From the Archives: Julian Gough (Toasted Heretic)
In 2005 Toasted Heretic released Now In New Nostalgia Flavour which compiled their first two cassette albums (Songs For Swinging Celibates and Charm and Arrogance). The band played a gig in Dublin to promote the release and I spoke to Julian before he took to the stage in Whelan's. Julian chats about how Toasted Heretic recorded and released those first two albums from the band's hometown of Galway.

From the Archives: Michael O'Shea's Mo Chara - the story of its restoration.
Musicians Stano and Thomas Haugh (Seti the First) tell how they have restored Michael's famed instrument returning it to its former glory. Thomas utilised guitar strings and copper wire from a model train shop to bring the mystical Mo Chara back to life.

From the Archives: Willy Vlautin (Richmond Fontaine)
Willy chatting in 2011 about The High Country, the forthcoming Richmond Fontaine album. The High Country is described as, “a song-novel, in which a gripping tale is spun with fully fleshed-out characters, changing scenes, snippets of radio and spoken word passages.”

From the Archives: John Robb (The Membranes)
John Robb discusses the band's first album since 1989. Dark Matter, Dark Energy. John chats about how a meeting with Joe Incandela, the head of the CERN project, about the Higgs Boson particle influenced the record.

From the Archives: Jenny Lewis
Jenny was interviewed in 2006 just before the release of her debut solo album Rabbit Fur Coat. She chatted about songs from the album, recording without her Rilo Kiley bandmates and why Laura Nyro's Gonna Take a Miracle is one of her favourite albums.

From the Archives: Craig Finn (The Hold Steady)
Craig chats about the band's third album Boys and Girls in America and two of his big influences: The Clash and The Replacements.

From the Archives: Willy Vlautin (Richmond Fontaine)
Willy Vlautin interviewed in May 2006 a few months after Richmond Fontaine’s The Fitzgerald was released.

From the Archives: Sufjan Stevens
I interviewed Sufjan in 2004 prior to his gig at the Douglas Hyde Gallery. Seven Swans was just out and Sufjan chats about recording the album with Daniel Smith of The Danielson Famile.

From the Archives: Dave Simpson
I Interviewed Dave for the show upon the publication of The Fallen. We'd a great chat about his quest to track down all the ex-members of The Fall. I regaled Dave with my own MES encounter, which involved operating a slide projector for a Fall gig in 1997.

From the Archives: Colin Blunstone (The Zombies)
This interview is from January 2009. Colin Blunstone chats about his career with The Zombies and his solo records. We talked about his Neil MacArthur recordings and his trio of early 70s solo records: One Year, Ennismore and Journey.

From the Archives: Damien Jurado
Damien was in Dublin in support of his album, On My Way To Absence. He happily revealed how he got into music: "I stole my first bass at 13 from school and taught myself how to play an entire Black Flag record, that's pretty much how it all started, I then started writing my own songs."

From the Archives: John Roderick (The Long Winters)
John was in Dublin to promote Putting the Days to Bed the 2006 album by his band The Long Winters. The band hail from Seattle and John chatted about the influence that living that city has had on him as a musician.

From the Archives: Matt Berninger (The National)
This interview is from November 19, 2005. The band had just released their third album, Alligator and were back in Ireland for the first time in three years. In late 2005 the band were on a bit of a role. Having signed to Beggars Banquet they had a recording budget for the first time.

From the Archives: Françoise Cactus (Stereo Total)
Stereo Total played in Whelan's Dublin on 23 April 2005 as part of the Berlin Anticonformiste Festival with Jeans Team and Cobra Killer. This has to be one of the best gigs I've ever attended in the city. Françoise sadly passed away on 17 February, 2021.

From the Archives: Al James (Dolorean)
In 2005 I spoke to Al about Dolorean's Violence In The Snowy Fields album. Al explained the different approach he took to the songwriting process on the record, “lyrically I wanted to speak a little bit more generally, not as specific with the narratives and I wanted the songs to be a little bit more upbeat and stand on their own. There's a little bit more of a country influence, maybe a Buffalo Springfield or Byrds kinda feel to some of the songs.”

From the Archives: Adrian Crowley
Adrian came up to the studio upon the release of his fifth album Season of the Sparks, to chat and play some records. We chatted about his career to date, his first gigs, James Yorkston, the Fence Collective, touring, recording and other stuff. Adrian played tracks by Boa Morte, Jeremy Enick, Smog and Gareth Dickson.

From the Archives: Jeremy Barnes & Heather Trost (A Hawk and a Hacksaw)
A Hawk and a Hacksaw were supposed to play their debut Dublin concert in October 2005 but the gig was cancelled. Jeremy and Heather were hanging around town so we went to Neary's pub and over a few scoops had a good chat about their travels in Eastern Europe and the album Darkness at Noon.

From the Archives: Birdstuff (Man or Astro-man?)
Birdstuff: "It's the opposite of Milli Vanilli – we're a live, loud, rowdy, rock band that is trying to make people think that the music is being controlled by a computer." Man or Astro-man? played Dublin on 23 January, 2000.