Month: April 2020

After 4 years of producing, writing and collaborating with established artists in Berlin, Leixlip-born singer-songwriter Enda Gallery created his solo project ‘delush’ to share his own truest experiences and realisations (“but also just for the sheer fucking joy of it”).

In 2018 delush released ‘Don’t Let Me Win‘ (“The type of song that wheedles its way into your life and never leaves.” – Cerys Matthews, BBC6 Music) and soon reconnected with Limerick, the birthplace of his musical journey, and its thriving hip-hop scene by collaborating with rapper Strange Boy on the follow-up single ‘It’s Alright‘, which made rotation on 2FM, Radio 1 in Germany, and the BBC Introducing Mixtape.  (“Superb” – John Kennedy, Radio X // “style and substance in spades.” – Nialler9). In November 2019, delush joined forces with Tolu Makay to release ‘The Greatest Gift’ to critical acclaim.

With this new single ‘Slow Your Attention’, delush announces the release date of his debut album, coming 24th of April, 2020. He is currently working on a follow up project with the Grammy-nominated producer duo Christian Rich on his next project (J. Cole, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino) while producing work for fellow  Welcome to the New World artists Strange Boy, Tolu Makay and Willzee.

Speaking about the new single ‘Slow Your Attention’, delush says: “This is a song about trying to re-approach relationships consciously. I had done a lot of reflection about what was driving me subconsciously, I found the root of why I was chemically attracted to very destructive situations and relationships. Even when knowing this, their pull is very strong so moving slowly and deliberately can take you to a new level in relationships.

I had a repeating unconscious pattern where if I got into a relationship and my partner offered unconditional love I would feel something was very wrong. I grew up with the feeling that love was conditional. I didn’t feel at home in the feeling of unconditional love so I would usually sabotage the relationship if it was good which was sad but to discover. On realising this, I was making my first attempts to rise above the pattern and I was asking my new partner, subconsciously, to slow her attention, to give me less at first so she wouldn’t trigger this pattern and in doing so, inadvertently destroy the chemistry.

I found the words “slow your attention” to describe it. It is attention that gives life to a relationship, but by slowing it it became conscious attention, deliberate, less passionate maybe, but ultimately more possible to experience while attempting, for the first time, to manage the subconscious patterns underneath.”

Watch the video for Slow Your Attention, created by Anna Maria Lesevic here:

Buy/Stream: https://cdbaby.lnk.to/SlowYourAttention

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1000 Beasts is an electronic producer & musician from Cork City who focuses on collaboration and creativity in all his works. Starting off producing electronic pop songs in 2017 and achieving great critical success, with frequent spins from stations such as Today FM, 2FM, Cool FM (NI) and even BBC Radio 1, including a live RTE Studio 8 session with Jenny Greene at 2FM. 

He emerges with a debut double EP, due for split release in 2020, and drawing influences from artists such as Mr Jukes, Tom Misch, Flume and Kaytranada and a hi-tech live show that combines live looping, triggering and sampling with live vocals unlike anything in Ireland at present.

The track ‘5 Points’ was produced while 1000 Beasts was on tour with another artist and had two days off in Nashville, TN. Staying in a beautiful AirBnb in the district of 5 Points, sitting on the porch deep into the early morning one night, 1000 Beasts created the track for ‘5 Points’. 1000 Beasts explains: “there’s the sound of the siren of an ambulance playing throughout large sections of the track, this is because, despite having headphones on, I could hear an ambulance pass while I was producing the track, the sound suited, so I decided to record the siren on my iPhone and put it into the track.“

Excited with this, he reached out to upcoming Irish musician Alex Tierney to see if he would be interested in collaborating on the track. Following on from two writing sessions the following month when 1000 Beasts returned to Ireland, and ‘5 Points’ was born. 

1000 BEASTS – ‘5 Points’ is out now

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Zapho has just released the video for ‘Fight Me’  written, produced and performed by Zapho a mid-tempo groove laden track, tells the story of a strong modern woman. The sultry lyrics portray a hustler with money in the bank, respected and adored by her friends and fans, calling out her haters and asking ‘which one of you will fight me?’

