Meet Cliffords, the next great guitar band to emerge from Ireland
These Cork newcomers, you sense, are on the path to something special
By Nick Reilly
It’s St Patrick’s Day, and it’s only right that Rolling Stone UK shares some seasonal cheer by telling you about the next great band to emerge from the Emerald Isle. Cork-based Cliffords might only be one EP down so far (2024’s Strawberry Scented), but they deal in songs that call to mind the soaring alt-rock soundscapes of bands like Wolf Alice and – from their own country – The Cranberries.
“All the lovers come for trouble and now down at my door, they seek some sweet redemption, I cry out for more,” comes the cry of vocalist Iona Lynch on recent single ‘Bittersweet’, a song which perfectly captures the musical fireworks that this band are only too capable of creating.
Lynch recalls how a formative experience saw Cliffords win a battle of the bands competition in Cork despite being “awful” and roping in a large group of friends to sway it in their favour. That might be the case, but with a string of stunning singles and more new music on the way, you sense it’s time for Cliffords to break out of that small circle and become a brilliant proposition in their own right.
We’re speaking a matter of days before you jet off to Australia. First time over there?
Iona: Yeah. We’re playing three shows out there which is unbelievable. We’re doing a festival with Dermot Kennedy, an Irish festival in Australia called Misneach alongside bands like Kneecap and Sorcha Richardson and then on St Patrick’s Day, we’re doing a headline show in Sydney. Then we’re heading to Melbourne!
That’s an amazing thing that Dermot is doing, and it feels like a way to capitalise on the purple patch that Irish music has experienced internationally in the last few years
It’s so sound of people like him to do that. When he gave us that opportunity we were still just a band from Cork and it feels like Irish bands – and even Cork bands – are having a great moment. We’re fuelling each other and everyone is so inspired by everyone else, which is class. Especially in Cork, we’ve always had a very supportive music scene where we’re friends with all the bands we like, so I just think it’s fantastic.
What’s the story behind how Cliffords came to be?
We were a secondary school band, basically. We formed in a place called Ballincollig and we were just playing in a garage for years. That was with me and Gavin who’s in the band now, but we had other previous members too. After a few years we did a battle of the bands at UCC (University College Cork) and we were so bad, like truly terrible. But we ended up winning and we met Harry our guitar player and we met Locon who is our keys player. That was two years ago and we’re here now!
Is there any artists that are particularly big influences on our sound? I can hear shades of Wolf Alice in there, if we’re going for contemporary ones
It’s cool because we all have different tastes, but I know the lads would definitely say Radiohead is their biggest influence and for us as well Wolf Alice is a huge one. I’m a really big boygenius fan and Phoebe Bridgers is a huge inspiration for me. Then there’s the Smashing Pumpkins too.
I can hear shades of The Cranberrries too, but I appreciate that might be a lazy comparison…
Nah you can’t go wrong with The Cranberries and I do get that a lot! I think it’s a similar voice type thing and look, I was watching one of their music videos the other day and realised I had the same haircut as Dolores O’Riordan. And as for lyrics, Joni Mitchell is my all time favorite. So we’ve got a good mix and we also do an album of the week club, where each person chooses an album each week and everyone has to listen to it.
It’s been really cool to expand our tastes. Like this week it was Tom Waits, and for years I had asserted that I hated Tom Waits. I really hated him and called him the scary man. Every time I got in the car with Harry, who loves Tom Waits, I’d just say turn off the scary man! But I listened again this week and I was like God, I’m wrong, he’s class!
Who have you brought to Album Club recently, Iona?
My last record was the Divorce album, which I am obsessed with. I had Joni Mitchell’s In Blue in there and a Kate Bush album too. Kate Bush is a massive inspiration and the reason I got into music. I just think like she’s such a multifaceted artist, you know, and she produces her own stuff and everything feels like it’s hers. She’s just such an inspiration to me.
What’s next for you guys?
Our first EP was very much like looking back at our teenage years and that kind of stuff, but our next release has some more darker sincere moments in it, but then, some really lovely sweet moments that I really love. I just think it’s a nice look at all of our stories for the last few years.
You mentioned growing up in Cork, does that sense of place become a central character in your music?
Yeah and people make fun of me because I overuse it! I was out last night and someone said to me ‘It wouldn’t be like you to mention Cork in a lyric, Iona’. It is pretty true that almost every song has a street or even like some kind of imagery or iconography.
There’s this red cross on the top of a church around Cork, it’s up on a hill so you can always kind of see it and it’s like always looming and I don’t know why, it’s just so like attractive or something, but like loads of bands write about it as well from Cork, so I bring it up loads in our next recordings. It’s personified, but it’s nice.
And what’s the rest of 2025 looking like?
We’re really busy. This is our first year properly playing shows outside of Ireland. We played a few shows in the UK last year and this is the first time we’re playing loads of festivals, pretty much all the festivals I think that we can physically do. It’s going to be such a privilege to get to travel and do what we love and do it together. We’re so lucky.