Dark Tropics told David Hennessy about their new single, Whispers.
Since they launched in 2020, Belfast duo Dark Tropics have gained the support of big names such as Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music and Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2.
They have opened for Belle and Sebastian on their sold out Irish Tour and, more recently, The Coronas at Ulster Hall.
The band released their first single Badlands in 2020 earning instant acclaim.
Their debut album Ink would follow in 2021.
Now they return with their latest single Whispers which has a different and rockier sound to anything we have heard from them before.
The band describe the song as a track about ‘throwing caution to the wind in pursuit of the greatest nights of your life.’
Dark Tropics is made up of Rio McGuinness and Gerard Sands.
The duo took the time to chat to The Irish World about the new music.
Rio told The Irish World: “I think we’ve finally made a song you can play at parties.
“This one will actually get people dancing. I’ve finally made a song that my dad can dance to which is great.
“Everyone, just enjoy the song.
“With all the craziness that is going on at the moment, this song is just about having a good time.
“It’s just about having a good time and that’s what I want everyone to have when they listen to it, when they watch the video, when you’re having a good day, when you’re having a bad day. It’s an especially good song to put one when you’re getting ready to go out. If you’re feeling down and out, stick the song on. It’s a good time and I want everyone to have a good time when they listen to it. This is not a song for thinking, this is a song for listening.”
I like the positive message of the new song, what inspired it?
Gerard: “It’s inspired by nights out in Belfast. When you have one of those really messy nights but you commit to it.
“I don’t know if that’s positive but that’s what it’s about.
“It’s, more or less, about night life in Belfast.”
The last time I spoke to you, Rio it was 2023 about the single I Bet You Can.
I remember you saying at that time that you had enough material for albums number two or indeed albums number two and three…
Rio: “What’s absolutely crazy is we have more now.
“We’re being a lot more deliberate than we have been in the past with what we put out, when we put it out, how we put it out, how we present ourselves, and exactly how we want to be seen as a band.
“I think that’s been really important, especially because a lot of the music definitely that we had in 2023, while it would have fit in well with the likes of Ink, maybe isn’t quite where we want to be now or where we want to go.”
Gerard: “That album was so sort of slow so now we kind of want to release lots of different kinds of songs.
“This new song, we close our sets with it.
“We actually had it for a while and we never really played it live and then one day we tried.”
Rio: “We recorded that in 2018. We actually recorded the demo for that before we even met Lyndon (Stephens, late manager).
“Where Ink was very pop noir, the new stuff’s maybe more of a Merlot: Kind of darker, a bit richer, a bit more body to it.”
I did think listening to Whispers, it was a whole new sound…
Rio: “To a certain extent, yeah.
“I think even with the new stuff Whispers is still not too much of an outlier, but it is a little bit.
“In a lot of the stuff that we’re doing, we’re still really keeping those kind of jazzy roots, particularly with vocal styles.
“A lot of the ones that we’re working on at the moment, they have, like I said, more body.
“They have more fun to them the way Whispers does.
“They’re thematically quite similar but they don’t quite go in as heavy.
“So even with the stuff that we have demoed, Whispers is still definitely the heaviest of all of them.
“The reason that we chose to go with this one now, aside from the fact that we were absolutely itching to get something released, was the fact that I love Whispers.
“It was the first song that my mum was there to hear us actually recording it and to see the recording process.
“My mum has been on my case, and Gerard’s, for seven years to release Whispers.
“We have a whole load of songs that are just ready to go right now and she is a large part of the reason Whispers is being released first.
“She’s our biggest supporter.”
Why is it the song that closes your set?
Gerard: “It’s because Rio kind of has to scream it.
“It kind of has to be at the end of the set.
“I think at one stage we tried to maybe fit it in earlier in the set but she has to give it everything.”
Rio: “I call it the vocal ripper.
“It’s just very intense and I am sweating and panting by the end but it gets an amazing reaction.”
When Rio advertised for someone to back her up with instruments, pianist/ guitarist Gerard got in touch. They bonded over shared influences such as Radiohead, Aretha Franklin and The Velvet Underground.
