‘I never thought I would like free jazz, but I really do’

In conversation: Daniel McIntyre and Parker Mulherin, musicians

Daniel McIntyre and Parker Mulherin.

What was the last gift that you bought?

Daniel: A music box for my girlfriend that plays Moon River.

Parker: Very nice! One of my friends collects goofy oven mitts. I found this really stupid oven mitt and bought it for her. It was a painting of a woman eating and it said 'I'm beautiful and I eat a lot'.

Daniel: That's a good hobby, collecting oven mitts.

Parker: She literally has a drawer full of them.

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What is your favourite place to visit?

Parker: I love New Orleans. I went to college there. It's a great place.

Daniel: Berlin.

Is there any artist you feel particularly connected to right now?

Daniel: Right now, I feel particularly connected to Jon Hopkins, his last album, and listening to the way that he talks about music. You're generally pretty connected to T-Pain.

Parker: Definitely! It's funny. We were in the studio the last couple of days going back and forth on a couple of songs and somehow landed on T-Pain. Part of it is nostalgia because I was in middle school when all of his music popped off.

Daniel: T-Pain has been a recurring theme.

What book do you keep returning to?

Daniel: At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien and The Ginger Man by JP Dunleavy. Those are my main two.

Parker: The main one for me is Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. It's a beautiful book, very simple, a relationship between two people.

Daniel: I don't know that one.

Parker: It's super good.

What was your favourite item of clothing when you were a teenager?

Parker: Before I really thought about clothes at all, I thought Hollister was really, really cool.

Daniel: Ooohhh!

Parker: I was like 14. It was a huge thing where I was, everyone wore Hollister. So probably a Hollister hoodie I thought was the coolest, which is obviously terrible now.

Daniel: I had these Ben Sherman Chelsea boots I was really into.

What was the first record you owned?

Parker: Blink 182, Take Off Your Pants And Jacket. I remember buying that.

Daniel: Something ridiculous like Pink or Beyoncé when I was a child.

Parker: I was six when I bought that Blink 182 CD!

Can you remember the first film you saw in the cinema?

Daniel: I can remember being in the cinema with all my friends when I was a child, but I can't remember the movie.

Parker: It might have been Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was The Philosopher's Stone for you guys, I don't know why we [Americans] had 'Sorcerer'.

Daniel: You don't have philosophers in America?

Parker: I do not know what the point of that title change was!

What is your favourite piece of technology?

Daniel: Ableton Live, recording software.

Parker: I'm going to say Voice Memo recordings on iPhones.

Daniel: Really? That's your favourite? Out of all the technology in the world?

Parker: Yeah!

What is your favourite street?

Parker: I'm going to say St Charles Avenue in New Orleans. All the houses are these beautiful old southern homes, there are a lot of parks off it, you can just walk for miles. It's a beautiful place.

Daniel: I really like Chatham Street, where Neary’s pub is.

In your opinion, what is the greatest TV show of all time?

Daniel: The Sopranos.

Parker: Avatar: The Last Airbender. I love that show.

Is there any type of art you love, but privately?

Daniel: I'm pretty vocal about the things I like! Weirdly, and I've only just discovered that I like this, but free jazz I really like. I'd never really thought it would be something that I like, but I really like it.

Parker: It's not super surprising because of where I'm from, but I love really ignorant southern rap music so much. There's something so visceral about the energy behind it and being in a room of people and listening to it, and everyone channelling it together is so primal.

Daniel: What kind of rap would you say is ignorant southern rap?

Parker: I mean when I say "ignorant", a lot of people say that about some trap rap, but more classic Memphis rap or Atlanta stuff.

What do you wish you studied more in school?

Parker: History.

Daniel: Physics.

To what do you owe a parent?

Daniel: My life.

Parker: Everything about myself. My mom is like an angel. Everything.

Daniel: The ability to pursue music as a career, definitely.

Daniel McIntyre aka lullahush is an Irish musician and a participant in the 2018 Red Bull Music Academy along with Parker Mulherin, part of American RnB duo Mulherin.