Walshy trips out with woodland creatures on psychedelic new video

As the co-founder of Dublin event Sleepover Club, Luke Walsh has supported and inspired many of the most exciting musicians and artists that call Ireland home, from Henry Earnest, April and Fehdah to Ahmed With Love, Curtisy and Kayleigh Noble to Uly and Wastefellow. Now, the Swords resident is readying the release of his genesis solo material, and it was worth the wait.

Having grown up on the sounds of Bob Dylan,Beach House, Kanyeand Wu Tang to name a few, you could say that Walshy’s inspirations are a mixed bag. His debut full-length is of a similar vibe, marrying the nostalgia and bedroom aesthetics of teenage indie, dream-pop and hip-hop in his distinct colourful style.

Collaboration is of incredible importance to Walshy, so much so that he has enlisted a different MC/singer from the UK and Ireland for each individual track on the album. Featured on the release are Pager The Sloth, eda, PCG Beats, domtavlor, Superego, Lowkick, Housewife, XO LU and Curtisy, all of which bring their own distinct flavour to Walshy’s productions.

“I find the more people I work with from different backgrounds the more it stretches me into areas I wouldn’t be bothered with if it was left just up to myself”, he says. “Everyone has their own area of expertise that they bring to the table and I prefer pushing back and letting that shine through when necessary.”

Following support from both Notion and Wonderland, 'Just Walk Away' featuring Housewife is the next single to emerge from the project. Housewife, real name Oisín Tarrant, released his debut album in May 2018 and blends his psychedelic pop inventiveness with Walshy’s haze-driven, dusty boom-bap. The video is just as creative, marrying hand-drawn doodles and live-acting as Walshyexplores a forest of trippy wood-land creatures and ecosystems.

Animator Cillian Green and filmmaker Cian Redmond are the pair responsible for the acid-induced, animated dreamscape. Heavily inspired by popular 80s RTE children show The Den, the trio have created their own Bedknobs and Broomsticks style world, where angels float overhead and caterpillars smoke blunts, and it’s residents are free to be as weird as they want.