Two years later and the band are fresh off the release of their deeply anticipated sophomore record, Nobody’s Coming to Save You (out today via Play It Again Sam). After a slew of tense, tightly wound singles like “Party Lines” and “Pins,” we caught up with vocalist Dan Hoff to chat about their approach to collaboration, identity and production:

Northern Transmissions: The singles sound massive. I know that for this record you had Mark Bowen from Idles and Loren Humphrey (Geese, Westside Cowboy) produce it. Can you walk me through why you chose to work with them?

Dan Hoff: With Bowen, it was kind of his idea. We were looking at producers. I was actually asking Bowen about a producer that he worked with when we signed to a label. We were having the album conversation about getting a producer, and Bowen said, “Let me do it. I want to make the album.” He was just after doing the album with Florence [and the Machine], and I think he wanted to get more into working with a new band.

He really killed it. He sent a big pitch and it was an amazing pitch. Then the label got Loren involved as well. He had obviously done the Cameron Winter album and did such a great job. He was such a funny person as well, so fun to hang around with. All the guys, especially Chris Fullarton, who was the engineer, were amazing. We were so lucky to get John Congleton and Heba Kadry as well, who are incredible mixers and masters. So we’re really, really happy with them.

Northern Transmissions: I think with any work of art, your relationship to it as someone who’s involved in the process changes over time. What’s your relationship like with the record now, before it’s out with the rest of the world? And how does your relationship to your music change over time?

Dan Hoff: It’s that age-old thing that the music isn’t yours anymore after you’ve recorded it. It’s ours when you’re in the room. Recording it felt really special. It felt like our little secret, and there was an immense amount of pride and gratitude to be able to work with these people.

But there’s also that daunting fear: is this actually good, or are we all just lunatics? When the label started to like it, and then obviously other people started to like it, friends and stuff, I think my relationship kind of changed. This is definitely a more evolved album and more of an album that’s mature compared to the first album. It shows the growth and evolution that we’re trying to do. There’s a sense of pride in that as well, that you can push the envelope in a certain way and try to push to places you want to get to that you probably would have thought weren’t as possible to start. It’s important to know that if that’s one step, we can go to the next.

Northern Transmissions: The band started during the pandemic, and collaboration during that time was obviously different because you couldn’t really hang out or see anyone. How has your relationship to collaboration, both within the band and with other musicians, changed since the beginning?

Dan Hoff: We’ve always been very open when it comes to the studio and working with producers and stuff. We’ve always allowed them to tell us something is bad. I think we’ve always worked in a way where if someone comes with an idea in the practice space, that basically means that their idea is not theirs anymore. It’s the room’s idea, and it’s there to be either picked apart, worked on, or told it’s not good enough. There are no egos.

It’s all very much, “This song needs this,” or “This song isn’t good enough for the benefit of the band.” Everyone is doing things for the benefit of the band. There’s no actual criticism. It’s just to keep the machine going and do what we think is best for the band. It’s not actually attacking you as a person.

Northern Transmissions: I like that approach a lot. There’s less fear in putting something out there because we’re all going to talk about it and look at it, and then you’re all driving the ship. You’re figuring out the best direction for the song or the idea.

You’ve talked a lot about the Irish music scene, even over the past five or ten years, and you’ve described it as very communal. You’ve compared it to New York City scenes that were very community-based. From what I’ve been reading, it feels like there’s not much ego in the Irish scene. It’s very much, “Oh, you’re doing that? That’s cool. Let me try that too.” Where do you think that quality comes from?

Dan Hoff: I think it definitely stems from bands like Gilla Band and Fontaines D.C. and other bands like Pillow Queens going out there and being so open in conversation and talking about how they do things. Even bands like Idles, talking about what it means to be in a band on tour, being compassionate for each other and each person in the band, and showing how important and privileged and grateful you are for this.

It shows that the actual chasing of fame isn’t what these bands are looking for. They’re looking for something like gratitude and pride for getting the dream. I think it’s such a nice feeling and such an amazing opportunity to go and tour and see things. Why wouldn’t you want other Irish acts to go out and do that and prove to themselves that they are just as good?

Northern Transmissions: There’s no point in pulling the ladder up. I think transparency is part of it, too. I wanted to ask about something else, too. In a few interviews, I know you’ve talked about the importance of “In Dreams” or Roy Orbison. I love that you mentioned it because that’s also a very important song for me. It’s very ethereal and baked into Blue Velvet, which is one of my favorite David Lynch films.

The music videos for Gurriers are very striking, and the relationship between the image and the music seems very important. How do you think about conveying the music through the image and what that relationship is like?

Dan Hoff: I think that’s a lot to do with the very beginning, with the first couple of videos. Ben O’Neill is a talented director and videographer who’s a guitarist in the band, and he shares the same love for David Lynch movies and making things quite Lynchian, or otherworldly or strange.

Recently we’ve started working with Thomas James, but before that we worked with Adam Hart, who made “Top of the Bill” and “Eraser,” and Colin Preford, who did “Dipping Out.” Adam is definitely a good friend of mine through making music videos, and we have a love for the absurd, weird movies of David Lynch and beyond that as well.

Thomas James is making our music videos now, and he’s a genius himself. He’s able to marry our music so well with the visuals, I think, because he’s so receptive of how we can explain a reference or an idea. Even as little detail as we give him, or as much as we give him, he’s able to just run with it and take it on board.

I think it’s really important for us as friends and musicians as well. We all love movies and we all love the medium of film, and how absurd and dreamlike David Lynch’s movies are kind of inspires us. I think in a way it influences how we write our music, and I think so many other bands as well.

Northern Transmissions: I have one more question, and this is more music-industry focused. Specifically in New York, I know the infrastructure for live music has changed so much in the past five to ten years. During COVID, venues shut down, it’s expensive to be here in the city, and DIY venues specifically seem to be disappearing. From your perspective, how do you see the live music infrastructure changing, specifically in Dublin or around Ireland in general? How has that changed the community?

Dan Hoff: It’s a good question. I think the infrastructure in Ireland hasn’t been great at trying to mirror the talent that’s there. A lot of places are closing down, and there’s a lot of opportunity for venues in Ireland to thrive In recent years, it seems like more venues are being built. You see in the news that there are going to be future venues or hopefully new venues being built, and bigger rooms inside of the National Concert Hall.

I think it just needs the younger people to take over and create the scene. The scene’s there, but it just needs to kind of build on itself.

Order No One Is Gonna Save You by Gurriers HERE