The Future of Irish Music 2024
Words: Dylan Murphy
Photography: George Voronov
With thanks to The Playground, Dublin.
We’ve teamed up with Hennessy to celebrate the acts pushing the needle in Ireland on their own terms. Ahead of a series of intimate events, we spoke to the six acts we’re tipping to make big moves in the next twelve months. Essiray, Chubby Cat, F3Miii, HXNEY, Jesse June, and Sloucho speak about their missions as artists and what the future holds for acts on the island.
Introduction
Every year, the District team gets together and talks about the new acts emerging from Ireland that are innovating and more importantly, making music that we can’t get enough of. When choosing a new class for The Future of Irish Music, there’s a lot of factors at play. It goes without saying that music always comes first. The six acts we’ve chosen this year are making music that have been routine fixtures in our playlists. They’re also artists that have an overarching vision that shapes the world they are creating in real time. In an era where artists are getting signed off viral clips, we’re more interested in longevity and intentional evolution.
However, it’s worth saying that it’s not easy. Just getting your music heard nowadays can be exhausting. Most feel at the mercy of an algorithm and are surrounded by more noise than ever. It’s hard to cut through, but we still believe the cream rises to the top and good music speaks for itself. Rambling aside, the point we’re making is we believe these artists have what it takes to carve out their own unique lane and leave a lasting imprint. Whether that’s taking on the world, or inspiring an undercurrent of left field sounds in Ireland, we’re just here to fight their corner. Without further ado, here’s your Future of Irish Music Class of 2024.
F3Miii
Most artist’s mission or vision is informed by what has come before them. However, the truly great artists imagine new worlds that don’t yet exist. The present is only possible because of the originators and grafters who broke down doors and smashed glass ceilings. Rappers like GI and Costello walked so Kojaque could run. Without Dolly Parton there’d be no CMAT. For F3Miiii, those innovators were Jafaris and Hare Squead. Jafaris was the first black artist from Ireland he’d heard of doing festivals and seeing Hare Squead tour the world with Dua Lipa made him believe anything is possible for a kid from Ireland.
“I looked up to them so much. For it to come to a point where I’m working with them – It’s just surreal” F3miii explains.
“I’d always looked at these guys, they’ve paved the way for like artists like me. I certainly don’t think people really acknowledge what these guys have done enough.”
Having been raised on a diet of RnB and gospel in his home and in church, F3miii already had a strong foundational understanding of music. However, it’s when he immersed himself online and felt the gravitational pull of Calvin Harris’ house music as a young teen that everything changed. “I think that was like the first music I fell in love with by choice”, F3Miii explains. This obsession was compounded when he got a five finger discount on a laptop from his old school and started doing all nighters making beats.
“I always just had that passion. Even on school nights, I’d be up till like 4am saying to myself, ‘I’m not gonna clock out'”, he says.
With all this in mind, it’s not hard to understand why F3miii’s solo work shares qualities with the music of Calvin Harris, Hare Squead and Jafaris. While he’s certainly got influences, there’s not been any one quite like F3miii in Ireland at this point. Just listen to ‘LOSTWITHOUTMARIA’, the 80s inspired, synth heavy dance track that sounds like Frank Ocean finally started making music for the club. Under the tutelage of Plantain Sounds co-founder Plantain Papi, he’s making noise outside the country too. Just last year, F3miii featured on a Spotify billboard in London and just had his own headline show in the UK. While, that’s great, F3miii wants the future to be firmly rooted on home soil.
“I think people expect the ideal thing [as an artist] is to move to the UK…” F3Miii says. “But they’re all in the UK are looking at us like we like this fresh new sound. If we just have that solidarity and build our own platform, maybe people will want to stay in Ireland and build a future career here – rather than going away.”
Chubby Cat
This is a sentiment Chubby Cat can relate to. The Cork-raised singer recently returned home to Ireland following a stint in London. She’s been turning heads for the better part of 12 months now with her insane vocal range and penchant for experimenting with sounds under the pop umbrella. It’s a freewheeling approach that’s being continually honed with her friend and producer Matt Weir. One that’s best showcased in ‘Big Dog Barking’, a bright pop cut that shares DNA with Remi Wolf’s colourful world and wrestles with her time in the UK.
Having become disillusioned by the lack of support for female-identifying artists whilst also not clicking with any producers in Dublin, Chubby Cat moved to London in search of a fresh start. Having gone through a process of “speed-dating” with producers, the malaise persisted. It was only when she met Belfast-based producer Matt Weir and subsequently moved to the North’s capital that Cat hit her stride.
“I feel like I just want to create stuff like music that I really believe in”, she explains. “Whatever that looks like or translates to. At the moment, it’s whatever I can squeeze my personality into musically. I don’t necessarily want to do any genre in particular… I want to amalgamate everything into one like melting pot”.
Chubby Cat was raised on Mary Black, Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison before graduating to Lady Gaga and Cascada on her sister’s Ipod. She also had aspirations to perform in the West End. So, it’s understandable why she doesn’t like to be pinned down to one sound and can create PinkPantheress-esque bedroom DnB as easily as she can soul-stirring avant-guarde pop.
