Photo by Ciara McMullan
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
L7, Amyl and the Sniffers, G.L.O.S.S
Who They Are
The social media description of Problem Patterns as “a group of women screaming in a room” is lovingly tongue-in-cheek, but their rip-roaring live shows and rotating cast of vocalists are deserving of a closer look. Composed of musicians Beverley Boal, Bethany Crooks, Ciara King, and Alanah Smith, the four-piece queercore noiseniks ensures that each member has a voice, quite literally. As they raucously dismantle systematic oppression and restore order through the power of pummelling noise and frenetic riffs, they play a game of divide and conquer with each scathing critique.
Their 2020 single “Big Shouty” embodies what the group is about, a blisteringly good demolition of how female musicians are expected to behave in the music industry. As they reject passivity and male judgement, the band takes up as much space as they possibly can; their grudging caterwauls and growls are innate and begin to occupy a physicality of their own. Not only are they shattering the glass ceiling, but they’re taking it over entirely — they’re cackling at it, repurposing its remnants into something larger and more subversive, sticking things together to form their own shape.
Gone are the days of corporate Riot Grrrl offshoots or — even worse — the Girl Boss herself. Problem Patterns are eternal. Listen to “Big Shouty” below.
Nameless Faceless 