Emerging out of Limerick with chiming guitars, roaring drums, and screamed vocals, Some Images of Paradise are more than just an exciting new band; they’re fully formed. Their unique sound is hard to categorise, post-emo? Jangle skramz? Avant-hardcore? Whatever it is, it’s bleary-eyed and beautiful. An ever-shifting tundra of catharsis and nihilism laced with hope. Both live and in the studio, they’re an impressive beast blending tragic intimacy with mosh pit anthems with ease and intelligence.
You guys have quite an eclectic sound. Maybe experimental emo but how would you describe it?
Autumn: I find the emo description so unique because the influence feels so obvious, but I personally feel very distant from it sonically. I’d describe it as an attempt at seeing beauty in complete mania. Trying to find a prettiness in genuine insanity, even if its calm. If we were a movie there’d be emos in the movie, but it wouldn’t be about emos, it’d be the most beautiful coming of age movie ever.
Do you think film goes into you as an influence a lot
Autumn: The most major influence. I think there is nothing more complimentary than when someone sees imagery through our music. If you can envisage anything that feels like hypnagogia through auditory sensation, I want to be the first person at the front of that queue. That shit is so beautiful it’s amazing. Do you know when you forget to take in beauty? You go on your walk home and it means nothing it’s a void. Do you ever see video game trailer on like E3 and shit. They do this thing where they slowly pan the camera across the landscape. Its gameplay footage but do you ever do that in a game? You play Halo 2 you’re going blitz to blitz headshot to headshot you start staring and you move slowly. You can emulate the experience of being a camera and that’s the most beautiful shit in the world. We have access through vision to be that.
Darragh: Cameras emulate eyes and that’s why we invented cameras.
Do you think that’s the aim of your music, to create those images to capture that camera glide?
Autumn: I’d always like our music to be inviting, I always want it to share something with someone, I want it to be a conversation. Even though oftentimes we can be very rash, vert abrasive, very in your face I want that to be a two way system every time. I feel like half of the joy of the musical experience for us is just being in the studio and talking. I feel like I’ve learned so much and recovered so much as a person from doing this project. Just talking to Evan about ideas or going for smoke breaks with baby D (Darragh) and blabbering about like this could be this and this could be that. Sorry I didn’t mean to not mention Kevin. (laughs)
Kevin: I’m here like. (laughs)
Autumn: But it’s like, one time I read this in Kurt Cobain’s journal, he was talking about The Raincoats self-titled and he described it as, and I’m not quoting him here, something you’re not meant to hear.
I think he described it as listening in through the attic.
Autumn: Yeah, like he’s looking through a crack in the wood. And that’s it y’know what I mean? You want someone to feel as though they want to be there, but they’re not necessarily allowed entry.
Kevin: That was one of the first things we set about to create something so intimate-
Autumn: It should be perverse.
Kevin: It was hard to hear the first few times, it was hard to play.
Autumn: Absolutely, there’s an insane vulnerability, I’m still not comfortable playing but in some ways I’m glad I’m not comfortable. There’s a sort of exposure therapy in doing this.
Do you think that notion of ‘looking in through the attic’ witnessing something you’re not meant to comes out in the form of the EP’s lo-fi production?
Autumn: Y’know I find that so interesting ascribing it as lo-fi, I’m gonna let you talk about that.
Evan: It’s weird cos we never saw it as lo-fi, we just recorded it whatever way and pushed it to what we wanted it to be. I think lo-fi is an outdated term now in 2025, you can do any textures you want with music. It’s not lo-fi it’s scathing and high pitched, it’s like tinnitus. That’s the thing about looking in from somewhere else. I love the idea of a song if it were done in the nineties, it would be like a mosh song and would sound the same as every other thing on that album. But we can put a grindcore breakdown in our song and it’s not a grindcore song, you’re looking at the idea of that. Were completely post-music now.
You have a strong shift from genre to genre in your songs that almost reminds of Pixies’ loud quiet dynamic. Do you find that shift from genre to genre in your songs is something you to actively think about?
Autumn: I hate any ascription of theory or scientific methods to music; I think it’s disgusting I think its fucking gross. I hate what’s happened to jazz, I hate it so much. You’ve stripped it of this natural expression from fellas thar were stripped of the opportunity to pursue education into purely jazz school. Its fucking disgusting, it’s so gross. I feel like there’s so many bands from the 90s we call math rock bands, but they weren’t thinking of it like that. They were just feeling some typa way.
Kevin: Which just happened to not be 4/4 time.
Autumn: They weren’t going in the studio like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 like fuck that man.
Kevin: Quadratic equations going on. But going back to the loud quiet thing we definitely do that, but we don’t do it purposefully. Like we played a song tonight and it was really surprising that people were flying around the place, the mic stand fell, some beer spilled on my crotch, it was a big thing. Then after that we went into a real quiet song, and everyone was just real still. I like that sort of thing sometimes it’s too much either way. It’s definitely not intentional though.