While she and many other female artists have this range, they’re often ignored in favour of mid music from white men. Chubby Cat wants to change that and having witnessed CMAT’s glow up on her own terms, she’s feeling inspired.
“I look up to CMAT because, she’s just doing her own thing. It’s kind of a similar thing where she left Ireland, and then that’s when she started becoming well known and appreciated in Ireland. I feel like I left Dublin for the same reasons – like nobody really noticed me”, Cat admits. “As soon as I left, people started paying attention so I feel like I resonate with that a little bit.”
Cat gravitates towards art that lasts. Sure, she experiments with new styles but that’s not to say she’s driven by trends. For her, having a core listenership that’s deeply connected to her music is what pushes her.
“I’ve been such a big fan of artists growing up and I think I would love to be that artists for people you know? To listen to someone you really genuinely love and will stand by. I would love to have a fan base and to fill small venues with music that I just love. That’s my main goal.”
ESSIRAY
A common thread between the artists in the 2024 edition of The Future of Irish Music, is a dedication to something bigger than themselves. Like Chubby Cat, Essiray is also intent in carving out more space for female identifying people in music. On top of releasing her own mesmerising vocal-led electronic music, she’s just curated an event in Whelan’s that platforms women in electronic music. It’s just the first part of her mission to change the landscape for the better.
“I wanted to create a space for female artists in particular because it’s a very male dominated industry”, she explains. “I’m so grateful for a lot of the men I’ve worked with, but there’s still just that lack of female presence. I want to create a space where it’s a similar style of music because I’m always opening up for indie bands or acts in other genres. I appreciate the opportunities but where’s the communities for this stuff?”, she says.
These shared spaces in music can’t be underestimated. While her musical household nurtured her interest in singing, Essiray really developed a self-sustaining love for music at a local community theatre group.
“My mam is a music teacher. Whereas my dad is just mad into music. So I would have grown up listening to a lot but I just remember at a very young age, there was a singing group at the local community centre. I remember being like, ‘Oh my god, I want to be at the front singing'”.
While this was a formative moment, it was actually a night at the opera that encouraged Essiray to experiment with music more. Feeling completely awestruck by the skill and elasticity of the voices on display, she went on to try it herself for a short stint.
“[With Opera] You’re singing songs written hundreds of years ago. You can’t really change them. So you have to focus on dynamics and how you say words. I love that and that plays into my music now a lot when I’m in the studio”, Essiray explains. “I’ve taken a lot of elements of like, how do I make this different? I play with tone and often think about how I finish my sentences”.
This inseparable soup of influences, experiences and musical styles have resulted in a steady stream of music that’s stayed in our rotation the past 12 months. Recently, that’s been the frenetic jungle energy on ‘Bullshit’ with Rory Sweeney and the cosmic energy of the more classic four four on ‘Hold Me Closer’.
While she’s focusing on electronic music right now, Essiray’s evolution isn’t restricted to any one specific sound or genre. In fact, she previously made more RnB and pop adjacent sounds and seeing trailblazers like Biig Piig weave through styles, whilst staying true to their vision is what’s encouraged her to do the same.
“I look up to Biig Piig. She’s an artist to me that isn’t scared to push the boundaries of what she does”, she says, explaining that there’s through lines to her music no matter the style. Be that her early lofi musings or more recent moves into extraterrestrial pop.
“It all makes sense, though. You can tell that no matter what genre she goes into, there’s a creative core that extends into any sound.”
HXNEY
Like Essiray, HXNEY’s music is grounded by foundational principles that serve as a north star in everything that she does. While Essiray is creating opportunities for others that she never had, HXNEY is offering guidance in her lyrics that she would’ve cherished as a teen.
“Music kind of like distracted me in a good way growing up because my childhood wasn’t the greatest”, HXNEY says, speaking fondly of her love for Destiny’s Child and Rihanna. “I never had like a big sister or anything like that. But there’s a lot of things that I’ve learned over time. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. With dating for example, I’ve never had someone to say, ‘Don’t let anyone treat you this way’. I’ve had to raise myself. Now, when I write, I write from the perspective of self respect… I’m standing on my truth and wanting to be that big sister for young girls. I want to be that voice”, HXNEY explains.
This approach can be heard most vividly in the tender diary entries strewn across ‘Sweet Spot’. The pop-RnB single is one of the latest in a new era that sees HXNEY thrive as a close confidant to her listeners. It’s also further evidence of RnB and Pop in Ireland being propelled into new and exciting territories, as HXNEY builds on the legacy of black artists like Samantha Mumba and Erica Cody.
As part of this bigger picture, HXNEY envisions a collaborative future for women in the industry. A community driven by shared values where artists, writers, and creators come together to amplify each other, both in front of and behind the scenes. Not only will this create a support network for the artists involved but also encourage artists to pool resources and grow internationally.
