Grounds For Invasion are set to take on the world

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

Grounds For Invasion released their impressive debut album Dying Stars in 2015 and, as we mentioned last week, are an act to watch out for in 2016. The band is made up of producer Willow Sea and vocalist Tracy Friel. Based in Galway, the duo have played regularly at the weekly Citóg nights in Róisín Dubh, and have also appeared at the Electric Picnic.

Tracy and Will met on the Access Music Project (AMP) training programme in Galway City. Up until then Will had been a solo performer, writing instrumental pieces.

“I heard Tracy sing at an AMP night that I was doing sound at,” Will recalls. “The gears turn very slowly in my head sometimes, and three months later I thought ‘wait a minute, Tracy can sing on this stuff’. I gave her a CD of ten songs – she rang me back a week later and had lyrics for three of them. One of them ended up being a song we still play at every gig.”

Let Go, Stones and Bruce Lee are some of the highlights from Grounds For Invasion’s strong debut, which is available from Bandcamp.

This is very much a 21st century band, in that the two don’t necessarily need to be in the same room to write.

“I email stuff to Tracy, and if she likes it she puts it on a CD and drives around Connemara until she has lyrics,” says Will. “If she doesn’t like it, she just doesn’t mention that she got it. Maybe to spare my feelings!”

Grounds For Invasion’s music is a layered mix that takes in electronic pop and metal influences. The pieces create their own world, and Will doesn’t stress about them.

“It seems to be strange when I talk to other musicians about this, but I generally tend to write a song in a three-hour window and it’s done,” he says. “I just drink a load of coffee and sit in front of the computer with a keyboard.  It’s a really short process, I can’t revisit stuff. If I don’t get it done in that time, I don’t go back to it. I’ve a hard drive full of stuff that didn’t work.”

On stage, Will plays guitar, synths and triggers samples while Tracy sings. They recently bolstered their live sound with drummer Dave Shaughnessy, an in-demand drummer who also plays with Big Jelly, Steven Sharpe and My Fellow Sponges.

For more, read  this week’s Connacht Tribune.