The Murder Capital: ‘I didn’t think we’d be up against Ed Sheeran’

The Dublin-based fivesome arrive in West Yorkshire this week on the back of the success of their debut album When I Have Fears, one of the more impressive rock offerings of the year both critically and commercially, cracking the top five back home and the higher reaches of the charts here too.

They’ve forged a reputation as a fearsome live act, built up initially in the small familiar venue circuit of their hometown with places like Whelan’s – and now they’re looking to break it bigger further afield.

Guitarist Cathal Roper admits that the afterbuzz of a hometown show is still hard to replicate for the group though, but that their approach doesn’t change from performance to performance. “I think when you’re playing it, there is a different feeling, but there’s no different approach as such,” he notes ahead of their latest run of shows. “You come off stage after playing to a home crowd and there’s a definite sense of… patriotism or whatever that’s quite lovely. When you’re playing England, it still feel great, it’s still just as exciting, but it’s definitely different.”

When I Have Fears hit shelves in August and Roper still can’t quite believe the hurricane that has whisked him and his bandmates into the eye of the storm, revealing that they didn’t expect to strike success at short notice. “I don’t think we ever did,” he adds. “It came up as a joke, probably, or something like that. I didn’t think we’d be up against Ed Sheeran or anything like that. When we get a few days off and think back on it, we think ‘whoa’. There’s an amazement to it.”

Forged with an artful post-punk sound as searing as it is shrewd, they already have an eye on the future too, even if nothing is set in stone for their sophomore long-player yet.

“Every time we’ve had some time off, we’ve tried to write,” Roper elaborates, speaking about whether their musical process has evolved. “The first album was achieved by being very free. Now, it’s much more a case of working together – asking where the next person starts and where the other comes in.

“There’s still a lot of playing around, and feeling it, but there’s nothing definite yet. I think everyone has their own ideas on what they want to do next but there’s no way of beginning it yet. There’s nothing concrete.”

The Murder Capital play at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds on October 14. themurdercapital.com