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Say hello to Ireland's latest exports, Just Mustard: “It’s quite a small country, you end up meeting everyone”

With Ireland throwing out great band after great band right now, this latest lot are just... well... mustard!

Just Mustard are on stage in ten minutes, but that doesn’t stop them grabbing a quick pint and looking over the seafront around them. After all, the past few months have been game-changing - taking in shows across Europe for the very first time and absorbing the world around them. You’d warrant them a quick glance across the seas before things well and truly take off. “It’s definitely been busier than usual,” cracks guitarist Mete Kalyon, taking a sip from his pint with a wide smile.

That’s probably got something to do with their recent cross-country run with Fontaines D.C - taking to stages with their own unmistakable sound and blend as the furious ‘Boys In The Better Land’ breakthroughs spanned across a string of nights. Eye-opening, it’s sat as a trigger for wanting more.

“After the first week we were all like, now we can’t wait to go back and start writing songs again because it got us so pumped to get back at it,” adds Mete.

A mesmerising world of electronica, shoegaze, gritty punk sensibilities and soaring hypnotic flourishes - Just Mustard are the sound of the dancefloor in the depths of winter-nights. Front and centre is Katie Ball, who weaves vocals across soundscapes for truly special moments. With every move and shape, it’s a wrapping that comes together to form a distinctly palpable wall of sound that could erupt at any moment. Grabbing comparisons with Warpaint over the past couple of years, it’s easy to see why.

At times Primal Scream, at times ripping with the same drive as Wolf Alice, at times spinning into an almost Four Tet-esque flurry - Just Mustard refuse to play it easy. Diversity and eclectic sounds have been at the core of the band since the early days, a product of the surroundings they found themselves in.

Close friends growing up together in Dundalk (halfway between Dublin in the south and Belfast in the North and a “small town, but the biggest town in Ireland,” as bassist Rob Clare elaborates), there were only two things you could really do. Make music and play football - and the former became a rich glue that pulled them all together. It wasn’t about starting a band, or forming a band - they were simply all mates who would naturally play around with music when together.

“There’s like one venue called the Spirit Store that everyone goes to, so we all would go and meet there,” remembers David.

When Mete went off to college, he’d continue ending music over to him - and when Mete returned, Just Mustard sparked into life.

It took just one support slot before they were headlining the Spirit Store (“It was a terrible idea. I mean, it was an unbelievable platform to give us, but we were shit,” laughs David). Morphing and growing, debut album ‘Wednesday’ was released last year as an opening statement of their journey so far and a necessary confirmation of all the styles and flurries that lead them to that point.

That next chapter is captured with ‘Frank’, a bolder and sharper sound to what they’ve done before - it sounds like a band hungry for what’s to come, glimmering and erupting into a potent cocktail of ambition. Coming at a time where Irish music seems to be leading the charge when it comes to some of the most exciting sounds of 2019, it’s a position Just Mustard are more than aware of.

“I remember hearing someone say; there’s no point in being Irish in Ireland - the same as there’s no point being English in England or Scottish in Scotland,” reflects Rob. "When you’re on tour in a foreign country you kinda have an extra bit of energy behind your band, I suppose. There’s intrigue, and maybe it’s because you’re not from the scene or you don’t quite sound like the bands from that area. There’s something in it, the reception over here has been sort of surprising - we’ve been surprisingly well welcomed.”

As David notes, “there are a lot of Irish bands that we love that are getting a lot of attention. There’s a folk artist we love called Junior Brother and so much different stuff out there. It doesn’t feel like there’s only one particular scene in Ireland at the moment; it feels like there’s a lot of different things. A lot of bands doing different things into this one mix.”

Just Mustard get the nod. They’re on in a couple of minutes, playing to another large room as more fall under their spell.

With that, Just Mustard step on stage, click play and are off on a whole ‘nother level.

Taken from the July issue of Dork, out now.

Words: Jamie Muir

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