Belfast duo CHALK's debut album 'Crystalpunk' is a ten-track surge of serrated guitars, industrial pulse and warehouse euphoria that wrestles with identity, inheritance and the strange business of growing up in the North of Ireland. It's big in sound and bigger in intent, pulsing with urgency – and crucially, possibility.
Right now, though, they're in London, "working on some new music and rehearsing new tracks ahead of the tour next month. It's been a busy few weeks," they offer, "but we're excited to get everything ready for the live shows."
2026 has already kicked off at full tilt. As they put it, "It's been exciting to really nail down the new songs we wrote for the record and bring them to life in a live setting." Even the press cycle has become part of the process: "Talking through it has helped us understand the record as a whole a lot more ourselves."
Work on 'Crystalpunk' formally began last May, though the roots go further back. "We had been building up ideas for a few years before that," they explain. "When we finally started properly, there was already a foundation there." Six months of writing followed, squeezed between summer festivals and back-and-forth trips to their producer Chris's studio in Belfast, before a final week in Attica Audio in Donegal in September "to bring everything together."
The name arrived early and stuck. "Ross came up with the name Crystalpunk. When he said it, we sat with it for a while, and it started to make a lot of sense." It captured something instinctive: "There are those raw punk leanings alongside the electronic and techno influences." Coining the term felt liberating. "Giving the album that name almost felt like defining a genre for ourselves. It gave us a lot of freedom to go in different musical directions that we might not have felt as confident exploring otherwise."
“It would have been very easy to lean into cynicism or nihilism”
That freedom didn't mean chaos. At the outset, they drafted a manifesto. "Any time we doubted the direction or felt at a crossroads with a song, we would refer back to it." Not everything made the cut. "There were other ideas we loved but realised they did not fit the overall narrative or sequencing." Sequencing, they stress, was "incredibly important." The goal was to bottle the intensity of a CHALK live show and then stretch it further – knowing that the album would be absorbed alone, through headphones, car speakers, bedroom stereos.
Beneath the volume and velocity runs a steady thematic current. 'Crystalpunk' is rooted in Belfast, in the North, in what it means to grow up in the aftershock of conflict. "The record reflects the complexities of where we come from and the different things we have had to come to terms with in terms of identity and how we see ourselves," they say. It's about "growing into individuals while also being products of Belfast and the North." The songs were written with people back home in mind, but the hope is that the specifics resonate further out. "We hope the themes are universal enough that people from anywhere in the world can connect with it."
Historically, punk and rave culture offered rare spaces where identity wasn't dictated by politics. That lineage matters to CHALK. "We feel that spirit very strongly," they say. Artists are increasingly encouraged to speak up, but "there is always a risk, especially when you are still developing as a band, that speaking out could have consequences." Even so, "we think it is important to be honest." For them, punk and rave have always represented "freedom and expression," and that energy carries through everything they do.
Honesty, though, doesn't equate to bleakness. Plenty of music grappling with generational trauma spirals into cynicism. 'Crystalpunk' resists that gravitational pull. "It would have been very easy to lean into cynicism or nihilism because that is how the world can feel at times," they admit. "But it was important for us that the record looked at life from multiple angles." Alongside fear and anger sit love and euphoria. "Dance music in particular has an important role in that. Being on a dance floor listening to loud music can be an incredibly connective and uplifting experience, and we wanted the album to carry that sense of possibility."
“Punk and rave culture have always been about freedom and expression”
Sometimes, music says what conversation can't. Asked whether certain truths were easier to shout than to speak quietly, they don't hesitate. "Yes. The track 'Belfast' is one example. It touches on national identity and the internal conflicts we grew up with. Those are things that can be hard to articulate in conversation, but through music they can be expressed more directly and honestly." The aim wasn't confrontation for its own sake, but connection: "It felt like a way of extending a hand to others who might be struggling with similar questions about who they are and where they belong."
Making the album demanded a different kind of stamina. "The scale of it was probably the biggest challenge," they say. A ten-track body of work was new territory. "At the start, that felt daunting." The focus was relentless. "For six months, it was all we thought about. We were constantly revisiting demos, reworking songs and exploring different mixes." The hardest part? Letting go. "Knowing when it was actually finished was also a challenge in itself."
Now that it is finished, the ambition is about momentum and longevity."We do not have a single specific goal in mind," they say. "We want to play shows around the world and have experiences that would have felt surreal when we first started the band." The dream is sustainability – the freedom to create across mediums. "Being able to create art for a living and express ourselves not just through music but visually as well is incredibly important to us. If the album opens doors that allow us to keep doing that, we will be very grateful."
The immediate plan is simple: take 'Crystalpunk' everywhere. "The plan is to tour the album and bring it to as many countries and as many people as possible. We will always be working on new music as well." But they're trying not to sprint past the present. "It is easy to immediately focus on what comes next, but we are trying to stay present and appreciate this moment for what it is."
'Crystalpunk' stands in the tension between where CHALK come from and where they're heading. The future, it seems, is something you choose. ■
Taken from the April 2026 issue of Dork. CHALK's album 'Crystalpunk' is out now.
