The Rosecaps are an exciting emerging independent rock band from Galway, Ireland. The Band consists of Daniel O’Malley on lead vocals/guitar, Shane Fahy on keys, Daniel Fahy on bass and Emmet Feerick on drums, the group began as childhood friends with a shared love of music.
After selling out their debut headline show in Dolans and landing slots at festivals such as Sea Sessions and Indiependence, the band have been tipped by The Irish Times as “one of the most promising up and coming artists of 2023.”
The Rosecaps further hone in their stylish sound with their most polished and high energy track to date. From its ambient, otherworldly opening, to its frenzied, overdriven climax, Ocean Floor does not let the listener escape until it has said what it intended to say.
The track is a statement piece from the band, who claim it had a bigger impact on them as a group than was expected. Speaking on this, they said:
“Initially, with festival season approaching, we were craving the feeling of having the audience sing back to us. And as much as we hate this cliché when it’s brought up in interviews, the song really did seem to write itself. All we had was the line ‘I’m tied to the Ocean Floor.’ Without fully understanding what that meant, different lyrics and melodies started coming to us and we bounced ideas off each other. Within the time it took us to finish our tea we had a chorus and a double chorus. The verses came together on a train ride to Limerick that evening, and we woke up the next morning with a fully written tune.”
The band’s festival wish seemed to be granted, as audiences at their live sets at Sea Sessions and Indiependence latched on to the chorus, and could sing it back to them before the song was over. But that’s not all that Ocean Floor has given the band.
“it was one of those cases where the lyrics were coming to us faster than we could stop to question them. There was such a buzz in the room that day, and we just wanted to let ideas flow and not break momentum. At the time of writing we didn’t think too critically about what we were trying to say, but looking back and analysing our own words the next day was a really interesting experience”
“It was easy to see some clear themes hidden in the many metaphors of the lyrics. Our protagonist of the song is clearly fearful of commitment, and is scared to try new things when the probability of failure seems to always be so high. They worry about how their own pessimism affects the people around them, and they feel as if they aren’t ready for their own life in a way. “It was just mad to look back on because the last year has been so unstable for us as a band that we couldn’t help but all relate. As daft as it sounds, we think we all actually learned a lot about our situation from going back and analysing what we thought was a fairly meaningless string of lyrics.”
In the studio, The Rosecaps wanted to push the boundaries of their songs to date by experimenting with the idea of addition and subtraction. Ocean Floor is littered with subtle guitar motifs and synth lines that are introduced, taken away and reintroduced in service of the song. The subtle layering only adds even more drama and intensity to the parts of the song where everything finally comes in – at full volume – together.
This is most effective when the song sucks you out of the madness completely before the climactic instrumental of the song. All instruments drop out except for a rattly unplugged hollowbody and a faint lead vocal line.
“We wanted to really jar the listener. The lofi nature of this section is to reflect the feeling of being submerged underwater, much like the main lyrics. We fine-tuned the panning of the vocal to slowly move further from the centre, to give the idea of helplessly drifting away. And then, a thumping bass drum and snare fill snap you out of it and every instrument comes flooding back. It really does ramp up the stakes.”
As fun as it is for a song to click with an audience, The Rosecaps claim it to be one of the most dreaded songs on the set list.
“Due to the amount of different coexisting parts in the song, it really does put us through our paces when we play it live. At one point Shane is using two different synth tones, playing two different synth lines, all while singing backing harmony. There are times where Dom is tap dancing on pedals, lining up the next effect and trying to sing lead vocal. We didn’t make it easy on ourselves, but we love when it all comes together live. Thankfully, so does the crowd.”
You can catch The Rosecaps live in Dublin’s Whelans, this December 1st.
