole. “Headlands was a big turning point,” explains Hough. "When we got passed the outro to that it no longer felt like this was going to be something just Stephen and I liked. I was like, ‘Oh this this is special’ and I think this will make someone really, really happy.”

“It's also a complicated song,” adds McHale. “There's lots and lots of changes. There's weird metric modulations and odd bars and things like that so it could've gotten a bit nerdy or hard working on it but it just didn't at all - it just sounded really lovely.

“I love the lyrics of Headlands. They're my favourite lyrics of the songs. We made a lyric video a couple of weeks ago with that in mind because I definitely felt they needed their moment.” 

With the arrival of ‘Pull Me Into The Open Sea’ the obvious question is what’s next for PostLast? However, if you’re resisting their charms because you think that it’s just another side-project not worth getting invested in then fear not, because there is plenty to come from PostLast.

“We're working on an album,” enthuses McHale. “We've also got some plans for a remix EP next year, but we're writing and working away on an album right now.”

McHale notes that because of the way the project was put together, they never thought about performing the songs live but now that an album is in the mix, they are going to have to “work out how to do it.”

“If we're doing something live, we want it to work well and put time and thought into doing it well, so I think we'll tie-in some live performances with a bigger release down the line.”

‘Pull Me Into The Open Sea’ is out now.