“I would love for more women to collaborate actually”, HXNEY says. “Maybe I need to facilitate that someday… I feel like we kind of like all kind of like work separately, in a sense… It seems like we like working in our own corners a little bit. And I think we need to kind of create a community so that people from outside Ireland can be like, ‘Oh, wow, I want to go there to like work with this person.’ You know, I think we I think we need to just big each other up more and support each other. More. I think it would create for a better industry.”
Jesse June
Hearing the melodies and songwriting on tracks like ‘Next Time’, would make it easy to assume that Jesse June has been a performing rapper and singer for a long time. In reality, he took the path less travelled to becoming an artist. Despite enjoying drum and guitar lessons as a teen and the fact his father was a DJ who regularly spun Stevie Wonder and Motown classics, he first focused on business. That’s not to say he wasn’t into music, in fact, it’s his fandom of acts like Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar that fuelled his side hustles. From a young age Jesse sold unofficial artist apparel, ran events and even managed an artist before seriously making any music of his own.
“The reason why I gravitated to the events was because there was no events that played music I liked. So I was like ‘let me do it. I’m playing my type of music’. I was 18 at the time. So I rented this venue and got 800 people in there”, Jesse explains.
These ventures were actually so successful that he took time out to travel and live in America and Germany. While he enjoyed it, the time spent abroad on his own came with its own set of challenges. Isolated in a rural area at just 20 years old, Jesse turned to writing lyrics on napkins and loose bits of paper during a particularly emotional period. It’s what formed the backbone of his earnest songwriting that shares qualities with accessible rap artists like Kevin Abstract.
Jesse admits to battling self-doubt during the transition from business to artist. “I’ve kind of been having some impostor syndrome about being an artist because, obviously, when I grew up, I was like, an entrepreneurial guy,” he confesses. However, this had his upsides too. He actually met a mixing engineer that worked with the artist he managed and he later became his biggest supporter and a trusted ear for his own music.
“His name is Zack and he’s amazing, amazing guy. He’s like my sensei. Because when I was not good, he could hear the potential. He was giving me super constructive and precise advice on how to improve so it was incredible at that time as an artist and as a creator.”
After seeing the number of acts making moves back home, Jesse knew he had to get back in the mix. While he could have started slow and steady, he’s been ambitious in everything he does. Inspired by the visuals of great artists like Missy Elliott and Kendrick Lamar, he’s been active in his own world building. Short films like ‘The Dig‘ are just the first invitation into a universe that’s building with each release.
“In five years, I’m still probably going to be doing music, but I want to do a lot more visual stuff. I want to be doing shows outside of the country and making longer form, visuals and storytelling pieces. Doing more collaborations with brands and and outlets. But I definitely want to be like, recognised amongst not just Ireland, but in the world.”
Sloucho
In an era where attention spans are dwindling and TikTok is encouraging acts to engineer songs for virality, Sloucho is a deliberate departure from the status quo. An enigmatic artist that’s half human, half character, he’s blurring the boundaries between a real and imagined world that’s steeped in lore. One that can’t possibly be distilled into digestible short form video content. This is an artist dedicated to world building as much as he is music.
The masked character was raised in the Wicklow Mountains and has spent his life traversing different worlds in search of meaning. When on planet earth, Sloucho remains steadfastly in character even during interviews. What might seem like a mere gimmick on the surface is, in fact, commentary on the increasingly formulaic approach to creating music as he also subverts dance music tropes in his music and visuals.
Having already released on esteemed labels like Cloudcore and most recently performed at AVA London, Sloucho has revealed his debut album ‘NPC’ is arriving on 3 May 2024 via Supreems’ ‘Sweet Sun Records. Read our conversation with the artist below:
So when did you start making music?
I’ve been making music my entire life, as long as I can remember the only thing I know.
And what’s your vision as an artist?
I need to tell my story. My ancestors put me on this path for a reason. I need to return to Athrú and leave all of this behind me.
How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it?
Imagine ripping an mp3, chopping it up and making a dance track, shoving that through a hyper pop filter, multiplying it by brainfeeder then adding the sincerity and 808s.
What is pushing you to create?
I spend a lot of time in the countryside ‘memory walking’ with my dog Maramu. Outside of that I just spend my time speaking to trees, listening to the wind and submerging myself in icy water.
Why do you make music?
Because I have to. I don’t know how to do anything else. If I stopped I don’t actually know what would happen.
What was a watershed moment in your music career?
Meeting Hermes and getting access to the core. They took me into the clouds, cold, wet and weary and showed me the future.
Are there any recent Irish musicians who career whose careers inspiring you?
Rhoshi, Rory Sweeney, Spooklet and Vaticanjail. They’re all the future.
And what does the future of Irish music look like?
The future of Irish music is already written. It’s the past that’s unpredictable. Who can say what did and didn’t happen? I’m much more interested in rewriting the past.
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We’ve teamed up with Hennessy to celebrate the acts pushing the needle in Ireland on their own terms. To celebrate this year’s Future of Irish Music, we are hosting a series of intimate, invite-only gigs with our Class of 2024. These will be taking place across March in April in secret locations throughout Dublin city-centre. Click the link here to enter our raffle where you and a friend could win free tickets to The Future of Irish Music 2024.