As a female producer, Zapho herself is already in a minority and she challenges notions of stereotypical femininity with every release. True to Zapho’s aesthetic, the woman in the song is also an underdog with a queer aesthetic and an LGBT influence, a character who sets herself apart from the binary ideal of mainstream beauty. ‘Fight Me’ is symbolic of female empowerment and drives the point home that anyone can have a fighter inside.

Zapho says, “‘Fight Me’ was one of the most enjoyable songs to write. I’ve been experimenting more as a producer and coming into my own style, having fun with themes and groove based instrumentation. I included a little brass section to tip my hat to the Rocky  movies and the theme song, ‘Eye Of The Tiger’. I made my fighter more sleazy and flashy, a rags to riches storyline about being at the top of your game.”

Rising star Zapho (Ele Breslin) is a 26-year-old singer-songwriter-producer. In 2019 she released two singles, ‘Do like I Do’ and ‘Water Me’ and recorded her debut album. ‘100 Ways’ was her first single of 2020, a collaboration with Ryan O’Shaughnessy. ‘100 Ways’ achieved considerable success, making Hotpress’ Track of the Day and Nialler9’s Best Songs of the Week, as well as a premiere with GCN, and spots on two English Spotify playlists, R&B UK and Spotify Chill. ‘100 Ways’ has also been played on BBC Sounds and ATL BBC Ulster.

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Zapho upcoming Whelan’s show on April 10^th is cancelled along with the tour planned for May. She hopes to re-schedule all live shows later this year.

https://www.zaphomusic.com/
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Today, Cork singer-songwriter and producer/artist Jordan Run, also known as Aaron O’Sullivan, releases an emotive track for those who’ve ever felt isolated or lost in this world.

Aaron says; ‘‘I was on the bus to Dublin, and I was thinking about old friends of mine – that I distanced myself from, or they distanced themselves from me, that whole general idea. People’s free will to move on from circles and friend groups can often be hard for me to understand, but hopefully there’s got good reason to and it’s for the better.

The lyrics and chords came fast but the production was a different story. I’ve been working on this song at home for quite some time now. The track has open tuned electric guitars, a dreamy electronic soundscape and a gospel sounding choir with the help of the wonderful Míde Houlihan and Ruby Murphy. I hope you enjoy it.’’

Jordan Run began in 2019, releasing four singles, playing a packed out show in Coughlans (IMRO Venue of the Year) back in October, The Ruby Sessions in Dublin and supported world renowned guitarist – Ariel Posen.

Jordan Run release another single and debut EP  – ‘In This Atmosphere’ – on May 8^th. Irish shows are currently being re-booked for later dates.

Ahead of the release of his new album ‘Jupiter’s Wife’ and a Dublin headline show, Joe Chester releases a 4-track EP featuring the breathtaking and deeply affecting song ‘Staying Together For The Children’. Joe talks below about how the song came about and it’s poignant theme.

“The first song I wrote for the album that became ‘Jupiter’s Wife’ and one which was written under pressure as I had a recording date at Sun Studio in Memphis, but no songs. So this was one of four songs I wrote in a relatively furious month of activity in the summer of 2017, an unusual situation for me as most of my songs take a little longer to materialise (Hilton and Michael, for example took four years to finish, although that’s another story.) I’ve said in interviews before that I often have no memory of writing songs (I don’t remember writing ‘Charlie For A Girl’ or ‘Juliette Walking In The Rain’, for example) but it’s perhaps more accurate to say that I remember starting songs and finishing them just not what passes in between and that’s certainly true of this song. All I can say is the title is a phrase that had echoed down the years from growing up in Dublin in the 70s and 80s, in an Ireland before divorce.”

