Let Em' Talk: Eyesore & The Jinx guide us through their long awaited debut 'Jitterbug'
Despite being diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease when I was 16, I spent the majority of my 20s' drinking heavily and not looking after myself well at all. After my mum died in February 2021 and following a period of particularly heavy drinking, I was faced with a period of relatively serious ill health which almost saw me needing major surgery. During this time, I became convinced I too didn’t have long left on this mortal coil, and so I presented myself with an ultimatum which was to get sober and start looking after myself or, carry on as I was which would have led to major surgery and eventually, my own death.
Given that I’m writing this, you can gather what option I chose. I’m glad I did but, for a long time I felt ridiculous about the whole thing. I had no idea how to take care myself, what to eat, what to drink, how to exercise and more to the point, what to do with all of the extra time I had on my hands now that my schedule wasn’t governed by hangovers.
‘Self Improver’ is about how absurd those initial few months seemed. I felt like an imposter in my own body. Only a few months prior had I been fully committed to my own demise, and now here I was having chicken for breakfast and doing burpees.
Musically, it has a horrible, circular guitar riff that reminded me of something you’d hear in a circus, which complimented the subject matter quite well I thought. It’s a frenetic start to the album but one that I think gives the listener and good idea of what they’re letting themselves in for.
2) No More Nails
The lead single off the album. This was built around one of Liam’s noodling, little riffs; one of those that only come along once in a blue moon. You either find it very catchy, or deeply irritating. I often flit between the two myself.
Subject matter-wise, it’s about how I compulsively bite my nails (there’s a bit of a theme of compulsive behaviour in the album) and how disgusting a habit is. My sister says my finger nails look like cornflakes, and unfortunately she’s not wrong.
3) Nocturnal Athletes (Ode to Bruno)
My personal favourite from the album and a song that I think represents a real shift away from where we were in our early releases to where we go to on this album.
It’s another inspired by my post-health crisis, ‘self improvement’ phase. I’d spent the majority of my early life avoiding all forms of exercise and because of that, the idea of going to a gym was terrifying. When I did eventually pluck up the courage to go, I went at night time in the hope there would be less people around to witness how inept I was. Thankfully there were less people around but those that were there were a peculiar bunch. If you’ve never been to the gym late at night it’s a heady mix of rank amateurs like myself, and the real dedicated folks who have veins thicker than my biceps. Generally, everyone leaves each other to it though and just wants to crack on, so if you’re reading this and you’ve been wanting to join the gym but you’re scared it’s full of juice heads who will swirly you for doing a bicep curl wrong - fear not. No one’s arsed about you or your workout; don’t get in the way of their mirror selfies though.
Anyway, every time I was in the gym without fail, there would be a Bruno Mars song/video playing on one of the screens. Around the time we were writing this he’d not long done ‘Silk Sonic’ - which I really liked - and was getting tons of acclaim for. Whilst he was picking up Grammy’s, I was picking up personal bests in Pure Gym, so it felt completely natural to weave this faux narcissistic narrative together about us competing with each other. It compliments the ridiculousness of the other songs quite well I think, but has a real dark vibe shift that the other songs don’t have and somehow ends up being the most introspective tune on the record.
I’ve come to despise all forms of social media. I feel genuinely aggrieved that I have to engage with these grubby little apps that are a cesspit of hate and utter shite, in order to reach anyone with our music. Dropping links to music into a feed full of racism, transphobia and fight videos is a sorry state of affairs and speaks to both how we consume music now and poorly regulated those apps are. Anyway, I digress..
It’s a simple little song this one, about people who devote their time to arguing with strangers on the internet, usually about things they know very little about. A hobby I’ve never really understood. I think the bit of anonymity that the internet can bring seems to gift wrap a real sense of entitlement in certain groups of people. Seeing them group together and enable each other in recent years has been terrifying.
5) Consonant Please Carol
As I mentioned above, my mum died in February 2021. This is a song about writing her obituary.
I was asked to keep her obituary to a side and a half of A4. It was a strange set of circumstances having to summarise someone’s life on a page and a half of paper. I don’t envy anyone who has to do it, and I hope I don’t have to do it again for a while.
Noisiest song on the album this one. Great production from Daniel from Gilla Band, who’s obviously very adept at making a racket.
6) Propranolol Theme
This was recorded after the initial album sessions. We knew we’d made something very frenetic and probably needed to slow things down at some point during the record. This is our attempt at taking a breath and relieving the tension in the previous songs.
I was also entirely dependent on propranolol for quite a while around this time, so it’s a bit of a ode to that point in my life too.
7) The Itch
This is a real favourite of ours, and one we’ve enjoyed playing live for a few years. We worked on this for a long time probably around 8/9 months and I’m glad we persisted with it. It was inspired by the likes of Uranium Club and DUDS, but sounds nothing like either. In that regard it’s a failure, but a great one at that.
Thematically again it’s concerned with compulsions and the things that our bodies do that we have no control over.
8) Float Like A Jellyfish (Sting Like a Subtweet)
Another one that we’ve had for a few years now, and that we’ve enjoyed playing live for a while. Built around a four note bassline and my favourite of Eoghan’s drum beats.
The words were inspired by some unsavoury events that took place online during Covid, where a particularly notorious figure in our local music scene got what was coming to them. The less I say about this one the better really, but it was a rare social media win.
9) Horsebox
Much to the disappointment of The Last Dinner Party, this one’s about the cost of living crisis. More specifically about the lack of affordable housing and how it’s pushing up the price of rent and financially crippling an entire generation (at least for those of us whose parents couldn’t afford to send us to private school).
I had to isolate during Covid because I was taking immunosuppressants. Once restrictions were lifted my girlfriend and I would drive to very remote places for a walk, assuming there would be less people around. What these places lacked in people, they made up for in houses neither of us would ever be able to afford and it started my thinking on how we would ever be able to afford to live in a place like that. Naturally, I arrived at renovating a horse box and so, this song was born.
Arrangement-wise, this is the most Devo of the lot, so much so I was inclined to leave it off but the rest of the band fought hard to keep it and we operate as a democracy these days so it stayed. I’ve had a few messages since the albums release from people saying it’s a favourite of theirs so that goes to show what I know.
10) Sleepless
The only survivor from our very first set of Eyesore songs. We actually played this at our first show, and have played it at every show we’ve done since. Little two note riff and a load of noise at the end - what’s not to enjoy. Great production from Daniel on this one too. We’ve tried to record this one a few times to no avail, but he totally nailed it.
Subject matter doesn’t warrant an explanation for this one, it’s all fairly on the nose. Since I packed in the booze, I can actually sleep now. Little tip for anyone else struggling.
11) What Doesn’t Kill You
A big, slow sad one to finish and it's particularly on the nose one about grief as well; just to make matters worse. I read a lot of self help stuff after my mum died and it was all utter bollocks. I quickly realised I was never getting over it, and I just had to learn to live with it. For me there was no healing process and there was no revelation that I was going to take away from it. I lost someone I loved and it was shite. I felt that both my mum and I had been short changed by the whole ordeal. I likely always will feel like that about it. I think that’s what I was trying to get at here.
They may not like it very much (can you blame them?), but you can follow Eyesore & The Jinx on their social media at Facebook, Instagram and X if you so wish.
Obviously, you can stream Jitterbug at all the usual places, but here's a thought for you - and stay with me here - you can also BUY IT! Take a look over at their Bandcamp below for Eyesore music and merch goodies.
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