Inside The Bubble: Exclusive Interview With Arctic Lights

As we comb the globe for unique music, every now and then we come across a band that’s really special. This time we stumbled upon electro-rock duo Arctic Lights who recently released a punchy rock record called “Wanderlust”. The pair come from a place called Cork, Ireland.

Cork, believe it or not, has a rabid indie scene that has been foaming at the mouth since the 70s. The most popular band people would know coming from there is Five Go Down To The Sea?. It’s also the birthplace of the 80’s mix-up album Kaught At The Kampus album that featured various punk artists from that time. The new school is just as good. We got to spin our web of questions at the group to find out what’s been up with them and their music. This is a dual interview so each man will answer the same question where it applies. Enjoy.

The Band

Bubblingbox: We always start with this question because it’s the first expression given by the group. How did you come up with the name Arctic Lights?

Arctic Lights: One of the first songs we wrote was a song called ‘Love One Another’ for the ‘Tabula Rasa’ EP. During recording, we wanted to add an atmospheric sample to the song and we stumbled across the actual sound of the Arctic Lights.  We loved it and used it in the song and also really liked the name Arctic Lights.  When we checked it out and the name was available it was a no-brainer and jumped at the opportunity to call the band Arctic Lights.

 Bubblingbox: Where are you from? How did the band form?

Eddie: We are from Cork, Ireland. Back in the 90s, we were doing a music project called Bulkhead where we received record company interest but decided not to pursue it due to the fact we wanted to do other things so took a break from music until now. A long break I know but better late than never.

Bubblingbox: Layout the band for us, who is playing what?

Arctic Lights: Liam O Callaghan vocals, guitar keyboards, drums, and Edward Butt Bass, and sometimes (rarely) guitar.   Liam looks after most of the recording process but we are both very hands-on and involved in the production and arrangements of the songs. Eddie Looks after most of the design but again the final choices are very much made by both of us. It’s a really good partnership.

 Bubblingbox: Out of the singles you’ve released so far, which was the most complex and why?

Eddie: Our latest single ‘Wanderlust’ was quite complex to record, the bass was tried with three different distortion pedals to find the perfect sound,  and also a live amp and DI to get the mix right, it was also quite hard to play as it plays at a tempo of 146 BMP. My fingers were bleeding after the process.

Liam: My ears were bleeding.

Listen to the official audio of “Wanderlust” below.

The Music

Bubblingbox: How did the Pandemic affect the group?

Eddie: We wouldn’t have got together if the Pandemic never happened so in a way it was a positive thing for us, because of all the lockdowns it rekindled our passion for making music and gave us the time to write and record. We haven’t stopped since as we seem to be getting better each day, the hunger is there again which is a nice feeling.

Liam: Yeah, we probably wouldn’t have formed if it wasn’t for the Pandemic.  It was also weird at the start writing songs remotely but it has become part of our writing process now and keeps evolving and works for us.

Bubblingbox: When do you plan on releasing an LP or EP?

Eddie: We released our debut EP ‘Tabula Rasa’ in Jan 2021 our plan was to release four EPs in a year but we have now decided to release a single every two months or so to hopefully have a great album at the end of the year. This way it allows us not to work on too many tracks at one time and to give each song lots of love and attention. We would like to finally end up with an album where each song is as good as the other rather than an album with two great songs and a lot of fillers.

Liam: The beauty of having our own record label is that the only pressure we are under is the pressure we put on ourselves.  We really work hard and the songs get released when they are ready.

Bubblingbox: Have you been performing live? If so where?

Eddie: We haven’t played live as Arctic Lights yet and are more into writing and recording but hopefully, when we release enough good material it will be the next thing we will look at depending on the demand.

Liam: It is definitely something we would like to do at some stage in the future but at the moment we are concentrating on writing and recording.

Watch the official video for “Intertwine” below.

The Future

Bubblingbox: Which one of your social media will fans most likely get your attention on?

Arctic Lights: We have a Facebook and Twitter account but we mainly concentrate on Twitter. Any messages we get from people we always reply because we feel flattered and humbled that people like what we do. You can find us on the Twitter handle @ArcticLightsC or Facebook @ArcticLightsCork. We try to support as many bands as we can if they align with our musical tastes. We also find Twitter a great community for artists and there is a great feeling of support for each other on it which is inspiring as we feel all music is good and any artist should be applauded for putting themselves out there as it’s not an easy thing to do.

Bubblingbox: What’s planned for the remainder of 2021?

Eddie: The remainder of 2021 will be used to write more material, we have lots of exciting songs we are currently working on. Because we released an EP and two singles since Jan 2021 we feel maybe winter would be the right time for the next one as we like spending time on the songs before we release them to make sure they are as good as can be. We don’t want to release music for the sake of it so each song has to be better than the last.

Liam:  Keep on writing, recording, and releasing songs. It’s great to have that buzz again and hopefully it shows in our music.

Bubblingbox: What do you want the world to know about you?

Eddie: Arctic Lights are only getting started and the best is yet to come, we want to make music for people who have the same musical taste as ourselves as we feel all we hear on the radio these days is the same style of pop songs but this is nothing new, being music fans ourselves we know not everyone wants to hear commercial music all the time and that there are other options out there, we exist to give that other option and hopefully we will have an influence on younger bands to encourage them to do the same which is to be yourself and if you like what you do it is mission accomplished and if other people like it it’s a nice bonus.

Liam: We are back.

We are absolutely tickled to death that Arctic Lights sat down to answer our questions. We appreciate them giving us such a candid interview. We wish them the very best in all future endeavors.