Month: March 2020

HUTCH is a singer/songwriter based in Derry. He has been playing and recording his own songs since 2009, in pubs, clubs, cafés radio studios, theatres, festivals, and various dark corners around the country. His style has been compared to the likes of Glen Hansard, Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. His first single, ‘You’ll Never Change’ is set for release on 20th March 2020.

“I think the meaning of ‘You’ll Never Change’ has changed over the years, as happens with songs sometimes. It started off as being a kind of finger-pointy song that complained about the “on-again-off-again” relationship I was in at the time. In recent times, I think of the song more as being about my frustration as a younger man, about practically everything in my life. Thankfully I’m in a better headspace now, but I still have to dig deep to find the anger I need to sing the song as it needs to be sung.“

The recording process was somewhat unconventional, collaborating online with Carlow-based producer Shayne Byrne of Ragged Company Recordings, as HUTCH explains:

“The recording process for ‘Romance & Melodrama’ was a steep learning curve for me. Myself and Shayne Byrne (producer/collaborator) worked using a great program called Splice, working via Ableton. We shared files back & forth, from my home studio in Derry, and Shayne’s studio in Carlow respectively. Early in the process we decided to work under the principal of treating each song as a single, working to get the best out of each song until we were both satisfied that we had done everything we could to get all we could out of them, in terms of performance, arrangement and production. I knew that the songs were strong and I believe in each of them totally. I can only hope that the listener gets something out of them, and can connect with them, both individually, and as a complete piece.“

With his debut album ‘Romance & Melodrama’ due for release in May, 2020 is set to be a big year for HUTCH.

Facebook –  https://www.facebook.com/music.HUTCH
Twitter –  https://twitter.com/incaseitrains
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/music.hutch/

A new documentary following Irish band Cry Monster Cry’s journey through the Swiss Alps to play a sold out show in a clifftop cabin, “When The Snow Falls I’ll Be Gone” is set to premiere tomorrow, 20th March.

Originally set to premiere at the IFI, and then postponed due to the spread of Coronavirus, the band has taken the decision that now is the time when artists should do whatever they can to try to lift the spirits of those in self isolation, and will make the film free for all to see tomorrow evening at 7pm GMT. It will debut on their Website, YouTube and Facebook.

Brothers Richie and Jamie Martin have set up a Patreon account to support their own work with their sold out headline tour having been cancelled.

“I took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from my brow, and grasped the rusted metal bar that had been drilled into the rock face. Above me, my brother Richie had just disappeared over the top of the mountain. My heart was hammering. The mandolin in my backpack shifted slightly as I put all of my weight onto the makeshift ladder. Before us, the milky glacial lake glinted in the sunlight. We were on our way to The Gaulihütte, an alpine base built in 1895. Ten hours of hiking lay ahead of us. The crowd was waiting. The gig was sold out. We could not fail.” – Jamie Martin

Last September, Dublin brothers Richie & Jamie Martin (Cry Monster Cry) travelled to Switzerland to play one of the most challenging shows of their career. The journey to the venue (a traditional Swiss mountain cabin dating back to 1895 that sits on the edge of a cliff) saw them hiking for 10 hours, instruments on their backs. Rising before dawn and setting off under a blanket of fog, they journeyed through forests and meadows, over rocky ridges and steep ravines, climbed over precipices and dipped their heads in a freezing glacial lake.

Led by guides René Reusser and with Mirjam Huber, the band completed the journey to play a show for a crowd of hikers who had also made their way to the cabin.

The new documentary, “When The Snow Falls I’ll Be Gone” was produced and directed by Elijah Egan of Seven Figure Films, and tells the story of the lengths that people will go for their craft. The brothers’ story weaves into that of René and Mirjam, whose passion for music, creativity, artistic expression and shared experiences is explored during the 30-minute documentary.

