M(h)aol Share New Single, ‘Period Sex’ From Upcoming Debut Album

UK Headline Tour announced

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Irish 5-piece M(h)aol have shared their new single, Period Sex, the final track to be released ahead of the release of their debut album, Attachment Styles, which lands this Friday via TULLE Collective and Rough Trade Publishing. 

At six minutes long, the track closes the album and is a celebration of periods, and how they are still a taboo, uncomfortable subject. Speaking of the track, vocalist Roisin Nic Ghearailt states:

prior to writing the track I’d had a lot of eye-opening conversations around period shame with people of all genders and from all walks of life, and I wanted to write almost an anthem for everyone who had ever had a period or loved someone who had one. It felt like a hugely powerful thing to be in a position to create a song as a band that was unequivocally sexy. I’m a cis bisexual woman in a queer, sapphic relationship. Periods and period sex are a part of my reality, and my girlfriend actually helped me with the lyrics in the first verse.

The single’s accompanying music video, directed by the band’s bassist Zoe Greenway, is an attempt to present female desire in its true form. Influenced by experimental filmmakers such as Carolee Schneeman, Barbara Hammer and James Bidgood – through their challenge of interpretations of sexual expression, and how they use human bodies to subvert expectations. The video features a bedroom, doused in red lighting, with bodies in red lingerie and gummy red liquid with an underwater scene similar to that of the Birth Of Venus by artist Sandro Botticelli. 

Period Sex and Attachment Styles both arrive just in time for the band’s co-headline tour with Sprints and Thus Love for Independent Venue Week, and before the band’s SXSW shows. M(h)aol’s UK and Ireland headline tour, in support of the album, is set to take place through April and May. 

M(h)aol UK Tour Dates

  • February 4th | Brighton, UK | Komedia Studio^ SOLD OUT
  • February 5th | Bristol, UK | Strange Brew^
  • March 15th – 20th | SXSW, Austin
  • Wednesday April 12th – The Loft, Galway
  • Thursday April 13th – Cyprus Avenue, Cork
  • Friday April 14th – Kasbah, Limerick
  • Saturday April 15th – The Workman’s Club, Dublin
  • May 19th | Newcastle, UK | Bobiks
  • May 20th | Glasgow, UK | The Hug and Pint
  • May 22nd | Leeds, UK | Hyde Park Book Club
  • May 23rd | Manchester, UK | YES (Pink Room)
  • May 25th | London, UK | Boston Music Room
  • May 26th | Brighton, UK | The Hope & Ruin

^Independent Venue Week

M(h)aol’s debut album, Attachment Styles, is a record about social connection, queerness, and healing and invites the listener to go on a journey. Attachment styles were an overarching theme when Róisín was writing the album’s lyrics, a theory that looks at the impact of our family relationships and society to evaluate how we relate to one-and-other. 

The new single follows on from recent track Therapy – a lighthearted number dealing with a very real subject matter, of reasons why we go to therapy. The band’s debut album is set to be released on 3rd February via TULLE Collective, and now Rough Trade Publishing. 

Speaking of the track, vocalist Róisín Nic Ghearailt states:

I wanted to write Therapy as a light-hearted addition to the album, dealing with a very real subject matter.”, she continues, “It came from a conversation I had with a friend who was talking about a loved one not turning up to therapy, even though they were why she was in therapy, and I was thinking about people in our lives who are the reason we go to therapy and how we can often heal in spite of them.

Previous songle, Asking For It, is an intensely raw, highly personal number that has developed over the years. The track, which is the first thing lead vocalist Roisin Nic Ghearailit wrote when attempting to process her experiences and feelings surrounding rape culture, is the first track to be released from the band’s debut album.

Speaking of the track, lead singer Róisín goes on to state:

I wrote it initially in 2016 then revisited it in 2020. I was shocked by how much internalised victim-blaming there was in the lyrics. I rewrote it, then we recorded it and it was released to raise money for Women’s Aid in 2021. The album version is a lot angrier than the 2021 track and almost satirical insofar as it’s highlighting how ludicrous the notion of anyone ‘asking for it’ is.

Asking For It arrives with its accompanying music video, another directed by the band’s bassist Zoe Greenway, which is just as raw and vulnerable as the song itself. 

Listen on Apple Music

Katie Macbeth

katie macbeth

Katie Macbeth is a freelance music journalist for Indie Is Not A Genre based out of Manchester, presenter of @drunktankthink, and post punk enthusiast.



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