Latest news with #FlorenceRoad
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Florence Road Are Headed for Stardom and Having Fun While They're At It
In the charming coastal town of Bray in County Wicklow, Ireland, there's a stretch of pavement called Florence Road. It's pretty average, as far as roads go, with quaint houses, a library, a vet, a dollar store, and several coffee shops scattered across it. 'It's not that cute,' jokes drummer Hannah Kelly. 'You wouldn't know walking past that it's remarkable by any means,' says bassist Ailbhe Barry. 'But it's meaningful to us.' Florence Road carries so much significance that Kelly, Barry, lead singer Lily Aron, and guitarist Emma Brandon named their indie rock band after it. They all met there at grade school, when they were 12 years old. Aron was already writing songs in her bedroom then ('the most dramatic songs of all time,' she says), but the band didn't form until four years later. By 2023, their covers of their favorite songs went viral on TikTok. More from Rolling Stone Trump Delays TikTok Ban Another 90 Days Karen Read Found Not Guilty of Murder in Retrial Nezza Says She Sang National Anthem in Spanish at Dodger Stadium Against Team's Request Now, Florence Road are releasing their debut EP, Fall Back, via Warner, featuring credits from big-name producers like Dan Nigro, Dan Wilson, and John Hill. They'll bring these five tracks — including the raging opener 'Hand Me Downs' and the dazzling, anthemic 'Heavy' — to London's Hyde Park next week, where they'll open for Olivia Rodrigo to a crowd of 65,000. And they aren't even a little bit nervous. 'I find it more nerve-racking when there's less people, and you can see their faces,' Aron admits. 'Honestly, being onstage with the three of them, I'm immediately at ease. I'm like, 'OK, I'm with my friends and this is the biggest thing ever, but it's also very chill.'' Adds Barry: 'I find it fun to try to get Emma to crack onstage by doing silly faces. I'm willing to mortify myself.' Even if they don't have stage fright, Hyde Park is a far cry from their school, Coláiste Ráithín, where Aron, Kelly, and Barry would perform at monthly lunchtime concerts put on by their music teacher. Performing in front of other students, they'd cover Hozier and Declan McKenna. 'It was the toughest crowd possibly ever: your peers trying to eat lunch, and you're singing to them,' Aron says. 'I think that helped our general comfort on stage. Because off the bat, we were just right in the deep end.' Brandon joined later, after she discovered a guitar in her attic during the pandemic and decided to learn the instrument. 'I was a late bloomer,' she says. 'I didn't even know what music theory was until Covid, to be perfectly honest.' Aron, ever the supportive friend (the two met first, in primary school), chimes in: 'It was drawn to you. One with the guitar, she is.' Kelly, originally on guitar, switched to drums, and when the quartet performed their first concert at the school's Christmas show that year, everything fell into place. 'We did 'Happier Than Ever' by Billie Eilish,' Brandon says. 'And never looked back.' Right before they finished school, they found a poster in the hall advertising a music competition, where the winner would get to record a song and shoot a video for it. They won, and released their debut single, 'Another Seventeen,' in October 2022. With lines like 'I'm such a hypocrite/And I'm scared of all the things I wanna be,' it's an angsty teenage banger that shines with thrashing guitar riffs, like an Irish version of Letters to Cleo. (Fitting, considering they posted the song on TikTok to a clip of 10 Things I Hate About You, with the caption 'If our debut single 'Another Seventeen' was in a coming of age movie.') Their manager discovered them after hearing 'Another Seventeen' on a Spotify playlist, and they got a gig that fall opening for Irish rockers the Academic. 'I was in a different maths class and I went to grab the girls,' Brandon recalls. 'I literally walked straight past the teacher and I was like, 'I need them right now.' And we just screamed in the bathroom for a long time.' The band started performing gigs in Dublin, writing and practicing at Aron's house. They meet there three times a week, inside a shed her mom used in the pandemic to host a children's puppet show. Her dad, also a musician, converted it into a rehearsal space. 'My dad is over the moon,' Aron says. 'He was like, 'You're doing exactly what I wanted to do when I was your age.'' Hunkered down in the shed, each member brings their own influences to the table, creating, as Aron says, 'this big pot of everything.' She loves Wolf Alice, Beabadoobee, and the Kinks; Barry grew up listening to the Beatles and Nineties alternative; Brandon has a current obsession with Sam Fender; and Kelly lists U2 and the Cranberries as major inspirations. 