STRAND are a five-piece indie rock outfit from Finglas, Dublin. Formed as schoolboys in 2018 as Soundstrand, the band have rebranded & moved away from a raw punk sound and towards a sleeker, poppier indie sound with their new releases. 2024 saw the band find their sound and release some music. ‘American Radio’ was the first, serving as a homage to their earlier sound, soon followed by ‘Progress’ and ‘Upside Inside‘ – poppier cuts that saw coverage from RTÉ, Hot Press, The Beat and more. The success of these tracks saw the band sell out an MCD-backed headline show in Whelan’s in November, as well as earning a main stage slot at Whelan’s Ones to Watch in January 2025.
May 2025 brought the release of STRAND’s debut EP, a five track project titled ‘Can You Blame Us?‘ which features the aforementioned ‘Upside Inside‘ and ‘Progress‘ as well as ‘Love Nor Money‘, ‘My Friends‘ and ‘The Til‘. The EP was similarly revered, with ‘Upside Inside‘ earning playlisting and wide coverage on RTÉ 2FM.
Following November’s headline show’s success, the band were invited by MCD to headline The Workman’s Cellar – a show that was soon upgraded to the main room due to demand – on July 19.
STRAND follow up their EP with ‘Strange Hill‘, slated for release on July 11. Far from a departure, the track picks up right where they left off in March – catchy hooks, poppy rhythms and soaring choruses. ‘Strange Hill‘ hardly reinvents the wheel, yet it undeniably represents STRAND – guitar-pop in its most refined form.
‘Strange Hill is a song about being stubborn – knowing something is wrong but but being willing to die on that hill for no apparent reason. It’s nearly a human universal, that individual experience of intransigence that everyone goes through, in one way or another.
We wrote the song on a bit of a whim – we had just released our debut EP which picked up some attention from RTÉ, BBC and the likes, and knew we had to follow it up quick. It clicked really quickly, it probably took less than half an hour to come together, and lyrics came quickly after that. We all seemed to be on the same wavelength when we tried it out, which was a new experience but one we’re glad for.
The opening riff came first, and the song formed around that. It’s far from complex, but the bells and whistles we added in the studio with our producer Keelan really made the song shine. We were nearly overcome with joy hearing the final mix, it felt like a real accomplishment, mixed with some relief that we had something to follow our EP with so soon.’