Pearse McGloughlin writes about The Rest, the acclaimed new album from his band Nocturnes, the creative process and his 'emotional' approach to making music...
When I look back at the records I've released there is often a predominant mood or memory associated with the recording process.
On my debut, Busy Whisper I recall a quiet excitement, with Idiot Songs the buzz of successful collaboration. When I consider my new record, The Rest, I think about a deepening of friendship with my co-musicians and also how the album has, perhaps, a broader thematic scope than previous releases.
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I work in an emotional way, following what moves me and maybe a tremor of the heave in the geopolitical landscape made its way onto this record. But artistically, I'm most interested in the life well-lived, the questing, the joy and sorrow of hopes achieved and loves lost, the immense drama of the everyday. In a song like Whiskey Tree, I talk about broken lives and try and find some light there. Such delicate themes are so well complemented by the musicians on the record – Enda Roche, Billy Donohue, Enda Reilly, Christophe Capewell and Sean Lynch, who embellish so skilfully and with whom I've worked for years. In Whiskey Tree, Billy Donohue's synths crackle and jar as if trying to say something. In Golden Bliss, Enda's guitar snarls suddenly in the chorus, shattering the accordions and seaside reverie of the verses.
On Focus, a song I got the inspiration for from a beautiful September evening, returning from a show at Electric Picnic, I wanted to create something really uplifting. The outro of that song sweeps and soars, with layered guitars and pounding drums, voicing the hope that 'all hearts can carry on', a sentiment I repeat across the album. Equally, Betting Pool is an upbeat rock song that articulates the hope that we can find redemption in crappy circumstances.
Artistically, I'm most interested in the life well-lived, the questing, the joy and sorrow of hopes achieved and loves lost, the immense drama of the everyday.
We recorded the album with Darragh Nolan, a very intuitive producer, who also produced The Soft Animal in his brilliant studio in Gorey. A lot of the record we recorded the bones of 'live' while overdubbing after. That is to say, two or three of us recorded our tracks at the same time, subsequently adding atmospherics or strings. This is my favourite way to record, as it's a mix of live performance and studio artistry - you get the sense that the musicians are together in the room and you can add the colour and texture you want afterwards. It means the vibe is not over-produced and it has a spirit of its own but you still get some production sparkle.
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We also made a couple of videos for the songs on The Rest: Arrow an elemental, ambient piece featuring Fia Rua, I shot with my brother Kevin McGloughlin and Focus, a sort of memory box of some good times the band had together in 2019. Kevin and I were editing the video during lockdown and that was quite an emotional and poignant process, really hammering home how much life had changed. I sent the video on to Billy and he wrote back 'Tears'. So, I thought, mission accomplished!
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The Rest by Pearse McGloughlin & Nocturnes is out now - find out more here.
Pics: Emil Damyanov, Kevin McGloughlin
