New Pagans: Making Circles of Their Own
After the release of their debut album, and the highs and the lows that came afterwards, indie-punks NEW PAGANS are back with something new. Making Circles Of Our Own is an album that has helped them rediscover their love of making music, and it’s bound to be a game changer. As the title suggests, this album redefines everything the band are doing, with an infectious positivity and a new lease of life. Frontwoman Lyndsey McDougall explains, “I think artists respond to these hostile things in a positive way. It feels like an out of body experience.” For NEW PAGANS, this album is their chance to really understand their new direction, and start to achieve everything they want.
Lyndsey details how after touring with SKUNK ANANSIE, the band came extremely close to breaking up. “We came home and we were all broke and analysing if it’s worth doing. I thought, ‘oh my God, was that worth leaving my children for three weeks?’ It was our lowest moment if I’m honest.” Touring, while vital for bands, can be really draining. Though of course, after a few weeks out, they quickly rediscovered their love for the band, through meeting up for dinner and drinks, and eventually playing live again. Lyndsey explains, “we thought we’ll just do one more show, and we did and we were like, we actually love this. For us, getting up on stage and playing live, it’s such a peaceful, amazing experience that I get to have with four other amazing people. It’s such a privilege, so that’s what keeps us going at the moment.”
That wasn’t the only low point for NEW PAGANS, and Lyndsey explains how they struggled writing. Eventually, it was the isolation of lockdown, along with Lyndsey and guitarist Cahir O’Doherty losing their home, that inspired them to write again. “We moved in with my parents, and at that point we had literally nothing to lose. We started these writing sessions, and it was like, this is cool, we’ve made something today.”
After a while of feeling helpless, they were able to focus completely and intensely, and write almost the entire album. She also explains that while the writing process for the first album was about coming together as a band and finding out what works, this time around was about using that to their advantage, and writing something they were really proud of. She says, “Claire [Miskimmin] in the band, our bass player, discusses it in a really lovely way. She says you go into your room to write something and it doesn’t exist, you come out of that room and it’s there. You have something amazing to present to the world, it’s a bit magical.”
While recording the album, the band were tested yet again, but kept persevering. Lyndsey discusses losing her voice in the month window they had to record, and how it almost completely stopped the process. “If you talk to singers about losing their voice, it’s the scariest thing in the world. I worked really hard, but it was mostly psychological.” Through lots of vocal exercises, and being careful not to push too far, they finished recording, and she is proud of how the album sounds, despite struggling with her voice. In particular, it was the song Process Of Becoming that was the most daunting. “I was really nervous about that one, it’s really intense and I didn’t know if I could do it to be honest. I’m nervous about singing it live. It’s good nerves though, it challenges me vocally.”
As the album was completed, and was different to anything they had done before, Lyndsey began feeling inspired, and felt more secure in her position as a woman in a band. “The first album is very like teenage angst, I had never written any songs before, so what came out was very visceral. With this one, it’s more where I am now. The things I struggle with, as a mother to two kids, and as a 39-year-old woman in a band, it’s an unusual position that I’m in, but it’s exciting and interesting, and I’m not ashamed of it.” When they first began, Lyndsey felt extremely pressured, and felt like she had to lie about her age. “That’s something I’m working on, to not feel the need to hide that fact. We have so much fear about getting older as a society, and I think we should really start to look at that differently.”
Thinking about the music industry, and its treatment of women, Lyndsey explains how she struggled with having the confidence to challenge the ‘lads club’ attitude, but also how things are changing. “There are bands like CHERYM and PROBLEM PATTERNS here in Belfast, who I look up to because they’re young and doing it. They’ve got this power and energy, and the confidence to be in a band.” She also notes how things do seem to be changing, and that festivals and venues will be questioned if they aren’t representing everybody. “We check ourselves and go, ‘are we representing everybody here? Can we represent everybody here?’ Those kinds of questions are now out there, which is really good.”
With the release of Making Circles Of Our Own, NEW PAGANS have big goals for this year, and are excited about the idea of these happening. Lyndsey explains how they’d love to play festivals across the UK, and even travel further to Europe. Aside from looking into the future, the band are proud of everything they have, and will continue to, achieve with this album. “I absolutely love learning new things so for me, our music helps me remember facts, and finding the deeper meanings, but if that’s not of interest to you, hopefully there’s enough sonically that you don’t have to. I think there’s a lot of ways to consume music, and everybody’s different.”
Making Circles Of Our Own is out now via Big Scary Monsters.
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