Kristen Sinclair

All photos courtesy of Chordblossom's website, linked below. The Sound of Belfast is a festival which champions the music community in Belfast, not strictly from Belfast. Safe Harbour: Concert of the Diaspora is a celebration of the diverse musical talent from across the globe that has found its home on our shores. Sponsored by PRS for Music, NI charity Beyond Skin hosted this intimate event at the Oh Yeah Centre to showcase a handful of global musicians who now call our city home. Against a backdrop of war and displacement, ever increasing numbers of people are finding themselves refugees and seeking safe passage. This migration is enriching our local creative scene, with instruments, songs, styles and skills we haven’t seen before. From Ukraine to Afghanistan to the Congo, the Oh Yeah stage is set for a night of world music. First up is local band Cut Rubber, accompanied by Masha Myndru and the Lisburn Harmony Choir for an epic rendition of ‘Сестра (Sister)’ by Ukrainian band The...

 “Wait, are they covering the Thomas the Tank Engine theme song?” Ciara abruptly detracts from what she was saying to point out the gimmicky chug coming from the next room. The rest of Problem Patterns burst into laughter. The band are sitting in a circle on the floor of their rehearsal space off the Springfield Road, a cosy studio littered with battered sofas and cables. Ciara and Alanah sip on iced coffees; Beth and Bev unpack their kit as we chat. Their neighbours have unknowingly joined in on a private joke. “Thomas the Tank Engine was pivotal in album recording,” Alanah laughs. “We’d just stick it on whenever we needed cheering up.” The band are still recovering from their first live set of the year at the Atlantic Bar in Portrush the previous weekend. When I ask how it was, they answer in a chorus of superlatives – amazing, electrifying, sweaty. The sold-out goodbye gig for the iconic north coast venue saw Problem Patterns take to the stage alongside ASIWYFA, Brand New Friend...

  “I am not a criminal” Sara* photographed by Stuart Bailie I meet Sara for the first time in a city centre café on a chilly January evening. We browse the touch-screen menu of elaborate coffees and settle on something sweet and iced. She is an Iranian musician, refugee and the driving force behind a scheme bringing music to asylum seekers here. Sara is not her real name, but one she uses to protect her family back in Iran. Sara was forced to flee her home country and has been in Belfast for over six months. As guitar teacher by profession, music has been a lifeline for her here and now something she can use to help others in similar situations through the Guitars for Newcomers initiative. Organised by Darren Ferguson, head of local arts organisation Beyond Skin, the project takes donations of old guitars from the public, has them refurbished and given to asylum seekers. Many of the recipients of the guitars are learning to play for the first time – and that’s where Sara comes in. ...

Zines by Shannon O'Neill from Sister Ghost  The first opportunity I ever had to have my writing   published was in a zine. Imagine Tumblr circa   2013, submissions curated from likeminded blogs   on feminism and stan culture, bound together in a   PDF and fired out to a list of email subscribers to   be printed off and cherished. These free, self-   published mini magazines, with little regard for     editorial standards, censorship or house style,   allowed teenage girls to talk about whatever they   wanted to, how they wanted to. A haphazard   mixture of sketches, newspaper cuttings, defaced   images, fan art and handwritten messages were   splashed across A4 pages to express anger, love,   political views, share experiences and give advice.  Often synonymous with the 90s Riot grrrl   movement and punk scenes, zines (short for ...

Bandcamp Strength NIA’s second full length release opens with disembodied vocals over the ominous stuttering chords of an organ. Formed around the talents of frontman Rory Moore, the band’s USP is using old, broken instruments to create a discordant brand of post-apocalyptic pop with the occasional chorus peeking up from beneath the rubble. The band like to think of their work as “the first pop songs in the world”. Following on from their debut Northern Ireland Yes in 2018, Ulster is a Dance Master abounds with regional references and is a smorgasbord of instruments and sounds. The whole album clocks in at well under an hour and its lyrics recount eerie tales from Irish history to a more recent a youth spent in Derry. Song topics include everything from gravy buns to the population of Strabane. The comically titled ‘Dressing Up for the TUV’ is an ode to the women found guilty in the last witch trial in Ireland in 1711. Moore speaks as the TUV councillor objecting to their memoria...

folking.com Dani Larkin’s debut record Notes for a Maiden Warrior is an album in two halves. The first, based around the theme of the Warrior, represents the dark side of the moon. It explores the archetype of Ulster as the warrior province, home to Cú Chulainn and his superhuman abilities. Larkin reinterprets this image in her songs, presenting the warrior’s strength through reflection and resilience. The second half, Maiden, is sleepy and sincere. It plays with ideas of light and feminine energy, showing strength through vulnerability and a celebration of love and kindness. Notes for a Maiden Warrior draws on ancient, otherworldly tales as a study of tenderness, pain and learning. Larkin’s native Armagh-Monaghan borderlands inform the sense of duality of the record, with one foot planted in each. Similarly, the ancient Irish concepts of the underworld and the supernatural underpin the LP, with the lines between the tangible and the mystical blurring with uncanny ease.   The...

An electronic patchwork of moving tiles and faces, some lifting a guitar up to the camera, some poised next to a microphone and all smiling, fill young girls’ computer screens across Ireland and beyond. This virtual band practice is the most recent incarnation of Girls Rock School NI. Founded at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre in 2016 as a spinoff of Ladies Rock Camp, Girls Rock is a summer music camp that gives girls and non-binary youth aged 11-16 the opportunity to learn an instrument from scratch, form their own bands, write their own songs and cut their teeth as burgeoning rock stars. Weeks of coaching, merch-making workshops and Q&As with the province’s leading women musicians lead up to the final showcase where the new-fangled groups take to the stage to showcase their original material to a live audience for the first time. Girls Rock NI was the brainchild of Sister Ghost frontwoman Shannon O’Neill back when she was a student. After hearing about a similar Girls Rock Cam...