moira calling
in association with
COMING SOON!
SATURDAY
The main stage
MARSICANS
Immensely excited to welcome these guys as our headliners for this years festival.
Marsicans are a young indie band from Leeds whose driving, harmony-laden sound and exciting live shows are earning them a reputation as an emerging force in British music.
The last 12 months were Marsicans' busiest to date: signing to LAB Records and X-ray Touring, their EP hit a million plays on Spotify; singles made the BBC Radio 1 weekly playlist, the opening credits of E4's Made In Chelsea and were even shared online by Coldplay. Constantly touring, the quartet played 83 shows to packed rooms and festival stages in five countries, supporting Jaws and Clean Cut Kid on UK tours and Minnesota’s Hippo Campus' on UK and European dates in the process.
Marsicans' latest single, Wake Up Freya, a reflective song singer James wrote for his niece before she was born, was premiered on its week of release by Radio 1's Huw Stephens who invited the band on this show to chat about the single and their recent live session at the BBC's legendary Maida Vale studios. It also landed on Spotify's New Music Friday UK and Apple Music's Best Of The Week among other high-profile playlists in the UK, USA, Europe and Japan.
OUTLYA
In November 2015, OUTLYA (pronounced Outlier) started a journey that saw them ditching subtleties and self-conscious songwriting for perfectly-crafted bombast. Since then, they’ve been making songs that strive for a feeling of escape and have a striking quality to them.
Debut track ‘The Light’ is a rude awakening. Recorded with Cam Blackwood, heavy guitar parts line up alongside chiming keys and bare, effect-starved vocals. At the time of writing, OUTLYA wasn’t even a fully-fledged project. But ‘The Light’ gave the trio something to pursue, a distinctive sound that thrives on its own sense of confidence. Out with delay pedals and signature reverb, in with gutsy choruses and a heartfelt message. There’s nowhere to hide. Will remembers “trying to replace sheen” with a sense of “swagger”. When this song came together, Henry says they collectively decided: “We could go back or we could just push on forwards.”
JOSHUA BURNSIDE
There is a man in an attic somewhere at four in the morning. He isshaking knives in a biscuit tin, stomping and shouting, pitch bending, coding, looping, plucking banjos and squeezing accordions, layering sound upon sound like a demented chef creating a monstrous cake, a swirling dream of colours and visions of the apocalypse, visions of death, and love and stories of people trying to carve out their place in the universe.
Joshua Burnside was born in Ireland, but cites the music of Colombia, Eastern Europe and North America as the greatest influences on his unique sound. Deftly blending folk textures and melodies with elements of electronica, he has made it difficult for pundits to put him in a box. Now only a month on from releasing his debut record ‘EPHRATA’, he has racked up over 2 million plays on Spotify and 80,000 views on Youtube with the album being heralded a triumph by critics.
Stumbling beats, found sounds, vocoders, Cumbian rhythms, electric guitar loops, devils, lightning and dark matter are just a handful of the various flavours to expect.
THE LED FARMERS
The Led Farmers are an Irish Folk Rock band from Ireland. The group boasts a two-time All Ireland Music champion and many of it’s members have studied music at University level. They have performed throughout Europe and the U.S. and have a constant touring schedule with 80 plus gigs a year. While they love to play the Irish folk classics it is their own songs and fresh new arrangements of folk music that has seen them get attention of late. Their spontaneous nature and friendliness on the stage makes them a very entertaining live band.
‘The Led Farmers are the kind of act that you just want to see go far, they have a likeability factor and stage presence that just completely enhances their performance and makes them so distinctive in comparison to so many trad/folk groups out there at the moment’ - Dublin Concerts reviews
REWS
Freshly signed to Marshall Records, REWS are a gritty girl:girl Belfast/London duo that play edgy rock guitar and drums... "FANTASTIC - LIKE A FEMALE ROYAL BLOOD" said Mark Radcliffe on BBC TV after they played the John Peel Main Stage at Glastonbury this year.
Once signed they recorded their debut album in the world renowned Abbey Road Studios in London, in June 2017 they released their first single on Marshall “Miss You In The Dark” to coincide with their Glastonbury show on the mighty John Peel Stage.
So far the single has been played on Radio 1, Radio 6, Radio X, Kerrang Radio, Planet Rock as well as national stations in Ireland and Japan.
REWS are off the starting blacks and now it’s their time to shine!
Formed by frontman Weston Glendinning Armagh four-piece Hunkpapa have earned themselves an increasingly popular reputation in a short space of time. Establishing themselves over the past year, they’re headlining and selling out sizeable venues while racking up streams on some great tracks
They describe themselves as “Four eccentrics with a loose grip on social norms and reality specialising in anthemic bangers”.
Through their music they want to take the audience somewhere special, somewhere liberating and somewhere authentic and this is what they strive for every day.
FRIDAY
Formed in late 2015 Tuskany are a Belfast based indie/pop act. With influences of funk, soul and pop, their music consists of punchy riffs and melodic synth lines. Sounds something like Two Door Cinema Club, meets Earth Wind and Fire, meets M83
RYAN VAIL
We are delighted to have the fantastic Ryan Vail headlining the ‘Main’ Stage on the Friday night this year accompanied by the Arco String Quartet.
In 2017 Ryan developed a live A/V show that debuted at the Output music conference festival in Belfast and will be debuting phase 2 of his A/V LED show at Moira Calling in September. Ryan has supported many international live acts such as Nils Frahm, Jamie XX, Jon Hopkins, Tycho, David Kitt, Boxcutter, Todd Terje, Phil Kieran, Luke Vibert and Orbital.
ARCO STRING QUARTET
Members of The Ulster Orchestra, husband and wife team Richard and Clare Hadwen formed Arco String Quartet 14 years ago.
Arco String Quartet is renowned for pushing the boundaries of string tradition with a contemporary and unique take on classical music. Specialising in the arrangement and performance of all music genres, particularly rock and pop. Their very own string arrangements, as well as collaborations with other leading Irish composers and arrangers has led to them recording and performing with many exciting artists.
They enjoy a varied schedule, dividing their time between the recording studio and the concert platform, as well as performing at private events.
Recent highlights include Foy Vance’s “Joy of Nothing” and “Live at Bangor Abbey” albums, Duke Special “Under The Dark Cloth” tour, Villagers “Awayland” album, Beoga “Before We Change Our Mind” album, David C Clements “The Longest Day In History” album, SOAK “Before We Forgot How To Dream” album and in concert with Bookends (the stunning musical tribute to Simon and Garfunkel)
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Also the Quartet were delighted to have recorded Brian Irvine’s short film score “Peter Lilly and the Nose” which won the Audience Favourite Award at the Capital Irish Film Festival, Washington, USA.
