Music Editor Barry Fenton sits down with Binmen’s Ryan and Seb over a cup of coffee
It’s a grey and heavy-skied Sunday afternoon, where the air hangs thick with the promise of rain but never quite delivers. Bray’s seafront is eerily quiet, save for the occasional crash of a restless tide and the chatter of gulls. I slip into a small coffee shop just off the promenade, the kind with fogged-up windows and the scent of burnt espresso lingering in the air.
Ryan and Seb meet me on my way in, a brief introduction before equipping ourselves with caffeine and sitting down to discuss their band Binmen – a rock quartet with three of UCD’s alumni making waves in the Dublin music scene for their unique take on post-punk, or “post-junk” as they call it.
We’re crammed into the corner, coffees in hand, as they talk about their journey from grunge-inspired beginnings to what they now call ‘wonky rock.’ Ryan, the powerhouse frontman, explains, “Post junk is still rooted in Rock n Roll but we’re having a bit of craic with it. It’s like haunted carnival music. But not serious… never serious.”
They’ve just finished talking about their old music - songs that Ryan drunkenly deleted from Spotify in a fit of reinvention.“I wanted a fresh start,” he shrugs.
And maybe that’s the essence of Binmen: always moving, always reinventing, looking for a laugh.
An Evolution Of Sound
Binmen’s early material had a heavier, grungier sound - think Alice in Chains. Since then, the group have stripped down to a more New Wave-retro feel, dropping the angst and introducing a much more noticeably satirical element to much of their lyrics; unmistakable with the release of the single ‘Working For Who?’, which includes the line, “Unbelievable! Post-Junk quartet, Binmen announce bona fide Christmas number 1 hit in the middle of April in what has been hailed as an ‘interesting marketing choice.’”
Some might describe their sound now as post-punk with a smirk. “There’s something fun about not taking it too seriously,” says Seb, the drummer, “Like, musically, it’s tight. Lyrically, we take the piss. But it’s got heart.”
Take ‘Shopping Local,’ one of their newer tracks. It started as a mundane Tuesday stroll around town and became a song about the humor and melancholy of small-town life. “I was just bored,” Ryan laughs, “so I went to the shops. Then I wrote about it.”
The Philosophy of Playfulness
It’s clear that ‘playfulness’ is more than a gimmick to them - it’s a creative philosophy. The band talks about how so many artists overthink their craft to the point of suffocation. Not them.
“People take themselves too seriously,” Ryan says, “You have to be having fun. That’s when the best shit happens.”
It’s the same energy that led them to mess around with pedals until ‘Talking to Robots’ sounded like a computer having a meltdown. It’s why they scrapped their grunge past and leaned into a sound that invites people to dance along to some of the absurdities around us. From ‘Shopping Local’:
There’s a quiet place
propelled by pensioners and
yummy-mummies walking around….
I’m Shopping Local
“You can’t be properly creative without being playful about it. That manifests in every artist differently, but this new approach is honest,” Ryan says.
Seb agrees, “We don’t want to feel like we’re playing anyone else’s songs.”
The Binmen Looking Forward
With their guitarist Gavin in London completing a master's degree, the band has been adapting. New member Josh has slipped in seamlessly. “It was the easiest thing ever,” Ryan says,“We like him, he likes us. Simple.”
They’ve got their eyes on London for future gigs, but only if they can do it right. “Last time, we played a Tuesday night to a crowd of our own mates,” Seb says, shaking his head, “Next time, we need to do it properly.”
As for recording, they recently won a competition that’ll get them studio time, a gig, and some PR. “It’s a nice little boost,” Ryan nods, “The plan is to get this next track out and build from there.”
And then, I ask the dreaded question: would they ever write a slow song? They hesitate. “Maybe,” Ryan concedes. “If it happens naturally.” But don’t expect an emotional ballad just yet. “The gigs are about energy. I like seeing people move.”
The Binmen Ethos
As we finish up, our coffees are drained and so is my social battery. The hum of the cafe is beginning to dim at this stage as I check the time and realise it has gone on much longer than expected. I thank them for their time and wish them all the best in all their upcoming projects before rushing around the corner to catch my train.
The humor, the chaos, the refusal to play it straight - that’s all part of the energy. But at its core, Binmen is a band built on something real. A band that makes people dance, laugh, and - most importantly - enjoy themselves. And in a music scene that sometimes takes itself too seriously, that’s exactly what we need.
To make this perfectly clear, Binmen are special. There is something in their attitude that is going to stick. When it sticks, it will come alive, and when it does that, no one will ever be looking at their neighbourhood sanitation the same way.