BASHT.: "Bitter and Twisted", Cinematic Dread & Outgrowing the Irish Underground
Deconstructing the sonic tension of ‘Bitter and Twisted’ in an interview with Basht. frontman Jack Leavey.
There’s just something about the way Jack Leavey commands a stage that lets you feel it. The heavy air of an overpacked room, the ringing in your ears after the amps cut out, the grit of Dublin filtered through the cold strobe lights of a cabaret-haunted Berlin venue.
Basht.’s Bitter and Twisted EP is definitely exception to this trend. It inhabits that same atmosphere, where traditional Irish lineage meets modern distortion in a way that neither one comes out unchanged. Since its release in May of 2025, it has refused to sit politely between indie pop hits. It’s a record that demands you brace yourself before you press play.
We caught up with frontman, Jack Leavey following their support slot for Miles Kane at Berlin’s Heimathafen Neukölln to discuss the EP’s enduring impact and the cutthroat writing process. Presently, the band is back on Irish soil, moving through gig dates in Cork and Limerick, before they arrive back in the UK for Sheffield on the 27th.
DUBLIN’S TEMPLE BAR AS LOCAL ANCHOR
While the rest of the industry is smoothing edges for algorithmic reach, Basht.’s delivery stays rooted. Dublin through and through.
Leavey’s lineage is woven into the city’s cultural concrete - his father ran the Music Centre in Temple Bar for years. That proximity matters. It’s why the bond between Leavey and long-time bassist Louis Christle feels telepathic; a foundational rhythm forged in the trenches long before the world was watching. Christle is the steady hand in the storm, the dark, melodic gravity that allows the rest of the band to spiral without losing the thread.
The lineup is a collection of distinct Dublin histories. Guitarist Lughaidh Armstrong Mayock brings a multidimensional perspective, having led his own project, Sky Atlas. This lineup was further sharpened and strengthened late last year with drummer Ryan McClelland. A student of the legendary Benny Greb, McClelland is a technical perfectionist whose percussive credits - Sorcha Richardson, David Keenan, Efe - describe him as one of the most in-demand drummers in Ireland.
CLAUSTROPHOBIA IN TRANSLATION
Basht. has been chipping away at cold stone for a while, but there’s only so long you can contain that noise in a local scene.
Stepping out of Dublin’s airless rooms and onto a stage defined by the grand, leopard-print decadence of the Miles Kane tour (pictured) acts as a high-velocity stress test for the band’s sonic architecture.
“When we started out in Dublin, it was all tiny rooms where everyone was basically on top of each other, so the songs kinda grew up with that claustrophobic energy,” Leavey explains. Taking tracks forged in airless rooms across Europe alters the alchemy. “When we play a place like Berlin, the vibe changes, the rooms are bigger so the sound’s got room to breathe. If anything, you lean into the music harder to make sure the punch still lands at the back of the room.”
CHARACTER AND DREAD
The EP was born in uncertainty, but Leavey is now building worlds drawn from darker aesthetics.
In the cinematic haze of the Heimathafen (pictured), the tension between Leavey’s darker aesthetics and the symphonic grit of the evening’s headliner became the primary narrative.
“A lot of the imagery comes from the atmosphere when we’re writing, your brain starts wandering into darker scenes,” Leavey notes. “I take inspiration a lot bits from films and books, like gritty characters that you’re not quite sure of their intentions. We want our music to feel tense and cinematic.”
THE WEIGHT OF THE PROCESS
That cinematic scale is achieved through a famously merciless creative process. They will gladly incinerate weeks of tracking if the spark fails to draw blood.
“The title track (Bitter and Twisted) was one that nearly killed us,” Leavey admits laughing. “We went through loads of versions, different tempos, structures, the lot. We scrap stuff if it doesn’t feel right, no matter how long we’ve spent on it. When we played the EP version live, it clicked straight away.”
Before stepping into the glare to deliver that chaos, they ground themselves in the rough-hewn melodies of their heritage. “We usually chuck on something Irish before we go on. Pogues, Dubliners, Thin Lizzy etc. Nothing too polished, just something to get us in the zone. Once the volume’s up and we’re moving, we’re good to go.”
ROAD TESTING THE ARCHITECTURE
Bitter and Twisted laid the groundwork, but the Heimathafen set was a visceral display of the new blueprint, punctuated by the unmasked aggression of new cuts like “Keira Knightley” and the jagged social rot of “Terror TV.” The latter, a blistering unreleased cut, weaponizes the paralyzing dread of the 24-hour news cycle - deconstructing the specific, crushing way the modern media landscape forces a sense of absolute insignificance upon the individual.
“This EP’s been a real turning point,” Leavey says. “We learned loads from playing live... some of the new stuff’s heading in a heavier, darker and maybe more cinematic direction. For this tour, it’s all about playing the new material we’ve been writing... a great opportunity to road test new ideas before heading back into the studio. We want a full album with the same raw edge as the EP, but bigger.”
With new music officially slated to drop later this year, the next phase of their sonic architecture is already in motion. No slick campaign. Just a noise that needed to exist, finally finding its way onto the stage.
- Shelley D. Schwartz
Visuals curated by Dan Stevenson (Berlin, Basht. photos - IG: danstevenson) and David Reinecke (Miles Kane photo - IG: davidreineckestudios) for The Crimson Wire. © 2026.
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