Pop Noir:Tracks That Shaped Our Sound

After a significant hiatus from the studio, indie duo Pop Noir is back in the spotlight with a dark, post-punk reinterpretation of U2's iconic 1983 hit "New Year's Day." Twins Joe and Luke McGarry, drawing inspiration from the eerie vibes of the 1976 John Carpenter thriller "Assault on Precinct 13," unleash a dance floor menace that captures the essence of pop at its most noir.

Formed during their days at the Orange County High School of the Arts, the UK-born brothers have taken Pop Noir to stages across Los Angeles, Paris, China, London, and their hometown Manchester. The duo has previously released a series of singles on their independent label, Fantastic Heat.

While Luke has earned acclaim as an award-winning cartoonist, contributing to renowned publications and creating a massive social media following, Joe has made his mark as a designer, programmer, and filmmaker. Together, they've crafted animated music videos for various artists, designed festival aesthetics, and collaborated with clients ranging from VISA to VICE.

After a period of exploration in separate creative pursuits, including Luke's solo ventures and Joe's collaboration with Jeff Schroeder of Smashing Pumpkins in Night Dreamer, the McGarry brothers are refocusing on Pop Noir. "New Year's Day" sets the stage for a series of anticipated releases in 2024, marking a powerful return to their musical roots. We spoke to them about the tracks that shaped their sound, enjoy!

U2 - New Year’s Day

So this one’s a fairly obvious inspiration for our new single, which is an interpretation of this U2 classic. These days, certainly within “hip” circles, it seems like U2 are perceived as a supremely uncool band … but you can’t argue with those old albums like War, Boy, Joshua Tree. Excellent stuff. And if you put this U2 track on at midnight in a New Year’s Eve DJ set, people lose their minds! But we’d never even thought about covering the song until inspiration struck while we were watching an old cult classic film ... which brings us to the next track. 

John Carpenter - Assault on Precinct 13

We’d put on the 1976 thriller “Assault on Precinct 13”, and realized that the main theme music shares basically the same bass line and chord progression as “New Year’s Day”. It suddenly struck us that we could marry that John Carpenter synth approach to U2’s track and create something dark and groovy that you could sneak into a setlist without any groans from the back of the room! We had a load of fun doing it — researching all the old synths Carpenter used, really trying to nail that sound, but also trying to make something that felt fresh. The movie itself  – which you should check out if you haven’t seen it — was also a big inspiration for the music video we created to accompany the new single.

New Order - Vanishing Point

We could’ve probably picked any New Order track, but “Vanishing Point” is Luke’s favourite. They’ve always been a big inspiration for us. One of the most iconic bands from our hometown of Manchester, we grew up on their music so I think we’re just spiritually drawn to that sound. That interplay of guitars, drum machines and synths has always appealed, and probably 90% of the music we listen to has some sort of electronic undercurrent to it. New Order may or may not have invented that approach but they certainly pioneered and perfected it!

Billy Nomates - Blue Bones

As we’ve always been, essentially, a duo, the use of drum machines, synths and sequencers has meant we could do more onstage with just the two of us. Billy Nomates takes that concept to it’s logical extreme, just playing her tracks on a laptop and performing on her own. Brilliant. So while she isn’t necessarily an influence on us, she’s quite inspirational! This track is excellent, though — again, guitars and drum machines are an unbeatable combination. As a side-note, this was co-produced by James Trevascus, who I recently found out engineered Landforms by Slate + Ash, which is a synth / sampler that we’ve been using on pretty much everything we record lately. 

Orlando Weeks - Bigger 

This is another one that’s not strictly an influence on our sound, but we are big admirers of Orlando Weeks. We were fans of his old band The Maccabees, and we’ve had this solo number stuck on repeat for ages. On top of making great records, Weeks is also a visual artist — and if you’re familiar with our work you’ll know that Luke (aka Lukey McGarry) is also an award-winning, internet famous cartoonist. It’s cool to see someone else doing the multi-discipline thing, and doing it so well!