Twin perfect harmony
Never mind Oasis! Cork is getting ready to welcome a very different breed of talented brothers next month as The Ocelots set their sights on Leeside.
The Ocelots are twin brothers Ashley and Brandon Watson from Wexford, now residing in Leipzig, Germany.
With their highly anticipated second album, ‘Everything, When Said Slowly’ set for release on 7 February, they are embarking on an extensive tour of Ireland, the UK, and Germany over the coming months.
The follow up to their 2020 debut album, ‘Started to Wonder’, the brothers’ new album unveils a richer, more expansive sound, masterfully produced by long-time collaborators Cillian and Lorcan Byrne. The narrative woven throughout the album explores themes of Irish migration, the perception of time, love, and the simple joys of cycling.
The latest single from the album, ‘The Good of a Bad Year’, was written during and for the final pages of the calendar. A piano-driven song, which portrays how the smaller moments of joy can often be overlooked when recalling an uneventful year.
“The song for me encompasses the sentiment of the rest of the album,” explains Ashley.
“It was a huge communal effort making what was written in a more dreary, lonesome headspace into something hopeful and joyous. We collaborated with our close friends, Cillian and Lorcan Byrne, Conor Cunningham and Jessie Monk, who all lent a hand in turning my introspective dilemmas into a bittersweet drunken choir. Also, we were delighted we got to work with Santiago Moyao who bought so much creativity to the project.”
The new album’s title, ‘Everything, When Said Slowly’ is inspired by an old man’s perspective on people leaving the brothers’ hometown of Wexford in recent years.
Ashley says: “He said it was a very long time since they left, but not much time if you said it fast. I found it wonderful and profound, but also deeply moving and fitting for the album’s sentiment. How time flies or drags depending on what you’re experiencing, especially when it’s time in a place you said goodbye to.”
Blood harmonies are the centre of The Ocelots' sound; imperfections of a voice breaking or a tempo shifting. Throughout their work, the twin brothers blend absurdity and sincerity in an array of literature-inspired musings. Open tunings and clawhammer banjo bring country-folk contemplation, but the imagery is very much urban, living outside of the romanticised glaze of wood cabins and cottage-core nostalgia.