Friday 20th February 2026
Location: Cleeres Bar and Theatre, 28 Parliament Street, Kilkenny
In stock
Born and raised in Dublin, avant-garde punk producer Meryl Streek remembers his childhood in Ireland fondly. “Growing up it was great,” he says. “I had a lot of family around me and things were good, we were a working class family of independent screen printers.”
During the leaner and more difficult years that followed, Streek grew up and the world changed around him. He lost several family members, and austerity closed in on the country. As the recession hit and work became steadily thinner on the ground, he moved to Canada—a 7 year experience that shaped Meryl Streek both as a person and as an artist, as he explains, “Seeing how countries work outside of Ireland, and seeing how unfair Ireland’s work ethic and living situations are, I came back here fueled to try and make a change.”
With his father a talented drummer in his own right, and the call of punk rock’s ethics and morals so strong, it was perhaps an inevitability that Streek would eventually fall into that same world. “My dad was an unbelievable drummer,” he enthuses, “Like unbelievable. I was raised being around punk bands like Crass and anarcho-punks Rudimentary Peni. I remember seeing him play growing up as a kid and that was the start of my growth as a musician.”
Fast-forward to 2021 and holding over 15 years of touring and drumming experience under his belt in various projects, Streek had developed a taste for life on the road, despite its many challenges—but something had to give. “It’s tough, and very shit financially,” he sighs. “Also dealing with people you don’t like on a daily basis isn’t good for the head.”
Playing the same beats in “absolute car crash bands” for years and relying on others to make money to survive, Streek was delighted when he found a new way to crossbreed different beats and genres electronically. “I love all music but I find I have a great ear for hitting strings that touch the heart. I actually listen to a lot of more dream pop records and easy-going music. I’m not always walking around screaming,” he quips.
The producer’s latest solo project, Meryl Streek, began in earnest when he finally quit his former band to try and give a voice to those he saw struggling in his home country. “I just said ‘I need to do my own thing’ and try to help the ordinary people in Ireland who’ve been suffering,” Streek says. “I do it for my father who has now passed on. I know what it’s like to feel betrayed and hurt, and I want to devote my life to helping others as best I can. The music may sound vicious to some, but times are changing and the government here in Ireland aren’t.”
Mostly recorded at home in his Vancouver apartment over the best part of a year, his debut album 796 arrived on 4th November 2022 and cemented itself as one of the most visceral, important political records of the decade so far with one critic praising it as “the most incendiary and important punk rock album of the year” (Paul Brannigan/Louder). It shone a light on the 796 bodies of childre
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