For Nina

Dublin's three-piece For Nina share new single "Swallow"

Dublin three-piece For Nina shared their latest single "Swallow" last week. "Swallow" follows the success of their past single "Hounds" which, at the band's first push into press, saw them grace the cover of The Line Of Best Fit's New Music Discovery playlist and subsequent track review, feature in DIY's NEU Bulletin, and received a plethora of support from the likes of RTÉ, Rough Trade, Hot Press among many others.

Before even that, an organic buzz had already started for the young band, selling out their packing out their own headline at Dublin's Whelan’s and a sold-out headline at Dublin’s Workman’s Club, and being booked as the newest band at 2024's Irish Music Week. "Swallow" takes the For Nina's sound to new heights, striking a contrast to the youthful, bounciness of "Hounds", opting instead for for a darker, slower and more thoughtful method to song writing.

The new approach allows for the band space to grow into something uniquely their own, overlaying moody guitar licks with twinkling cadences while Holly Owens has a chance to explore the full range in her ethereal, yet distinctly Irish vocal delivery. The song's slow build draws to a monumental conclusion as the band break into a wash of heavy, shoegaze-inflected distortion, carrying Holly’s vocals to a soaring, near-cinematic peak. A confident step forward in their evolving sound.

Speaking on the track the band said,

"Holly wrote the guts of the song years ago, back when she was in secondary school, and it got completely lost in the drafts. We stumbled across it sitting at home one night and heard this crazy potential from the chorus, gave it a new format and first verse and we were flying from there.

We only started playing it a couple months ago, but from the first time we played it in a live set we knew it was sparkling in a different way to some of our other songs."

They continue,

"‘Swallow’ generally spins around ideas of self-sabotage and biting your tongue. In some ways, it’s about lots of different things all at once and different people have attached their own meaning to it - which we find really lovely to hear."

“Swallow” is a striking reminder of For Nina’s growing confidence and identity, a band leaning further into their own sound with clarity and purpose. It’s a subtle but significant evolution, and one that suggests there’s plenty more to come.