Buckshot Is An Irish Music Anomaly

Probably Ireland’s most interesting artistic case in recent memory, Buckshot, a Wicklow native, has had a journey unlike anyone else in the country.

After blowing up on the internet at 19 years old, he began creating music as part of the collective “Haunted Mound.” Working out of the infamous “Butcher House” in the U.S., he won the hearts of a chronically online audience.

Despite high-fashion modelling, international touring, and cult success, Buckshot became infamous for not releasing music. After half a decade, he is finally actualising his vision through the global success of his recent music drops.

We sat down with him for one of his only interviews, delving into his experience of fame within an online generation.

Q: How do you feel about Ireland?

Buckshot: I guess I would have kind of a strange. I definitely am proud to be Irish, and definitely, like, it is part of my, like, cultural identity and identity as a whole. Especially when I started making music, I feel like that was something very difficult for me to or get over, In parallel with my relationship to Ireland. Because when I started making music, this would have been like during COVID time, I didn’t see any other SoundCloud or like underground at that time. It’s definitely like grown so much more and it’s a great community, and it’s like I like I respect it a lot.

Q: How did you meet Oscar18?

Buckshot: I went to like a fucking like rugby school. I wasn’t doing that. I was like smoking behind the like, like the bike sheds and shit. I met Oscar on the first day of my, of high and of secondary school. He had, OFWGKTA scribbled on his knuckles.

Q: How did that progress into music?

Buckshot: I started making music first when I came into contact with Sematary. He had 500 followers, I think at the time, and this was like on Instagram or on like Instagram and. I just kind of reached out to him, and it was easy to reach out to him. One of my friends from Amsterdam like sent me a song. I fucked with like the whole like aesthetic. I was like, this guy’s fucking gonna be big. I flew out to California. I met Sematary and Hackle.

Q: What was it like gaining notoriety but also being in Ireland and not having a frame of reference on how to handle it?

Buckshot: It kind of felt like…not exactly like abandoned, but like lonely. There was like nothing here, but like, I was like, still like getting a bunch of motion online from America or like wherever the fuck. I don’t think I did have any frame of reference when I started making music out in Ireland, or like anybody I could make music with and like at that time. I definitely had like some resentment against, I don’t know, like, District Magazine for not picking up on me.

Q: Was it a difficult time, gaining notoriety?

Buckshot: It was an experience and it was a really good experience. Statistically, the stuff that has happened to me, shouldn’t. Like I’m a fucking white boy from Wicklow that’s making like, like rap music and, you know, still being able to make a living off that, like, it’s kind of unheard of. But, yeah, it happened really fast and I was pretty young and I was getting a lot of money. There there was going on tours and stuff and everything that comes with that too. like it can like fuck you up when you’re like that young, but I’m glad to have that like out of my system at that age in terms of partying.

Q: Do you have any like cornerstones or really positive experiences that you look back on fondly?

Buckshot: World touring like twice is definitely one of the big ones.

Q: Do you feel pressure to deliver to your fans after such a long period of inactivity?

Buckshot: People are still waiting for me to drop. It’s kind of fucking crazy. I do have to deliver, and I’m like super grateful for them. I did feel pressure, but I’m making the music that I want to be making now. I have more like autonomy over it. I’m not really confined into the box of like this whole Haunted Mound aesthetic anymore. It’s my own thing, which I think is like like that’s kind of like I’m not gonna lie. It was like suffocating being a part of that.

Q: If you had to boil down like why the wait has been so long, is there an answer there?

Buckshot: I’m just too like fucking chaotic.

Q: Would you consider yourself a member of Haunted Mound?

Buckshot: No. I don’t want to be a member but I definitely am grateful for everything that they did for me. I have no bad blood against anyone. It’s just a creative difference.

Q: One of your most interesting side quests is your modelling career. Can you tell me how that came about?

Buckshot:  I got an Instagram DM one day from the Celine casting director and I thought it was a fucking scam at first. I flew over to London, I met Hedi Slimane. I went on to be Hedi Slimane’s fit model for his newest collection in Nice for a couple of months.

Q: How was that experience?

Buckshot:  He’s nice. I never had an issue with him. Well, he did scream at me once but I was falling asleep. He eats 2 hard boiled eggs for lunch and a brownie. there was definitely some fucked up shit that was going on, like. Ibasically, essentially I got fired from it. I have really good friends from that like time of working there, but also have friends that are like dead at the time of working there now. It’s a very disposable industry.

Q: How the hell do you like convey this world that you’re in to your parents?

Buckshot: They didn’t really get it at first. My mum actually said to me the other day like you should get a job. The modelling thing, they were definitely like, they, like that was like real for them. They kind of only really understood it once I took them out to London to see our show, two years ago. My dad told me that’s like the most like electric crowd he’s seen since like the fucking like 70s, 80s.

Q: Let’s talk about the singles. When did you first contact fake mink versus ‘Fever’ coming out?

Buckshot: I think it was September 2024 and ‘Fever’ came out September 2025. I recorded it with him in person in London.

 Q: What is success to you?

Buckshot: I think just being happy with what I have out. Literally just being happy with like the finished product and knowing that I’ve done my best on this.

Q: Would you consider yourself successful?

Buckshot: Not right now, no. I’m not putting out enough work.