Autumn: It’s like your chasing subconscious rather than overanalysing or hyper thinking. We can do that after the fact, but in the process of writing especially the way I write lyrics. I’ll throw shit at the wall and afterwards I know exactly what it means. But for a moment it is meaningless it is pointless, but I wrote it for a reason. Everyone does something for a reason, Evan plays drums for a certain reason, Baby D plays guitar for a reason, Kevin plays bass for a reason. There’s a pocket that you’re filling that you don’t have access too yet.
Going back to the band title some images of paradise do you think that’s your natural inclination to capture that image when your first writing the song.
Autumn: Definitely, the band is named after a quote from Jonas Mekas and his film ‘As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty’ that quote is within a limerick about how life is definitely not miserable but it’s so succumbed to misery. So, it’s all about chasing those brief moments, those fragments of true beauty and that where you’ll find some images of paradise.
I really see that especially with the voice clip at the end of Paschal Lamb about life not being great right now but living because it will get better. This is a basic question but what are the core musical influences going into your sound?
Autumn: Musicians-wise it’s so sporadic.
Kevin: I feel like a big inspiration is the mix of all our inspirations, cause we all listen to different things. Autumn probably doesn’t fuck with half the shit I listen to [laughs]. Like have you ever listened to Black Country, New Road.
Somewhat Black Country, New Road, I don’t really like them since Isaac left.
Kevin: [laughs] okay okay. Some of the stuff Autumn listens to I wouldn’t like. I know Darragh’s really into Jimi Hendrix and other amazing guitarists.
Darragh: All the things that influenced me to play guitar and all my musical influences are wildly different to what I do in Some Images. But all those things that drove me to play guitar don’t matter now. All those techniques and technical bits I can just use those to express some personal meaning. It’s not blues it’s not Jimi Hendrix or anything like that. Whatever’s in me now is coming out in some images.
Autumn: I feel like a major thing we came to understand consolidating all the influences is that it’s not an obsession over certain sound or songwriting thing, it’s all texture. You can write whatever the fuck but it’s about how it feels. Baby D a lot of what I know him to listen to is the likes of John Francis Flynn or Bob Dylan lots of more folksy tones or hard rock tones, but I showed him a record in December by Vũ Hà Anh she’s from Vietnam. It’s like a sound collage, ambient pop, alternative RnB record.
Darragh: It’s incredible, write that shit down.
Autumn: Write that shit down you need that album. But that is a pure mental massage, it’s rubbing your brain. Whatever Baby D feels from hearing Jimi Hendrix absolutely rip shit on a guitar, whatever Evan feels hearing Madlib go mental on an eight track, whatever Kevin gets from hearing Elliot Smith wail and whatever I get from hearing Peter Brotzman destroy a saxophone it’s the same thing. It’s that sensation of feeling genuinely cared for by sound. That’s the link.
Its capturing that sensation you find across your influences rather than trying to ape any specific bands.
Autumn: Exactly.
Darragh: Yeah man, I feel like it’s a really big mistake to be like I want to make this type of song or this type of thing. With Some Images of Paradise, we stumbled across a world, and everything that happens in that world is Some Images of Paradise. When were a band together and writing songs it just happens cause were already in that world.
Autumn: Its magic its really magic.
I really see that sense of a world especially in the EP which I wanted to talk a bit more about. So, the title Is Hell Is Overcrowded the Dead Will Have No Place To Go where does that title come from?
Autumn: It comes from an anime, it comes from Serial Experiments Lain. I knew that was gonna be the title of the EP before we even decided the track list. That’s a process we often go down, even recently I was doing drafts for our album cover before we have any songs demoed. It’s so good to be following a theme and an aesthetic to chase a certain emotion. Cause it can be difficult to lock into a feeling sometimes. Although I want everything to come organically, I don’t want things to come loose. Everything is sincere and everything is true but not everything goes. When writing the songs, I suffer from OCD and scrupulosity which is obsession over religious themes and moral complexes which runs through me constantly, so that EP is a fragment of me coming to terms with my Christianity. There’s something about that quote ‘Hell Is Overcrowded The Dead Will Have No Place To Go’, its oblique but its faithful. Theres a commitment to the lord as a presence but one that validly doubts him. I remember the first time I heard that I was like fuck, it was like it was the first real thing I’d ever heard. I’m going on a tangent here, but I love the effect of language, I love that a sentence can upset someone regardless of whether its personal to them. That’s effected the album were working on a lot even the title, which I wont spoil, its blunt but its not specific or exact. Theres a drama and theatre too it but one that’s very personal.
The power a single line has to get under your skin is incredible.
Autumn: Its an amazing thing. I remember even when I was teenager, I discovered PetScop the online ARG. And in PetScop there’s this one line repeated ‘do you remember being born’, its soul crushing like what a horrible thing to say but you can never put your finger on why.
