Dea Matrona

The Irish rock duo Dea Matrona met in a competitive context.

In early adolescence, singers and multi-instrumentalists Mollie McGinn and Orláith Forsythe laid the foundations of their friendship while both competing in an Irish-language singing competition, before uniting to play together in the streets of Belfast.

This marked the beginning of a nearly ten-year journey as musical partners. Dea Matrona's rise is rooted in a fierce DIY mentality: the duo refined their sound over the years on stage, building a loyal fan base and self-financing their own releases.

Their debut album, For Your Sins, released in 2024, topped the Independent Breakers chart, was broadcast on BBC Radio 1, brought them to Glastonbury and also allowed them to open for Canadian rockers The Beaches on tour.

This summer, the duo will accompany icon Sting on the road, bringing its hybrid sonorities to even larger stages.

As they prepare to release their highly anticipated second album, Hate That I Care (scheduled for June 5, 2026 via AWAL), Dea Matrona shifts into higher gear by addressing the personal and political issues that have shaped them as a group.

This new record explores themes of female empowerment and identity through an Irish lens, as well as the feeling of being an outsider, both musically and deeply personally. McGinn sums it up perfectly: "We can't wait to release this album.

We feel it's more like us, that it's more aware of the world around us, how we fit into it, and that it more clearly asserts what we want to say.

" If their music is traversed by strong nostalgia, recalling the hazy choruses shaped by legendary groups like Fleetwood Mac and The Cranberries, the lucid lyrics of D