Back in 2024 we featured Blue Deputy, a project formed in Philly and now based in Belfast consisting of Andy Bunting (vocals and guitar), Caoilfhinn McFadden (bass) and Cathal Francis (guitar and vocals). Released via new Dalliance Recordings imprint Under The Rolling Y, their single ‘Cypress‘ showed off a how the band combine “everything from soft bedroom pop and lyrical folk rock to the emotional intensity of Midwest emo,” as we put it. “Bunting’s vocals smoulder and sway over steady percussion, subtle synths and wistful slide guitar, all coming together to from something that feels soft and raw with a clear-eyed clarity.”
Now Blue Deputy are back with a new single ‘Big Fleece’, and again the track finds an outfit willing to mix and match their stylistic influences in order to craft their own singular sound. The press release sites Alvvays, Slow Pulp, Indigo De Souza and The Beths as touchstones and with good reason, the song retaining the emotional vulnerability of its predecessor but adding shoegaze revival richness and sunbleached indie rock wooze. The resulting mood is also a patchwork of conflicting feelings, where the allure of romance and rawness of pain compete for the upper hand.
Watching through a lens, and getting in my head
Paralysed and seeing ceiling eyes
I target a flare to whom I feel it’s fair
The nerve I pressed, maybe I guess I acted out of turnWhen you sink to cruelty, I button up my big fleece
And iron over the crease
And I will love you for just a bit too long