Behind the Board: Spearside on Punk Rock Music Production

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Following the release of their new EP, Couldn’t Be Told, in October last year, Irish hardcore duo Spearside are gearing up for a productive 2026. A steady run of releases have seen the Irish outfit established as a sharp and uncompromising presence within Ireland’s heavy music underground, while the self-produced EP finds the band continuing to refine their sound while drawing on the raw urgency and discipline of classic hardcore punk. Built on fast, abrasive rhythms and tightly focused songwriting, Couldn’t Be Told signals another step forward in Spearside’s evolving approach.

The EP arrives after a period of increased momentum for the band and expands on the foundations laid by their previous work, blending heaviness with moments of reflection and melody. As Spearside and their music begin to reach a wider audience, the new EP marks a clear snapshot of where the band are at right now.

In this Behind The Board interview, Spearside talk through the process behind the EP, their influences, and how their sound continues to develop.

If you could have any artist, living or dead, produce your next track, who would it be?

“It would have to be Brendan Benson. I’ve been a huge fan of his since I was a kid. His solo stuff is incredible as are the Racontuers’ records. His debut solo album One Mississippi is probably my favourite album of all time. He’s a guitar pop genius but he was a hardcore gig growing up as far as I know so I think he’d be a great fit.”

Have you ever scrapped an entire project after recording? Why?

“Too many times. That’s the problem with recording everything yourself, you have infinite do-overs because you’re not working to a studio clock. In Spearside we almost always do multiple versions of a track before it is released. The most common reason for redoing a track is tempo – the recording either comes out too fast or too slow and the feel just isn’t there.”

What’s one piece of recording equipment you refuse to work without?

“I would struggle a lot to get a decent recording without my preamps. I have a rack of neve and api clones that I rely on heavily for tone as pretty much everything I record comes from microphones or a DI into a preamp. Apart from the odd keyboard sound I use almost no software instruments as I honestly don’t know how, I’m old school.”

What’s your opinion on Auto-Tune and pitch correction software?

“Well if you listen to Spearside vocals you’ll hear that we never use auto-tune. I’d don’t mind a vocal being a bit flat if the delivery feels right. Some of my favourite vocal tracks are out of tune, like a lot of In Utero for example. We definitely get bogged down in perfecting the feel in the studio, but stuff like out of tune vocals or guitars isn’t much of a concern for us. Again, I genuinely don’t know how to use stuff like that, it’s too scary!”

What common mistakes do artists make when first recording?

“A lot of the mistakes we made early on and continue to make are just overdoing the mix. Bouncing stuff through outboard gear multiple times, tinkering with EQs, over-compressing. I try to keep things as simple as possible and get things sounding good at the tracking stage. Less is more, it’s a cliché for a reason.”

If you could only use three microphones for the rest of your career, which would you choose?

“That’s an easy one for me as I’ve used the same mics for every single project I’ve ever done since I was a kid. My Dad has an old AKG C414 from the 80s that I’ve used for every vocal I’ve ever done. It’s been dropped and broken multiple times and is currently duct-taped together but still going strong. My voice sounds weird whenever I’ve tried another mic. Number two would be the humble SM57. I got one when I was about twelve and I’ve been using them ever since – simple but they work. Lastly, I’d go with a Beyerdynamic M160. I use them for overheads and guitars, you can’t beat ribbons on drums. I feel like with those three mics I’d be covered in almost any situation.”

What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten about music production?

“I was getting the first song we ever put out mastered (a song called “Pint of Bleach,” you can still find it on Bandcamp). I was big into room micing everything at the time but I was recording in a tiny, completely untreated room. I asked the mastering engineer what I could do to improve my next mixes and I’ll never forget what he said to me. He said the mix sounded ‘hollow’. That blew my mind. I was so concerned with making everything sound ambient and roomy that I paid no attention to building a punchy centre channel with the kick, snare and bass – the hallmarks of punk and hardcore production. That’s where I always start these days.”

Describe the moment you realized music production was your thing.

“I was about ten years old and I was messing around on my Dad’s old zoom multicrack recorder. Those were what everyone had for home demos before DAWs became a thing you could have at home. I recorded some guitar chords in the key of E that looped and then had another track on a fader for lead guitar. I literally just picked the high e-string repeatedly over the four chords but couldn’t believe how different the same note sounded each time the chord changed. Messing with the fader, bringing the little ‘lead’ track in and out – that was it for me, I was hooked.

How do you handle creative differences with your team or bandmates?

“When you work primarily with the same person (my brother in this case) for a long time, you just know how the other person ticks. We argue so much in general that we’ve learned to keep that out of the creative process. I only really pay attention to what my brother thinks about the direction things are going. We each try not to listen to anyone else. If my brother wants to take things in another direction, I’ll usually trust him because he’s very calculated and considered. I tend to make decisions on a whim and he tempers things slightly. The older we get and the more we create, the more collaborative we’ve become. It’s a nice place to be.”