Foto-© Tatiana Pozuelo

Die Geschichte von Bleech 9:3 beginnt nicht in einem Proberaum oder auf einer Bühne, sondern in einem Rehabilitationsprogramm. Dort lernten sich Barry Quinlan und Sam Duffy kennen und stellten schnell fest, dass sie mehr verbindet als nur ihre Recovery-Journey. Aus Freundschaft wurden regelmäßige Songwriting-Sessions, aus Songwriting-Sessions entstand eine Band. Gemeinsam mit James Quinlan und Luke O’Neill formten sie schließlich Bleech 9:3. Inzwischen sorgt das Quartett mit intensiven Live-Shows, tiefgründigen Texten und einem Sound zwischen Alternative Rock und Grunge für Aufmerksamkeit weit über die Londoner Musikszene hinaus. Dabei sind viele ihrer Songs eng mit den Erfahrungen verbunden, die die Bandmitglieder geprägt haben. Wir haben Barry und Sam vor ihrer Show mit Keo in Hamburg getroffen und mit ihnen über Freundschaft, den Umzug von Dublin nach London und die Geschichte hinter Bleech 9:3 gesprochen.

Barry & Sam, you were introduced to each other at a 12-step rehab programme, and you (Barry) became Sam’s sponsor. When did your relationship shift from a professional one to friendship?
Barry: Well, the great thing about those programs is that it’s not a professional thing. It’s something that you do for free. That’s the reason that AA works so well. So, it was never professional until we started playing in a band together, then it became professional. Actually, up until recently. But from the beginning, it was always about friendship and it’s about friendship to this day.

When did music start playing a role in your recovery journey?
Barry: I think pretty much straight away because we would meet to do our recovery work and then at the end of those sessions, we would always naturally just pick up the guitars. There were always guitars around. So pretty immediately we started writing music together as well. The two things came hand in hand.

When did Bleech 9:3 become Bleech 9:3?
Barry: Bleech became Bleech over time. And we played our first show in August 2024. I suppose the band really became Bleech when Luke (drummer) joined. But Luke didn’t even play that show. So that’s how early it was. We had a couple different names when it was really just me and Sam writing songs together. But as soon as my brother became involved, and Luke became involved, really quickly, Bleech became a Bleech.

Do you think your band could have existed if you had met under different circumstances?
Barry: I think because we had the chance to play in other bands back home in Dublin and had that chance to develop (…), we knew what we wanted to do musically, we knew what we had to say with the songs and we had a clear idea of where we wanted to start from. And then obviously the addiction life that we both shared, you can’t separate the music from that. It’s very much at the heart of what we do.

At some point, you both decided to move to London with James and Luke joining later. What were the reasons behind the relocation? What does London have that you were maybe lacking in Dublin?
Sam: I think like Barry said, you know, we had played in bands before in Dublin. And unfortunately, (…) the closest place for artists to go in Ireland, to put themselves in front of the industry, is London. There’s not as many opportunities in Dublin to meet managers and labels. They are there, but it’s not as common. So having done all that time in Dublin, we knew if we wanted to, you know, have this be taken as seriously by people in the industry as we were taking it ourselves, we needed to put ourselves in front of it.

What does a typical writing and recording process look like for you?
Barry: It always has to go through a difficult process for a song to become a Bleech song. You usually have to wrestle with it and tear it down a bit, you know? Sometimes I might write a song and bring it in; most of the time, it’ll change drastically as the band takes on the process of making it our own.
Sam: There have been loads of songs where the music has changed entirely. And there’s obviously some songs in the set where Barry doesn’t play guitar either. You have to understand that he brought those songs to it on the guitar and they changed so much of the book that it really strips it down and builds back up.

Why do you think your music resonates with so many people?
Barry: I think music is a language and it doesn’t matter where you’re from. It’s a language you all understand. And I think it communicates something to us beyond conscious thought. That’s how I’ve always felt about the music that I thought was great. That’s always what I wanted to try and do.

There are music videos for all singles you have released. How important is visual storytelling to you?
Sam: Yeah, we’ve all felt very interested and inspired by them when they were happening. I personally think it’s a very interesting thing to add a visual that relates to the music (…). We have a deep interest in popular culture, movies we really like. We always tried to do a little nod to all these great films in our music videos. So, they’ve been a really, really exciting outlet, for me personally, to explore through our music. And I am really excited to see how they evolve over time.

Can each of you name a musical influence that informed the sound of Bleech 9:3?
Sam: I think for something that informed the sound of Bleech, it’s maybe selfish but I’m looking at this through something that informed my guitar playing. I’ve always been interested in really old songs. There’s an English band called The Shadows and the guitar player has the red stratocaster and he always does these really big sounding single notes on a string (…). I just think that’s the only direct reference I can think of right now.
Barry: I think for me, I’ve always just loved the power of song and the craft and alchemy between words and music. As a kid, I was exposed to lots of great songwriters by my father.

Was he a musician?
Barry: I think he wanted to be a musician. He didn’t go that way in the end with his life. I think you know, from the age of like one years old, I was listening to bands like Radiohead and I remember my dad playing that Jeff Buckley album “Grace” all the time in the car.

People talk about the resurgence of guitar music. Do you think that’s accurate or would you say guitar bands never left – people just started longing for them again?
Barry: I don’t know, it’s hard to say. I think it was always the music that I listened to. But I think there has to be a depth to the music, and maybe, let’s say, the more digital life gets, the more there’s a hunger for something that is more real. So, I think maybe that’s what we see reflected in societies now.

Wir präsentieren die anstehende und schon ausverkaufte Show von Bleech 9:3 in Berlin und verlosen in diesem Zuge 2×2 Gästelistenplätze für die Show! Ihr wollt hin und gewinnen? Dann schickt uns bis zum 14. September eine Mail mit dem Betreff „Bleech 9:3 Berlin“ und eurem vollständigen Namen und mit etwas Glück habt ihr Anfang nächster Woche frohe Gewinnkunde von uns in eurem digitalen Postfach!

Bleech 9:3 Tour:
15.09.26 Berlin, Privatclub – ausverkauft
16.09.26 Hamburg, Reeperbahn Festival