Róisín Meets . . . Brendan and Declan Murphy from The 4 of Us

"We never did stuff that we didn't want to do. And if we made music we weren't happy with, we never let anybody hear it, even if that meant disappearing for a couple of years," Brendan Murphy, lead singer of The 4 of Us, tells Róisín Ingle on this week's Róisín Meets podcast.

The band is down to two members: brothers Brendan and Declan Murphy.

They called into the podcast to perform their new single Bird’s Eye View and discuss their music.

The band had a hit in 1989 with their single Mary, which was the most played song on Irish radio that year.

They released the album Man Alive in 1992 but did not put out another record for seven years.

“At various points, people thought we’d broken up,” Brendan says.

He says the band only put out music “when we thought we had something worth saying”.

Sugar Island

Their new studio album, Sugar Island, is set for an April release.

Sugar Island is a place in their hometown, Newry, Co Down, and many of its songs are about growing up in the North during the Troubles.

“When we were kids we lived on a hill and we’d look out over the town. At that time in the 1970s there was always something going bump in the night, literally.

“I remember being upstairs with Declan trying to figure out what had been blown up,” Brendan said.

The brothers will feature in the TG4 documentary series Ceol ón Chlann, which explores musical Irish families, in March.

The 4 of Us will perform songs from the new album at the Spirit Store in Dundalk on February 27th at 8pm. Tickets are available online.

To listen to the conversation or other episodes of the podcast, go to Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher.