Goth Fight Cage – have released the new single ‘Girlfriend’s Girlfriend’

Goth Fight Cage is the solo project from Mark Holloway of Belfast’s heavy weight fuzz champions, Fagash McCann. As Goth Fight Cage, Mark takes a decidedly more indie rock approach to his song writing. Over the course of four successful singles, debut ‘Optimism’, last year’s follow ups ‘I’m Going Out’ and ‘Tired’  and ‘I’m Not In Love With You’, released earlier this year, Mark has already established a sound that allows him to move between spikey guitar indie and intimate acoustic guitar tracks with ease. The singles were enough to catch the sharpened ears of BBC Introducing, Hot Press, RTE2XM, Chordblossom, IMRO, Genuine Irish, Ragged Cast, Rock N Load, Daily Earworm and Uber Rock. New single ‘Girlfriend’s Girlfriend’ is draped in effortless cool as it doesn’t just swing, it swaggers. A track that lives in its own groove and in doing so lands somewhere between Desert Sessions QOTSA and Arctic Monkeys. A decidedly more mid-tempo offering compared to the spikey fast-paced indie of previous releases. Goth Fight Cage is built around a strong DIY ethic, as Mark shoulders duties of song writing, performing, singing, producing, engineering and mixing. All from a room he describes as ‘all the instruments at one end, a computer at the other and a bed in the corner’.

Girlfriend’s Girlfriend’ comes swaggering out of the speakers from the outset, like it’s kicked open a saloon door, causing everyone to stop, spin and stare. Mark is a self-proclaimed QOTSA nerd, so it should come as no surprise that the sparkling desert stomp guitar sound comes courtesy of Josh Homme’s signature Peavey Decade. Leaning heavily on the Decade, Mark was able to pull a range of tones from the amp, the cleaner rhythm guitar sound that drives the track along with the nastier lead tones. This along with ‘another rust bucket Peavey’ provide the sonic palette for the song. The omnipresent hand of Homme is felt throughout. The track snakes through sections, verses bleed into choruses as drums provide additional thump to hammer things home, as the song progresses Mark slices into the structure, dispensing with verses, adding the guitar motif as a hook, and playing us out on a solo. It’s sharp song writing, that keeps things interesting throughout. Lyrically the song was born out of a line scribbled in the back of a half-forgotten notebook ‘My girlfriend’s girlfriend is simply like a mother to me’. Mark says ‘lyrically the song tells this outlandish, charming scumbag sort of tale, about fancying your girlfriend’s best mate. And she’s got a fella too, who I’m slagging off a bit, but she’s sound because she’s got your back when your own girl is giving you a hard time.’

Mark is solely responsible the performing and recording, saying that his sound comes from the nature of the home recordings, in finding ways to make things work, and getting the most out of what is on hand at the time. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but sometimes 20 wrongs do. Then he passes it of for mastering to Belfast’s own Joel Harkin (@ayesoundmastering).