Dublin’s DIVIL make their debut with subtle rocker ‘Thanks A Million’
The single is the first to be released from the trio’s debut EP, set for release June 19th.
Photo: Meghan Law
DIVIL have an origin story that’s more personal than most. Made up of childhood friends Danny Dempsey McMahon on vocals, Jocelyn Vance on guitar and Conor Cusack on bass, who had all drifted apart as adults, the trio reconnected on the night of Danny’s father’s funeral after almost a decade. Within weeks of finding each other again, bassist Conor was diagnosed with cancer.
In the wake of these life-changing moments, music became a way for the Dubliners to reconnect, process their grief and support each other in ways words often can’t. Despite that weight, the band’s debut single is far from sentimental.
True to the quietly deflective tone of its title, Thanks A Million carries a slacker edge, brushing heavy emotion aside with a kind of offhand shrug. Thundering vocals take centre stage as the stubborn bass and drums drive the track forward, regardless of what the lyrics confess.
That tension is echoed in the slight discomfort of Vance’s guitar tone — the closest sonic glimpse you’ll get to what the band were navigating — before the track opens into a chorus built to roar. And it’s in that release where everything clicks into place. The weight never fully lifts, but it’s now shared, almost shouted back.
Just as the song frames friendship as a form of survival, balancing despair with the steady reassurance of showing up for one another, McMahon’s lyrics cut through with an edge of pain, as the rhythm section holds firm beneath them.
Ultimately, though, the track feels built for a rowdy crowd—arms raised, voices lifted, the chorus bellowed back in unison. It’s the kind of sound that carries the sense that, somehow, there’s still something good ahead.
Thanks A Million is dedicated to Brendan Lawler, Danny McMahon, Emmet Connolly and Jamie Gill, and is out now. It’s the first track to be released from the band’s debut EP, DIVIL I, set to be released June 19th.