All roads lead to Slane, Co Meath, especially when two members of HamsandwicH live a spit away – Podge McNamee in Kells and, only slightly further up the road, Niamh Farrell in Carrickmacross. They used to be city slickers a while back, but Dublin forced them out, pretty much. We are sitting in The Village Inn because the local hotel, The Conyngham Arms, is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. For a once all-day-every-day busy property, it is a telling post-Covid fact. There aren’t many other people in the nicely-appointed pub, either, but there are loads of music-related posters and images on the walls – from 1960s local folk act The Johnstons to gigs through the decades at the nearby castle. Coincidentally, one of the castle images, from 2013, features Farrell performing on stage with HamsandwicH, yet no one in the bar looks her way when she walks into the bar. Bandmate McNamee arrives soon after, a bushy beard and colourful striped jumper offering a somewhat more straightforward fashion sensibility than Farrell’s casual/smart chic.
As is the case for many music acts in a post-pandemic phase, life is different for HamsandwicH these days. With a sprightly new album (Magnify) released at the end of this month, there is a mix of celebration and caution. Even after almost 20 years together (the missing person at Slane is the third official member, Darcy) they remain an admirably self-sufficient indie band with no major label support, four quality albums to their name, a committed manager, and a can-do if latterly more reflective attitude. They have been around a few blocks by this stage, of course, morphing from a devil-may-care act in their early days (where they would largely faff about on stage, much to the joy of their hardened fanbase) into a more considered but no less entertaining proposition. Maturity suits them, frankly, as all-fun-no-responsibility music acts can last only for so long.
“We were a bunch of messers,” says Farrell about the band’s early days, “and we had more craic than we probably should have had on stage. I’m sure some people looked at us and thought we were just taking the piss.”
“Back then,” adds McNamee, who is so in sync with Farrell that their conversation almost runs in parallel, “there was always an element of suspense as to what kind of band we’d be on any given night. Would we be, as we were told once, stressed and chaotic, pulling at each other’s hair? Or would we be happy with each other and ourselves and very tight as a band? We fell into, I think, a trap to be the band that our fans wanted us to be and not what we wanted to be. Some people wanted to see a shambles on stage, and while that can work up to a point, in the end you get pigeonholed by it.”
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“That can wear you down emotionally, individually,” says Farrell. “As we got older, however, we honed the craft to retain a little bit of that messiness but with an element of professionalism. The truth is that we’re all getting older and in the entertainment industry youth is a currency – you can get a bit paranoid about that as time passes. The two-year gap of Covid? I just worked on Niamh Farrell. I started yoga, learned to play the guitar, and I became much more comfortable with myself. That translates in various ways, especially with enjoying myself being on stage. I feel as if I’m free as a bird now, and not constantly inside my head.”
This makes sense, particularly so when you listen to the forthcoming album. Magnify shows little or no trace of Covid consternation or pandemic panic – the songs rise above such anxiety-driven constraints and display instead the band’s effortless knack of writing superb pop songs. Album number four, however, highlights a throwing-caution-to-the-wind approach from which Farrell’s “free as a bird” sensibility swoops and dives yet always lands on its claws. Part of the reason for such distinctiveness could be attributed, she says, to not seeing people throughout the more restrictive months of the pandemic. “We just kept plugging away at it by ourselves and not letting anyone else hear it.”
“Covid delayed too many things, and we just wanted to crack on,” says McNamee. “In the past we’d sometimes let people hear songs and they’d pick out something that would annoy you and stay in your head. You might go ahead with their idea, but with Magnify we just wanted to focus on the songs. With Covid there were far fewer distractions, and we didn’t feel we needed to dig deep into the tunes because the focus was already there, ingrained. Also, it’s the first of our albums written by the three official members, whereas the three previous albums had other people chipping in here and there.”
“It was the first time we went into a proper studio and had a batch of really solid demos,” notes Farrell, “bits and pieces of which were taken from and used on the album. That was something we had never done before. We had previously always gone into the studio with the burden on our shoulders of still having to write up to maybe four songs, so to have all of the tracks completed made the recording process much more relaxing.
“There were a couple of months at the start of Covid where it was shaky for us as a band, but we got over that with the new material, which, in my opinion, takes risks. We weren’t afraid to do that with these songs because they might lend themselves to new ears. We have got to the point where we’re not scared to say things to each other, so you just get better at being critical. What’s the point in staying the same?”
“One of the things that dictated the new album for me,” says McNamee, “was mostly something that Niamh did, in a good way. Darcy had three to five demos; I liked two or three of them a lot, and the rest I thought were good, but Niamh didn’t like two of them. Her reasons were correct, and when she said why I thought she had a point. Niamh is very honest with the music, and in fairness to her why should she stand on stage and sing something she doesn’t believe in?
“Her response to the two songs put Darcy a bit on the backfoot but, in fairness to him, he came back with better tracks that were more immediate and faster-paced. Yes, there are one or two slower tunes, but when we play live we want to go out there and unleash the music.”
Farrell adds that the live shows “are all about the music, of course, but also about having fun with the songs and the audience. I remember when Covid restrictions diminished, and we eventually met up with each other again, we all said what a great laugh we have when we play live.”
McNamee agrees but adds this with a pep in his step and a bristle in his beard: “It might be cheesy to say this, but the songs sound as if they’re from a younger band, so it’s good to feel that we’re improving!”
Magnify is released on September 30th via Route 109 Recordings. HamsandwicH’s nationwide tour starts on Saturday, October 1st. Further details on hamsandwichmusic.com
THE MAKINGS OF A DECENT HAM SANDWICH – ACCESSORIES AND CONDIMENTS OPTIONAL
Bread: This 1970s soft-rock group from California had 13 songs charting on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1970 and 1977. Their only No. 1 was the semi-risqué Make It with You in 1970.
Just Mustard: Dundalk’s trippy/post-punk Just Mustard released their 2018 debut album on their hometown indie label Pizza Pizza, but have since been signed to Brooklyn-based Partisan Records (home, also, to Fontaines D.C.).
Salt-N-Pepa: This New York City music act’s 1986 debut, Hot, Cool & Vicious, became the first album by an all-female rap group to attain gold and platinum status by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
Relish: Winners of the Best New Hope at the IRMA Awards in 2001, this Northern Irish rock band (featuring brothers Ken and Carl Papenfus) had one of their songs, Rainbow Zephyr, covered by Westlife (with a title change to Hey Whatever). The brothers subsequently founded 67 Management, which from 2019 has been representing/managing Sinead O’Connor.
