Nerves release new single 'Dirty Fingers'
- Richard Blowes
- Apr 16
- 2 min read
Experimental noise punks Nerves release first single Dirty Fingers from an upcoming second EP
Track: Dirty Fingers
Band: Nerves
Released: April 16 2025
Since the release of their debut EP Glórach last year, Nerves have lost the services of Charlie McCarthy, who transferred to Gurriers, and gained two new members and extra momentum and noise mayhem. With Eoin Keigher on guitar and Ryan Mortell on bass, the band blazed a trail across Europe and Ireland including festival appearances at Electric Picnic, Left of the Dial Rotterdam, Other Voices and Ritual Fest Rennes.
Now they are back with new material, recorded once again with Gilla Band's Dan Fox and they have released the first single Dirty Fingers from an upcoming EP.
Dirty Fingers is the abrasive, danceable and industrial side of this band taken to its extreme
Not for the faint hearted, the track sees Nerves fully indulge their industrial leanings. It has a hammering rhythm which sounds like it was recorded in a steel making facility, static spraying guitars swooping over the track like a banshee and an exposed vocal from frontman Kyle Thornton. Their magic is to make all these heavy elements blend into a precise whole ticking along like a Swiss chronometer.
“With Dirty Fingers we wanted to come out of the gates with something that was fast, intense and sonically overwhelming,” says Kyle. “We feel that our first EP was the sound of the band finally hitting upon a sound and style that we could move forward with, and this next batch of music coming this year is us doubling down on every aspect of our sound. Dirty Fingers is the abrasive, danceable and industrial side of this band taken to its extreme, with the added vulnerability of starting a tune with just vocals, something which freaked me out enough at the time that I knew it was probably a good idea.”
Lyrically, the track wrestles with personal collapse and the slippery process of trying to rebuild - its feverish intensity reflecting a psyche at war with itself, reeling from substance-induced ruin while clawing toward redemption. Dirty Fingers doesn’t offer a resolution, only the desperate momentum of someone sprinting from the wreckage they helped create.
The song is accompanied by a visually arresting black-and-white video directed by the band's bassist Ryan Mortell, delving into Ireland’s folk horror roots, directed with a cinematic flair that nods to The Wicker Man, The VVitch and Kill List. Set against a stark and spectral Irish backdrop, the video follows a lone figure through a liminal, almost otherworldly space. Mortell explains: “I wanted to explore this idea that the open, barren landscape of Ireland in itself plays a character, almost engulfing everything within it. Dense forest, abandoned stone towers and hillsides stripped bare by the elements all culminate to create this almost ethereal purgatory that our character traverses.”
Nerves upcoming gigs
April 25 Dublin Whelans
May 1 Galway Róisín Dubh (Blowtorch WxSW showcase)
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