Indiependence preview: Ready to roll with the Belters at Mitchelstown festival
Belters Only bring their dance sounds to Indiependence.
The pandemic crashed through Robbie Griffiths’ life like a truck into a petrol station forecourt. Before lockdown, he’d hosted a successful electronic club night at the Grand Social in Dublin and was part of an up-and-coming scene of DJs and producers around the capital. Then it all shut down, and Griffiths, who’d DJed since 16, didn’t know what to do.
“It was very, very hard. During Covid I had to work in a suit shop. It was the first time I had to do a normal job in my life. That was two years ago. Covid have made me appreciate all the moments that have happened so much more. I realise how quickly it can be taken away from you.” Griffith is in Ibiza with his production and DJ partner Conor Bissett. They were at the Amnesia nightclub the previous night, where superstar DJ Sonny Fodera brought them on stage to wild applause.
Basking in acclaim was a familiar feeling. As Belters Only, he and Bissett have been feted since the release last year of their single, 'Make Me Feel Good'. The tune is an old-school house track – what would have been called a “banger” back in the day – which features a noir-ish groove and smokey vocals courtesy of Yasmine Byrne, aka singer-songwriter and producer Jazzy.
'Make Me Feel Good' has become a mega-hit at home – and overseas, too. ‘Taking the electronic music world by storm’ is how Belters Only were described by the Ministry of Sound, the influential UK club. They’re back in Ireland this week for a headline performance on Friday, June 6, at the Indiependence Festival in Mitchelstown. After that, they are looking ahead to an already sold-out 3Arena date in October.
Griffiths says they were aware they had created something special with 'Make Me Feel Good'. They had no idea, however, that it would change their lives so dramatically and so quickly.
“It was a standout track. We knew there was something about it,” says Griffiths. “We didn’t have the intention of it becoming a big hit. We just make music we love: 'Make Me Feel Good' is a perfect example. We don’t make music to make hits – because you’ll never have a hit then. The timing was perfect: the track demands people feel good about themselves. Off the back of the pandemic people needed to hear dance music again. It was perfect.”
'Make Me Feel Good' was recorded in the attic of Bissett’s family home in Drimnagh, Dublin. Initially, it was offered to a record company in the UK, which politely passed. Griffith and Bissett understood the tune had potential, however. So they posted it on Soundcloud,an online music portal popular with dance music fans, where it took on a life of its own. By the time Polydor Records came to them with a deal, they’d already proved they could make it on their own.
“The label didn’t think it was going to be a huge track. They’d never heard dance music like this before. It’s not the same as dance music in the UK: they couldn’t see a market for it, which is understandable because it’s new to them. We put it up on Soundcloud and it began to put the numbers up. It got to the point where it had entered the Irish top 40 before we signed to Polydor, which is unbelievable.”
'Make Me Feel Good' blew up in earnest when it became a phenomenon on the video-sharing app TikTok, which helped push it to number one in Ireland, four in the UK and into the top 40 in the Netherlands, Latvia and Hungary. TikTok has become a hugely important marketing tool for the music industry: for Belters Only, it was a way of bypassing traditional gatekeepers and bringing their material to the public.
They see TikTok as the ultimate test: your song will go viral if fans like what they hear. If not, it will vanish. All the marketing in the world can’t change that.
“TikTok is a gem. The timing was perfect,’ says Griffiths. “It helped us a lot. With apps like that, people determine what songs succeed, rather than a big artist putting out a track. If a track is good enough and people like it, it blows up and goes viral on TikTok. It’s people power: it’s great.”
Griffiths was born in 1997 and so missed the golden years of dance music. But he and Bissett see Belters Only as building on the achievement of 1990s innovators such s Johnny Moy and Fish Go Deep, aka Sir Henrys DJs Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson. For Belters Only, the 1990s was a golden era for Irish music and one they want to honour in their music.
“The 1990s scene in Ireland was huge. That is where the root of the sound comes from in Belters Only. We’re taking it back to that era. That was the best era personally for music – the 1990s. I always wanted to do that type of style and put our own twist on it and we’ve done that. We’ve created that sound for ourselves.”
- Belters Only play Indiependence, Mitchelstown, Friday, August 4
The Coronas (Friday): One of Ireland’s most popular bands over the past decade, The Coronas emerged from the pandemic with a new album, Time Stopped, in which they explored the confusion and frustration of lockdown while looking positively to the future. The upbeat sensibility is front and centre of their live shows.
Anne-Marie (Saturday): The artist born Anne-Marie Nicholson will have warm memories of Cork, having opened for Ed Sheeran at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in 2018. She’s just released her third album, Unhealthy – a project that sees her taking a more experimental direction. “I definitely think my label and people around me were a bit worried about me going ‘I’m gonna try new stuff’,” she said. “Every song had a freedom to just be whatever it wanted to be.”
Inhaler (Saturday): The Dublin four-piece has had tremendous success with a lean stadium rock sound and are fronted by Bono’s youngest child, Elijah Hewson. They have a fan in Harry Styles, for whom they opened at Slane, and Matt Damon, who name-dropped them as his favourite new band.
Two-Door Cinema Club (Sunday): Veterans of the great landfill indie wars of the early 2000s, the Bangor band returns last year with a fifth album, Keep On Smiling – a project that blends their student disco rock with swooning synths and pulsating beats.
Cian Ducrot (Sunday): From Passage West in Cork, songwriter Ducrot has had huge success with his heartfelt ballads. He was also ahead of the curve in using TikTok to spread awareness about his music.
