Junk Drawer
Junk Drawer are Brian Coney (bass/keys), Rory Dee (drums/guitar/vocals) and siblings Stevie (vocals/guitar) and Jake Lennox (vocals/guitar/drums). Their second album Days Of Heaven (Pizza Pizza Records, 2025) adds new levels of depth and clarity to an already signature sound.
Following their critically acclaimed debut album Ready For The House (Art For Blind, 2020) and 2022’s crucial stepping-stone EP The Dust Has Come To Stay, Days of Heaven is very much the product of four crate-digging music lovers with open ears and a genuine open-minded approach in their process. It is also the outworkings of rural Ulster strangeness, the province’s many lost futures, and the harmony & discordance of a sibling creative partnership. A potent cocktail.
Recorded over seven days at The Meadow Studios in Wicklow with producer Chris Ryan (Robocobra Quartet, Just Mustard, NewDad), Days Of Heaven underlines a new moment for the band - one of deep understanding of each other and a sublime confidence in their craft. This is a band who have reached maturity without losing any of that “early-stuff” magic.
“We’ve become more confident with time. We’ve grown to be more of an entity. While the different prominent influences are still there from each member, it all sounds more like us now.” With regards lyrics and inspiration, Stevie is “past the inward-looking thing that I was at on the first album” and has become much more interested in what it means to be an Ulsterman; a term that has been confused, misused, and seldom understood. This exploration of identity is helped along by psychedelic means, be they chemical, sound, meditation… snooker. This has led to an almost “group-think” understanding within the band.
Line Up
Formed in a Belfast bedroom in 2015 by brothers Stevie & Jake Lennox and Brian Coney from rural Mid-Ulster, Junk Drawer are an indie rock/grit-pop quartet. With a sibling rivalry at the helm and backgrounds in music criticism, the band are four musical magpies, collecting and sharing inspiration from all corners, including krautrock, guitar-driven '80s & '90s indie & alternative rock, shoegaze, post-punk, and psych. Featuring members of Sister Ghost, PigsAsPeople & Mons Olympus (amongst others), each member is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.
They debuted in 2015 with 'Their Self-Loathing Debut (Mostly)' and followed it up with 2016 single 'Song 3' which was included in Little L Records' 'A Litany of Failures' split EP with Oh Boland, Shrug Life & That Snaake, accompanied by a joint Irish tour.
They followed this up in spectacular fashion with their EP 'For The Cult Fat Guy', which achieved radio play from the likes of BBC Radio 1's Phil Taggart, 6Music's Tom Robinson, RTÉ's Dan Hegarty, and BBC Radio Ulster's Across the Line & Electric Mainline. 'For The Cult Fat Guy' also earned plaudits and places in end-of-year-lists from almost every Irish publication online, including Nialler9, Irish News, The Last Mixed Tape, The Point of Everything & The Thin Air, among many more.
Junk Drawer played Hard Working Class Heroes in 2016 and Belfast's Output Showcase in 2017, as well as supporting Jeffrey Lewis in their debut show, who declared them "one of the finest support acts I've seen in really quite some time".
Spring 2017 will see Junk Drawer tour the UK for the first time, ahead of a more extensive trip across the isles during the summer, coinciding with a forthcoming single & EP.
Press: “Right now, they are devastating the world of indie music. Your next favourite band, we promise!” - Third Outing
“Fans of Dinosaur Jr will dig the throwback guitar sound of their squalling lo-fi rock music" - Nialler9 (Irish Times)
"Fans of Pavement, Slint & Grandaddy, watch out for this EP." - Dan Hegarty, 2FM
"Absolutely stunning. I love Junk Drawer. I've loved them since I first heard them.” - Stephen McCauley (BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle)
“Their dreamy, gloom-tinged indie dips and dives on the EP, sounding like it was made by a band already six albums and a strained relationship with the alternative music press in to their careers. ” - EncoreNI
"There’s no getting around how infectious Junk Drawer’s music is." - TheLastMixedTape
“Purveyors of a wonderfully off kilter alternative rock in the vein of Pavement or Pixies.” - Overblown
"One of the best EP's to come out of the island of Ireland this year." - The Point of Everything on 2016's 'For The Cult Fat Guy' EP
"The actual music is a serious deal – it’s like the Horrors swirling around with the best of the American alternative scene in the early nineties." - The Point of Everything
