Start Listening To: Naked Lungs

Unveiling Naked Lungs' debut album Doomscroll.

In this captivating Q&A session, Naked Lungs guides us through their artistic journey, shedding light on the conceptual and creative aspects that make Doomscroll a remarkable debut. The band shares the inspirations behind their album's name and the profound intention behind their music. As they delve into the songwriting process for their lead single ‘Pressure' they reveal the intricate dynamics that gave birth to its caustic power and melody.

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your debut album Doomscroll and the meaning behind the title?

When we sat down together and began the process of writing the songs that would eventually become Doomscroll - we set out to incorporate elements of various genres that influenced us at the time, whether it be noise rock, techno, post punk or horror movie soundtracks. We then wanted to collectively explore the catharsis of building and releasing tension, building up walls of sound only to cut out to almost nothing. This almost became our calling card within the songs - a mantra we would apply in the writing stage of these songs.

The title Doomscroll came after we completed the recordings and found that listening to the album through almost replicates the doomscrolling we all find ourselves doing unknowingly on a daily basis, where moments of levity or dopamine boosts are intercut with depressive content intended to create outrage. There’s good and bad, loud and soft, and we felt it nicely reflected what we were exploring in the music.

‘Pressure’ is the lead single from your upcoming album. Could you share the creative process behind this particular track?

“Pressure” initially was built around the rhythm section - the combination of the bass with the drums locking into this really abrasive, chugging beast. We wanted to lean into the nastiness of the sounds we created and this all came together with the vocals and guitar all turned up to 11. We allowed ourselves to overindulge in a way as a means to explore how far we could push the track and ultimately what we released was as full whack as we could have done. You have to love a dirty shredder solo DI’ed straight in as well, don’t you?

The press release mentions that the album explores themes of male vulnerability and toxic masculinity. Could you elaborate on how these themes are addressed in your music?

I think lyrically we explore vulnerability as a more all encompassing term rather than singling it as male vulnerability / toxicity. We look at characters at their wits end, who have gone into their own version of reality so much they feel there’s no way back, or any form of light at the end of their tunnel. Songs like River or Second Song are pumped full of negative emotions like angst, guilt, repression and anger. It’s hard for anyone to be vulnerable in a world where we separate ourselves not only into good and bad, but online and offline too, we find it hard to find our authentic self, as we don’t often allow ourselves that vulnerability door to open. It’s a beautiful thing when you can though. Take the Garden, its verses are a negative inner monologue between a person and their negative side, only for the person to take over in the chorus and tell themselves someday they’ll be okay.

The video for "Pressure" showcases anxiety and toxicity manifesting as a literal monster. How did you come up with the concept for the video, and what message were you aiming to convey?

At the time of developing the concept from Pressure, I was conveniently (or not), under a lot of personal and work related pressure that was leading to these bouts of extreme anxiety and dread in all aspects of my life. I found myself turning to various means in an attempt to ignore this rather than admitting I was having a problem. Funnily enough, through making the video and exploring the idea of your anxiety and your toxic habits manifesting as a demon - I came to terms with my own problems and I’m now moving forward to avoid instances like that in the future.

The message is: Don’t allow yourself to self-destruct when dealing with problems - reach out, get help, avoid scary demons.

Doomscroll is described as replicating the experience of scrolling through negative news. How did this concept influence the songwriting and overall flow of the album?

We always try to incorporate a very tight flow to our liveset, kind of weaving songs into each other with very few gaps - so when we eventually listened back to the record we found that we had created that same flow and it was a parallel to doomscrolling. We’ve all been there: one minute you're half an hour deep in these little 10-second dopamine hits and then boom - you’re hit with a news article or some outrage bait and your mood shifts entirely. We found that in a way, the album does the same, where moments of levity and release are harshly bashed away by themes of grief, negativity and walls of sound. This rapid “flip flop” of emotions permeates through the entire run of the album and dictates the flow.

The album features a mix of caustic power and melodic elements. How did you approach balancing these contrasting elements throughout the record?

When writing material we always have a few elements we would inject to make the track come together - one being these melodic refrains and the other being these huge, caustic noise sections. Invariably, you don’t want to do too much of one as it will cancel out the other and a section or dynamic change should never feel shoehorned into a track. It would always come down to us asking: is this change earned? Is it justified? Are we putting this in just because we can? Then through this self-interrogation we would ultimately find the balance that works for the particular track.

