Metro UK: ‘F*** it, the world needs new music’: Pillow Queens on God, queerness and dropping a debut album during a pandemic

“The ‘new normal’ of live music in 2020 was laid out in front of Pillow Queens as they held their album press in Dublin’s Workman’s Club, where spaced out tables for two were arranged across a room usually jammed to the rafters for gigs.

‘I was at that yellow table the other night at a gig, and I cried,’ drummer Rachel Lyons said. ‘“I can’t believe our last big gig was in here and now look at it!”’

The coronavirus pandemic has affected all corners of the music industry, and for Pillow Queens, it has served as the backdrop for the launch of their long-awaited debut album In Waiting – a rip-roaring, confident and evocative introduction for the Irish four-piece, packed with ‘songs of the summer’ that, sadly, never got the outings they deserved on a 2020 festival stage.

‘We very briefly thought about delaying the album, but then we were like, “f*** it, the world needs new music”,’ guitarist Cathy McGuinness told Metro.co.uk. 

‘A lot of people said thanks for doing it, because people are looking forward to just anything new.’

‘Us included,’ quipped guitarist, bassist and vocalist Sarah Corcoran.

Since forming in late 2016, Lyons, Corcoran, McGuinness and lead vocalist Pamela Connolly – from Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare – have made a name for themselves on the Irish music scene and beyond with their biting lyrics, bone-quaking riffs and takes on queerness, religion and politics. In the four years leading up to In Waiting, they produced fan favourites like slang-laden singalong Rats, gut-punch of an earworm Favourite and critically acclaimed anthem Gay Girls – so when it came to editing down their catalogue for their debut LP, it was difficult for some of their trademark tunes to make the cut.”

Link: https://metro.co.uk