To celebrate Pride, we’ll be highlighting a different Irish artist from the LGBTQIA+ community each day in June as part of our Pride Profiles series.
By Hannah Quearney
Listen If You Like
Fenne Lily, Marika Hackman, Aldous Harding
Who They Are
It’s difficult to believe at this point that SOAK — known outside of their portmanteau moniker as Bridie Monds-Watson — hasn’t been awarded some kind of veteran status for the work they’ve been putting out for almost a decade. Ever since they emerged from the Derry music scene at age 16, the songwriter’s coming of age can be tracked tangentially to their musical output quite easily. Just as we’ve watched Monds-Watson grow from a punkish rag-tag teenager into a refined (yet incredibly cool) adult, we have watched their graduation from gloomy indie-folk aesthetics into lush art-pop stylings. A cloud has lifted between the releases of their prodigal debut album Before We Forgot How To Dream and their sophomore effort Grim Town, their sound becoming more full-bodied as their identity becomes more sharper in their mind. They don’t anticipate change, but they warmly invite it instead.
Their latest single is most indicative of this change. Featuring Saint Sister’s Gemma Doherty, ‘I’m Alive’ is a solemn spoken word piece birthed out of lockdown ennui. Exploring the idea of how it feels to “wake up” after a long depressive episode, Monds-Watson abandons #BeKind sentiments in favour of steady catharsis. With self-discovery as the aim of their game, it’s looking like a third album is in the works and we couldn’t be more excited.
Watch the visualiser for “I’m Alive” below:
Nameless Faceless 