Pillow Queens: One for sorrow

Irish foursome PILLOW QUEENS explore love, loss, and catharsis with their third album, ‘Name Your Sorrow’. Check out our latest Upset cover story.

Words: Linsey Teggert.
Photos: Martyna Bannister.

In the fickle music industry world, third albums are often underrated and overlooked. We make so much of the hyped-up debut, and that legendary 'difficult second record', but it's that third time around, where uncertainties are shed and the shackles of expectation loosen, that can really show what an artist is made of. With their stunning third record, 'Name Your Sorrow', Pillow Queens go from being one of the most acclaimed bands of recent years to truly cementing their status as an astonishing force to be reckoned with.

"We've definitely felt a shift this time around," explains lead vocalist and bass/guitar player Pamela Connolly. "It's a different beast every time, but when we released our first album, the press around it tended to be, 'Hey, there's this band of four queer women from Ireland', whereas once you get to your third record, that rhetoric has already been done, you need to escape that focus on who you are and for the focus to be on what the music is actually like."
"We've found a lot of the questions we're being asked are lyrics-focused," adds drummer and vocalist Rachel Lyons. "They're not necessarily leaning on buzz words like 'queer indie band', it's been more about the music itself, which is always welcome."

Considering that 'Name Your Sorrow' is their third album in under four years and that they worked on the record itself for over a year and a half, it's pretty incredible what Pillow Queens have managed to achieve in such a short time.

"We never got to experience that first album cycle properly, as we released 'In Waiti