Junk Drawer

Junk Drawer are Brian Coney (bass/keys), Rory Dee (drums/guitar/vocals) and siblings Stevie (vocals/guitar) and Jake Lennox (vocals/guitar/drums). Their second album ‘Days Of Heaven’ (Pizza Pizza Records, June 2025) adds new levels of depth and clarity to an already signature sound. Following their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Ready For The House’ (Art For Blind, 2020) and 2022’s crucial stepping-stone EP ‘The Dust Has Come To Stay’, ‘Days of Heaven’ is very much the product of four crate-digging music lovers with open ears and a genuine open-minded approach in their process. It is also the outworkings of rural Ulster strangeness, the provinces’ many lost futures, and the harmony & discordance of a sibling creative partnership. A potent cocktail.

Recorded over seven days at The Meadow Studios in Wicklow with producer Chris Ryan (Robocobra Quartet, Just Mustard, NewDad), ‘Days Of Heaven’ underlines a new moment for the band - one of deep understanding of each other and a sublime confidence in their craft. This is a band who have reached maturity without losing any of that “early-stuff” magic.

“We’ve become more confident with time. We’ve grown to be more of an entity. While the different prominent influences are still there from each member, it all sounds more like us now.” With regards lyrics and inspiration, Stevie is “past the inward-looking thing that I was at on the first album” and has become much more interested in what it means to be an Ulsterman; a term that has been confused, misused, and seldom understood. This exploration of identity is helped along by psychedelic means, be they chemical, sound, meditation…snooker. This has led to an almost “group-think” understanding within the band.

In ‘Days of Heaven’ the band’s progress is clear. On “Pell Mell” & “Nids Niteca”, riffs are tighter than ever before, the lush Casiotone-infused melancholy on “Where Goes The Time” is a thing of beauty, and we’re even treated to the roar from one of Ulster sport’s finest moments in “Black Ball '85”. The band’s well-worn influences are still to be found; the breeze of sixties West Coast LA, the pink frost of eighties New Zealand to the otherworlds of Zappa and Beefheart.

But scratch the surface and the world just below is where the real magic lies. This is the real trick shot of Junk Drawer.

Junk Drawer have won 3 Awards at the Northern Ireland Music Prize (Best Live Act & Best Video in 2022, plus Best Single in 2019, making them the most awarded band in the history of the prize. They've played SXSW, are set to play a range of Irish festivals throughout the summer, as well as Rotterdam's Left of the Dial as part of a European tour in 2025. They were hand-picked by US indie rock legends Superchunk to support across their 2023 UK Tour, and have supported acts like Built To Spill, Suuns, Temples, Mclusky and more. 'Ready For The House' placed on The Quietus’ Best of 2020 albums list, and they've been named by Paste Magazine as one of the Irish Acts to Watch, with further coverage and airplay from the likes of KEXP, Brooklyn Vegan, Stereogum, BBC and more. The band have also cemented their reputation within the Irish music community with their part in curating regular sell-out independent vinyl compilation A Litany of Failures.