Music collective aims at people to be creative

“THE principle aim of the collective is to encourage young people to be creative and offer them the means of the space to do so,” explains singer-songwriter Lara Fleming regarding the SubSounds Youth Music collective.

Coming off the success of the Music Festival in July, the 2025/26 SubSounds projects will start up in October this year, with the application process beginning at the end of August.

The group have two releases this month to promote their applications opening, with one of their more experienced artists, River Sweeney, releasing their new single, ‘Like A Poet’, on August 15.

River has been a SubSounds participant for the past 5 to 6 years and will join the mentor team in October.

On August 29, the collective are releasing their latest album titled ‘So Extra’, which will feature songs written and recorded by participants between January and June 2025.

When asked about the work that has gone into organising all of this, Lara responds by revealing that the participants and mentors have been working on the songs “all year” in workshops and rehearsals.

Recordings took place in CONTACT Studio in Rua Red and Camden Recording Studios in Dublin City Centre.

The songs were then mixed and mastered by SubSounds engineers and are ready to be released on streaming platforms such as Bandcamp, Spotify, TIDAL, Apple Music, etc.

Lara herself is currently in the stages of pre-production on her new single, working on the final arrangements before a full band is brought in for rehearsals.

She is hoping to release it around January or February of 2026, so be sure to keep an eye out.

Lara would like to thank Music Generation and CONTACT for a “great partnership” in SubSounds, which has lasted over 10 years as of writing.

She would also like to extend her gratitude to the Annette Halpin Memorial Award for providing “much needed” funding that helped her with her single toward completion of the project, and Martin Moran for supporting her and her musical journey.

Applications for SubSounds 25/26 will go live on SubSounds on Friday, August 29.