SAIV’N is a synthfolk musical project created by Saidhbhín a folk singer songwriter from Dundalk and producer Danny who is from Dublin. It is collaborative blend of both their musical stylings (Folk/electronic) formed in May 2020 during lockdown.
Saidhbhín became interested in playing music at the age of 8 taking up guitar and soon after drums. She began a solo music career at 16, playing small gigs around Dundalk as a singer songwriter. Her inspirations in her music style of writing come from Damien Rice, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Hayley William (Paramore)
Continuing to focus on music Saidhbhín went onto study Applied Music in DKIT and went onto specialise in sole performance. It was in this course she became a member of the band Sonnets & Sisters in 2015 who went onto gig all over Ireland performing at festivals such as Body & Soul and Electric Picnic.
After the band went their separate ways in 2018, she decided to focus on finding a producer to work with to create the folk mixed with electronic sound she had been searching for but didn’t have the tools or knowledge to do so. After two years and a number of producers, her sister introduced her to officecoffee (Danny) over social media and from there they began to develop their unique sound, Sythfolk. A blend of Saidhbhín folk style writings and officecoffee’s electronic workings.
Over a decade as a professional performing musician playing around 200 shows a year has made the stage officecoffee’s spiritual home – having been inspired by the wild sonic styles of Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Blur’s Graham Coxon to first take up guitar at the atypically ripe age of 19.
Drawing on influences from disco, funk and electronic music, officecoffee began writing and performing with a seven-piece indie funk band, exploring a keen love for clean, angular rhythm guitar while incorporating his burgeoning fascination with audio-mangling digital effects, vintage electronic toys and sampling into the fold.
While working as a studio engineer, his work in sound design and foley for film and radio led to an increasing obsession with synthesis . Amassing a self-sufficient rig of drum machines, synthesisers and samplers and eventually led to his solo debut at Electric Picnic in 2019.
Both Saidhbhín and officecoffee have yet to meet in person, as this has been a 100% social media/internet communication due to the pandemic. The two live roughly 84km apart so Covid19 made it impossible to meet on most occasions over the last year. This however didn’t stop them from creating ‘Tunnels’, their debut single. The two have taken advantage of the internet to create and perfect this track, sending many recordings back and forth, editing it down, sending notes and fixes till it was at it final completed stage.
They are currently creating more track ready for release within the next year.
‘Tunnels’, out Friday 18th June, is about the inner struggle, all your negative thoughts chasing you to no end. It is about the battle to stay positive and break away from that negativity. The feeling of driving through a tunnel with the lights and everything else passing by representing a racing mind, is emulated with motifs bubbling up and passing away like the emotions expressed in the lyrics. ‘Tunnels ‘was written pre-pandemic but certainly became very relevant since last year.
