“It was the first time in ages that we realised we were individual human beings,” recalls Gabriel.
Unbeknownst to them at the time, that US tour was doomed to be pulled after its opening two sell-out performances, the pandemic subsequently granting the outfit some much-needed respite and an opportunity to ground themselves. I remember ringing my best friend before heading to America and saying, ‘I really don’t know if I can play these songs anymore’.”
“The dissociation was probably the toughest part. “I would try to enter into the emotion as intensely as I could every night, even catching myself feigning emotion and then being awash with guilt having done that.” Bassist Gabriel Paschal Blake recalls his own fatigue. “My relationship with that campaign became very strained,” vocalist James McGovern says of that period. Parking their emotions in a place of grief and anger for a sustained period of time - simmering below the surface to be unpacked on stage on a nightly basis - was soon to take its toll, however. This combination of opposing deliveries made for one of the most aggressive releases of 2019 that simultaneously remained one of the year’s most vulnerable. Written while several band members were in the grips of grief, ‘When I Have Fears’ was a spacious yet personal album that married the frustrated urgency of punk with a more serene, shoegaze-esque willingness to let the songs breathe, swelling and shrinking as naturally as the tide. Superficial familiarities aside, however, ‘When I Have Fears’ was a very different offering to IDLES’ politically-charged ‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’ or the anachronistic lyricism of Fontaines’ ‘Dogrel’. Immediately making a notable impression on airwaves and festival bills alike, it was a debut that pushed the quintet to the precipice of the conversation around alternative music in a year which also saw both IDLES and Dublin compatriots Fontaines DC announcing themselves in a big way ushering in an era of post-punk dominance. It’s been four years since The Murder Capital released ‘When I Have Fears’ into a considerably different musical landscape to the one that we know today.
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