‘The Garden’ showcases a more melodic and measured side of Naked Lungs. Can you tell us about the creative process behind this track and what inspired its sound?

A lot of what we write is us trying to experiment and sometimes that involves mashing to otherwise clashing sounds together, I suppose The Garden was an attempt to write a pop song out of noise rock tools. I was listening to a lot of Beatles at the time and I was obsessed with the melody to Yesterday, breaking it down and trying to make my own version of it. The lyrics are expressing exasperation at having done so much gardening the previous summer, only for it to look like shit 3 months later, as gardening is never ending work. To me that’s a lot like how your mental health works, if you don't maintain it constantly it too will look like shit in 3 months.

‘Boo Boo’ seems to venture into new wave territory. What led to this experimentation and how does it fit within the context of the album?

Initially, Boo Boo was a much faster song, and we found it never really worked - one day someone suggested we slow it down and we went : oh this is cool. The idea of exploring the dread and “The Fear” you feel when you’re so hungover you begin to have an existential crisis through this lumbering ballad that then

explodes into this euphoric release was something we felt was worthwhile. It may tip its toes into New Wave territory but we always felt that it maintains the edge and noise of the other tracks and thematically we felt it was a perfect closer for the LP.

The band has been praised for its ability to control and toy with restraint and unbridled power. How did you achieve this balance on Doomscroll and were there any specific techniques or approaches you used?

I guess it's’ as simple as we like how it sounds when music goes from a huge sound to a really small one as sharply as we can. We were listening to a lot of horror soundtracks in our early days jamming together. I think we wanted a few jumpscares in the music, and it just became something we did a lot. But when you do something too much, it becomes a formula that you snatch out of your back pocket whenever you're not sure where to take something, which we try to avoid, so we're always trying to play with other ways we can contrast that heavy and lighter side of our music.

With your debut album, you've received significant attention and praise. How do you feel about the expectations and hype surrounding Naked Lungs, and how does it influence your approach to music-making?

It's been surreal seeing the band’s name float around so much and we’re grateful for any support we’ve received along the way! Does it influence how we write? Absolutely not. If it’s good or bad, nothing changes for us. We are Naked Lungs and we’ll continue to be Naked Lungs no matter what.

Could you share some highlights from your experiences performing live, including the sold-out Therapy? supports and headline tours? How have these experiences shaped the band's sound and stage presence?

As a band you are always learning and always improving - so supporting the likes of Therapy? and doing our first headline UK tour were huge learning experiences and we all have some amazing memories. Having lines out the door before and during our set at The Hope and Ruin in Brighton stands out, managing to fit a full drum kit into a Fiat Panda was also pretty memorable.

I think as we played more and more we became more comfortable in what we do on stage and found our own flow individually - everyone is different but once you find that sweet spot you tend to stick with it. Maybe later on down the road we’ll amp it up and start doing flips but for now we’ll keep it grounded.

As an enigmatic four-piece band, how do you maintain your distinctive identity while also defying pigeonholing? Are there any specific influences or artistic philosophies that guide your musical journey?

Difficult question to answer, as it’s surprisingly hard to get a proper idea of how you sound or what your identity is just by being 4 people in a room writing music you like. You have brief moments where you get an outside glimpse of what you are but those moments can be so fleeting. The only thing to be done is to go with your gut and just write what you think is compelling and not worry about how it'll be perceived as that can really cause you to overthink every little thing. On our better days that's our artistic philosophy: just piss into the wind and see how far it goes.

What do you love right now?

Model/Actriz’ album Dogsbody is sick, Show Me The Body are also great, CHALK, our fellow Wicklow man Hozier dropping a new album is always good for the parish too.

What do you hate right now?

The price of pints in Dublin, it’s closing in on a tenner in some places!

Looking ahead, what are your aspirations and goals for Naked Lungs in the future? Is there anything you hope to achieve or explore with your music moving forward?

We just want to reach as many people as possible and to genuinely engage with our audience . The end-goal is always going to be self-sufficiency to a certain extent, to be in a place where we can continue to create and explore while also being able to pay rent. We have no intention of slowing down, we are already working through some new material that’s really exciting and is exploring some new avenues and sounds - so stay tuned.