For Those I Love

David Balfe, operating from Dublin under the name For Those I Love, presented spoken-word-inflected narratives centered on catharsis, grief, and personal history. His first album, bearing the same title, reached listeners in March 2021 and paired those accounts with a striking range of sonic textures.

Irish-born Balfe first cultivated his interest in music inside his parents’ shed, where he began writing material alongside childhood companions. Those sessions eventually produced several bands and releases: Plagues in 2007 placed Balfe and his collaborators within metalcore, while the Branch Becomes steered the same circle toward hardcore. The most striking of the projects was Burnt Out, a visceral post-punk outfit whose recordings occurred inside an unfinished house owned by bandmate Peter. The sudden death of Balfe’s closest friend and fellow musician Paul Curran brought that chapter to a close.

Two years later he reentered music as For Those I Love, opening the return with the fervent single “I Have a Love” (2020) as a tribute to Curran. October brought “Top Scheme,” which confronted collective hardship and inequity, and the 2021 track “Birthday/The Pain” supplied an unflinching account of discovering a body at age six. That March the self-titled debut arrived, its nine expansive, introspective songs weaving together sweeping personal history, emotive balladry, and soul-infused electronica.