House of Neptune: Finding Confidence, Community, and Their Sound in Belfast
Introduction
In the month of January 2026, TRi THIS Music reached out to Ireland’s “Girl Club” to support female talent up and down the country. The result was extraordinary, and led to interviews with breakout star Alice Sloan, and rising Belfast based band, Fracture Line, which were both featured in TRi THIS Music’s Sixth Edition Magazine. It also led us to House of Neptune, a brand new, psychedelic-rock band full to the brim of talent also based in Belfast. House of Neptune formed back in the summer of 2025, during the Oh Yeah Centre’s ‘Future Sounds of Belfast Programme’.
The Oh Yeah Centre is a dedicated music hub and venue located in Northern Ireland. It fosters brand new talent, and offers up creative spaces and studios that are affordable and accessible; alongside industry training to emerging bands and artists. There’s both a focus on heritage artists, celebrating Northern Irish music and artistry, alongside celebrating live music and presenting newcomers. This space encapsulates everything that we’re all about and really goes to show how important it is to have hubs like this in our communities.
Ross sat down with House of Neptune members, Eimear, Daithi, and Naoise, to talk about the band’s formation, challenges and achievements so far, here’s what he had to say about how the interview came together:
“Following the collaboration between TRi THIS Music and Girl Club Ireland, I was stunned by how much young talent had reached out, especially House of Neptune. Each member has such a hunger for the industry, backed by genuine talent. How many other bands or artists do you encounter that already have these qualities in spade loads? Setting up the interview with Eimear was easy; I always find that interviewing bands can be quite difficult in comparison to working with just one singular artist – each member has different POV’s, emotions recollections of experiences, and its really interesting to see these dynamics playout in the heat of the moment. Especially trying to relate and collate information from a band from a place you’ve never been to before, or heard much about, you 100% feel like you’re viewing from an audience’s perspective…”
Interview
TTM: What was it that brought you guys together as a band? How did the House of Neptune get started?
EIMEAR: We did a programme with the Oh Yeah Centre here in Belfast, and they did, like a Future Sounds of Belfast programme. And actually, the only ones in the band that did the programme were actually me, Daithi and Naoise funnily enough. But we did that programme, and helped set up bands, mix genres together, last summer. We did it with Cheylene from Beauty Sleep and Chelsea from GUSH.
DAITHI: And Rory Nellis as well, remember?
EIMEAR: Oh yes and Rory Nellis too, I always forget to mention him [laughs]; they helped us to learn how to make shows, and acted as mentors, they gave us workshops, and Cheylene set up our band. We did a showcase and at the end of it we wrote our first song, which is called ‘Spiral’. After that we figured that we really enjoyed playing together as a band and so we stayed together.
NAOISE: I was in the Summer scheme too, but was actually in the band, the scheme set up five bands, but I wasn’t originally in this one. Throughout the two weeks we spoke a lot and I bonded with them, and so tagged along.
EIMEAR: And after that we felt like Oh Yeah Centre Nepo Babies, because our next gig after that was at the Oh Yeah Centre. And our gig was advanced to a 250 person sold out gig, which was something we definitely learned a lot from.
TTM: Did it go well?
EIMEAR: It did go well…
DAITHI: At the time we didn’t think it did…
EIMEAR: It was because the monitors weren’t on, the monitors turned off halfway through the set, so we couldn’t hear what we were playing.
NAOISE: It was also that song where the guitar went out of tune.
DAITHI: So one of our singers has a song where he plays my guitar and I play his bass, and it’s cursed. I handed my guitar over. He strums it once, and it goes out of tune. But it was in tune for all the songs I played!
EIMEAR: And it happened again two days ago at a different gig!
TTM: It’s nice to know there’s already a straight up curse, it’s not even the equipment, or even to do with the guitar, it’s just a curse.
NAOISE: We know it’s there, we just can’t prove it yet.
TTM: The community around you guys in Belfast, and around you guys, has been brilliant so far, you guys are so young, right? And you’ve already managed to connect with the community and connect with the people around you and form this band and get into the live scene, which is quite difficult to do. And it’s so early on, just six months or so right?
EIMEAR: Well we actually, as a band, we were set up under a different name to begin with in August, and then our current lineup came together in October, and our first gig was in November, so four months. But we’ve played quite a lot of gigs, and we kind of blew up overnight, which is crazy.
