Article by Alan Corcoran. Cover photo by Mickey Rooney.
Every so often a geriatric pop-punker like myself will see a band that serves as a reminder as to why you like this ridiculous genre in the first place. Derry’s Cherym are one of these bands.
Hitting the stage as a cluster of energy and a little bit of endearing nervousness, it took about 30 seconds before they won the crowd over and had everyone in the venue mentally filing the moment away for future, “I saw them before they were a thing,” conversations.
For such a young band to have songwriting chops this good is frankly sickening. Every song skirts the line between power pop and 77 punk. Every melody and musical movement is delivered with a half smile and a shrug of the shoulders, as if it’s all happening by accident. They are either naturally musically gifted or incredible at acting and this curmudgeon isn’t sure which is worse.
Lead single Take It Back sets out their stall: you’re gonna get driving basslines, drums that will kick you upside your head, plenty of fuzzy guitar tones and vocal melodies to tie these disparate things into approx. 3 minutes of pop punk goodness.
The harmonies and chorus structures could help the band easily make the transition to mainstream radio, if someone was to throw a suitcase of money at them (record labels still do this, right?) to record at a fancy recording studio. (Eh, they still exist, right?)
Cherym have the vibe of a band that will continue to make songs that they want to play, regardless of what bemusing path this takes them on. If that gets them support slots on tours (it has) and played on BBC Radio 1 (also yes) then all the better. They could write nothing but Kesha rip-offs for the next ten years and they’d still be more punk than you. Get into them while you can still claim them as a hidden gem.
Cherym are due to release a new single in January. Follow them on Facebook for the latest.
Article by Alan Corcoran.
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