I really loved the art for the EP, you guys have such distinct art for your releases do you feel like that’s become part of your image now?
Autumn: We previously had a rule where we’d only ever commission tattoo artists to make the art because I believe tattoo artists are the best artists in the world. Shoutout to Ghostreaver he did the art for the EP and was incredible to work with. But I think attaching an image especially one that is hard to process on first glance is definitely part of it. it’s that commitment to surrealism. The first thing when you see the EP cover the first thing you see is chaos.
What’s the scenes like in Limerick and do you find it conducive to your work?
Kevin: It’s a good scene in a lot of ways; there’s a lot of really cool people and really nice bands. Seeing local shit is always good. We haven’t played a gig in Limerick in a while, we’ve been mainly playing in Galway and Cork, but playing a gig in Limerick is always the best gig.
Autumn: Fact, you can really feel that hometown vibe. Limerick is a funny scene. One of the unique things about being in a musical environment that’s as underdeveloped as Limerick is, is that anything goes which creates some true freedom. You can’t set up a gig with three bands similar to us, it’s not an option. So, you gotta put on a rapper, you gotta put on a DJ, you gotta put on some experimental cello player and then us. There’s something beautiful about that, it’s a very natural twist into an art gallery experience for a gig like that. But it’s not intentional it’s the result of limitations, but it’s beautiful because of it.
Evan: The biggest upside about Limerick is its such an unsaturated market. You can be weird as fuck in Limerick but as long as your good live everyone’s like holy shit that’s the best thing ever. Whereas you can do it somewhere else and people will be like what the fuck.
Autumn: Artistically it can feel like there’s a particular brand of “Irishness” to be sold. I feel like a big part of Irish comedy is self-degradation. The unfortunate thing is for Irish people to make art there’s some expectation of comedy. I feel like for years that’s been manipulated and taken advantage of. We’ve seen so many upper class Irish artists preach down on people and that shits fucking gross. We’re Irish, our music is Irish because were Irish.
But you don’t want to have to play the Irish caricature
Autumn: Exactly, its not patriotism its quote unquote self-awareness but it needs to be ‘Oh I’m a fucking idiot’. We take ourselves seriously and were not ashamed of that.
Evan: Its weird to quote Bono because I don’t fuck with Bono at all. But he has this quote where it’s like if an “Irish person is at a café and sees a nice car go by there like fuck that guy. Whereas anywhere else in the world they see a nice car go by and are like class I want a car like that.” There’s this embarrassment in Ireland about taking yourself seriously.
Autumn: It’s a projection people don’t want to see you quote unquote get ahead. But we want someone better than us, we pray for it. If we play a gig with a band and they steamroll us good for them I’ll never let them, do it again. I feel like people treat that competitiveness like its negative but it’s not its uplifting. I ’m threatened by you? Fair fucks you did your deed. Like brother if you’ve been hitting the gym day in day out and physically, I want to stand back from you, brother you got bigger than me.
Focusing back on lyrics what’s the lyric writing process like for you?
Autumn: Its complicated. Theres a lot of my own personal anxieties. I think a lot of the time I’m projecting a hyperbole of myself and criticising that and coming to terms with it. A lot of it is grief, a lot of it is Christian obviously. Lately it’s been a lot more life affirming. Everyone in the bands come into a place where shits getting better. I’m doing pretty good these days; I’m stressed like I’ve got a lot going on. But I’ve come to live with that stress. You feel a lot of moments of beauty. So, a lot of the new material is very reflective, its about recovery, it’s about moving forward. I never intended for the EP to be nihilistic but there is a sense of holy fuck the world has a special plan for me and it’s not good.
Kevin: I think for everyone in the band that was almost a peak of nihilism. Because we made the EP were in a different place now and now everything’s fitting into the right place.
As a final question, as your recordings are so intimate what’s your process in translating that to a live environment?
Evan: Its interesting because physically were still a hardcore or whatever band who go on stage. But we don’t chase tightness or high fidelity its more going back to that idea of we’ve found a world with some images of paradise and letting the ideas flow from there. That’s why we use samples between songs.
Autumn: It is unique because were stripped of a lot of control per se. We are perfectionists when it comes to our recorded music but it’s a very different kind of magic and that’s something you have to respect. There are so many bands that are great recorded but terrible live and even more bands that are fucking incredible live but terrible recorded. Neither of those things should be a means to an end. They’re different experiences and that’s the beauty of it. I love that if you’re into artists like John Coltrane or Fishmans or Bob Dylan, you’re not listening to the live recording and preaching its so much better, fuck that there different there unique. Your gonna bump 19.8.12. by Fishmans one day and Long Season the other. You need to embrace that moment; there’s a physicality to live performance that’s so different. If you can translate that into your recorded music god bless you, you’re a saint but if you can’t vice versa that’s okay. It’s new it’s refreshing.
Evan: I’d defo see us as more recording artists than a band.
