New music to listen to this week: Floor Staff

Now Hear This

Floor Staff is songwriter, producer and composer Anthony Donnelly - a Dublin-based artist (and fellow D'Angelo obsessive) who explores social anxieties and expectations through his innovative take on pop music.

Singing in a beautiful falsetto, Donnelly says he tracked down the emotions captured on the album by playing and recording random objects with engineer Christopher Barry.

He's putting out a new EP, Convictions on 14 April - ahead of that we're premiering the shimmering new track 'A Love Sublime'.

Give it a listen below:

What have you been listening to recently?

I’ve been listening to Beach House almost non-stop for the last 2 weeks. Mainly ‘Teen Dream’ and ‘Bloom’. It’s just the most relaxing music. Everything builds so tastefully. On the surface it’s quite simple and comforting. Then the clever chord changes and rhythms sneak up on you.

I’m listening to a lot of Frank Ocean at the moment also. Really enjoying the ‘Endless’ visuals album, the way it’s mainly a group of short musical ideas but it also has what can be considered a full song dotted now and then throughout. It’s interesting how that kind of structure can be a very engaging 45-minute listen.

What are your plans for 2017?

I have some new musical ideas and approaches I’m looking to experiment with this year. I think I’ll be more confortable introducing very new or unrecorded ideas into the live shows. I can learn from the way it feels in a live setting and it should keep the shows fresh and interesting for my band and myself.

I’ll be announcing some shows shortly for this summer and there will be some touring of Ireland and the UK. Writing wise I’m still pushing forward and recording with another release hopefully before the year is out.

What was the first gig you ever played and what’s been the best so far?

When I was 16 I fronted a band called ‘Prime Stroking Position’. We entered our schools battle of the bands. We took 2nd place at our first ever show. This was most likely down to our incredible rendition of ACDC’s ‘Highway To Hell’. After this dizzying high the band dissolved but our lives would never be the same again.

With Floor Staff, my favorite solo show was probably a piano set I did in the Workmans Club Dublin for a charity called Syria’s Vibes last Christmas. I had only started playing piano during the summer.

This was the fifth attempt at a show like this and the first time I felt I was really free to perform on that instrument rather then just playing it.

In terms of a full band show, my favorite so far is the 2014 Other Voices festival in Dingle. It was just a great atmosphere on stage and we met a lot of our favourite artists for the first time who were on the line up.

Convictions - the new EP from Floor Staff - is out on 14 April