Cohorts: Musicians form band after meeting at Subsounds

Cohorts are an up-and-coming indie band that was formed after the four musicians met at the Rua Red-based music collective SubSounds over the last two years.

The band is composed of frontman Jamie Tobin and bassist El Fortune, both from Old Bawn, drummer Claudia Preston from Killinarden, and guitarist Evan Garry from Walkinstown.

The quartet have performed in various musical outfits over the years, but recently decided to permanently join forces and create Cohorts.

The band has a varied collection of influences, including Queen and the seminal Scottish dream-pop band Cocteau Twins.

Jamie, El, Claudia and Evan told The Echo about how Cohorts came to be, what it was like to play their first ever gig as Cohorts in Rua Red last month, and their hopes for the trajectory of the band.

How was Cohorts formed?

Evan: The band formed after four years or so of Jamie, El and myself meeting and after about two years of saying, ‘We would be deadly if we were in a proper band’, until one night we were all out together after finishing mentoring for the SubSounds music collective.

We got to properly planning. Everything was in place, all we needed was a name.

I remembered what my ma had said to me a few weeks before. She was reminiscing on Covid times and said, ‘Remember we had to be in our own little groups?

Our own little cohorts.’ She then said that would be a great name for a band – and the rest is history.

Who are the band’s key influences?

Evan: Our influences have great scope. Everything from the energy of performers like Freddie Mercury and Christy Dignam that Jamie embodies while on stage, to the psychedelic experimentation of Pink Floyd and Radiohead that is present in our songwriting.

Claudia and El draw greatly from the dreamy sounds of Cocteau Twins, which really informs the songs we write.

What was Cohorts’ first gig like?

Jamie: Our first, and to date only gig as Cohorts, was in Rua Red this Christmas just gone.

But we have played loads of gigs together before this, just not as Cohorts. We played our song ‘I Need You’ to close out the set.

The gig was to showcase the songwriting talents of the young people who attend SubSounds.

How would you describe SubSounds?

Jamie: SubSounds is a youth music collective where young musicians get to express themselves through songwriting and collaboration with other musicians.

Evan and I have been a part of SubSounds since 2019, El since 2020 and Claudia since this year.

I’d like to add that we wouldn’t have formed as a band without the help of all of the mentors from SubSounds through the years.

How would you describe Cohorts’ sound?

Claudia: Our sound is the result of four people who very much have different home fronts when it comes to music.

It’s this amalgamation of sounds that gives us our original sound. I wouldn’t say we can necessarily be pinned down to one genre, we just do what we think sounds cool and hope others find it just as cool.

It’s like we take everything we listen to, put it in a big mixer and end up with something unique.

For example, we could end up with a song that has the classic distorted guitars of early Britpop that also has a drum and bass style beat – as long as it sounds good, we’ll press on with it.

What plans are in the pipeline for the band?

El: Our plans for the future are to eventually release a full-length album, featuring fully produced tracks and hopefully raising enough from the album to produce physical copies.

We also have a goal to play a full set of 12 songs by March. We are currently in talks with a management team to see this gig through.

And we just plan to have fun with the band in the future and we look forward to working hard on the project.

Where can people go to find out more about Cohorts?

Our Instagram and Facebook pages @cohortsofficial and if anyone would like to contact us in regard to live shows or any other queries our email is cohortsofficial@gmail.com