Avant-garde Cork/Dingle-based band Pinhole release their visionary debut album Sweet Spot today, along with their impulsive and raw focus track ‘Oh No’, which was inspired by the young people coming home to vote in the same-sex marriage referendum. Ciara O’Flynn (vocals, violin) and Mark McLoughlin (synth) create otherworldly music together to process our shared reality. Pinhole imbue their music with a playful sense of imagination while finding inspiration in the issues humanity faces.
Both O’Flynn and McLoughlin have been lifelong music obsessives. O’Flynn began playing violin at just 8 years old, growing up in a house where the record player was always in the center of the room. She’s been in bands since she was 16 and studied music at UCC. O’Flynn’s musical influences are as expansive and varied as Pinhole’s sonic scope, ranging from grunge to trad to Georgian folk singing. She is also a recipient of the Basic Income for the Arts, without which Sweet Spot may not have come to fruition. McLoughlin was surrounded by music since he was a child, his father being a singer and actor, but branched out from his classical training and found inspiration in freeform jazz. McLoughlin’s storied career, including a stint at the legendary Windmill Lane Studios and working with celebrated performance artists, informs Pinhole’s unpredictable approach to songwriting. O’Flynn compares their intuitive creative process to figure skating, where each is subconsciously tapped into the other’s mind. “It’s a bit like feeling around in the dark. You just keep going without much analysis,” she explains. Both artists have careers outside music—O’Flynn as an archaeologist and McLoughlin as a documentary filmmaker focused on human rights—and their fascination with the implausible wonders and horrors of life is integral to Sweet Spot. Pinhole’s music transports the listener to ethereal, imagined worlds, while simultaneously exploring our own, including such wide-ranging topics as Gaza, the marriage equality referendum, personal relationships, and our treatment of the elderly.
The cinematic title track and opening song of the album, ‘Sweet Spot,’ delves into “the complexities of being human and the different forms of connection we make with each other,” Pinhole explain. “How good connections take thought, effort, and insight and are ultimately based on a motivation of care and responsibility, be they international diplomatic relations or simple parent-child relations. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong, the most important thing is we keep trying.” Recorded at Kitten Lane Studio in Cork, the song’s unique sonic landscape is thanks in part to the small, foot-pedalled organ used on ‘Sweet Spot’. The organ was in a state of disrepair, with O’Flynn getting down on her hands and knees to pump its bellows while McLoughlin played, resulting in a breathy, almost animalistic sound.
‘Dust Mote’ follows, a despondent song that nonetheless contains a glimmer of hope. O’Flynn says the track explores the question of “When do you make massive changes, and when do you just drift and depend on external forces?” ‘Pinhole’ is a pointed criticism of those who take advantage of others, but with a mischievousness in the melody that keeps things from getting too serious.
‘I Want Desire’ is Pinhole at their most dancefloor ready, urging the listener to get in touch with the sensuous. The song itself starts from a gentle place, with Ciara O’Flynn’s soft, honeyed voice luring us in, but there’s an uneasy tension just beneath the surface, fueled by steady yet feverish percussion.
Pinhole say of ‘I Want Desire’: “Our culture is so hell-bent on speeding us up. Speed and sensuousness are practically incompatible, so the song is essentially a resistance to hurrying up, instead asking us to slow down and tune into the body and our spirit—the things that really matter. Give yourself the time to truly see the people who matter to you, enjoy your food, listen to the sounds of life, and treasure the body.”
‘Sesame’ was written spontaneously as the band were setting up one day, with O’Flynn plucking away on her fiddle and the others joining in. ‘Oh No,’ on the other hand, is a consciously political song about the same-sex marriage referendum in Ireland. O’Flynn was inspired by the energy of the young people coming home to vote and pushing back against the Catholic Church’s outdated traditions. Impulsive and raw, ‘Oh No’ swings into a circus-like moment halfway through.
Impending environmental catastrophe and the people fighting against it are at the heart of ‘Indigo.’ Played on a Fender Rhodes piano with some broken keys, the resulting feedback became an eerie feature of the track. ‘The Cave’ is a stream-of-consciousness exploring how our pace of life distracts us from our full potential, paving the way for the most heart wrenching song on the album: ‘Slo Mo.’ This track was written for two people that O’Flynn and McLoughlin have lost. In O’Flynn’s case, it’s a friend of hers who took their own life, while for McLoughlin, it’s a good friend’s son Cian McLaughlin who went missing in Wyoming in 2021.
‘Glad You Asked’ was sparked by a simple moment at home when O’Flynn’s daughter was first learning to talk and asked for something she needed. A staunch feminist, this exchange made O’Flynn think about how society teaches people—women especially—to stop asking for things as they grow older.
“The smell of your perfume billows out as I put the key in the door,” O’Flynn sings on the final track, ‘6 Kenley Ave,’ over crunchy electric guitar. The song is dedicated to her grandmother who used to live at that address; O’Flynn and her partner moved into the house as her grandmother was sent to an old folks’ home. She was torn by the reality our elderly people face, swept aside and considered useless, compared to other societies where they would be revered. McLoughlin transforms the humble details of someone’s existence—“White bread, milky tea, blinkered life,” as he puts it—into an expansive sonic moment.
Sweet Spot Track List
1. Sweet Spot
2. Dust Mote
3. Pinhole
4. I Want Desire
5. Sesame
6. Oh No
7. Indigo
8. The Cave
9. Slo Mo
10. Glad You Asked
11. 6 Kenley Ave.
Album art by Carol White