BLEAK STREET – VIDEO PREMIERE

After banging his head against a musical brick wall for a while Niall had a breakthrough epiphany moment one day when he chanced upon a bass guitar in a cash converters window. Angry and frustrated he started to create rugged and minimal loops. Taking influence from he likes of Joy Division, Courtney Barnett, The Wu Tang Clan, Sleaford Mods, Odd Future and Two Lone Swordsman, he kept the production raw and laid his unique, unapologetically truthful, poetry over the top.

In his music, Niall dissects the mundanity of the suburbs, while also taking on the likes of narcissistic influencers as well as having a pop at ‘box ticking post punk poster boys’!!

Coming from a wasteland on the edge of opportunity Niall The Urchin is an unprecedented, uncompromising scream from the suburbs of West London. Together with band mate ‘MTB‘ they make spartan, idiosyncratic tunes for the modern age.

Today (Friday 4th February 2022) sees the unveiling of Niall The Urchin’s first offering to us; Bleak Street.

Bleak Street is a tantalising teaser of what’s to come from this new conceptual duo. Opting to release this track to the public now only via their Bandcamp Page together with the accompanying video on You Tube as opposed to the more tradition route of releasing new music, well its fair to say, that this band has our interests piqued!

Bleak Street is the first song that Niall and MTB have recorded. Its a spiky chronicle telling tales from what some consider to be a boring suburbia. Its clear upon listening to the track that its taken influence from poems from the likes of John Cooper Clarke. Spoken lyrics within the track describe a street full of climate change deniers and busy bodies all thinking they know best!

Niall says of the track:

“Bleak Street is both cynical and affectionate with real minimal backing. When I was stuck in the suburbs over lockdown it really opened my eyes to how boring it can be whilst I also realised how self contained it is.”

The track started life in a cheap studio where every weekend Niall would spend his time working on and trialling new ideas. He’d then send the loops he’d made onto MTB who added synth lines and his own bass parts. Once they’d finished a batch of tracks they were happy with, they took them to Senor Funk (King Krule, Baba ALI) for production and Mixing duties.

We here at The Songbird pride ourselves on being true new music champions and as such, are thrilled to now be able to be the first ones to bring to you the brand new video for Bleak Street from Niall The Urchin Watch it here now and Enjoy!

Words by Sally Newman