Also included is ‘Synge’s Chair’, one of four touching instrumentals punctuating the new album. Joe says of its origin: “The imagery of the Aran Islands often appears in my songs, most notably, I suppose, in ‘Valley Of Tears’. On this album, the song ‘My Shipwrecked Mind’ is partly inspired by the folkloric tale from the west of Ireland “Mairtin Mac an Ri” (sometimes known as “The Knife Against The Wave”) in which a fisherman is confronted by a hostile supernatural sea spirit. The fisherman triumphs. This tune, ‘Synge’s Chair’ is an attempt to capture in music the atmosphere of that remarkable middle island, Inis Meain. The fiddle is played by my friend Steve Wickham.”

The final track on the EP is a cover of an Elvis Costello song from his “King Of America” album. This track struck a chord with Joe and it was recorded within the last few weeks in Joe’s home studio in the South of France. Joe explains, “recorded on my trusty old Studer 2 track machine, this is one of my all-time favourite Elvis Costello songs, from his miraculous year, 1986 in which he made the two classics, ‘Blood & Chocolate’ and ‘King Of America’ (the album from which this is taken) and seemed somehow to be a fitting B-side to ‘Staying Together For The Children’.”

Tracklist:

1. Staying Together for the Children (Album Version)
2. Staying Together for the Children (Radio Edit)
3. Synge’s Chair
4. Little Palaces

Available on digital stores from Friday 17th April.

Pre-Save/Pre-Order: https://orcd.co/stayingtogether

Amberlight are Derry songwriter/guitarist/producer Paul Casey and singer/songwriter Lauren Doherty.

The brand new song ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ is a lush cinematic-sounding dynamic ballad and will be released on all digital formats on Friday 3rd April. 

Regular session vocalist, Lauren Doherty, worked on many projects at Casey’s Home Studio ‘Cable Junction Studio’ over the last few years. The idea to write and collaborate on a few original songs was always something they wanted to do in-between a busy recording & gigging schedule. Eventually when they found the time the song ’Nothing Lasts Forever’ was hatched. 

Check out @Amberlightband for more info.

SIIGHTS are an electro-pop duo made up of Mia Fitz and Toni Etherson, whose music is packed with infectious melodies, strong production and carefully crafted songwriting. Their latest release ‘Blue Skies’, out 3rd April, is an earworm that touches on topics of loss, grief and a much-needed message of hope. The single is part of the band’s debut EP that drops on the same day. 

The pairing has already had notable acclaim, from high profile coverage in CLASH, BBC Radio One, Beats One and 9 million impacts via Irish Radio for the EP already. SIIGHTS have also had streaming success with Spotify, landing spots in New Music Friday UK, New Pop Revolution, Sad Beats, Chilled Pop Hits & The Pop List. The band have also previously worked with Emi Dragoi (Sasha Sloan, Meghan Trainer, Sam Hunt) on their previous single ‘Better Now’. 

Discussing their new release, SIIGHTS explain: 

“This song means a lot to us and was hard to write. We wrote it about some of what you feel and experience after losing someone close to you. We have both lost people close to us and it’s something that stays with you forever. We brought all our gear down to a country house in Wicklow to write and record this EP – ‘Blue Skies’ really came together so naturally. There’s actually a recurring hypnotic guitar riff that happens multiple times throughout the track which was never initially supposed to be in the track. Mia had just been playing around and we left the mics recording and we ended up using it and it became a key feature in the production in the end.” 

Having first met after Mia had come off a world tour playing with Hozier, the duo spent some time songwriting for other artists before deciding to start their own artist project. They sold out their first headline show at King Tuts in Glasgow within just weeks of announcing it. They also spent 9 weeks in the top 20 of the Ireland Shazam chart. The pair write/produce and play all the instruments on their tracks in the studio, fusing organic instruments with Electronic sounds along with heartfelt lyrics to create their own form of groove-based / alt-pop. 

Pre-save link; https://smarturl.it/SIIGHTSep

Lisa Lambe will launch her album ‘Juniper’ tomorrow, 3rd April, with a worldwide stream at 8pm Irish time.

All the musicians involved in the making of ‘Junpier’ will come together for a performance from around Ireland.

