Since their live debut in October 2022, ‘Passion Merchant’ has been central to Spearside's live set, easily recognisable to anyone who has seen the band over their first twelve months. Given the strong power pop thread running through the band’s releases to date, listeners tend to be surprised that Spearside’s live set is heavy and raw with psych undertones. ‘Passion Merchant’ opens a new chapter in the ever expanding sonic world of Spearside.
Speaking ahead of the release, frontman Oisín Walsh said.
“The instrumental section developed slowly over a number of gigs. On the recording we tried to capture the best parts from various improvised jams we would go off on in the middle of playing Passion Merchant live. I recently moved to Rome, and most of the mid section was recorded the night before I left Ireland because I’ve never been one for deadlines. Passion Merchant is a side of our band that to this point has been reserved for our live audiences.”
“So far we’ve had a couple of singles hovering around two minutes long so I imagine that Passion Merchant coming in at almost six minutes will be a surprise to some. I’d hate for us to become predictable, that’s one of my biggest fears. It can easily happen when you exist on the more pop-oriented side of guitar music.”
Spearside are quickly carving out a space for themselves in the colourful world of guitar pop, among the guitar driven underground scene in Ireland which includes kindred spirits Cardinals, Search Results, Stupid Son, Unstuck and Beauty Pageant.
Drawing on current influences such as Militarie Gun, Dazy, Pile Of Love, Hotline TNT, Turnstile, The Whiffs, 2nd Grade, The Speedways, Uni Boys and timeless influences like Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr., Pixies, JAMC, Ride, Buzzcocks, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Johnny Thunders, QOTSA, MC5, Jay Reatard, Ty Segall and Brian Jonestown Massacre it’s hard to fit Spearside into a category cleanly, as they sound like everything and nothing you’ve heard before.
