Small Talk underlines extent of Soda Blonde’s evolution

Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

When alt-pop four-piece Soda Blonde emerged in late 2019, the band was billed as a fresh start for frontwoman Faye O’Rourke, drummer Dylan Lynch, bass player Donagh Seaver O’Leary and guitarist Adam O’Regan.  It was a matter of months after they had temporarily parted ways with the amicable disbanding of previous project Little Green Cars.

And any initial uncertainty amid the freedom afforded by the group’s change of identity was put to bed almost immediately by the release of their vibrant debut Terrible Hands.

It seems incredible that that EP is now near enough two years old – but, for the band themselves, Soda Blonde’s catalogue of music seems to blend hazily into the decade or so that they’ve been writing together.

This Friday they release Small Talk, a debut album that offers a sprawling medley of most all of their work to date. Faye has described the album as being a summation of their collective twenties. And as Adam explains, it has been a long time coming.

“Most of these songs were written over the last four or five years and a lot of them started during the writing process for the third record of our last project, Little Green Cars,” he recalls.

“The four of us have been writing together for such a long time that we don’t really think about a direction when we’re writing – we just write songs and make stuff together.

“Over time, the Soda Blonde thing naturally found itself and the songs found their sound. It wasn’t so much a conscious thing. We’ve had a lot of these songs for a long time and this album has been a very long time coming.

“The songs are ready to come out now but in terms of it feeling like a long time between Terrible Hands and this one… What is time anymore? I think everyone feels that a little bit with Covid.”

In May of last year, Soda Blonde made a distinguishable sonic pivot with a lockdown EP titled Isolation Content.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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