Indie-pop artist Jack Dora has returned with his new single Love Never Comes from his upcoming EP. We asked him the BIG questions . . .
Jack is a Sligo born new-wave artist tying synth-pop, disco, rock, and electronic music all into one. With a focus on catchy melodies and poetic lyrics his music centres around "unlikely likeable undesirables."
"Love Never Comes is both about the dissonance between two people in a toxic relationship and the dissonance between two sides of the one person," he says.
"It's the loneliness and pain of knowing the other person doesn’t feel the same but also the self-fulfilling destructive nature of suffering through a depressive state.
"A state where it’s the person you see in the mirror that doesn’t love you. There’s something so toxic about that the same as it can be with relationships"
Tell us three things about yourself?
I grew up in Sligo. I was quite a rambunctious little lad. Crying and fighting were my favourite hobbies.
I've been writing songs since I was about 17 but I only started producing my own music two years ago. For both creative and monetary reasons I've been keeping it that way.
I have a degree in English and Drama and I've worked as a teacher, a tour guide and a maintenance man at a hospital.
How would you describe your music?
To date I guess I'd describe it as ambitious, bombastic and funky. It's definitely New Wave and Synth Pop but it's also Italo Disco, Funk and Post-Punk. I'm not purposefully trying to be hard to define but that's just how I am. I like to try everything and I think no matter what I make it still sounds like me at its core. From this point on I'll definitely be showing what I can do lyrically and from a storytelling perspective while retaining the slick production.
Who are your musical inspirations?
David Bowie and Prince would probably be my biggest influences. I used to have this Bowie DVD with loads of music videos and live concerts, and I would lock myself away in a room and pretend to be him and move just like him. I know it's a problematic mention considering the allegations and everything that was covered in the documentaries, but I can't deny that Michael Jackson was a huge inspiration when I was growing up too. I guess it ties into Bowie and Prince. The fluidity, the ambition, the different eras. Through and through artists who were always aiming high, and bloody hell did they know how to boogie.
What was the first gig you ever went to and the first record you ever bought/downloaded?
The first gig I remember was going to Castlebar to see Thin Lizzy with John Sykes as frontman in the absence of Phil Lynott. My dad had such a huge influence on my music when I was young, and I remember him driving us up and me thinking that Thin Lizzy were the coolest thing around. It was an incredible gig, they really rocked my tiny little socks off. The first record I ever bought was Motorhead's Ace of Spades. I absolutely loved Lemmy's style and the big pounding hard rock rhythm of the tunes. I also think I asked my sister to buy Eamon's single F*** It (I Don't Want You Back) for me. What a bloody tune. I remember loving it for the curse words and thought it would be really cool to have a CD that had a disclaimer on it.
What’s your favourite song right now?
How Dare You Want More by Bleachers. It ties perfectly into the last question because it's a song that just oozes live performance energy. There are a couple of live performances of it on YouTube already and they're glorious. It's such a joyous Springsteen-esque throwback and it makes me smile. If you close your eyes you feel like you're at a gig and that's just magic. Quite rare for a studio recording too.
Favourite lyric of all time?
In Jack Ladder's song Hurtsville there are these two lines that I can never shake. "Planting seeds among the weeds I never kill" and "The soil is so soft I dug my grave just standing still" He's talking about a metaphorical town full of lonely people who are so clearly self-destructive and give themselves fully to their own self-loathing. I'm obsessed with poetry that kind of ties knots in itself and really calls into question the narrators frame of mind.
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I guess it would have to be a song that you can chew on and dance to at the same time. Right now, I'm thinking Modern Love by Bowie. You can look at it as the loss of faith in religion or in relationships and the inner turmoil that goes along with those, but it's also so danceable. It really is a perfect song.
Where can people find your music/more information?
You can follow me on Instagram, that's where I update the most and on all the usual social media platforms!