'I love looking back on the Irish bands that have come before, you know?' she says. 'There's a lot to learn.' You can see renditions of these favorites on their TikTok, where they have nearly one million followers. They're often shot on the iPhone's 0.5 lens, with the flash shining in Aron's crystal blue eyes, like a tractor beam is about to scoop her up, far away from Ireland's greenery. The band nail each cover while basking in their goofiness and friendship, like when they performed Olivia Rodrigo's 'Obsessed' while hiding in a closet and 'holding Ailbhe hostage.' Rodrigo ended up commenting on that video, while another user wrote, 'I'm tired of ya'll teasing me with these and not having full versions available anywhere. I've been holding this grudge since 'Stick Season.'' Their cover of Paramore's 'Hard Times,' which has nearly 50 million views, was thrown together in five minutes. 'It's always the ones that I find sound the worst, do the best,' says Brandon. Adds Aron: 'The very first time we decided to do the 0.5 type of thing, it was genuinely a piss-take. It was really just like, 'This is gas. This is so bizarre, no one's going to get it.'' Last year, the band took three trips to Los Angeles, their first time on the West Coast. Spending two weeks there at a time, they hung out on Santa Monica Beach, tried all kinds of food via Uber Eats, and survived some painful sunburns. All the while they were recording Fall Back, doing a 'speed run' of meeting different producers every day. They were jet-lagged when they cut 'Heavy,' produced by Hill, but Aron says the experience was cathartic: 'The chorus literally leapt out of my body,' she says. Hill, who's produced Charli XCX, Cage the Elephant, and others, also co-wrote with them, alongside Marshall Vore, known for his work with Phoebe Bridgers — a 'big time' favorite of the band's. 'We were like, 'Don't think about it too much, because then you'll freak out a bit,'' Aron says. The same goes for working with Nigro, the star producer and co-writer of Rodrigo's and Chappell Roan's hits. He assisted the band with the devastating, anxiety-ridden 'Caterpillar,' which they bolstered with comforting violin. 'Know that I'll feel better with the tap on/Something 'bout the water running down my side,' Aron sings. 'It just means, 'Once I just cry and once I let it out, I will feel better,'' she says. 'It felt like there was something hatching in my chest — that really uncomfortable tension.' The band sat with each producer and discussed each song with them, describing the meaning and how they wanted to tackle it. 'It was really amazing to go in with Dan Wilson, who was such a sweetheart,' Aron says of the producer, who's worked with everyone from Adele to Taylor Swift and helped Florence Road make 'Hand Me Downs.' 'His studio had very peaceful, calming vibes. It was really nice to get that outer perspective of someone who's not a teenage girl. Do you know what I mean?' After Aron, Barry, and Kelly worked on the track, Brandon was called in to record her guitar part the following day. 'He had about 150 pedals and I was just mesmerized,' she says. 'Like, 'Can I just stay here forever?'' The band tinkered with the track list for the EP, shelving gems like 'Miss' and 'Break the Girl' — they describe the latter as having an 'Alanis Morissette vibe' — for the future. For now, they're focused on releasing these five songs to capture a 'time capsule,' as Barry puts it. Kelly agrees: 'Between 'Another Seventeen' and 'Heavy,' it was three years,' she says. 'We just wanted to get the music out in the quickest way possible, for our own sake, because the demos have been burning holes in their pockets since last January.' With the release of the EP, they're also hoping to move away from being known as a viral TikTok band. 'We're definitely trying to slide away from that,' says Aron. 'That was something we were nervous about when first releasing 'Heavy.' It was like, 'Are people going to take it seriously and really see us as musicians?' Because that's who I feel we are.' For the band, the title Fall Back is about their experience over the last few years — becoming a band, getting signed by a major label, recording with dream producers. 'There's that feeling of leaving your teenagehood,' Aron says. 'Sometimes you're falling backwards and you don't know what is going on. The songs go through the joys and the anxiety and confusion that comes with becoming an adult, and how terrifying that is.'But Aron says the title also represents their childhood friendship that started all those years ago, back on that beloved road. 'If you ever see the four of us in person, we are genuinely laughing all the time. We don't shut up,' she says. 'We just have the best times. We are each other's fallback.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
