https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579196374423
Sounds like: Irish Narrative-Alternative
From: Ireland
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound?
Niall: A very typical adolescent start- I got a nylon string guitar when I was 11 years old, and my aunties boyfriend would give me classical guitar lessons, then a few months later my best friend got an electric and we learned some Nirvana tunes, then Blink 182, then into Metallica, like stepping stones into the Alt scene! Most of my music taste is weird proggy rock and metal, which has definitely flavoured the DTC stuff, but Nate brings a more accessible music arranging style to songs.
Nate: I played double bass in school so it was a quick side step into bass guitar, and I started playing in bands from about 13 years old. I wanted to make any money so I learned some chords on guitar to start busking at 14 and just fell in love with chord structuring and songwriting. Id been writing poems and doing spoken word since I was 6 or 7 in local Feis' and only in this project with Niall had I considered marrying the two. He keeps me grounded from my crazier ideas and adds an incredible knowledge of melody and astounding technical skills
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
Nate: I'm very confident as a poet and wordsmith. My main goal in starting this project was to make my poetry more accessible, but I want people to feel the full cinematic marriage of music and words in their bones.
Niall: I think for both of us music making has been more of a catharsis than specifically for the consumption of others, the music varies but I think Nate's lyrics are very relatable.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
Niall: Folksy, indie-alt poetry with a bit of a bite.
Nate: What he said 😂
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Nate: it really is a difficult niche to pin down but I think we could definitely find hardcore fans touring with Tank & the Bangas, Bright Eyes or Nahko & Medicine for the People.
Niall: I don't actually listen to any bands that make music like us! My top three bands to tour with would be Coheed & Cambria, Mammoth and Avenged Sevenfold, but I don't think the crowd would appreciate what we are doing 😂
5. What's your thoughts on AI generated music?
Niall: I have a bit of a hot take on this- growing up I was all about technical shred guitar, and I looked down my nose at the "fake musicians" who made music with samples, or programming on a computer, or beat packs etc. even guitarists who relied heavily on effects like The Edge, I thought were cheating because it didn't take 6 hours a day of practice. then i went to study music production alongside loads of DJs and producers, and i quickly realised my ignorance to how creative people could be with the technology i didn't understand. It got me thinking about where i drew my line, are others thinking I'm not a valid musician because i use a fretted instrument? Is anyone who doesn't stretch their own goat skin for drums and catgut for strings even a real musician? AI slop definitely gives me the Ick, but I've seen it used in ways that isn't just prompting, but part of a workflow of human input and human crafting of the output, which i see as valid creative expression, and i think it will allow people who might not have the production knowledge and without the budget and backing of a major label team be able to stand toe-to-toe with the 1%er artists.
Nate: Yeah I've not had the same disdain for computer generated music in my lifetime, but when AI music started to grow I was dead against it. I live a life looking for idiosyncrasies to love in art and music - things sound best to me when they don't sound quite perfect. As Niall said though, I think it would be foolish not to understand this will be a mainstay of modern music and if it's used alongside the raw emotion of an artist and sparingly can be quite useful.
6. What’s your take on the current state of Alternative?
Nate: It's difficult to say - in some ways so many more artists who may never have been heard beyond a few local gigs are able to get seen and heard on a world stage, but with that can come a lot of oversaturation. All I want to hear is something different and I love the levels thats available now. I just wish they could get paid!
Niall: I was a teen during the early and mid 2000s, where we had a bit of a renaissance of Alt and metal, then its been relatively quiet for about 15 years, now it feels like there is a resurgence again. Lots of little tweens skulking around looking angsty, lots of people angry and the government and society. These things run in cycles and I love to see it!
7. What’s the current local music scene like there in Ireland?
Niall: We are historically a nation of musicians and poets, so the island has always punched above its weight per capita in music, but when there are periods where its quite cliquey, its the same few heads getting recognition, and a lot of my full-time musician friends find it hard to pay the bills, if you aren't running a 1-2 piece cover band you aren't bringing in enough to get by, unfortunately. We are currently building our own venue in Derry called Siege City, and going through the entertainment licence process, hoping to make an alternative space for young musicians to cut their teeth in bands and learn the trade, so hopefully in a few years we will have done our part to bring on the scene.
Nate: There's never been a time of absolutely no local music scene of some note, with notable artists and bands but with the cliquey nature that can come with those ebbs and flows it can become much harder to break into even that local scene for some. Niall is building that with Siege City to make an alternative venue for the alternative scene, and I'll be helping every step of the way while simultaneously trying to build something inside that to expose some excellent and exciting poetry.
8. What’s your take on the royalties that streaming services pay out to artists?
Niall: We do this for personal fulfillment rather than for profit, but I personally think streaming and the internet at large has devalued music to the point where its now no longer the product. Unless you are getting millions of monthly streams its not going to earn a living, and there are guys like Nik D who are able to do that without industry backing, but generally thats the exception that proves the rule. If you are trying to make your band pay the bills, and its between getting 10,000 streams or selling one single t-shirt, it probably makes more sense to create music that you love, that a core audience of dedicated fans will rally to, and then maximise LTV of each individual fan. We've actually got a song in the works exactly about this, which you will hear releasing soon.
Nate: Couldn't have said it better myself!
9. What’s next for Dusk Til Chorus?
Niall: We've reincarnated this project after about a decade of stasis, the last 8 or 9 months have been getting back into the groove of songwriting and production, and learning many of the new tools available (until 2024 I was still running Logic Pro 9, since 2010!), we have a backlog of tracks in various stages of completion that we will be releasing over the next few months, then maybe looking at a few festival spots and national shows.
Nate: Yeah we want to finish our backlog of tracks (however I keep writing and it keeps growing lol) but once we have a comfortable level of high quality completed pieces we'll quickly build our live experience and get back to playing festivals and building our fanbase.
10. Any shoutouts?
Niall: Our Siege City venue space in Derry, and the bands who are sharing the creative hub there, Asylum Road and Hard To Explain.
Nate: I'd be remiss not to mention local artist Grim17, Daveit at Stereofloss.com and Wilson Graham, who taught me bass at a young age but is now teaching my son - generations of musicians have gone through his tutelage!