Tides (Live on Lake Brienz in Switzerland)

www.CryMonsterCry.com

Having been touted as indie pop darlings on their self-titled debut and, with a sophomore album released, All Tvvins have been quietly working away on new music in a Dublin studio on the outskirts of the city. “Our new songs feel ‘already familiar’ to me,” says Adams. “Out of the box familiarity, like old songs that just never got around to being written. We’ve taken a step back and re-evaluated what is important and relevant to us as a band. As a lyricist I have always tried to create abstract structures, story frames that move in and out of each other and give an overall mood, something you can wear. I am feeling more satisfied now than I have ever been within some of these songs.“

“I guess we are moving into the third phase of the band, we really have made the time to create the next story.” says Lar, “This time it all came back to a simple set up, a set up of us both being in a room with instruments and a trust in each other to produce the sound of this band,” he adds, “We are effectively two people in a room writing music without hesitation or fear of failure, we are believing in ourselves and what has been created. I feel these songs sound like a band confident in their output and vision – it feels like we wrote songs that were the reason we started the band, they are hopeful, joyful and honest representations of our existence with a vision of escape and a joy from life. This is our next chapter as a band and its never felt better.”

‘Hope It Don’t’ is the second of these new batch of songs, following ‘Divine’. ‘Hope It Don’t’ is out via Faction Records on 20th March.

Aoife O’Leary is a Singer-Songwriter from Dublin, Ireland, and she has some love songs to share.

These songs, coming throughout 2020, are stories of love from her life. Some share about love in a typical sense – about the feeling of emptiness and deep sadness after losing love, or the sense of aliveness and excitement that comes with the hope of love.

Other songs share about love in a non-typical sense – love as a oneness that is integral to us all, or love as a force that transcends lifetimes, birth and death.

The first release, ‘Find Your Way To Me’, is about seeking love – about those situations where you feel drawn to someone, but don’t know if they feel the same. The song is rooted in the vulnerability of these moments, and the discomfort of sharing those feelings, allowing the words “Find Your Way To Me” to be an invitation…

Aoife’s voice is intimate, vulnerable, sensual and pure, and sounds of piano, guitar and strings complete the songs.

These gentle songs are a departure for Aoife. Previously, she sang and wrote for electronic rock band, Moth Complex. She recorded two albums, toured in the States and in Europe – and it was in the States that the seeds of these new acoustic songs were sown.

“I have always loved different types of music, and having played really loud music for quite some time, I started to feel romantically about playing songs in their most bare form – just voice and guitar,” she says. “That was my initial plan for these solo songs, but it expanded out to include other instruments.” 

For more updates, occasional music clips, behind-the-scenes videos and more, follow Aoife on her social media pages or sign up for updates on her website (www.aoifeoleary.com)

The Key Rocks is a solo independent project from Irish Musician and Producer Kevin James Murphy. During 2019 he has managed to attract over 41,900 followers on Spotify, significant international radio airplay and some key independent radio interviews across Europe and the United States. 

The first single off the forthcoming album attracted radio attention and thousands of plays on Spotify being included on playlists globally. 

Kevin believes in keeping things simple with a home recording process that limits takes and focuses on capturing the moment. This single sees him take the traditional songwriter approach with a single acoustic guitar and vocals.

“Solo project The Key Rocks offers inspiration to anyone that has a scratch of inspiration to write music that it is absolutely possible to record and release it with decent production quality and without breaking the bank. The work of Irishman Kevin Murphy, the Americana Irish rock project sees limited production as he keeps it simple with his LoFi approach to acoustic-influenced rock.” Gigradar 07/2019 

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-key-rocks/1410134813
https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/TheKeyRocks
https://twitter.com/TheKeyRocks1
https://www.facebook.com/TheKeyRocks/

Leah Sohotra is a singer/songwriter and single mother of two living in Blarney Co Cork. 

In the wake of the release of her new album ‘Breaded Crickets’ she has been featured on KCLR96FM’s Ceol Anocht with Martin Bridgeman, cry104fm’s ArteFact with Éanna Dowling and in the West Cork People newspaper. 

CKUA’s Tom Coxworth in Alberta played her music on his show Folk Routes, and it is also receiving airplay on Roddie Cleere’s Irish Music Show on KCLR96FM and Simply Folk on RTÉ Radio 1 with Ruth Smith. 

The video for the single ‘Grendel,’ has already received almost 2K views on Youtube and Vimeo.

The single launch, which took place in the IMRO Music Venue of the Year, Coughlan’s Bar in Cork was a resounding success. 

She’s been on the Cork scene musically only since 2017 and in October of 2019 was invited to play musical support for legendary artist Andy Irvine at the Cork Folk Festival.

Originally from Vermont, and having lived in Ireland for eight years, her imagery draws heavily on rural American and Irish landscapes. Her work also draws from classical literature and folk tradition, nursery rhymes and epic poetry and therefore the subjects are often animals and mythical creatures. 

