Longtime readers of So Young will recall that somewhere between the full length interviews inside the print magazine you’d find a section called ‘Who Are You?’. Between 2017 and 2019 this feature introduced the likes of Fontaines D.C., Squid, Dry Cleaning and plenty more. Quite often for their first ever print feature. Earlier this year we decided to bring it back. Print readers, you’ll know this already.
Who Are You? introduces you to the brand new bands/artists who we feel should be on your radar, the ones currently playing tiny rooms but not for long. Dublin’s Croíthe first caught our attention with 2024’s ‘The Kiss’, describing it at “is a succinct track pulsing with energy and angst”. Since then, the band joined us for a We Are So Young show at The Social (opening the bill for Westside Cowboy, Pebbledash and No Windows) and are due to drop their debut EP ‘A Brief Respite’ on October 31st. With the bands debut headline tour coming up, we thought it the perfect time to ask them the basics.
Introducing Croíthe…
Hello there, could you tell us who you are, where you’re from and the music you make?
Hello we are a band from Dublin called croíthe (kree-ha), made up of Caodán (vocals, guitar) Ben (guitar) Frances (bass) and Keevy (drums). We make post punk music but heavily influenced by noise rock and shoegaze
What have you been up to lately?
Lately we have been playing shows consistently around Ireland and the UK, our favourite so far was in the Shacklewell Arms alongside some fellow Irish bands, other than that we have started writing new material we’re very excited about.
What led you to start writing and performing songs, and what brought you together?
We formed last summer after finding Keevy through a drummer callout on TikTok, but before then us three had been jamming together since we were about 13. In the last year or two I started taking writing a lot seriously and began to show the others and it just kind of blossomed from there.
Could you tell us the story behind your most recent single?
Yeah, our recent single ‘The Lovers’ was written last October in Ben’s bedroom. I was playing around with some pedals, and I wrote that intro riff and we started playing around with some structures. I wrote the lyrics on the bus home from that rehearsal, it was around the time of the general election in Ireland so there were posters around for the candidates which sparked the songs meaning. It’s about this profit over culture mentality and how us as artists use art or romance to escape it.
Could you tell us something you really love?
Patient sound engineers, my barber and the beach boys – Caodán
Phil Lynott, my barber – Ben
Tea, three sugars – Frances
My dogs – Keevy
Could you tell us something you really hate?
Ryanair
The most welcome and unwelcome comparison you’ve ever had?
The most welcome one has been Suicide who are a massive influence on our sound and style as a group, we haven’t had too many unwelcome ones yet, actually someone told me I sounded like Bono and I had to go take a long hard look at my career path.
Stage or Studio?
As a band we prefer the stage, playing live together always feels fresh and the unpredictably of a show is an aspect we find exciting. We love seeing the crowds response to our music and the mutual buzz that happens at a show.
What can we be excited for from you in the next 12 months?
A lot. We will be releasing our debut EP at the end of this year and is something we’re excited to share with everyone. Other than that, we have some shows on Germany , Netherlands and England this year we are buzzing for, Next year we will be releasing more music and will be touring even more, and we are very excited to see some old and new faces.
Who Are You? inside Issue Fifty-Seven. Sold Out.
Croíthe play The Elephants Head, Camden with The North on October 29th. Free Tickets Here.
The August issue of So Young is out now. Sold out in print. Read the digital edition below. Subscribe for future issues here.