Belters Only looking forward to Marquee gig in Cork this weekend
Stevie G with Belters Only in Cork
I recently chatted to the lads in RedFM before we hosted a boat party on Cork harbour to help promote their forthcoming show at Live at the Marquee this July, where they will be supported by Route 94. Reflecting on our previous interview, I had written that I was really impressed by “their overall vision and determination” and I came away from the chat “realising that they will greatly help take dance music much further outside of Ireland in the next number of years.”
It’s fair to say that during the intervening two years they have consolidated this success greatly and the lads were just back from a trip to Bali when we chatted.
What’s it like touring non-stop and releasing music every month too?
“Yeah, it’s great. Listen, we love this. It hasn’t changed, you know? I mean, we’re in a position now where we can self-release through our We Are Active label, and the more we release, the more it’s going to give other people a platform to release through it. So yeah, now things are going great, everything’s very fluid for us, and there’s tons of music coming out, more frequent than usual, so yeah, happy days.”
One of these new releases, To the Max, features Dundalk rapper Reggie B, hot after his recent Talk of the Town single with Fred Again. How did that come about?
“Obviously, he’s blown up as well, so it’s really cool. We had seen that Reggie was flying, and obviously knew him before with the drill stuff, but then when Fred Again came in it just sent him to another world, and it’s unreal. He actually reached out to us, then he wanted to follow up to the track he did with Fred, and it was a no-brainer for us, really.”
Belters Only tell me they can’t wait for the show in Cork but it’s not just the Reggie tune that has them excited.
“We will be releasing a lot to our own label this year. We have lots lined up; we just signed a new lad from Liverpool called Ben Griff. Okay, we’re going to be veering across the likes of Liverpool in that as well, because that’s like half a Dublin as well (laughs). There’s so many just out, Conor Thompson, Evan McGee, Danny P”.
In our previous conversation in 2024 we had spoken about Evan McGee, Cameron Watson, Josh Dowdall and Conor Thompson and it’s been great watching their progress since, with Belters Only helping build an infrastructure through We Are Active and other avenues that is making sure even more Irish artists succeed now going forward.
This is one of the things which has impressed me most about the Belters Only team. For years Ireland has been behind the UK and elsewhere industry-wise despite having the talent. Belters and others are cross-promoting loads of other artists and helping put Ireland on the map worldwide. We can all share these wins together. Evan Field has been part of the team since day one and is now “the manager at the label, and he’s been smashing it lately. You look at the socials, it’s great. It is, so yeah, we’re just all about inspiring the young kids to come up, come up through the ranks, provide the platform for them to drop the music”
The history of dance music has been littered with stories about how people can do it themselves and we finished our chat by talking about how technological advances are making us more self-sufficient.
“Everything’s in the palm of your hand” they tell me.
“There’s no real excuse anymore. Like, if you really want to, you know, you can open up a laptop, and if you’re persistent with it, you can do it, and that comes to even trying to get a hold of, like, bigger names and stuff.
“Like, yeah, you can approach anybody now, you just send music off, and you’re on the road, making tunes in airports and playing, for sure.”
Belters Only are sure making it look effortless and their Marquee show should be a blast!
- Belters Only play Live at the Marquee on Friday, July 3
