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Photo by Celia Croft 

Larger than life, absolutely! Leaping off the screen, undoubtably, so much so that when we had the privilege of intercepting these ladies while on tour in Austin, they couldn’t fit into our zoom window. That fun, difficult to contain energy is all over Spring Forward, an EP that cements them as one of the best new bands – doubly so if you catch them live. This Irish quartet has put in the work, the miles, and now more than ever, has found a depth in their voices that feels outlandish (‘Rabbits Can Swim’ is an absolutely stunning ballad). If you're grieved by stale pop but still craving immersive, emotional songs, then revel in Florence Road. Spoiled by their time, we dug into cats, food and so much more here:

OnesToWatch: My first question is always, why do you do what you do?

Lily: I think the first time we all felt really, really inspired was when we were doing a Christmas concert in school. We had never played with Emma before and we covered Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish. It was just one of those moments where we all looked at each other afterwards and were like, “Wow, that was so fun.” And I think writing music, especially for me, I can't not do it. It's one of those things that has been around me my whole life and I've, you know, always been around music and I love love listening to music, you know, as a listener. But, you know, I started writing or trying to write songs when I was 12, 13, very bad keyboard playing and it's just one of those things that I feel like I need to do. I'm very grateful that people are listening to this thing that we love doing so much. 

They sure are. So that makes me feel old because Billie Eilish to me still feels like a brand new artist, but you guys were like, listening to her in high school or whatever. I think being a band is interesting.
I would say it's a little contrarian of late, right? We're in this world where everyone's a solo artist and self-producing. What makes it fun to be a band?

Florence Road: Great company. 

Hannah: We've been best friends since we were 12. I mean, me and Lily have known each other since we were five. It's just fun playing with your friends. 

Lily: Yeah, I couldn't imagine doing it alone, to be honest. I know there's so many solo artists and big ups to them because I genuinely have so much fun with these three and I couldn't imagine doing it without them.

Hannah: And I also think for songwriting, the DNA of a song can be so much more interesting when you have four different people bringing their own experiences and taste. 

Lily: Things bounce off walls and Hannah has an idea that never would have entered my brain, collaboration is such a beautiful thing and that's another reason why we do what we do. You get to create stuff that you never would have been able to on your own. And who wants to do stuff on their own? 


You guys are way ahead of me. I was going to ask about your process. Do you have a process? Does each one of you individually come with ideas and thoughts? 

Lily: It's kind of a combo. Last week we were in the studio and it was hour seven in the studio and the engineer was going to take a 10 minute break because it had been a long day. Me and Hannah just looked at each other and we were like, let's go into the piano. And we just jammed and we wrote a song in 10 minutes and I love it. So that's how that one was born. We just kind of got this urge. We both were just like, let's go write something. Sometimes we're in sessions with two people, we chop and change. Sometimes it's all four of us in the shed jamming. Sometimes Hannah brings an idea, I'll bring an idea. There's a few lyrics floating around. It's great that there's not one way to write a song and you never really know when it's going to be born. It's very exciting. 


That's a gift you guys have. When you're writing, what inspires the song? Is there a theme, a melody? What is the spark? 

Lily: There's a big element of jamming in a lot of our songs. Obviously things vary all the time. But for me, with melodies and lyrics, sometimes we'll be having a conversation or a chat that morning – it can be something really deep, it can be something not deep at all – and then those emotions and that topic is fresh in my head. So when we're jamming, I will sing and that'll inform where we go in the song. Sometimes it's intentional, sometimes it's not. We'll go from there and shape it. 

Hannah: The idea of themes and ideas carrying through is something that we've started to work more towards as a band. When we first started – and even with the EP – it was a combination of a lot of different ideas. The further along we go and the more experience we get, we'd love to bring those ideas into a thematic universe and have cohesion throughout. 

I love that. This begs the question, are your releases each pieces in a larger story? Do they speak to each other? Are they chapters in a book? 

Lily: Yeah, definitely. Especially with this EP, Spring Forward, every song on this EP is about love in all forms of it: really good love, new love, and not good love, ugly love, love that you don't want to remember. Love is such a common theme in literature, writing and music, in art and film. It's talked about a lot. So, it's not uncommon for us to be writing about it, but it's nice that it’s not one genre of love. It's touching on a lot of different types of love. 

Well, let's talk about the EP then. So would you say the driving narrative is love just in all its forms? 


Lily: Yes. 

And what do you hope the audience takes away from it? 

Lily: It’s a mix. “Rabbits Can Swim” is a song written about my first experience of falling in love and how beautiful and great that was. But then we have a song like “Storm Mornings,” which is the aftermath of not being in a relationship anymore and looking back and realizing how bad it was. It's kind of this map of different feelings within love and reflecting on it. 

Hannah: My wish is that whoever listens to it really enjoys it and really loves it as much as we do. That for me would be enough. 

Let's get into some hopefully more fun questions. If your very immense music capabilities were removed from your person, what would you be doing? 

Emma: I think I'd be a psychologist. 

Oh, wow. That's telling. 


Lily: I think I'd work in film. I think I'd still be in the creative world in some sense if I lost my vocal chords, you know. 


Hannah: I think tangible art in some way. I really like making things. I'm a big fan of puppets. So if the Muppets have an opening, I'd probably see what I can do there. 

Lily: You will see Florence Red puppets at some point. You can't hold her back too much longer. 


