Dark Tropics, a duo hailing from Belfast, Ireland, are pushing the boundaries of their sound, carving out their own space in the pop-noir genre.
Charged with an energy that catapults their singer Rio McGuinness’ voice to the forefront of their sound, Dark Tropics have been toying with a frenzied energy that makes their track, Whispers, captivating.
Gerard Sands, the producer behind the project, spoke to neun Magazine about the messy Irish nights out that form the story behind their track Whispers and details all of the hard work that goes on behind-the-scenes to make a band.
How did the single come together?
It’s a funny one because we’ve had the song for a while. Our first album was based around Rio’s voice. It’s so delicate, so we recorded softer songs that suited her voice.
For Whispers, I had the riff and then I went on to write the song around that. It was just so heavy and it didn’t fit with our other stuff. But, one day, we decided to try it in the set and we ended up finishing our gig with it and it was the best song in the set by a million miles!
With our other tunes, you have to listen more, but with this one, there’s no messing around. You drive straight in with the riff and this heavy, big chorus. There’s nothing too intellectual about it.
What is Whispers about?
It’s inspired by a night out in Belfast, particularly those years after university when you don’t really know what you’re doing. It’s about the madness of those and everybody not having a clue what’s happening. We’re really into Belfast nightlife, it’s one of the best places to go out.
There is a certain manic melancholy in Irish people. But there’s also a desire for craic and banter and I think that’s all weirdly in Whispers. You’re starving for a good time.
What’s the story behind the band?
Our trajectory was really unusual. I was producing electronic music and putting out my own stuff. I started looking for a singer online, and Rio sent me this really jazzy, weird voice note of her singing. She was in Morocco, volunteering for a month, and a few days after we met in person, we recorded a song. I worked on the song when I got home and I realised that I really love this girl’s voice.
We got signed with just two demos to this really good Belfast label, so we hadn’t played any shows until we released our album.
We wrote an album and put out our first single on Valentine’s day before COVID. When lockdown hit, all of our booked shows got cancelled. Then, when we went back to playing live, we were like, “Oh my God, these songs are so slow live!” We started writing faster and faster, and Whispers was the one that’s a full-on rock and roll tune.
Writing with someone is always a bit strange and nerve-racking, particularly when you’re lyric-writing. You have to trust the person. We’ve got very different personalities, but now I don’t think there’s anything we don’t know about each other!
It must be so weird coming back to gigs and realising the songs sounded different to what you thought they’d be.
That’s the thing, you have to wait until you can play shows because you learn how a song performs in different environments. During COVID, we did some TV performances, and those songs worked there. But then, in front of a crowd, Rio’s beautiful voice was great, but there’s only so many ballads [you can play to a live-audience]. Now, the set is heavier and we throw in a couple of ballads. Rio has become a bit of a powerhouse and she can sing nearly anything now.
Do you think that will come across on the rest of the album?
It’s pretty eclectic! We do have the ballads, but the next single is another one where it’s about having a good time, about love and lust.
How do you balance wanting to see the success from your work whilst staying authentic?
It’s strange as everything is so different now. Most of the artists I like are from a time pre-social media, but now everybody judges a band on their social media. You have to engage people now by putting the music in a social media context with a 30 second reel or TikTok.
It’s tricky to get the balance. I treat every song like an album; I put so much time into every song. By the time it gets out there, I love it, and I’ve given it everything, and if people don’t really respond to it, I really don’t give a shit.
You aren’t chasing TikTok virality then?
You know what, the funny thing is that we definitely are! There’s no choice. I was talking to a friend about this and how the idea of being ‘cool’ or ‘punk rock’ is impossible nowadays.
We’re all posting things on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter or whatever, but all these people who own these companies were sitting behind Donald Trump on inauguration day. It’s very hard to be cool whilst using those social media platforms. It could be leading to the death of punk rock in some ways.
It feels like a lot of your motto is like, “Screw it, we’ll do it anyway.” Do you consider yourselves risk takers?
It reaches the stage where you don’t really have a choice. You have to just keep trying, throwing stuff at the wall and hope something sticks. But the one thing we do have under control is our music.
What have you got planned for the future?
We’ve got so many tunes recorded that we’re just going to go ‘bang, bang, bang’ for the rest of the year. That’s the plan, and we’re looking at putting out our second album next year. We’ve done our first headline show in Belfast not that long ago, and we supported Daniel Bedingfield the other week too. It was good to get back!
Almost mirroring Whispers’ story, Gerard had a vibrant tongue-in-cheek sense of humour that carried an easy conversation. With more tracks on the way, fuelled by a dark energy, Dark Tropics remain one to watch – and a duo you need to catch live.
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