Dublin-born duo Long Island Sound, aka Rob Roche and Tim Nolan, are known for their euphoric yet introspective take on electronic music, best evidenced through their own Signs Of Space imprint.
The pair recently released the single Ivory, bringing a six-track run of singles to a close – a body of work that blends melodic house, breakbeat energy and emotive club storytelling. As the duo said of the new single, “No big chords, no big breaks, just floor-focused energy.”
They’re also gearing up for a performance at All Together Now in Waterford this coming weekend, taking to the stage at 11pm Friday on the Red Bull x Izakaya stage. 909originals Emer O’Connor caught up with them.
Hi lads, thanks for chatting to 909originals. You recently unveiled the single Ivory – are you pleased to bring the current run of singles to a close, so you can get back into touring and seeking out new inspiration?
Rob: Yeah, absolutely. Usually, when we get to this point, it’s nice to get them out because we’ve worked on them for so long.
Tim: It’s been nice, though, with this release, because they’ve been coming out regularly every two months, which was not something we were typically doing before. It’s good to keep some momentum.
Almost blog-like?
Rob: Yeah, exactly. Before that, we were guilty of sometimes leaving it for six or seven months before the next release, and then there would be a big gap.
It’s so difficult for creatives to keep that momentum, to just keep on trucking, because it takes so much out of you.
Rob: Yeah, we built up a bank of stuff we were working on over the last year, so they were ready to go.
Tim: I also think it’s about putting them out regularly, not holding them so dearly. Just keep moving on.
Let’s focus on Ivory, which has a really direct, floor-focused energy compared to some of the more expansive releases. Was this a conscious decision going into this track, or did it just roll in the studio?
Rob: It’s a good question. I think that’s just the way it started, then developed that way. It wasn’t really a conscious decision, no.
Tim: Well, there actually was one conscious thing, though, where we decided not to use a chord progression.
Rob: I suppose we deliberately resisted making it too melodic.
Tim: I think we actually did try a chord progression, because we’re naturally drawn to them. But this one, I guess, ended up being a bit more functional.
Would that be due to your time spent in Berlin?
Rob: Yeah, that’s true, actually. When we moved there, there was a lot of it around. Now it’s changed over the years.
Tim: When we first moved, we were mad about this label, Box Aus Holz, the Max Graef crew. We were massive fanboys. Then, I guess, as we were going to the clubs and they’re open for 12 to 24 hours…
Rob: You’re not really able to play 116 BPM disco house.
Tim: So then we started getting drawn to the heavier stuff.
Rob: We just developed a little bit more breakbeat-y stuff, a wider range.
A bit more minimal. You described the record as a ‘no-frills roller’, so what were you trying to strip back or focus on when you were making it?
Tim: Well, I guess certainly the timing of the bassline – most of the sounds come from a digital version of the SH-1. It’s all just very clicky, timing-based rather than melodic.
Rob: It’s more four-to-the-floor, a club-pop tune.
Yeah, your music often balances introspection with high-energy moments. When you’re making a track, how do you know when to hold back instead of pushing for the big payoff?
Tim: It’s actually hard to know because, if you’re sitting here staring at the screen, sometimes the arrangement doesn’t seem as natural. Or if you see a 32-bar break, you’re thinking, “Ah, that’s too long,” because we’re sitting here in the studio, as opposed to in a club. Maybe there’s a three-minute break there, and you’re not going to notice it.
Rob: Depending on the environment – we did find that, since doing the live sets, when we were arranging them, we’d realise where the breaks should be, and whether it’s too short or too long or whatever it might be. When you’re playing it out at a festival, or even when you’re DJing, you notice things that you might not notice here in the studio.
What’s your preparation like before playing live in comparison with playing other people’s records?
Tim: A lot more prep. Really, the preparation is gruelling, but we enjoy it. We just did a stage takeover at this festival in Wales, Funk In The Forest. It was sick. Beautiful location, great crew, the weather was a perfect 26°C. We were the final act of the night, with a 3am kick-off, and it was our first time playing live at the festival. There were a few weathered heads still standing, but it was a really great crowd, still dancing.
Rob: That was our second time playing there. Such a sweet, intimate vibe. We had a lovely time.
Tim: Until we almost got knocked over by a parked car!
Sorry, you what now?
Tim: Well, we were sightseeing in Welshpool and there’s this castle (Powys Castle and Gardens). We were walking through the car park when, all of a sudden, a car started reversing towards us at 30km/h and smashed into a van. Then we looked in the driver’s seat, and there was nobody in the car!
Mental! You were lucky. You played several cool festivals last year, but probably only about five gigs in total. You must have been concentrating a lot on your productions?
Tim: Well, gigs are few and far between sometimes. It’s just a famine or a feast.
Do you think that your level of success changes how you define a good gig or a good crowd?