Ailbhe: I don't know how commercial this is, but it is my truth and it has been for a long time that I think I would be a bricklayer. It seems so beautiful to my soul. 

I think the trades are a good choice. Okay, everyone comes out of the studio hungry. 
Which one of you is cooking and what do you cook? 

Hannah: I’m not cooking if we’re coming out of the studio. Ailbhe would cook. 

Ailbhe: I like making things. 

Hannah: Ailbhe made an amazing soy honey glazed salmon. With broccoli and rice. We came on from the studio and I was like, yes, please. 


If you can be at your most zen, at your most peaceful, where would you be and what would you be doing? 


Hannah: Okay. Immediately something popped into my head. I would be down in my little holiday home in this little town in Ireland. I would just walk along the little beach and there's a few tiny little houses and I would just listen to the waves. I love the waves. 

Emma: I think I would be with my family. 

Oh, that's a good answer. 

Ailbhe: Likely with my cats, I'm a big fan of them. They're good company. They're quiet. The sun's shining. I'm in my garden, maybe planting a plant or two, cats around me. That's bliss. 

Lily: I would be in the sea. It's really been nice in California to be able to swim. Because at home, the water is currently like minus two Celsius. So it's been a nice change. 

If you could choose a dream concert lineup – including you – who would play, and where would it be? 

Lily: Glastonbury, but we make the line up.

Emma: So we open. The Cranberries. Sinead O'Connor. 
AC/DC. Djo.

Hannah: Can I pitch Tape McRae? 


Lily: Emma's music taste is very wide. 

Hannah: To see the Beatles.. I think that would just be fun. I wouldn't like to be in the trenches of Beatlemania. I'd like to keep my bones in one piece. But seeing them would be great. 

Emma: Throw Queen in there for fun. They're the mystery headliner where it's, “Special guest Freddy Mercury.”

What's the worst idea you've ever had and why did it end up being a great idea? 

Ailbhe: This is probably pretty lame, but it could have gone really bad.
So I decided at, I think I was 16, I was going to bleach my hair at home. And like, I had seen a lot of videos of that going horribly wrong and, you know, people ending up bald, losing a lot of hair. But I decided to do it anyways.
And it was grand. It looked great and I didn't lose all my hair. So it ended up being great.
I don't know if that was my best moment in life ever, but it was a good one. 

Emma: Mine was also to do with hair where I thought that it would be a good idea to go from my hair being down to my ass to cutting it so short. Like I'm talking nearly a buzz cut. But you know what worked out fab. 

Lily: I had a cat, loved him. He died, rest in power, and I went to get another cat. And my mom was like, oh, you should get two, so they aren't lonely when you're away. 
So we got two kittens, a girl and a boy. I just wanted a boy. Then I'm not home much, so my parents are left taking care of these two kittens. By the way, the boy – actually a girl. So I've now got two female cats that I do love so dearly, but now I barely see them. 

Hannah: I think mine was the last time we came to LA. We were just getting really tired of Ubering everywhere.
So we were like, oh, let's rent a car. But everyone was asking me if I was sure I could drive on the right side of the road. And I was like, yes, obviously but I was kind of trying to convince myself. Then we got to the airport after 11 hours in the air, and the guys at the rental place, they asked me no questions. They didn't ask to see my license.
They just gave me the keys. Thankfully it went well, but it easily could have gone the other way quickly. 

Ailbhe: I feel like another thing that should be mentioned is when we were in Australia, we were on a ferry to Rotten Nest and were looking at what you can do and Emma and Hannah realized, oh, you can go skydiving. So within about an hour of realizing they could do this, they're in the air falling. 

Hannah: We ate it up. 

Ailbhe: It was hilarious. We didn’t tell our mothers until we were safely on the ground. 

Incredible. Last couple of questions. First, I would love a non-music recommendation. So activity, place to visit, whatever you want to put a friend on. And then you can probably guess what the second one will be, which is a music recommendation. 

Hannah: I’m going to suggest crocheting and the TV Yellowjackets. You can do both at the same time. I just finished my cardigan. 

How long did that take? 

Hannah: About 7 hours. 

I’m impressed. 

Ailbhe: My recommendation is How To Get From Heaven to Belfast. It’s by the same person who made Derry Girls. 


Emma: My recommendation is a place and it's called Bray. 

Lily: Mine is a book. It's called Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. I'm going to say it's by Max Porter, but I'm not 100% sure. It's under 100 pages.
It's a really nice, easy read, one of the best books that I've read ever.
I think whether you're into reading or not, it's nice and easy, maybe 80 pages. 

Ailbhe: My music recommendation is Djo. 

Hannah: I’d like to say Sarah Kinsley. She has a new EP out, it’s phenomenal. 


Lily: I am a big, longtime lover of Dora Jar. Polly is my all-time jam. 

Emma: They just released a new song. They're called For Nina. They're from Ireland. 
They're so slay, and their new song is fabulous. 

And then could you give us a little anecdote to end on, some words from Florence Road? 

Hannah: Okay… here’s a joke we’ve been saying. We're going to see Kings of Leon in the summer and we're so excited. And Emma's saying that she's probably going to get emotional. 

Lily: And then I said, don't worry, you'll have a beer in your hand and a tear in your eye. It's a great philosophy for life. [Said as: Beer in your’and, deer in yer’ye.]

I hope we will find some way to express that accent perfectly via text. Continued success. Safe travels, and hope to see you very, very soon. 


Florence Road: Thank you so much. This was so fun.