“When you walk alone, keep your keys between your fingers” 

Dublin-based indie band Runway Lights are back with an exceptional new single, “Start A Flood.” It’s the second (potential) new taste off their forthcoming sophomore album, behind “Before the Storm.” The band consists of singer Louise O’Hanlon, guitarists and brothers Shane and Oisin O’Neill, bassist Ronan Parker and drummer Colm Keenan. Shane O’Neill also handled the engineering and production of “Flood,” and shared mixing duties with Peter Meighan.

The song is an urgent and important one, as it details the way that minorities across the world have to live in a state of vigilance against violence provoked by misogyny, transphobia, racism, or whatever mental evils plague the lesser individuals. The song was directly inspired by the murder of Ashling Murphy, a 23-year old teacher murdered in 2023 in a seemingly random attack in Tullamore, Ireland. The song also acts as a memorial to the young woman, who was passionate about her Irish culture that rallied around her after her passing. 

Musically, the song hearkens back to 90’s guitar indie. It’s louder than most of the songs on their debut album, 2023’s Fracture and Fragment, with some cathartic guitar work coupling the song’s urgency. But it still feels pretty distinctly indie-pop as well, with O’Hanlon’s smooth vocals dominating the quiet intro to the song. She maintains catchy vocal rhythms throughout the song, carrying the chorus to keep it in the pop realm. Around a minute in, a wall of guitar and bass fuzz kick in loudly, and never really let up. “Fun” may not be the right word for a song that carries such a heavy message, but it is absolutely an earworm that I’ve listened to a few times now.

Runway Lights seem to be following the trend of indie bands looking back to the 90’s indie sound, with loud guitars and clean vocals. The song doesn’t feel out of place around Pixies, Built to Spill or – perhaps logically – the Cranberries. There might be a surplus of indie bands out there (not a bad problem to have), but make space for Runway Lights. Their second album will be out later this year, and I suspect I’ll be writing more about them.