Tim: I don’t know. Some of the gigs would surprise you. The build-up to some of them may be too much. You think they’re going to be the best thing you’ve ever done in your life.
Rob: It’s hard to know. Just because it’s a big gig doesn’t mean it’s going to be the best one ever.
Tim: We had the best time at Connolly’s of Leap. Such a wild place in the middle of nowhere, but people travel miles to get there from a few different counties, sleeping in their cars or vans. It was the most varied crowd we ever had, too, from people in their 20s to their 60s. Such a sweet crowd. We’re dying to go back again. Apparently there was a party in one of the vans after the gig, but we didn’t know and went back and watched The Traitors instead.
Dear, dear. Do you ever party anymore?
Tim: Special occasions. Body and mind are not able for it regularly anymore.
Connolly’s of Leap sounds like the sweetest wee spot in the country right now. Give me an example of a good big gig?
Rob: All Together Now has always been really good. When we played the Guinness Lovely Days stage two years ago, that was probably one of our standout moments.
Yes, I saw you there. Belter set in the sunshine. You played after Joy (Anonymous).
Rob: Well, Eliza Rose was after them, then us.
That’s it. Such a quality line-up on that stage. Did you see the guys from Melbourne wearing beaded masks, a mix of psychedelic rock and Indian music, Glass Beams?
Tim: Oh yeah, they were on Friday.
Rob: We had a massive crowd as well from Eliza, and Róisín Murphy was supposed to headline the Main Stage but cancelled.
Ahhh, so everyone came to you. I was thinking, how did it get so packed? How busy was Fabric for your live set last June?
Tim: It was absolutely sick – so jammers – and we were playing in Room One, which was a dream come true for us. We played with Jasper Tygner and Oskar Med K, and we had a great time. It was our third time playing for Fabric. The other two times were in Room Two, which was also class. The crowd are always nuts. We have a nice relationship with the Fabric team. They’re a good crew.
Nice work if you can get it! You talked before about “always making, never made”. Does that still describe your creative mindset?
Tim: I was actually very proud of that tagline – it was supposed to describe the ever-expanding universe and maybe the ever-expanding world of our music, that it’s never finished.
How has working as a duo evolved over the years as expectations around your project have grown?
Tim: Good question. Well, we’re mates. That’s the main thing.
Rob: Exactly. We didn’t just meet and try to turn something into an act. It does happen to people often as well. They might not have as much in common – they drift apart, or it’s too much pressure.
Tell us, how did you meet?
Rob: We had a similar friend group, just out and about.
I heard you were sneaking into Tripod and all sorts?
Tim: Yeah, hiding in the toilets, haha! That’s where we first started going out clubbing together, and to The Pod too.
Those were the days, the Bodytonic days!
Rob: They were, yeah.
Tim: My first gig was in Tripod, and one of the lads arrived in his school uniform, but he got in, haha.
Well, they did have a night there called School Disco, haha!
Tim: Oh really? Gas. Well, there was a night called Housewerk, which was the first one I played, and my cousins still call me Housewerk like 15 years later.
Hahaha. Was Chris Wyse playing at that?
Rob: He was, yeah. He’s a great DJ.
Tim: He was my favourite DJ growing up, him and Shane Murphy. They were called Vicelords.
So many good homegrown talents playing across Dublin. Did you go to McGruders on Thomas Street?
Tim: No, it was a bit before my time, but I did go to Thomas House. It’s where I played my first drumming gig.
So you play percussion?
Tim: Not really. Well, I was playing with my dad recently in Crumlin. He’s a play-by-ear musician, a jack of all trades. He plays a bit of everything – guitar, fiddle, banjo, piano. We were in wedding bands together, Bob Dylan tributes. I’ve been playing drums most of my life, longer than anything else.
Do you ever do your own drumming for your own tracks?
Rob: We did try years ago when we were doing more sample-y kind of stuff, loops and things.
Would you ever think of bringing it into your live sets?
Rob: We should, really.
Tim: Remember I bought that drum pad? I looked at it for a year – it was a really shit drum pad.
Rob: It’s a while back now. There’s probably a better one on the market.
Tim: Yeah, so we didn’t bring it into it, but it’s something we could consider. Maybe at some point we can update it.
Rob: If we develop it more, if we were doing it more regularly or full-time, I think we would extend it more.
I think that would be really cool. Live instruments in electronic sets are on the rise. I’ve seen live techno bands and they are class. When you disagree in the studio, what usually decides it in the end: instinct or experience?
Rob: That’s a good question. I don’t know.
Tim: You know what? I think we don’t disagree.
Rob: I think we’re actually just used to working with each other at this stage. We know each other’s mannerisms, and we can probably pick up on when one of us is into something and the other isn’t, and we’ll just meet in the middle.
Tim: I think we’re not very confrontational, so what will happen is if there’s something in the track that we can’t agree on, I think that track doesn’t see the light of day.