Irish Times
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Event guide: Olivia Rodrigo, Van Morrison, and the other best things to do in Ireland this week
Event of the week Olivia Rodrigo Tuesday, June 24th, Marlay Park, Dublin, 4pm, €119/€89.90 (sold out), Olivia Rodrigo 's debut single, Drivers License, shattered one streaming record after another when it was released in 2021. Her life, she said at the time, 'shifted in an instant'. Rodrigo's combination of lyrically insightful piano ballads and streamlined pop-punk has helped to make her one of today's biggest stars. This open-air Dublin gig is the singer's second stop in the city on her Guts world tour, which is about to segue into a summer of outdoor dates that include Hyde Park in London and the pyramid-stage headline slot on the final day of this year's Glastonbury Festival, on Sunday, June 29th. Fans can expect a 20-song set featuring hits such as Good 4 U, Traitor, Bad Idea Right?, Happier, Enough for You, Drivers License and Brutal. Support comes from the excellent English singer-songwriter Beabadoobee and the rising Irish band Florence Road. Gigs Ani DiFranco Sunday, June 22nd, NCH, Dublin, 8pm, €55/€45, Ani DiFranco By the age of nine Ani DiFranco was busking and playing cover versions of Beatles songs at bars and cafes in Buffalo, New York. Within a few years she was writing songs – and by the age of 15, when her mother moved to rural Connecticut, she was legally living as an emancipated minor. Since then DiFranco has lived by her own rules. In 1989 she founded the independent label Righteous Babe Records and developed a singular creative output that blends opinion, discourse, and manifesto. In other words? Pay attention. Van Morrison Monday, June 23rd, and Tuesday, June 24th, Europa Hotel, Belfast, 6pm, £331 (sold out) Rumour on Cypress Avenue has it that Van Morrison is back in the game. With his recent album Remembering Now – his 47th studio work – gathering plaudits, and his 80th birthday on the horizon – it's on August 31st – there is an expectation that the prolific songwriter and performer will revisit his classic-era recordings for these two homecoming shows. The atmosphere is more that of a softly lit nightclub than of a sweaty venue, however: the ticket price includes a three-course gala dinner, plus birthday cake. With new music that references the romantic lyricism of his 1989 album, Avalon Sunset, Morrison appears to have emerged from a post-Covid fugue into, if not the mystic, then a latter-day phase of serenity. Gang of Four Thursday, June 26th, and Friday, June 27th, Button Factory, Dublin, 8pm, €40, After the deaths of their bandmates Andy Gill, in 2020, and Dave Allen, this year, Gang of Four's two remaining original members, Jon King and Hugo Burnham, soldier on. The band – augmented by the American musicians Gail Greenwood and Ted Leo – originally formed in Leeds in 1976, and they visit Dublin as part of their Long Goodbye tour. The shows will feature two sets: a track-by-track rundown of the band's punk/avant-garde 1979 debut album, Entertainment!, and a best-of selection of fan favourites. READ MORE Stage Wreckquiem From Thursday, June 26th, until Saturday, July 5th, Lime Tree, Limerick, 8pm, €28/€25, Pat Shortt Is it really a problem if you own eight copies of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? Not if you're the owner of Dessie's Discs, a beloved if somewhat ramshackle second-hand-record shop that comes under threat of closure when redevelopment plans circle around it. At the heart of this new play by the award-winning playwright Mike Finn is the worth of community spirit, underdog tenacity and the obsessive nature of committed music fans. Pat Shortt, Patrick Ryan, Sade Malone and Joan Sheehy star. Andrew Flynn directs. In conversation Frank Skinner Friday, June 27th, Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Bellaghy, Co Derry, 7.30pm, £22.50 (sold out), You might not have associated one of Britain's best-known comedians with literature, but for the past five years Frank Skinner's acclaimed Poetry Podcast (now in its 10th series) has featured discussions on and explorations of a wide variety of his favourite poems and poets (including Personal Helicon by Seamus Heaney). Skinner is in conversation with the poet and critic Scott McKendry. Classical West Cork Chamber Music Festival From Friday, June 27th, until Sunday, July 6th, Bantry, Co Cork, various venues, times and prices, Rachel Podger With more classical performances than you can shake a violin bow at, this year's West Cork Chamber Music Festival once again presents a blend of prestige