Pinhole have hit the sweet spot

Minds are about to be blown as Cork/Dingle-based avant-garde duo Pinhole prepare to release their visionary debut album ‘Sweet Spot’.

Dropping on 11 October, the record is an imaginative and otherworldly body of work imbued with a playful sense of imagination while finding inspiration in the issues humanity faces.

It is the brainchild of Ciara O’Flynn (vocals, violin) and Mark McLoughlin (synth), two lifelong music obsessives who share a deep artistic chemistry.

O’Flynn began playing violin at just eight years old, growing up in a house where the record player was always in the centre of the room. She’s been in bands since she was 16 and studied music at UCC. O’Flynn’s musical influences are as expansive and varied as Pinhole’s sonic scope, ranging from grunge to trad to Georgian folk singing. She is also a recipient of the Basic Income for the Arts, without which she says ‘Sweet Spot’ may not have come to fruition at all.

McLoughlin was surrounded by music since he was a child, his father being a singer and actor, but branched out from his classical training and found inspiration in freeform jazz. McLoughlin’s storied career, including a stint at the legendary Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, informs Pinhole’s unpredictable approach to songwriting.

O’Flynn compares their intuitive creative process to figure skating, where each is subconsciously tapped into the other’s mind.

“It’s a bit like feeling around in the dark. You just keep going without much analysis,” she explains.

Both artists have careers outside music too. O’Flynn is an archaeologist and McLoughlin is a documentary filmmaker focused on human rights and both agree that their fascination with the implausible wonders and horrors of life was integral to the making of ‘Sweet Spot’.

With their music, Pinhole endeavours to transport the listener to ethereal, imagined worlds, while simultaneously exploring our own reality, including such wide-ranging topics as Gaza, the marriage equality referendum, personal relationships, and our treatment of the elderly.

The cinematic title track and opening song of the album, ‘Sweet Spot,’ delves into “the complexities of being human and the different forms of connection we make with each other,” Pinhole say.

“How good connections take thought, effort, and insight and are ultimately based on a motivation of care and responsibility, be they international diplomatic relations or simple parent-child relations.

“Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong, the most important thing is we keep trying,” add the duo.

Recorded at Kitten Lane Studio in Cork, the song’s unique sonic landscape is thanks in part to the small, foot-pedalled organ used. The organ was in a state of disrepair, with O’Flynn getting down on her hands and knees to pump its bellows while McLoughlin played, resulting in a breathy, almost animalistic sound.The fourth song on the album, ‘I Want Desire’, is Pinhole at their most dancefloor ready, urging the listener to get in touch with the sensuous. The song itself starts from a gentle place, with Ciara O’Flynn’s soft, honeyed voice luring us in, but there’s an uneasy tension just beneath the surface, fuelled by steady yet feverish percussion.

“Our culture is so hell-bent on speeding us up. Speed and sensuousness are practically incompatible, so the song is essentially a resistance to hurrying up, instead asking us to slow down and tune into the body and our spirit,” they explain.

“Give yourself the time to truly see the people who matter to you, enjoy your food, listen to the sounds of life, and treasure the body.”

Impending environmental catastrophe and the people fighting against it are at the heart of track seven, ‘Indigo’. Played on a Fender Rhodes piano with some broken keys, the resulting feedback became an eerie feature of the track.

Track nine, ‘Slo Mo’ was written for two people that O’Flynn and McLoughlin have lost. In O’Flynn’s case, it’s a friend of hers who took their own life, while for McLoughlin, it's a good friend's son who went missing in Wyoming in 2021.

“The smell of your perfume billows out as I put the key in the door”, O’Flynn sings on the final track, ‘6 Kenley Ave,’ over crunchy electric guitar. The song is dedicated to her grandmother who used to live at that address; O’Flynn and her partner moved into the house as her grandmother was sent to an old folks’ home. She was torn by the reality our elderly people face, swept aside, and considered useless, compared to other societies where they would be revered. McLoughlin transforms the humble details of someone’s existence -“White bread, milky tea, blinkered life,” as he puts it - into an expansive sonic moment.‘Sweet Spot’ will be released on 11 October. In the meantime you can check the band out on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.