Paul McDermott (To Here Knows When podcast) – A Year in Music – 2025
by Killian Laher

How has your year been?

A great year. I produced nine episodes of the podcast this year, so I took my foot off the accelerator a little bit. Life got in the way; that’s a good thing. I started and finished the year with long episodes with Danny Kelly and Stuart Bailie. I started reading the NME in the late 80s when both were writing for the paper. It was an absolute pleasure to talk about their time as music journalists and chat about some of their favourite Irish albums.

Bailie has just published The Song is Nearly Over: Music Stories 1985-2025. A fantastic compendium of his music journalism. It details his encounters with PJ Harvey, Andrew Weatherall, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Radiohead, the infamous “Battle of Britpop”, and loads of other stories. It’s an essential book for any music fan. I absolutely loved it.

Other noteworthy music books this year were Bless Me Father: A Life Story by Kevin Rowland and The Absence: Memoirs of a Banshee Drummer by Budgie. Two devastatingly honest books.

What albums have you enjoyed most this year?

It’s been another bumper year for quality Irish releases, some of my favourites have included: HindZeitgeist by The Would Be’s; The County Star by Kean Kavanagh; Days Of Heaven by Junk Drawer; Luster by Maria Somerville, Keep Sketch by Matthew Devereux and All Smiles Tonight by Poor Creature.

The album I most enjoyed this year was Stereolab’s Instant Holograms On Metal Film. “The Groop” returned and gifted us a brilliant album, and in ‘Electrified Teenybop!’ one of the year’s bangers!

My favourite secondhand find of the year was Contenders, the 1986 debut album by Manchester’s Easterhouse. Named for a Glasgow housing estate, Easterhouse was the vehicle for the Perry brothers’ socialist agenda. Andy Perry was described as the best political commentator in music, and his brother Ivor Perry was often called the best guitarist since Johnny Marr.

I’ve been on the lookout for Contenders since I was in my late teens, when I first read about Easterhouse and their connections with The Smiths: the band supported The Smiths many times, and Ivor Perry was drafted in to play on a post-Johnny Marr Smiths session. A great find and a really solid album.

One of my favourite reissues was Quique, Seefeel’s landmark 1993 debut. Quique is a genuine masterpiece and stands alongside Slowdive’s Pygmalion: both pushing experimental guitar music towards ambient electronica.

Another reissue I played a lot was Understood by Brian, the one name moniker that Ken Sweeney recorded under. Understood compiled Ken’s 1992 debut album Understand alongside the Planes EP. Both were originally released on Setanta and were given a deservingly gorgeous reissue by Needle Mythology. It was a pure joy to go back and rediscover these delicate, poignantly honest tunes.

Needle Mythology also released Sensitive: An Indie Pop Anthology, my favourite compilation of the year. Did I need another indie pop compilation? No, but when a compilation as beautiful as the package curated by Needle Mythology is produced, then the answer is yes. Pete Paphides’ song notes and long essay made it a very worthwhile addition. A fantastic set.

Sometimes I Want to Return is the film documenting the launch concert for the album. Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey from Talulah Gosh, alongside members of The Sea Urchins, The Soup Dragons, The June Brides, The Loft and Clare Grogan from Altered Images, performed songs from the album. A beautifully uplifting film and one of my favourite things I watched in 2025.

What’s the most promising new act you’ve heard this year?

If Cliffords and Cardinals are the pop yin of the current crop of Cork bands, then Pebbledash and I Dreamed I Dream are its anti-pop yang. It takes all kinds to make a city. I Dreamed I Dream gave us the brilliant ‘Crawl’ from their Boyopoisoning EP, one of my favourite tunes of 2025. Pebbledash, the most promising new act for me, released two brilliant EPs this year on Blowtorch Records: Four Portraits Of The Same Ugly House and To Cast The Sea In Concrete. Two of the best records I heard all year. Hopefully, we’ll get an album from them in 2026.

Any gig highlights?

Les Mystère Des Voix Bulgares performed at the NCH in September. Like many, my introduction to the mysterious voices of the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir came via 4AD’s late-80s reissue of the original 1975 Marcel Cellier compiled album. A number of the women on stage had been with the choir for over 50 years. An incredible otherworldly performance. One of those special nights.

My Bloody Valentine’s November gig will be hard to top. I was lucky enough to see them back in 2009 at Primavera, an outdoor performance on the main stage, but nothing can top seeing them in full flight at the 3Arena. I played ‘Soon’ for years at indie discos in the 90s, so it was absolutely amazing to hear thousands of punters, many of whom weren’t even born when it was originally released, go absolutely mental when its looped drum pattern started up. It was an emotional (and loud) night.

Can you recommend an album that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves?

We Are All Beautiful People by For Stars. The third album from the San Francisco band came out in 2001 on Munich Records. It’s a striking mixture of laid-back meditative tunes and glorious off-kilter pop gems. Fans of Low, American Music Club or Red House Painters will definitely be snared by For Stars’ hauntingly gorgeous melodies.

On the stripped-down acoustic ballad ‘Back In France’ singer Carlos Foster reflects on a lost girlfriend. It is almost heartbreaking when he utters: “Back in France you will dance with local boys in real cafés/I know the States are just too phoney for you to stay”. The album’s highlight is the epic ‘There Was A River’, which builds from the piano-backed, barely audible vocals of Foster to a blazing climax six minutes later. It’s psychedelic and avant-garde yet extremely touching pop music all in one. We Are All Beautiful People is a pretty astonishing. A lost gem.

Have you anything interesting in the works yourself?

I’m finishing an audio documentary for RTÉ about The Frank and Walters. The story arc is bookended by two huge gigs. The band played Cork City Hall in February 1993, a few weeks after the success of ‘After All’ in the UK Singles Chart and their famed Top of the Pops appearance. They return to play Cork City Hall on 20 December. Returning to play the biggest venue in their hometown almost 33 years after first playing it – now that’s a lovely story.