Bitch Falcon: A Year of Staring At Clocks
BITCH FALCON might not be a name you instantly recognise, but it’s one you’re going to want to learn. The Dublin based three-piece are making waves with their unique mixture of grunge and shoegaze – one that they have been described as by critics as ‘Dream Grunge.’ The band released their stunning debut record last year, entitled Staring At Clocks, a slightly ironic name considering the year we’ve had, however vocalist and guitarist Lizzie Fitzpatrick swears that it wasn’t an intentional decision and instead it’s about “feelings of lowness and numbness. In this numb state you can’t do anything, but stare at clocks.”
As their first full-length record, Staring At Clocks is a different beast to their previous EPs, for which “the song-writing was done hastily to try and get us to the next point.” This time round the band have written a completely cohesive piece and “it was our intention to write something that flows smoothly as an album.” Whilst critics have assigned the label ‘dream grunge,’ the band say it’s never been anything that they strove to create, instead drummer Nigel Kenny reveals that “the mantra of the band was always, ‘heavy, but melodic’.”
This is something that has carried on through Staring At Clocks, which Kenny describes as being “a heavy, melodic record but it’s also more refined, introspective, intense and dark than anything we’ve ever released before.” Staring At Clocks is undoubtedly the most definitive BITCH FALCON release so far, and Fitzpatrick “knew I wanted to achieve something better than what I had expressed before. We’ve been dying to write something like this for the last six years.”
Of course despite this being their debut full-length, BITCH FALCON have been active and prolifically touring for a number of years which undeniably had an impact on this record and which Kenny poetically summed up as “everything that comes before, builds what comes after,” whilst Fitzpatrick reckons that “all these interactions [that you have on tour] influence who you are, and in turn, your writing.” Indeed the band feel that their music “doesn’t have an agenda; it’s just the result of our occurrence at that point in time. If we were to write our debut now, it would sound different.” And that’s the fantastic thing about BITCH FALCON. If you listen to all of their releases there is a clear evolution from their 2015 debut single Wolfstooth, but it is still recognisably BITCH FALCON. They evolved without losing any of the uniqueness.
BITCH FALCON are an intense live band even before this outstandingly engaging record was released, and when live shows eventually make their return they are likely to be even more intense than before. They’re not chaotic like THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, but rather an all-enveloping sonic battery of noise, amplified by Fitzpatrick’s unique stage presence who says “I have been told I have a ‘stare’ and it makes people squirm so I can use that to my advantage.” Kenny puts it as, “we never compromise, we’ll always play the hardest and we’ll always try to be the loudest. If you haven’t left with your pint getting carried off the table by bass or being overwhelmed by screaming guitars at the end then we’ll have done something wrong.” Although he also suggests that, “I think that once we can finally get back into a room where everyone can sweat all over each other and mosh” then they might become a bit more like DILLINGER after the long break from live shows.
Despite the rough year than 2020 has been the band have been attempting to do what they can to stay creative, and as Fitzpatrick puts it; “I’m a bitch for learning.” This constant drive to be more creative and expand their horizons will inevitably make BITCH FALCON’s future projects even more diverse than Staring At Clocks, and it makes them an exciting prospect to be reckoned with. This is a band who you need to keep a keen eye on, as with a very impressive debut under their belts, they have their sights set high.
Staring At Clocks is out now via Small Pond Records.
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