Sounds of the city and The Apricity, an up-and-coming band

The Liberties has been coined the ‘design district’ of Dublin, from the quirky art galleries to the amazing music scene of young artists. The Liberties has borne some amazing artists like Imelda May and Mark Sheehan.  

One of these up-and-coming artists is a band called The Apricity. The band consists of drummer Rónán Gerard Browne, bassist Elna Rós Murphy Bragason, lead singer and rhythm guitarist Laura King McDonnell, and guitarist Rob O’Connor.  

The band met through one of TU Dublin’s many societies, the Live Music Society. Before the group came together as a foursome, they had existed as three, with Laura being a last-minute addition to the group.  

“I was invited to play at a charity event in my local town as I had done a few performances there before, but it was all very last minute,” King explains. “The night before, I met Rob. I took a massive leap and just sent him a message asking if he would play with me. He then said he actually plays with a band that consists of a drummer and a bassist. So, we met up, did one practice set and then took to the stage. Then those three asked me to join their band, and the rest is history.”  

The band’s name, Apricity, is a real but archaic word that derives from the Latin word ‘apricitas’, meaning sunny. Insofar as the word is used at all, it has come to mean ‘the warmth of the sun in winter’. 

Rob O’Connor said, “The Apricity wasn’t our original name, I really liked the name Community Ronan. But Laura and Elna didn’t like the name after someone had misheard it as Community Rodent. So, Laura was the one to suggest the name Apricity as she really liked the meaning.” 

The band has such an array of artists that inspire them, with all of them liking very different genres. Elna Rós says The Pixies and the Strokes are her inspiration, Rónán chooses Joy Division, and Laura goes for CMAT. The influences of their favourite artists come through in the music that they currently produce for their band. The band themselves, have no specific genre, with O’Connor saying, “It’s our own genre.” 

He explains further: “Some would say we’re indie, but when someone says indie now, it doesn’t mean the same thing it used to. It used to stand for an independent band or artist without a record label, and they’re published independently, but now when you say it, it’s associated with a specific sound. A specific way of playing music. And we don’t have the ‘indie’ sound. We’ve got our own.” 

Like most up and coming artists nowadays, everyone has got to manoeuvre the internet and try to showcase their talents. This is especially difficult nowadays because of the sheer number of new artists pumping their music onto platforms like Spotify, YouTube and Soundcloud.  

“The internet has ruined things for small bands,” Browne says. “You see on TikTok and Instagram, that people are making jokes and memes of small bands. That you’re nothing more than a joke. But it’s also irritating because there is literally no other way to get your name out there.” 

Bragason adds:, “It’s far easier now to get the exposure, but it’s even harder to keep the momentum of that exposure. So, you’ll often see bands blow up with a hit song and rise to an instant fame sort of thing and then they’ll quickly fall down because they couldn’t keep that same momentum.” 

It’s well-known that artists make virtually no money from streams on Spotify. Money comes from merchandise and gigs. But you can’t finance a tour unless you’re popular enough that you know people will show up, or you’re signed to a good record label. The Apricity themselves don’t currently have any shows in the works but are hoping to have something soon. 

The Apricity currently have one demo song released, ‘No Crash’, and another yet to be released track, that I was fortunately able to listen to early, ‘Monday’.

You can find the band under their Instagram handle, @theapricityband and by their threads handle which is the same. They also release their music on their Soundcloud, and plan to set up a Spotify account soon.