PostLast an unexpected alt-pop collaboration between Julie Hough (HAVVK) and Stephen McHale (BARQ) have shared their delightful debut single ‘Connect 4’, which sees the pair leaning into  a joyful, upbeat sound rarely seen throughout their other musical ventures.

The track charts the difficulty in making friends as a grown-up escape into the joy and fragility of making friends and rediscovering your inner-child through connection with others.

“PostLast has been like a little fever-dream escape from all of my regular projects.” explains Julie Havvk of the new venture the pair have been quietly working on behind the scenes. “We come from such different musical backgrounds and have such different musical minds, so there was no preconception about what the project would sound like. I was very stream of consciousness when working on the demos. I’ve always loved Stephen’s guitar playing, and it was really interesting to have a departure from rock music and to work on a project with no previous releases to live up to.”

Meanwhile, the second most recognisable beanie-wearer in Irish music, Stephen McHale has enjoyed defying his own expectations with the venture.“Working on this project has been a very different experience from any previous group I’ve been a part of. We jumped straight into collaborating with the main aim being that we should just enjoy the process. This meant that I was regularly treated to fantastic surprises when the weird little instrumental demo I’d make would come back to me in the shape of a pop song, with Julie’s lyrics and melodies always sparking new ideas and interesting diversions from whatever I had thought the song might turn into.”

If you enjoy the fresh pop sound of ‘Connect 4’ you’ll be delighted to hear that PostLast is far from a once off, with numerous singles set for release throughout 2024 and beyond.