Following their 2024 EP Glórach, West-Irish noise-punk outfit Nerves release their most sonically volatile and emotionally bare release to date. On new single‘Dirty Fingers‘ the band again collaborates with producer Daniel Fox (Gilla Band). ‘Dirty Fingers’ sees Nerves delve headfirst into their industrial undercurrent, carefully balancing volatility with razor-edged focus. Blistering rhythms and serrated guitars lurch under stark, exposed vocals in a track that feels like it’s constantly teetering on the edge of implosion.
Frontman Kyle Thornton shares:
“With ‘Dirty Fingers’ we wanted to come out of the gates with something that was fast, intense and sonically overwhelming. We feel that our first EP was the sound of the band finally hitting upon a sound and style that we could move forward with, and this next batch of music coming this year is us doubling down on every aspect of our sound. ‘Dirty Fingers’ is the abrasive, danceable and industrial side of this band taken to its extreme, with the added vulnerability of starting a tune with just vocals, something which freaked me out enough at the time that I knew it was probably a good idea.”
Lyrically, the track wrestles with personal collapse and the slippery process of trying to rebuild – its feverish intensity reflecting a psyche at war with itself, reeling from substance-induced ruin while clawing toward redemption. ‘Dirty Fingers’ doesn’t offer a resolution, only the desperate momentum of someone sprinting from the wreckage they helped create.
The song is accompanied by a visually arresting black-and-white video directed by the band’s bassist Ryan Mortell, delving into Ireland’s folk horror roots, directed with a cinematic flair that nods to The Wicker Man, The VVitch and Kill List. Set against a stark and spectral Irish backdrop, the video follows a lone figure through a subliminal, almost otherworldly space. Mortell explains:
“I wanted to explore this idea that the open, barren landscape of Ireland in itself plays a character, almost engulfing everything within it. Dense forest, abandoned stone towers and hillsides stripped bare by the elements all culminate to create this almost ethereal purgatory that our character traverses.”
“Ultimately, the video is about questioning if you can truly ever leave your home, or will there always be a part of you left behind? What demons will pursue you in order for you to accept that home is truly where your heart lies? It’s a fundamental Irish question that we all find ourselves asking in an age of mass emigration.”
For more information on Nerves please check their facebook and instagram.