Rob: If one of us isn’t really feeling it as much, we can park it for a while and come back to it.
Tim: There are some tracks where one of us is a big fan, and the other maybe doesn’t like it as much. But I guess part of working as a duo is that you’re not too proud or precious, and you just let it go.
Rob: Because we’ve been working together for so long, we know the direction we want to go. We have similar taste in that sense.
How do you decide when a track feels right for Signs Of Space versus keeping it in the vault?
Rob: Well, often we like to make a few, batch them together with what we’re pretty certain we’ll put out, and then decide what to do, like are we going to do a single, or what?
Tim: We’ll whittle them down from 10 or 15, keep shortening the list until eventually a few rise to the top.
Rob: If we’re playing them out as well, it’s a good gauge, seeing what people like and what they don’t like so much.
Have you got many people applying to your label to release their music?
Tim: We’ve had applications before. We’ve had some messages, and we were considering putting out a VA of other people’s stuff, but we’ve only just put out our own stuff through the label and done a couple of remixes. Maybe we’re pretty precious in that regard because even the artwork and the art direction – everything about it – we’re really particular about it.
Rob: That’s the beauty of it being ours. One of the reasons we started it as well was being able to have control of when to put music out, how, and what to do with everything. You can be waiting forever with labels too, and you don’t have as much of a say.
And you must be busy enough, because you both have full-time jobs as well, like the majority of people in the creative industry, myself included, who can’t pay their rent.
Rob: Exactly. So, running a label and putting other people’s music out on it would be a full-time job in itself, and we just don’t have the time.
Tim: Yeah, honestly, I feel the workload for full-time musicians is crazy if you’re doing your own label and admin. Maybe these people have management. I mean, we’re happy to be doing it all, but it definitely eats into your time.
Rob: That’s the only thing. There’s only so much you want to do or you’ll have no time to make new music.
You’re back home in Dublin permanently. You came home during COVID. Were you sad to leave Berlin?
Rob: I wasn’t sad, but we’d kind of decided a while before. It wasn’t a sudden pulling of the plug after almost three years.
Tim: We came back just before COVID. We had a gig in Belfast, in January or February. I remember chatting to a taxi driver who was telling us about it in different parts of the world.
Rob: Then it was kind of a blessing that we were in Dublin. Moving home during COVID would have been a bit messy, and it was nicer to be here.
So when you moved home, how hard was it to settle back into life?
Rob: I think we were settling quite well, then COVID hit, and that was a bit of a weird one, as we’d only had one month before that put a spanner in the works for a year or two.
Tim: We had to isolate as well. We couldn’t make music together because Rob’s parents are on the older side of the spectrum, with the studio being here in their house, and I was working in social care with vulnerable people, so it was a bit risky.
Rob: Well, we were still making music, but we weren’t together very much. We were just banking ideas, and we had loads of stuff afterwards.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Tim: Other music. We love James Shinra, Ryan James Ford, Tornado Wallace, CockTail D’Amore Records, Space Dimension Controller and Bicep, of course!
Rob: Avalon Emerson and Sully too.
Do you get out to gigs?
Rob: Not as much as we used to, as we’re both working full-time. We are flat out, but we do try to make an effort when we can. Just the last few months, we haven’t been out much.
I spotted your names were just announced for the new Red Bull stage in association with Izakaya at All Together Now this coming weekend. Are you delighted to be back?
Tim: Yes, super excited. We’ll be doing a DJ set at peak time, 11pm–1am on Friday night. We are not sure how the stage will be set up yet, and we need to gauge the crowd, so we’ll keep our options open and go with the flow.
Does your creative process still feel just as exciting as it did at the very beginning?
Rob: Yes, definitely. It’s constantly evolving, with learning new techniques and different machines.
Tim: I think our live set is really exciting to make and has added yet another component to our creative process. While road-testing our latest work, we’ve been able to finesse certain elements. A lot of our newer tracks have a performative aspect.
Do you feel like you can communicate more emotionally in your live sets than when you’re playing records?
Rob: Yes. Well, it’s different. The reason for starting our live sets was because we had made enough music to do it, instead of just trying to fit all our stuff into a DJ set. And the fact that there are two of us meant it would be better for our performance. I think we just didn’t really think about it for a long time, but then a lot of promoters were saying to us, “Why aren’t you playing live?”
Yes, well, you have so many big names playing your tunes. Why not ride the crest of that wave?
Tim: We plan to… We’re still hoping to play our live set at an Irish festival.
Shout out to any promoters out there. EP or Fuinneamh?
Rob & Tim: Haha, yes!
Well, I wish you all the very best with playing a stellar set this Friday at ATN. Ádh agus grá mór!
Tim & Rob: Go raibh míle!
Long Island Sound play the Red Bull x Izakaya stage at All Together Now on Friday 31 July. Keep up to date with their latest tour dates and announcements here. Words by Emer O’Connor.