"It's always just been about connection," says Bleech 9:3's Sam Duffy. "I had my struggles when I was a young man, and the only healthy way I could feel connected was through music."
"It's always been somewhere to belong," adds his bandmate Baz Quinlan. He grew up listening to the albums his dad played in the car – Bob Dylan, Neil Young, early Coldplay, U2, Jeff Buckley and David Gray – before discovering Arctic Monkeys. "I was spending a lot of time in my room with a guitar, and they were the first band I really studied." Kings of Leon, Radiohead and Gorillaz followed. "The first CD I ever bought was 'Demon Days'. I was just entranced by it."
Meanwhile, Sam got into music via Green Day's 'American Idiot', which sent him on a journey of discovery from the 60s to the present day. "Being Irish, we are so inspired by Fontaines D.C.," he says. "I think every Irish musician is proud to have that band leading the path."
There's a little bit of all those bands in Bleech 9:3's music, which is usually labelled grunge but has flashes of nu-metal, punk, emo, electronic, pop and more. And that's just the five tracks they've released as their self-titled debut EP. The other tracks they've been playing live recently are even more vibrant and dynamic, but no less powerful.
"The story doesn't end at the bottom"
Formed in 2024, Bleech 9:3 started as a tool for healing. Baz and his bassist, younger brother James, had been playing together in various Dublin-based bands, while Sam and drummer Luke O'Neill were following a similar path and also getting nowhere. When he was a couple of years sober, Baz crossed paths with Sam (who'd been sober for five) in a recovery meeting. The pair quickly hit it off and started making music together. It felt exciting enough that the newly formed four-piece moved to London and began anew.
Their debut EP features the best of those early songs, which tell a "short story" of their time in Dublin and "the things we suffered from in the past," says Sam. It opens with 'Jacky', a gnarled rumination of loss, while other tracks wrestle with "bad worship", recovery, pain, addiction, uncertainty, rage and the struggle for change. That heart-on-the-sleeve poetry is often delivered via guttural screams. "They were also the highlights of the set we were performing around the clubs and pubs of London," says Sam. This time last year, they played Shacklewell Arms at 1pm, to a crowd of three people. And that wasn't even the worst of it.
But today they're at Latitude Festival, midway through a festival run that started in June and is currently scheduled to last until November, while both their European and UK headline tours have sold out months in advance. "We're blessed that so many people can relate to what it is we have to say. I'm honoured that they picked us to voice all those emotions," says Sam before breaking into a grin. "Someone's gotta do it."
Baz recently went back to his hometown of Dublin and was hit by a wave of sadness. "It was this realisation about the passing of time. It just hammered home how precious your days are. You don't know when you'll stand on stage for the last time, so you have to give as much as you can every time." That's easier said than done when you're on your 68th show of the year. "But you need to give yourself north stars to hold yourself to, and that's definitely one of them."
The reaction to everything since the band released their debut single 'Ceiling' last October has been hugely validating, says Sam. "I'd like to think that we all can accept that in the best way possible and not let it warp into something that it doesn't need to be."
"It's hard to comment on [why people are connecting with our music] without it seeming like you're really full of yourself," says Baz. "But I guess the music that I loved always felt like it was made by people who were doing their best to serve the art. You could just feel that it was genuine, and that set the path for us to follow."
"You just need to be truthful with it and steer away from taking the easy route," he says of their own music. "You need to take risks." It's that attitude they're taking into their debut album.
"We're nearly there with it, but there are a couple more songs left to write that just don't exist at the moment," says Baz. They're trying to remain open and ready for inspiration to strike – whether that's bingeing episodes of Game Of Thrones late at night, listening to a lot of country music on their long drives around Europe or playing something new in the snatched moments they get in soundcheck. "Being creative is really important for mental health on the road."
"Being creative is really important for mental health on the road"
The record will explore the same subjects as the EP but in more visceral detail. "I don't think we can move on really until we've done our best to leave no stone unturned," says Baz. "With the addiction years, the story doesn't end at the bottom, so there is a little bit of up. But we also need to tell the tale of the people who we shared that path with, who aren't here today."
"Music can be a lifeline," he continues. "That's what it's always been for me, and as an artist, that's what you want to reflect back out into the world. A life in service to that… I can't think of anything better."
Whether it's getting even more vulnerable with the lyrics, pulling from wider sonic influences or how they act onstage, there's a lot of self-assurance going into this next chapter. "It is a confidence thing," says Sam. "That's what this whole thing has been about for the past two years. We all always knew [what was possible] but certain jigsaw pieces needed to fall into place in order for us to feel that certainty."
"It took me years to get the confidence to go on stage and play my own songs. When I did, it was a huge victory," admits Baz. "But now we've done that, the question is how much farther can we go?"
Bleech 9:3's self-titled EP is out now.
