Darling’s forthcoming EP is officially released 25th October in Ireland and 28th October in the UK. Check out more about the group below (the tune).
Around 2013 things began to fall into place for Darling. The morning after their previous band had fallen apart, Gary Harding and James McGuire, two young men from Dublin, sat down in a cafe and scribbled down everything they wanted to achieve and everything they wanted to avoid in a new band. The next 12 months was spent working out of the spare room in Gary’s parent’s house, teaching each the other the merits of songwriting and studying the greats. First came the tunes, then the name. During that year every bit of spare time they had was focused on writing, recording and rehearsing material they could be proud of. But Darling was never going to be a spare time kind of band.
Gary: “We confined ourselves to a studio environment for months and months with guitars and pianos, a 7-year old Mac and some glitchy software trying to write stuff that moved us and was worthy of real pop music. We listened to the giants and studied them and just wrote and wrote. We wanted to write music that would sound just as solid in 20 years.”
Writing and demo excursions also took the pair to a beach house overlooking the wild Irish sea on Ireland’s southern coast, a lake-side cottage in the remote midlands as well as studios in Belfast, Kerry and Dublin.
Renowned pop producer Stephen Lipson heard a snippet of one of their demos somewhere or another. Stephen knows his hits. Many of the foremost pioneering names in popular music have entrusted their sound to Stephen, among them, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Grace Jones, Ultravox and Pet Shop Boys. Within a few weeks the boys were holed up in Steve’s West London studio sprinkling magic on some demos. These sessions more than anything let them know they were on the right path. Under Steve’s expert tutelage their songs took life and a blueprint was laid down.