TTM: How do you guys find the community where you are?
EIMEAR: It’s really really great…
NAOISE: The support you get from so many people that you meet through live performances and just people you meet along the way, it’s all just really helpful in boosting confidence.
DAITHI: Even people like our age too, like people our age are just all for it. Even outside of gigs, people have added me on Snapchat and stuff and go to me, “Are you from House of Neptune? Can we be friends?”
EIMEAR: Yeah people have come up to me in town. I was in London the other day, and this boy came up to me and he said “Is Jack from House of Neptune on this trip?” We have got recognised, which is pretty cool. There’s definitely a community in Belfast, especially when it comes to the older bands too, they’ll give you advice. They’ll tell you, “Don’t play in this venue”. Or “Don’t do this.”, “Don’t work with this person”, “This is how you should do this.” They do actually give you quite a lot of good advice.
TTM: How does it feel presenting your music to an audience in person on stage?
DAITHI: I feel like all through school and stuff. I don’t know if this was for everyone in the band, but I was really shy. I wouldn’t talk to anyone. Ever since I started performing it just changed everything. I have this song called ‘Sing With Me’ and its just me whinging about being lonely, but then I can play it on a big stage, in front of loads of people, and they’re dancing to it… it’s just so surreal.
EIMEAR: It’s the same with me, to be fair as well. In school and stuff, I’d be quite into myself. I didn’t want to sing while doing the piano, because I was worried about how that might sound, like it wouldn’t be perfect, that sort of thing. And then Chelsea, who was one of the tutors, turned around and said “just go for it”. Ever since I started performing, I’m definitely more confident in myself and my singing ability. And I actually think my singing has come on. The confidence you do gain is crazy.
NAOISE: I’d agree with that. When we do covers, there’s a cover that I sing, ‘Celebrity Skin’. Before, I would never sing in front of anybody, I would have been so afraid, even to do it now in front of a room full of people still feels weird. But it’s so good to be in that win-win situation – you get to make songs that you know your audience will love. It’s such a boost.
EIMEAR: And people have said to get Naoise singing more songs, Naoise needs to sing an original. We have got a few songs that we’re writing and Naoise will be singing one.
TTM: You guys have ‘Spiral’ coming out soon, it’s fast approaching, what’s the story behind the track?
EIMEAR: I guess we all interpret in different ways. I was one of the main people who wrote the words for ‘Spiral’. When I was writing I was imagining someone losing control, having things that they can’t grasp in front of them. The lyrics are metaphors, representing the sea.
TTM: How was the experience of putting it together? Was it difficult? Did it take a while? Or was it something that kind of came naturally to you guys?
DAITHI: I think we had it down from early on.
EIMEAR: We had what we wanted.
DAITHI: But we just added bits and pieces. We went, “what if I played this instead of that?”, or “what if I played something here instead of there?”. I think that really helped.
EIMEAR: We had it down and finished by three days, and then we recorded it for a demo. Um, obviously it’s, it’s grown since then, it does not sound the exact same as it sounded in July.
TTM: How do you balance band life and supporting each other and writing, and all that kind of stuff with personal life and everything else that kind of life brings?
EIMEAR: We do rehearsal’s for two hours a week, and then in between, we talk on our group chat, for example, we plan stuff through there.
DAITHI: I feel like it’s so freeing. Anytime in the week where I’m, like not feeling the best. I just think of the rehearsal. And when I get there and I start playing with them, these are my best mates. I always look forward to it.
TTM: What stands out to you guys as your proudest moment so far?
EIMEAR: I do drama and like all sorts of things. So I’m used to standing up on stage and pretending to be somebody else on stage and performing. But I’ve never stood up and been myself on stage and just sang. I don’t know whether I was proud of it at the time, but I am now, when we performed in front of 250 people. I sang in front of all my mates, my mom, my brother. I think that’s my proudest moment so far.
DAITHI: My dad put up a Facebook story and the song he used was Oasis’ ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’, and my heart just melted.
NAOISE: We were at the Summer scheme in August, and the performance that we did at the end of that, I think, is what I’m most proud of, because I’d never done anything like that before, let alone even sang on stage. I sang like a whole song in that, and my mum and dad were there, and they literally never saw me do something like that before. So that was really cool to be able to do that in front of them. Since then, they’ve been so supportive of the band and just of me in general, in being in this band and just being a part of these live performances.