Cliffords return with their first new music of the year, and a prelude to what their 2027 promises. ‘Rod For My Back‘ was recorded in London with producer Kev Jones (Wunderhorse, Little Grandad). The Cork four-piece have spent much of 2026 writing and recording their debut album and relocating to London. If it seemed a fallow twelve months, it’s been anything but.
Fresh from a UK tour support to The Mary Wallopers and almost a year to the day since their last single was released, ‘Marsh‘ November 2025, comes the raucous indie-rock of ‘Rod For My Back’. It’s an explosive return; melody-heavy and boxing smart with punches flying in from all angles. It means business – a song that justifies the wait. Lyrically, the song speaks on feeling like an outsider. The band explore their discomfort in the identity pushed on them and the feeling of not belonging, from growing up in small Irish towns to navigating the music industry.
Vocalist Iona Lynch explains:
“’Rod For My Back’ is a story about being misunderstood and commodified for a culture in which we always felt like outsiders. As a queer woman who didn’t fit the conventional norms of GAA clubs and the Catholic Church, I never quite felt “Irish” enough.
When we started touring around the UK for the first time, we were quickly put into a cultural box, as were the rest of our Irish peers. It felt as if our unique identities as Irish people were distilled down to an idea of culture which we never felt a part of, as if we had been washed away in a new wave of G-splitting Plastic Paddy enthusiasts.”
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