Hailed as “one of the most exciting new Irish acts of 2024” by GoldenPlec, dream pop duo PostLast shared their ethereal debut EP Pull Me Into the Open Sea and eerie focus single ‘Halloween’ via VETA Records last Thursday. Written and produced by Julie Hough (vocals) and Stephen McHale (guitar), the EP taps into a sense of childlike wonder.
Julie explains: “ Pull Me Into the Open Sea is tied together by a sense of openness to the world that you have when you’re a child. All of the songs have a nostalgic quality but don’t necessarily romanticise the past—more so the people we were before we developed the barriers, preconceptions, and insecurities that amount throughout our lives. This was very much the spirit of how Stephen and I approached the music: being open to something new and unknown, and that attitude filtered into the songs themselves.”
Stephen says of the EP: “We began writing these songs without any defined direction of what they should sound like, or what the lyrical content should be, and I think the reason they gravitated towards a sense of wistful contentment was because of that lack of boundaries. Lyrically, the sea features heavily throughout, as do other themes of relaxation and life’s simple pleasures, such as board games and Halloween. It’s reassuring to know that creating without any sense of pressure resulted in something that contains more calm contentment than I would have expected from myself!”
PostLast launched in spring of 2024, but Julie and Stephen first connected while completing a joint headline tour of Ireland and the UK in 2017 with their respective bands HAVVK and BARQ . Over the past year, they’ve been writing in secret, preparing each element of their collaboration to be ready for public release in spring 2024. The result is a playful escape into their musical imaginations, utterly unlike either of their previous projects.
Their debut single ‘Connect 4’ was described as “rife with electric melody, soft-toned singing, and angelic harmonies” (Hot Press ). The song is about rediscovering your inner-child through connection with others, and remembering how to switch off, play and dance with reckless abandon. The track garnered a wave of acclaim in national and international media, including being selected as an RTÉ 2FM Track of the Week , The Vinyl District’s UK Artist of The Week , Loud Women’s Track of the Day , and Ocean FM’s Record of The Week .
The duo followed up with ‘Scavenge’ , which The Thin Air dubbed “one of our Irish tracks of the summer thus far.” Their next release, ‘Hollywood Ending’ , was featured as Dan Hegarty’s RTÉ 2FM Track of the Week . Radio stations in Ireland and abroad have been spinning ‘Scavenge’ and ‘Hollywood Ending’, including iconic Pacific Northwest mainstay KEXP , Soho Radio , RTÉ 2fm , iRadio , Red FM , 98FM , Shannonside , Clare FM , 8Radio , Flirt FM , and more. Their September single ‘Mizen’ was inspired by a childhood holiday Julie’s family embarked on around Cork and Kerry, and how the rugged seascapes mesmerised her all those years ago. ‘Mizen’ received a coveted first play from Cormac Battle on RTÉ 2fm and has been featured by the likes of The Pat Kenny Show , Genuine Irish , The Thin Air , Hot Press , GoldenPlec and others.
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