Letting the Songs Speak: Lazember on Donegal, Growth, and Going All In
Punk Head: Lazember feels less like a side project and more like a reckoning. Did it feel risky to step into your own voice after so long as a guitarist-for-hire?
Lazember: It was something that happened naturally over the years. I had the great fortune to write with some amazing people while out touring and gigging, which definitely makes this all a lot easier.
I was never a frontman, though, always a guitarist. But I really just enjoyed writing and recording music. At first, I would ask others to sing on my tracks, but a lot of the time it just wouldn't work out, so I slowly but surely came around to the idea of just doing it myself. It's amazing how quick it happens once you get past that first hurdle and realise, ''OH, it's actually not that bad! It was the same with singing in front of crowds at gigs; it's just a matter of getting past those mental blocks you set up for yourself. Every step I take with Lazember is now an opportunity to push those boundaries in my head even further.
Punk Head: There’s a strong sense of place in your music — Donegal isn’t just a backdrop, it feels baked into the mood. How much does where you’re from shape what you write, even when you’re not consciously trying to reference it?
Lazember: I have a weird way of writing music, but it's transformed a lot over the past year or 2 now that I'm writing a hell of a lot more. At first, I would write the music and basically have a finished song with no vocals.
So I would play the song and hum over it, then start adlibbing words. It was basically my own language, but there would be syllables to work with. I would then slowly work out what it sounded like lyrically, but I often found that the songs didn't really make much sense that way. But now I go at it a completely different way, I try to write about scenes in my life, which inadvertently will tie in Donegal, for sure. For example, 'Seven Sisters', a song we released in 2025 is the name we give to 7 mountains in Donegal, I was driving home from a gig one night and I saw the silhouettes of a few, and couldn't tell them apart, and the line ''You read and rhyme just like your Seven Sisters'' sprung to me, and from that the rest of the song wrote itself.
Punk Head: After years of festival crowds and international touring, what excites you most and what scares you most about playing Lazember’s first headline show at Whelan’s?
Lazember: Going back to pushing boundaries, I don't actually feel scared about this one, I see it as an opportunity to say 'WE DID IT!'. This has been a long time coming. I wanted to have enough material released to have a full set to play our own first headline show. This I find was the biggest hurdle. It doesn't matter if there is 1 person there or a sold-out show, it just means I have done exactly what I set out to do, put on a gig with my own music and do everything I can to make it the best night we possibly can. I feel that after we get that behind us, it's a matter of moving on and seeing where we can improve and getting out there again as soon as possible. Bigger and better.
Punk Head: A lot of artists talk about “finding their voice,” but that phrase gets vague fast. In real terms, what changed for you when Lazember clicked into place?
Lazember: When I started writing for Lazember, I did not have a CLUE how anything was going to sound. A lot of the earlier songs were acoustic songs. I was working out how to do everything myself. I was going for a Hozier, Ben Howard sound, something that could be done by myself on stage, or it could be translated into a full band sound. I tried out a few gigs solo, and it just did not feel right. Ziggy, who recorded, produced, mixed, and drummed on all the songs we’ve done, had joined me for a few gigs, and it all flowed SO much better. I felt so much more comfortable; it was a sound I was just used to, so I decided that everything going forward had to be full band.
And it gave me a lot of freedom to just write for a bigger sound. It's what I love, big festival-sounding bands. So as the tracks got released over the past year, you can hear a massive shift in where the sound has come from to where it is now. There's definitely still room to work with where it will go from here, but there is definitely a distinctive Lazember sound forming.
Punk Head: This release sits in an in-between space — not explosive, not passive either. What headspace were you in when this song came together, and does it reflect where you are now or where you're headed?
Lazember: I wrote this song around a drum beat that I liked. I had been recording with another band I'm in called Mojo GoGo, and there was this great energy from the songs we were recording that definitely influenced the whole sound.
It also gave me the chance to hang out with the other members. We did a lot of touring back in 2010-2014; it was a crazy time which ultimately led to its demise, but we're definitely all the better for it. I wrote 'Don't Look Back' about one of the members of Mojo GoGo, after seeing how well they were doing for themselves. It made writing the song so easy and so relatable for me to write for someone else. I think it's going to be a theme going forward. Although some will definitely have to be kept a secret, no doubt!
Punk Head: Looking ahead, does Lazember feel like a long road you’re settling into, or still something fragile you’re protecting while it grows?
Lazember: I had attempted to start other projects in the past. I would write, record, and release music with intentions to go out and gig, but it never got to that stage.
This time around, there was an immediate response to the music I was putting out, which definitely helped. I had an opportunity to hone in on the right sound before pursuing further.
I also got offered opportunities I never had before, which pushed me to play these songs in front of people for the first time, which I am extremely grateful for.
I'm going to keep pushing this as far as I'll allow myself, and right now, there is no slowing down. I'm definitely in for the long road.
