The Mary Wallopers have shared new single ‘The Juice’, their first material since last year’s ‘Home Boys Home’ EP – listen below.
The folk-rock track, their first since founding member Seán McKenna left the band this March, was written by frontmen Andrew and Charles Hendy and is dominated by a jaunty riff and sardonic lyrics. The former serves up lines like, “We’rе always in the pub now / That’s the way to be / Thеy have central heating and the pints are free,” before there’s a minute-long outro on the uilleann pipes.
Discussing the track, the Dundalk five-piece said: “This is a song for all the exhausted people, fed up of all the greedy crooks, who still manage to squeeze a bit of juice out of life.”
Listen to the track here:
Following their UK tour in March, which included two sold-out nights at O2 Academy Brixton in London, and some massive homecoming shows in their native Ireland, the Mary Wallopers have a few festival dates coming up next month. They’re playing Boomtown, Beautiful Days and Victorious in the UK as well as Norway’s Øya, before heading to Australia for a few September dates.
Speaking to NME last March, the band discussed their style of music, with Andrew saying: “There needs to be a voice that’s giving the rowdy side of folk back to people.”
Charles said: “Folk got this name of being very meek or timid – kind of milquetoast. It became safe, and we hate that because that’s not what folk songs are about … The songs are all about fucking and drinking and hanging landlords and fucking murdering the cunts. They’re political songs, and even the love songs can be gruesome. You know what I mean?”
They also spoke about the current wave of Irish artists, praising the likes of Just Mustard, Lankum, Kneecap and Jinx Lennon, Charles explaining: “Ireland has always been a good place for music, but a lot of the music that came out of Ireland previously didn’t really sound very Irish. You know, even if it was rock music or hip hop or anything, it didn’t sound Irish. It was emulating other countries.”
Andrew added: “There’s a lot more confidence in Irish culture, realising that our culture is fucking amazing.”
