Staying Optimistic: in conversation with Fish Go Deep

To mark the two decades since the release of Lil’ Hand, Greg and Shane have revisited the album’s closing track ‘Love’s Cloth’, framing Tracey’s beautiful vocal in a radically different light and emphasizing the rich harmonies of the chorus.

On the week of the release, I have the pleasure to chat with these two Irish gents & legends.

Your new single ‘Love’s Cloth is out in a few weeks. How are you feeling about that?

Shane: The original album track is a favourite for a lot of people so I’m excited to hear what they think of the new version. Feedback from DJs has been great but what do they know?

Where did the fish reference come from?

Greg: Ah the name… we used to have a record shop in a small unit in the English market in the centre of Cork city. We were near the fish stalls, so it made sense to call it fish records. We then started releasing music as Fishgotech and then we settled on Fishgodeep.

What is it you love about Cork, what has made you remain there to this day.

Shane: I’m from Cork, Greg’s a blow-in from Dublin. He pitched up here in the 80s and never left. Cork is a good-sized city to live and work in. There’s usually enough going on culturally to keep things interesting and there’s plenty of beautiful countryside nearby to soothe and inspire.

Where did you meet and what made you start making music together?

Greg: We have known one another since the 80s. I was living in the same apartment block as Shane’s brother. I got to know Shane through him.

Shane: As DJs in the 90s we found we had plenty of time on our hands, a bit of knowledge about house music and a few pieces of studio gear. Seemed like a natural progression.

Does it surprise you that you are still working together, did you think at the time that you’d still be at it today?

Shane: I’m not really surprised. We didn’t start out with a masterplan so have always taken things as they’ve come. I think we have pretty compatible personalities and have been able to move on from any disagreements we’ve had.

You must have seen a lot of changes. What do you think has remained the same, and what do you think has changed radically from when you started?

Greg: So much has changed. It used to be all about the music, not the image, particularly with house music. I’d have had no idea who the people were who made the music. All that mattered was if it was a good tune or not and I loved that you judged the music purely on merit. Unfortunately, all that has changed now. I still think great music will find its way into people’s hearts, it just might take longer. These days you have to stay optimistic. 

If you knew then what you know now, what advice would you give to a young Greg & Shane at the off ?

Shane: I don’t regret very much, but I would have taken music production more seriously at an earlier stage.

People talk about you bringing House Music to Ireland. How do you feel about that statement?

Greg: Well, we were one of the first regular clubs playing house music in Ireland and we had a very strong connection in Cork city to the deeper vibes of house. So I guess in some ways we did, particularly in the Munster area.

Before you kicked off your legendary night at Sir Henrys, what was going on in Cork House wise?

Shane: Not a whole lot really. You might hear a few house tracks as part of a more varied set but there weren’t any specialist house nights. There was a decent live music scene and some reggae nights going on so there was some sort of foundation for what was to come.

Tell us about your early days at Sir Henrys?

Greg: The early days were great – it had a feeling that something was changing and people really wanted to hear something different. There was revolution in the air. Our first guest was the charismatic Mike  Pickering. It was the first time we really heard a DJ build a set, playing a really interesting mix of music it changed everything for us… seminal night!

Who else did you go on to host at the night?

Shane: Our night in Sir Henry’s was very much resident based and I think that’s one of the reasons that Cork developed its taste for the deeper side of house. We’d have guest DJs in every few months from the early 90s and they were like the cherry on top. At first there was a strong Manchester tie in, with Mike Pickering, Graeme Park, Jon DaSilva, Justin Robertson, etc. As more US DJs started travelling in the mid-90s we were able to book the likes of Jovonn, Kerri Chandler, Rasoul, Nick Holder, Boo Williams, Glenn Underground, Derrick Carter, Joe Claussell, etc. Alongside regular European visitors like Charles Webster, Herbert, DJ Deep, Erik Rug, the DIY crew, and plenty of Irish DJs.

Did you carry on touring/ playing as FGD in the naughties? 

Greg: We did indeed, played all over Ireland and the rest of the world. We really got stuck into production and invested in a proper studio setup and put the work in.

People will always reference the Cure & The Cause which I guess is a bit annoying. What other releases are you also proud of?

Shane: For me, our last two albums have been the most satisfying to work on. We approached both with definite ideas for what we wanted to get across and how we wanted them to sound. And I think we got there.

But you can’t deny it was a monumental track. 

Greg: Tracey K was living in Dublin at the time and we were writing our first LP with her. We used to send musical ideas to her and she would come down at the weekends and record the songs. The Cure was one of them. I remember thinking at the time “that’s a really good one” but thought no more about it. Dennis remix really helped get the song to a much bigger audience.

Talk to us about the original album that Love’s Cloth came from and its inception.

Shane: We were still relatively new to the production side of music when we started the album in around 2003 and that comes through – mostly in a good way I think – in the record. There’s a certain charm and naivety in the sound that we’d probably have killed stone dead if we’d been making it today!

Give us the lowdown on the Love’s Cloth. … and tell us what you have done to the rebooted version.

Greg: Love’s Cloth is the last track on our first album, Lil’ Hand. We always felt it would make a great single but we never got the right mix so eventually last year we finally nailed it I think. It’s one of Tracey’s greatest songs.

Shane We wanted to do something to mark the 20-ish years that have passed since the album came out so we stripped the song right back to the vocal and built a totally new track around it. We tried to include influences from lots of the music that we’ve released since then.

Since you first made Love’s Cloth, has the way you make music changed much?

Greg: In some ways its stayed the same but I do think we work much quicker now and we are more concerned with the vibe and not overworking the  tracks. I think we still very much work off our instincts though, as we did in the beginning.

What irritates you most about the dance music scene in 2026?

Shane: The reliance on social media for every bloody aspect of it!

What is it that inspires you to continue making music?

Greg: Everything… walking, watching movies, a little snippet of a sound, listening to music, going to live music, a new instrument. I just bought a beautiful new instument, the Soma Flux. It’s a truly inspirational piece of gear, we’re going to use it on our next album.

What are you working on next that you can share?

Shane: We have a bunch of Fish Go Deep EPs lined up for 2026 and we’re just at the final mixing stage of a project we do with Andrew Phillpott called Squares… gritty, wonky electronics.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about?

It’s raining again.