A discography of Galway chaotic noisemakers Slyrydes as new single is on the way.
- Richard Blowes
- 13 minutes ago
- 5 min read
With Darklands Audio producer Dan Doherty installed on the drum stool and a new single announced, we look back at how Slyrydes got to this point.
On July 27 2025, Slyrydes posted this message on their Instagram feed:
We set out a long time ago on Galway's late night streets full of wild eyed ignorance with one simple goal ... to release a record all four of us wanted to listen to.
Perhaps we should have prioritised our health and each other but there was no time for that ... we were the rock 'n' roll animal and had a record to make!!
For various reasons and after many of the nine lives were lost we are now incredibly grateful and blessed to announce our debut album "What Happens If You Get Happy?" is OUT AT MIDNIGHT. 🖤
It's honestly nearly killed us... but for everyone who believed in us.. this is our THANK YOU and gift to you 🖤
And so an album that many thought would never see the light of day was released and fittingly also saw a vinyl release via Blowtorch Records.
So how did the band get to this point?
February 2019 - Debut single Mental Health.
Frontman Rafto takes up the story: "We recorded it then had no idea what to do with it. Fuz (bassist) suggested we approach people in Irish media. One of the people we were told who might be receptive to listening to new music was Kate Brennan Harding who at the time was working for the Paul McLoone Show. Kate heard it, liked it and passed it onto Paul. Within a couple of days we were getting regular national airplay and we got a McCloone session."
April 2019 - second single Point Of View
"It's about a break up where the ex is still hanging around with your group of friends and you're sort of frustrated about the entire thing including the relationship and the things you said when you were drunk.”
August 2019 - third single Out Patience
They all say it's ok not to be ok
Mates taking selfies at Darkness Into Light
There are profits to be made from suicide
Pretend you care then you'll have a better life
October 2019 - fourth single Dangerous Animals
"Purposefully written to sound like an animal attacking ... apocalyptic visions based in irony ... we give this to you soaked in blood, sweat and tears"
March 2020 - fifth single I Claim To Be Intelligent
Released on March 26 2020. On March 27 Ireland announced a national 'stay at home' order due to COVID-19. All gigs and promo cancelled. Whether they were intelligent or not, they were certainly the subject of some incredibly bad luck.
With lots of emails, editing, copy and pasting, the band were were able to continue their writing process. This continued until restrictions were eased around August 2020. They booked studio time with producer Dan Doherty in Darklands Audio in Dublin to record the new tracks which would finish the album.
Fuz takes up the story: "We had never played these songs together. In fact, Mark and I had never even played these songs standing up. Rafto doesn’t do technology – a thing I both love and hate about him. We had sent him the tracks but we didn’t know what he was going to be singing on them. We heard no demos or rough recordings. He doesn’t even own a smartphone.
"We had one week’s rehearsal in Galway together to get these songs tight and to actually like, hear them properly before we went into the studio.
"It was very possible it wasn’t going to work. We had never attempted anything like this before. Usually we are standing feet apart in a gritty practice room playing part by part over and over until we are happy with it. We feed off Rafto’s lyrics as he writes them. For our earlier singles when Rafto hears us play aggressively he shouts aggressively or when he hears us play ominously he starts to sing about things that are ominous…"
One of the results of this recording session was possibly Sylrydes' most arrestingly emotional track to date.
April 2021 sixth single Boy In The Debs Suit
Fuz: "When you see pictures of missing people it’s a harrowing jolt, especially when you’ve known them to see. When you’ve personally been at the very edge there is a palpable sense of connection. I think that’s mainly what this song Boy in the Debs Suit Is about. “We were in the same place” is a line that really hits home.
"We don’t actively TRY to write sad songs. It’s just a subject we feel strongly about. The mental health services in Ireland need a lot of work. Sometimes people feel like they are shouting into the void."
November 2021 - debut 7" double A side single Boy in the Debs Suit / I Claim To Be Intelligent
This session also produced the remaining five tracks for the album - Procrastination Is A Fear Of Failure, Ahern, You Stutter, Crossing A River and Just For Show. So the album gets released right?
Not quite. With band relations strained, repeated lockdowns and members now geographically and emotionally distant, the album sat there for 5 years. Five fucking years. Until that joyous announcement on July 27 2025.
July 2025 - debut album What Happens If You Get Happy?
You can read a brilliant interview with Julia Mason for more details, particularly on how the album finally came to be released.
Julia also wrote a comprehensive track by track review of the album.
Rafto on the album finally getting a release: "Eoin (Fuz) sent me a text message, and said, do I fancy it again? And I just said, yeah, it was really that simple. I had done absolutely nothing musically, nothing at all. I hadn’t even listened to music since we split in 2020. I hadn’t even listened to the record. It took me a full year to even go onto YouTube. I didn’t want Slyrydes to end the way it possibly could have done. Whatever happens now, there’s going to be a full stop on it. If we wrap it up, it’s a full stop. We’ve done it. We finished it."
Turns out it wasn't a full stop, more of a semi colon. Three months later there was a vinyl release. Dan Doherty stepped in to cover Paul Clarke. Live gigs ensued, capped by a triumphant return to headline Galway's Róisín Dubh.
And one year later, almost to the day, we will have new Slyrydes music. With Dan now officially the band's drummer, and recorded as always in his Darklands studio, July 10 will see the release of new single One Is Too Many.
Emotional? Me? Too fucking right I am.
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