“The song is about sticky, sweet, empty-calorie digital hookups.”

We first encountered the Blue Niall project at London’s Moth Club in 2017. The performance, dripping in emojis (IRL), showcased the Dubliner’s wonderfully weird approach to hip hop. At the recent District x Fringe party Blue Niall was also on support for Mango x MathMan, bringing with him a host of new material.

He’s now ready to share his work with the rest of the world.

In the video for ‘Rainbow’, Blue Niall has linked up with award-winning 19-year-old drag artist Nikkie Stones, for a track about throwaway romance in the digital age.

“The song is about sticky, sweet, empty-calorie digital hookups,” he tells us. “The ‘Blue Summer’ EP is focused on looking at a breakup from 4 different angles, and this song takes on the idea of trying to lose yourself in cheap and shallow encounters following a breakup.

“I was interested in the idea of a person-as-rainbow – someone beautiful who appears after a downpour, but who is transient, and ultimately a mirage. The rainbow image also reminded me of the bright, flashy and trashy UI interfaces on apps like Tinder and Musical.ly that try to gamify everything from music to love.”

The video was directed and edited by Blue Niall with support and animations from Jim Richard at Algorithm. Niall says Nikkie’s energy is what drew him to her.

“I met Nikkie [Stones] when she featured on the same bill as me at the Wicklow for Choice fundraiser, and her energy really struck me. She has an amazing ambivalence that perfectly captured the mood I wanted for this video.”

Check out ‘Rainbow’ for the first time below.

Blue Niall launches the ‘Blue Summer’ EP on November 8 at The Bernard Shaw in Dublin with Unit1, Jill Staxx and District Magazine DJs on support.