Writing
Journalism for various print and online outlets.
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Chris Power: “Once I Finally Get Out to the States, We’ll Do an Album”
Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with Cork hip-hop’s busiest man, Chris Power, on tunes, including his new beat tape and upcoming full-length releases. Prodigiously gifted and massively prolific, Cork beatmaker Chris Power has spent the past few years honing his craft live and in-studio, focusing on solo material and production for several collaborative projects. New mixtape WhytFaux:…
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This Place is Death: Death Becomes Them
Ahead of the beginning of a run of singles for UK indie-label SoundHub, Mike McGrath-Bryan talks with Eoin Leahy, drummer from This Place is Death, about the band’s past, their creative process, and their recent recording excursion. It’s been a little over five years since This Place is Death started gigging around Cork, quietly but…
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Chris Power: To the Power of Forever
Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with Cork hip-hop’s busiest man, Chris Power, on tunes, including his new beat tape and upcoming full-length releases. Prodigiously gifted and massively prolific, Cork beatmaker Chris Power has spent the past few years honing his craft live and in-studio, focusing on solo material and production for several collaborative projects. New mixtape WhytFaux:…
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The Damned: Damned, Damned, Damned
It’s been forty years since the shock and awe of punk filled living rooms, and young minds, on either side of the Atlantic, and one of the genre’s innovators in The Damned is hitting Cyprus Avenue on August 24th. Guitarist Captain Sensible speaks with Mike McGrath-Bryan on the band’s past, present and future. This year…
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Lars Frederiksen: A Butcher’s Banquet
As their European tour takes a stop at Cyprus Avenue on August 18th, Lars Frederiksen of the Old Firm Casuals, among many other bands, talks with Mike McGrath-Bryan about life, music and staying true to your roots. With a sound firmly rooted in the Oi! school of streetwise, no-nonsense, football-terrace punk rock, California’s The Old…
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Crow Black Chicken: Brothers in Blues
Crow Black Chicken’s power-trio blues channels the genre’s history through modern filters. Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with guitarist and vocalist Christy O’Hanlon about the band’s new album. “Being a Corkman, I heard the blues before I knew what it was. I heard Muddy Waters on the radio, and my ears pricked up like a dog. I…
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Living Space: For the Arts in Mallow
The town of Mallow, and villages in the surrounding area are rich in history, architecture and literature. From Doneraile’s place in the annals of the written word in Ireland, to Mallow Castle, to the town itself helping set part of the stage for Irish cinematic classic The Wind That Shakes The Barley. But by and…
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God is an Astronaut: Plotting a Course
Before setting off on tour and finishing their next record, God is an Astronaut play Cyprus Avenue on Saturday the 23rd. Guitarist Torsten Kinsella speaks with Mike McGrath-Bryan about the future, overarching themes and genre labels. “We are still really pleased with it and it’s working out very well live too so we couldn’t have…
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Painted Bird Theatre: Toil and Trouble
As Painted Bird Theatre gets ready to present ‘Toilers’, Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with the company’s Thomas Conway about its muses, and the weight of history. At the outset of the state’s history, and thus that of the narrative surrounding arts in Ireland, for better or worse, dozens of great female playwrights and novelists proliferated through…
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Mutoid Man: “It’s Hard to Find a Phil Lynott Lyric I Disbelieve”
Mutoid Man are about to hit Ireland running this month with a selection of dates including Cyprus Avenue on the 14th. Mike McGrath-Bryan catches up with singer/guitarist Stephen Brodsky. Few bands are as iconic, as important, and as often-imitated in hardcore as Converge, the Salem, Massachussetts-based pioneers that welded metal and hardcore together in increasingly…
Mike McGrath-Bryan 