concerts, emerging musicians, sidebar events and interesting fringe shows. Highlights include Barry Douglas playing Schubert's Piano Sonata in A Minor (Saturday, June 28th, Bantry House, 7.30pm, €50/€40/€30), Meliora Quartet (Monday, June 30th, Amar's Cafe, Schull, 2.30pm, free) and the violinist Rachel Podger (Sunday, July 6th, St Brendan's Church, Bantry, 11am, €22/€16). Literature/arts Hinterland Festival From Thursday, June 26th, until Sunday, June 29th, Kells, Co Meath, various venues, times and prices, Heritage-town festivals don't come any sharper than Hinterland, which since 2013 has been bringing multidisciplinary artists and creatives to its base in Kells, Co Meath, for a four-day event that features history, literature, television, religion, memoir, music, futurism and current affairs. Must-see events include Lara Marlowe talking about How Good It Is I Have No Fear of Dying, her book with Lieut Yulia Mykytenko , the young commander of a Ukrainian drone unit; John Creedon on his acclaimed memoir, This Boy's Heart; John Banville discussing his latest crime novel, The Drowning; and the music journalist Simon Price talking about his love of The Cure. Still running Liam Gillick Until Saturday, June 28th, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, free, Mean Time Production Cycle, 2025 The latest exhibition by the British artist Liam Gillick, a 2002 Turner Prize nominee (and, with Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, one of the Young British Artists movement), features colourfully vivid work exploring forms of production in a postindustrial landscape. Book it this week Monty Franklin, Sugar Club, Dublin, September 17th, Clonakilty International Guitar Festival, Clonakilty, Co Cork, September 17th-21st, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Vicar Street, Dublin, October 7th, Caribou, Vicar Street, Dublin, December 10th,
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Olivia Rodrigo Reveals Full Lineup For London BST Hyde Park Show
The full lineup for Olivia Rodrigo's headline show at London's BST Hyde Park series has been announced. The huge outdoor gig will take place in the capital on June 27, two days before the pop phenomenon's much-anticipated Glastonbury headline slot. She will be joined by special guests Girl In Red and The Last Dinner Party, who were confirmed for the gig last November. More from Billboard Twenty One Pilots Fans Jumped Into Veronica Mars Mode After Someone Took Off With One of Josh Dun's Bespoke Drums Palm Tree Festival to Debut in St. Tropez With Headliners A$AP Rocky & Swedish House Mafia Kelly Clarkson Doesn't Care What HR Says, She's Totally Open to Comments on Her Weight Loss: 'I Want You to Say 'Damn!' Today (May 13), eight more support acts have been added to the bill: Flowerovlove, Caity Baser, Between Friends, Florence Road, Katie Gregson-Macleod, Ruti, Aziya and Déyyess. Irish band Florence Road came to prominence on TikTok last year, where they shared covers of contemporary pop songs including their takes on Rodrigo's 'Obsessed' and 'Making The Bed.' In April, the four-piece released an acoustic ballad entitled 'Anxiety,' which was produced by Dan Nigro, known for his work with Rodrigo and Chappell Roan. Baser has enjoyed a flurry of activity in recent months. Following the release of her single 'Watch That Girl (She's Gonna Say It),' the Southampton-raised musician has completed a tour of intimate venues across the U.K. and dropped another new track, 'Running From Myself.' Singer-songwriter Gregson-Macleod is eyeing up the release of her Love Me Too Well, I'll Retire Early EP in July, which will arrive via Matt Maltese's Last Recordings On Earth label. Aziya has drip-fed a slew of singles throughout 2025, the most recent being the grungy 'Diamonds,' which dropped in April. The BST Hyde Park shows have a history of supporting emerging acts, platforming newer names in the early stages of their career. Over the past few years, the likes of Sam Fender (Bob Dylan and Neil Young, 2019), The Last Dinner Party (The Rolling Stones, 2022) and Elmiene (SZA, 2024) have performed at the festival before going on to break into the mainstream. The other headliners for BST Hyde Park 2025 are: Zach Bryan (June 28 and 29) Noah Kahan (July 4), Sabrina Carpenter (July 5, 6), Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts (July 11), Stevie Wonder (July 12) and Jeff Lynne's ELO (July 13). Remaining tickets can be found here. Rodrigo unveiled her second LP Guts in 2023, which she has supported with extensive global touring. In April, she performed the largest show of her career to date at a sold-out Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City, which holds a capacity of 65,000 fans. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