Rio: “We did our first gig right before COVID. It was like the worst timing in the world.
“Because it had been so long as well, we maybe forgot that we were still baby band and we need to do baby band things.
“We didn’t have the option to do the baby band thing.
“So by the time COVID finished, we were established in that we had music released and some people knew us.
“How many I can’t say but some people knew us enough to get us booked on a few things.
“I think not being able to do a lot of the baby band stuff is something that we maybe missed out on a little bit.
“It does make me sad a wee bit so releasing something that’s so different, because Whispers is such a big change, we’re not really too nervous about the reception because we know that the people that really love us and come to our gigs also really like it.
“But it does feel a little bit baby band and it does feel a little bit new and that’s really nice, that’s really fun.”
What have been your live highlights so far?
Gerard: “We did the BBC 6 Music Introducing stage at The Great Escape. Steven Lamacq was hosting it and it was totally rammed the place.
“I’m generally not that nervous because I just kind of play guitar.
“But I was nervous with that one because it was kind of going out live on the radio as well, it was pretty terrifying.
“With The Great Escape, I kind of wish we were playing the set we play now. I wish we had this set for that gig but that’s not really how it works, I suppose, the set we did at the Ulster Hall at Christmas.
“It was great, the place was sold out for the Coronas.
“And it’s a venue that was on the bucket list.
“I always wanted to play on 6 Music.
“I always wanted to play the Ulster Hall.
“I always wanted to play Glastonbury.
“So we’ve done two of those and hopefully at some point we’ll get to play at Glastonbury.”
Rio: “Playing the Ulster Hall was unbelievable.
“I think the one that for me recently has been just the most special was a charity festival.
“They call it Sunflower Cottage Festival.
“The guy just had a little land and was like, ‘Do you know what? I want to start a music thing.’
“And he did.
“We got paid in pizza and beer.
“There wasn’t a big crowd, maybe 25 people came to see us, maybe less than that.
“It was so much fun and I could really see the vision behind it.
“And knowing that all the proceeds were going to charity and they wanted us, had asked for us, was really special as well.
“That one was really, really special for me.”
Whispers is accompanied by a video that really complements it and the band had a lot of fun making.
Rio: “It worked really, really well because the song is very rough and ready.
“And that’s not me saying that it’s not polished, it is but it’s very rough and ready in how it comes across so it always made sense to me that the video would have to be somewhat similar.
“We talked about the light and the dark in the previous video, I Bet You Can and this, we moved all into the dark.
“I really wanted to reference a lot of the things that I love.
“I wanted to reference a lot of the classic vampire heroines.
“I wanted to reference a little bit of burlesque.
“I was a big lover of burlesque growing up.
“I wanted to reference a lot of those sort of things that made me so this video felt like a homage to myself and to myself through the ages.
“If I could show younger me one video, it’d probably be this one.”
If you’re moving on in terms of sound, will the older stuff like debut single Badlands be remaining in your set and fit in with the new stuff?
Gerard: “Yeah, Badlands is funny.
“I don’t know if it’s a mistake but the when we supported the Coronas in the Ulster Hall, we opened with Badlands and it maybe wasn’t the song to open a big gig like that with, because it’s so down.”
Rio: “I will always disagree on that.
“I still think it was perfect because I don’t like putting the slow songs in the middle of the set so I think we’re still in disagreement.
“I think it was a good opener.”
You’ve spoken about your anxiety before, Rio. People may not expect it if they saw you perform on stage but you have to overcome your anxiety to get up there. Is that something you have conquered?
Rio: “No, it doesn’t go away.
“I know I can fall back on my reflexes now, where you can’t in the beginning.
“I know that I could- and have- sing some of these in my sleep.
“It’s still you. I’m more worried on different things.
“A large part of getting through that is creating a persona.
“So when I get on stage, I’m not myself anymore. I am Rio. Me and Rio are two different people. So when you see me on stage, you see Rio. Right now you’re getting me so at least it takes a lot of the personal pressure off me.
