Kristen Sinclair

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...

Founder Linda Coogan Byrne The music industry was rocked last year when publicist and consultant Linda Coogan Byrne released the Gender Disparity Data Report focusing on the amount of Irish radio airplay for domestic artists. The report crunched the numbers to reveal a staggering disparity between the number of Irish men played on national radio compared to the number of women played on the same stations. The report was collated by data logged on an industry system used to track artists’ airplay and royalties called Radiomonitor. The number of Irish women featuring in stations’ top 20 most played songs was shockingly low compared to their male counterparts. Tracks from home grown female talent made up a measly 5% of the top songs from 28 of the Republic’s main radio stations. Worse still, four stations – named and shamed as FM104, LM FM, WLR FM and South East Radio – did not feature a single local female voice in their top 20 most played tracks. Dermot Kennedy, Niall Horan and The Acad...

“I’m going get my piano tuned now, I’m very excited!” chirps Amy Montgomery as we wrap up our call. The 20-year-old singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is just over a week away from the release of her debut EP following two new music videos, a string of singles and touring as far away as Australia. The culmination of four years’ work, Intangible is twenty-one minutes of powerful alt rock with squalls of guitar feedback lifted by bright, fluttering synths and vocal prowess akin to Janis Joplin, Alanis Morissette and even Miley Cyrus. Raised on classic rock, Amy’s sound gives a subtle nod to the music that nourished her, but she manages to rise above her influences. “I’ve been surrounded by music since I was born and in my house growing up. My dad is a big muso, he loves all sorts of rock music and I would hear AC/DC from no age. I picked up the guitar after my dad inspired me to; he plays the guitar as well and taught me my first few chords. I have this memory from when I was...

Peter J. McCauley, image courtesy of Chordblossom Peter J. McCauley has spent much of lockdown watching RuPaul’s Drag Race with his wife. Aside from working on his latest LP Amnesty , the singer and multi-instrumentalist has already caught up to season 11. “I like to live in an alternate reality where my opinion on drag artistry matters,” he laughs. It’s a rare period of rest for the Belfast native who is more often found on the road, once touring these islands in a Transit van behind the drum kit for Mojo Fury, and more recently at festivals across the world as Rams’ Pocket Radio. Under his former alias, McCauley released a string of EPs and singles and a concept album, B é ton , in 2013. Four years ago, he decided to record under his own name and delivered Liminals , his first EP as Peter J. McCauley. Following a long stint on the road and recording documental album Voices of Belfast , two years of work has lead up to in the release of his first full length unrestrained by his form...