Dea Matrona is an Irish rock duo formed in 2018 and comprised of two friends, Mollie McGinn and Orlaith Forsythe. Mollie McGinn and Orlaith Forsythe’s rise to music success began in school, where they met and discovered their similar musical tastes. They began playing music and learning songs together. Dea Matrona then started busking to their favourite rock’n’roll songs in Belfast, which led to gig offers and opportunities to play in bars and weddings. Dea Matrona now has over eight million views on YouTube, has performed in over ten countries, and has been on tour with Chris Shiflett from the Foo Fighters. Their latest project is the release of their debut album ‘For Your Sins’ and a UK and Ireland tour in May 2024. In a recent interview, the rock band discussed their upcoming projects.
What made you want to be a musical duo?
“As we were hanging out so much in school, it made sense to start playing music together because we both loved music. We never really meant to become a band. But after realising that we had a spookily similar music taste, we started jamming together as an outlet for all the songs we would learn individually. It’s great to be a duo; everything we do is collaborative, and it feels great to have another ear onboard. I couldn’t imagine doing it on my own.”
What is the inspiration behind your debut album ‘For Your Sins’?
“Our debut album is a mix of everything we love. It’s the tale of a band who have spent years on the road and experienced so much. We never want to settle for a genre, and we realised when we made this album that part of the fun of being in this band is that we will never really know what our ‘sound’ is. It was a lot of fun to produce this album ourselves. I can’t wait for it to be released.”
Is it stressful creating a self-made album where you do everything yourself?
“It can be stressful to meet deadlines, especially when you are your own ‘boss’, so to speak, though we had the best time putting this album together. Doing it yourself means you can tend to overthink things more. We are so glad to be making a body of work that means so much to us, having produced and written it ourselves.”
What’s the inspiration behind your new song ‘Stuck On You’?
“It was the track that made our debut album come together. So it was important to us to release it as the first single from the album.”
What made you want to perform in Brighton?
“To tell the truth. We love the food at No Catch in Brighton. It’s always a real treat when we get to stop by when on tour. Also, the vintage shops are amazing! We love Brighton, though. We played there for the first time at The Great Escape in 2022 and fell in love with it. We’re excited to come back for our show this time.”
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming tour?
“I think I’m most excited about playing the new album songs. We’re in the middle of rehearsing for the tour, and it’s feeling good so far playing the new songs. We love touring and joke about how we’ve been to probably every service station in the UK. You can’t beat them.”
Dea Matrona’s album ‘For Your Sins’ will be released on May 3, and they will perform in Brighton at the Hope and Ruin on May 7, 2024.
