Eoghan McCarthy celebrates compilation selection, eyes future
Eoghan McCarthy sets up a microphone at a recent live session at Five By Two Records. | Photo by Samuel Bendix
The man Eoghan McCarthy met helping his sisters climb to post-rock fame has now opened a separate stage for McCarthy himself within the genre.
One release into his latest musical project, McCarthy is seizing that stage with pride.
“This is really cool,” he says.
David Zeidler of the post-rock PR agency, Young Epoch, recently featured McCarthy’s instrumental band The Light Inside Me Is Dead (LIMID) on the brand new “Open Language: Volume V” compilation album he curated.
Released through A Thousand Arms Music, the record puts McCarthy’s band in front of a new set of eyes eager for fresh music.
“There are some really cool names,” McCarthy says, then elaborating on his relationship with Zeidler. “Apparently he had heard my music and really liked it. So that was super awesome. I’m super thankful for that.”
“Now…I feel like I can [say I play in a post-rock band]”
Over the past five years, McCarthy has bounced between bands, most recently playing a breakneck schedule of shows with the short lived hardcore outfit Reprieve. Before that, he played guitar in Company One, a rock/shoegaze trio. He also supported his sisters as their band, Circus Trees, quickly gained local and regional recognition.
That experience is what introduced McCarthy to David Zeidler.
As Reprieve. dissolved, though, McCarthy saw his chance for real change, repurposing old demos into pure post-rock tracks.
“I’ve always just been feeling unfortunate that I couldn't say ‘Hey, I play in a post-rock band,’” he says. “Now, though, I feel like I can do that.”
Featuring Aaron Garcia on bass, himself on guitar, and longtime collaborators Dakota Tresback and Chris Collins on drums and second guitar respectively, McCarthy launched LIMID from coronavirus lockdown this spring with the debut EP “But Still I Work.”
The EP simultaneously marked McCarthy’s long-awaited head-first foray into post-rock as well as Garcia’s first major production effort.
Having honed his craft in his bedroom studio, Garcia originally planned to record and mix demos to bring to an off-site studio for final recording. In the end, McCarthy simply released Garcia’s mixes as-is after a quick mastering by long-time collaborator Jay Maas.
“Honestly, it started to sound way too good to just be a demo,” McCarthy said.
“Eoghan sleeps with his gear”
Eoghan McCarthy has long been the soft-spoken vanguard of the musical McCarthy family at the center of Five By Two Records.
The first to pick up an instrument years ago, he’s signed his name under a handful of musical banners and cheered on his siblings as well as his best friend, Aaron. Likewise, he’s dedicated himself to building the record label that has bolstered the whole family.
Even without live shows during COVID-19, Eoghan is dedicated. He lives out of a sparsely furnished room off the family’s basement studio that his father and siblings lovingly call “the crypt.”
“Eoghan sleeps with his gear,” Robert McCarthy once joked, remarking on his son’s commitment to his craft.
Eoghan says he put his own music “on the backburner” in recent months as Five By Two geared up for a jam packed season of live streamed quarantine shows and record releases from acts Geskle, Circus Trees, and Pillbook.
Seemingly in line with that prioritization, a big white board in Five By Two headquarters laying out week-by-week plans for releases and record promotions features a ring of question marks around LIMID plans.
His plans may not be on the white board, Eoghan acknowledges. But all this time on that backburner has not let LIMID go cold. Eoghan has his future planned out. And a fresh feature on David Zeidler’s new national compilation is both a welcome step and appreciated validation in McCarthy’s already twisting and turning musical career.
“That is the first time I’ve really felt happy with the music I put out,” Eoghan says. “It is the first time I felt proud to say ‘This is mine’...Hopefully I can release some more music and get some stuff out.”
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Stream Eoghan McCarthy’s song “III: Is Dead” off his debut EP as The Light Inside Me Is Dead and check out the rest of the Open Language: Volume V compilation....