FLORENCE ROAD

FLORENCE ROAD

What makes Florence Road so instantly magnetising isn’t just their striking frontwoman Lily Aron with her rich, oaky vocals, but the dynamic she shares with her best friends, guitarist Emma Brandon, bassist Ailbhe Barry and drummer Hannah Kelly. Shortly after the four of them became alternative music’s most thrilling new band, they started posting on social media, a mixture of silly videos that displayed their friendship and cover songs filmed in an uncanny confrontational style on an iPhone 0.5 magnification setting.

Some of the videos are dimly lit, with a camera and light that bounces into the members’ faces, catching their bright blue eyes like deer in headlights. Others are equally surprising, like the video of them singing their indie rock song “Figure It Out” while being driven in the car by Hannah, or the time they hid in a closet holding Ailbhe hostage as they cover Olivia Rodrigo’s “Obsessed” (Rodrigo saw it and commented as enthusiastically as the band’s other fans). “The weird videos reflect our dynamic somehow,” says Ailbhe, smiling. “You’d only be able to do that with your close friends; I do feel like there’s just an inherent friendship closeness you could tell from what we posted”. It worked, agrees Lily; “everything just started snowballing from there really.”

Now the band is releasing their first EP, Fall Back; the 5 tracks will meet the already enormous organic fanbase they’ve garnered through just being themselves (nearly 1M followers without any official music in the world). In the spirit of original Irish creativity, Florence Road sounds fresh and modern; an innovative but effortless blend of rock subgenres from the haziness of grunge to the slick riffs of indie rock. Their sense of humour is rarely lost as they delve deep into emotive, often melancholic music.