Following the death of a close childhood friend, Leah spent over ten years in  a very controlling relationship and mourning the loss. The songs are heartfelt reflections on her long silence during that period of mourning and call forth to an audience that wants to share and listen to something that evokes a raw intimacy and artistry with its lyrics and rhymes and is tied into playful melodies.The delicate arrangements are created by multi-instrumentalist Martin Leahy who, through his mastery and experimental tastes with acoustic and electronic sounds, creates a moody aural landscape that crosses many genres from Appalachian Folk to Industrial Punk and Americana/Jazz/ Rock and Blues. Martin features on the album playing well over a dozen different instruments. The album also features guest vocals by the highly acclaimed songwriter Mick Flannery who also co-wrote one of the tracks.

Hugh Doolan has just released his new album ‘im perfect’.

An astute collection procured and distilled from 8 years of material.

Of the 14 tracks 4 have words; all a journey through a soundscape perhaps familiar to lovers of Can, Talk Talk and Brian Eno even!

Hugh Doolan uses his steadfast retro-feel computer studio (no plugin/program older than 2007!) in a myriad of ways to create music that he will try to prove to you, is timeless.

Think psychedelicate, folkytronic, soundscapey, mostly guitar driven music meanderings.

Additional contributors: Jessica Doolan: voice. Daniel Doolan: voice and harmonica.

A quick synopsis of some tracks:
‘Silent Electron’ – like the slow-set at a dystopian disco.
‘Ombe-Aint’ is otherworldly. As Bernard Clarke once said of it: “it sounds like it contains music for films that never existed and as far as the earth-bound among us are concerned might as well not.”
‘Mellobiotico’ – an audio chemistry lab of atomic sounds colliding. 
’85 Stars – Always The Same’ – a chunk of Friday-feel free funk.

The album is available on Bandcamp (€7)

3-2-1! The first 3 readers to go there can get it free. Use these codes:

q5er-bcst
g76d-whcb
yl3c-h5sw

The single ‘All The Colours – Bottle Tops’ is available on Spotify

Hugh Doolan is a Soundtrack artist, engineer/producer and singer-songwriter from Dublin, Ireland. 

The album is self-released via digital distribution – please lend your support.

Soundcloud / Bandcamp / iTunes / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter / Spotify

Autre Monde have shared new video ‘Balls of your Suit’.

Padraig Cooney explains: “We were supposed to be over at SXSW now, beginning a run of shows with the Music From Ireland showcase tomorrow night. Obviously that’s not happening but we thought people might enjoy to see us playing live in this way and got down to work on editing some videos. We hired out D-Lite Studios on North Strand for a day in January to do a few of these. It’s directed by Gary Sheridan, who was helped by Daniel Martin. Eoghan O’Brien (our drummer) edited the video. Eoghan’s dad did the live sound. There’ll be more to come.

‘Balls of your Suit’ is a folk song about the influence of right wing media (specifically broadsheet opinion columnists), with a groove that makes it something else. We were thinking of Clannad, Fairport Convention and Roxy Music when we did it, as far as I remember. We were also thinking of ourselves, as this fits into a pattern of writing that we began with Moonlight and Your Name from our previous EP. All the best and keep the chin up“

Autre Monde are Paddy Hanna (vocals), Padraig Cooney (bass, synth, vocals), Mark Chester (guitar) and Eoghan O’Brien (drums, synth, backing vocals). Three of them are from Dublin and Mark is from Cumbria. They met through their involvement together in a network of bands that at one stage or another were central to the Popical Island collective (Skelocrats, Grand Pocket Orchestra, Ginnels, No Monster Club).

Elsewhere, the record stretches out confidently: luxuriating in baths of vintage synthesizers on ‘The Operator’, descending into something wild and uncertain in the final minutes of ‘Brain Upon Your Pillow’, mixing the pastoral with the robotic on ‘Balls of Your Suit’ and ‘Three Mandolins’. ‘Truly Glowing’ is a euphoric finale.

The album title is taken from a line in Fredric Jameson’s ‘Postmodernism: The Cultural Logic of Late Captialism’ where he writes: “in a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles, to speak through the masks and with the voices of the styles in the imaginary museum.”

Autre Monde – ‘The Imaginary Museum’ – out now on Strange Brew Records.

Strange Brew
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