“I know I can separate myself and go, ‘Well, if I mess up a note, I don’t have to think about it for the next three weeks. I can put that on Rio and the next time Rio comes out in a rehearsal, she can worry about it’.
“I did really have to separate that.”
Apart from being nervous for The Great Escape, are you not affected by it at all, Gerard?
Gerard: “Not really. There’s so many things about doing music that are hard but a lot of it’s fun especially when it comes to recording and demoing and writing. I love all that.”
Rio: “I don’t think you have any imposter syndrome though.
“You know this is where you’re meant to be.
“It was something you said to me a year or two back, and it was, ‘It doesn’t matter if you believe in yourself, Rio, because I believe in you enough for the both of us’. I think that was it.”
You mentioned your late manager Lyndon Stephens earlier, very sadly no longer with us..
Gerard: “Lyndon was funny. First meeting he goes, ‘You’re gonna win a Mercury’.
“We had only sent him two songs.
“He had this five year plan on the wall and first time we met he’s like, ‘You’re gonna win a Mercury’.
“And he had every single month laid out exactly what we’re going to do for five years.
“And he loved us. We loved him. He was so enthusiastic. You would send him a song, and he would ring me and talk about the song.
“Lyndon was a one off. He was a one off. An incredible amazing guy.
“There’s lots of musicians and bands that owe Lyndon their start.”
The song is about nights out in Belfast, is there a fresh buzz about the city now with its music scene and people like Kneecap really making waves internationally?
Gerard: “Belfast now, when you’re down in the city centre, it’s like a whole new world. It’s amazing. It’s absolutely incredible.
“I think Belfast has always been incredible but now it’s kind of getting the chance to shine a bit.
“There’s loads of great bands, loads of great songwriters.
“If you go down to the Oh Yeah Centre, there’s gigs on most nights and there’s everybody from trad, punk to hip hop to everything you can think of.
“It’s just an amazing city to do music, to be honest.”
Rio: “I was talking to someone about music and they said, ‘I never see anything going on in Belfast’.
“And I was like, ‘What? How? The only thing I ever see is something happening’.
“There’s always something going on and it wasn’t like that when I was growing up. Even 10 years ago it wasn’t as pumping as it is now.
“I mean getting a wee bit off of music but the comedy scene in Belfast is really taking off as well.
“I do have to admit whenever I think about the north and I think about freedom of music, I do generally think about Problem Patterns, especially the last gig that they did at the Northern Ireland Music Prize.
“Just the command that they had over the stage, over the venue, the absolute balls that they had to get up and do what they did and be amazing at it, I was completely blown away.
“I love the music that’s coming out of the north but I also absolutely adore the music that’s coming out of Dublin at the moment.
“I think the majority of my top artists at the moment are either from the north or from Dublin, especially in the punk and trad scene.
“You can’t get any better than Ireland and Ireland being the north and the south.”
Who are you thinking of in particular?
“Gurriers and Enola Gay. And The Scratch.
“The Scratch have been one of my number one band for the last five years.”
Dark Tropics have shared the stage with both The Scratch and Gurriers.
Rio: “I fell asleep on- I think- it was the (Scratch) guitarist.
“I fell asleep on his shoulder on the flight, and I’m pretty sure I drooled on him.
“Because I was being thrown about like a rag doll.
“And it was same with Gurriers.
“We went to go see Gurriers afterwards.
“But Gurriers, they’re doing fantastic.
“The music is amazing again.
“The Scratch the last five years have been one of my top artists.”
With the troubles of the past, musicians like yourself may have had to leave Ulster to pursue a career…
Rio: “In the past, that might have been a contributing factor but I will say, Never underestimate musicians.
“My dad grew up as a punk through the troubles.
“There was a lot more going on, I think, than maybe would have been advertised outside of the North.
“Never underestimate people’s love for music, people’s want to hear music, people’s want to have fun and dance.
“That will always, always surprise you.”
Whispers is out now.
For more information, click here.