Musicians include Steve Wickham, Wayne Sheehy, Eamonn De Barra, Dave Hingerty, John McLoughlin, Ruth O’Mahony- Brady, Alex Borwich, Jack Curran, Alan Doherty and Sean Reagan.

Lisa Lambe will also take part in a Q&A.

Watch on Twitter @lambelisa or http://facebook.com/lisalambeofficial

Donations collected will support the great efforts of Alone https://alone.ie/make-a-donation/

Pine the Pilcrow are releasing their new single ‘If It’s True’ and it’s their most accomplished song to date. It’s the first of a trio of songs to be released produced by Alex Borwick (Lankum, The Young Folk, Catfish & The Bottlemen). Marked down as haunting ambient folk with their previous 2 EP’s the band have now grown in sound as well as a band, enlisting percussionist Shay Sweeney to help bring a more dynamic, fuller and epic sound to this release. 

The Monaghan, Clare and Dublin quartet of Kevin Murray, Hannah Ryan, Shay Sweeney and Robert Campbell create original and imaginative music by combining folk, classical and traditional influences with gruff and angelic vocal harmonies.

The release of their self-titled debut E.P. in March 2016 saw them nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2016 Pure M awards, winning The Last Mixed Tape’s ‘Readers EP of the Year’ award and nominated for Best Song at the IMRO Christie Hennessy Song Competition for their ambient and emotive ballad ‘Don’t Need Me’.

The rest of an exciting year for the band featured performances at the main stage in the Body & Soul area at Electric Picnic, Body and Soul Festival, Arcadian Fields and Vantastival. The band sold out their first headline performance at the Civic Theatre in Tallaght and added support slots with Joe Chester at the Unitarian Church and John Spillane, to the growing list of impressive live shows.

With 2018, Pine the Pilcrow released their second E.P. (‘Only Ghosts’) and continued to build upon their incredible debut year with a performance at the acclaimed Other voices festival to top it off.

In 2020 Pine the Pilcrow are back with a bigger and more epic sound than before. With 3 singles planned over the next 12 months and a tour across the island it will be hard to avoid the ambient heart felt songs of P¶P.

June 11th – The Spirit Store, Dundalk
June 24th – The Blackgate, Galway
June 25th – Boyles of Slane

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Due to the current covid-19 crisis, DeBarras live music venue in Clonakilty, West Cork, has unfortunately closed up for the time being. However, the music lives on in DeBarras Sitting Room to Sitting Room Sessions, happening live on their Facebook page, at 9:30pm every night, and 8pm on Sundays (GMT+1).

DeBarras Sitting Room to Sitting Room Sessions kicked off last Tuesday 24th March, and due to a very positive response, the sessions will continue through the month of April.

Ray Blackwell from DeBarras said: “For the strange times we find ourselves in…. some of our favourite musicians will be bringing the music from their Sitting Room to yours. They will recreate DeBarras (or a DeBarras vibe) in their own home and perform a gig and we will live stream the performance on our Facebook page. Stay cool out there! We can do this.”

The upcoming live performances feature musicians based in sitting rooms all around Ireland, Mexico, Spain, Australia, and beyond. Here’s a look at the schedule from tonight onwards:

TONIGHT John Spillane | 9:30pm, Thurs 2nd April
Rawney | 9:30pm, Friday 3rd April
Pete Mac Paradox | 9:30pm, Sat 4th April
Paula Bilá | 8pm, Sun 5th April (Live from Spain)
Trad session | 9:30pm, Mon 6th April
Lauren Guillery | 9:30pm, Tues 7th April
Eadaoin Costly | 9:30pm, Wed 8th April
Míde Houlihan | 9:30pm, Thurs 9th April
Fear Beag | 9:30pm, Fri 10th April (Live from Mexico)
Ursidae | 9:30pm, Sat 11th April
Eve Clague | 9:30pm, Sun 12th April
Trad session | 9.30pm, Mon 13th April
The Bones Below | 9:30pm, Tues 14th April
Anna’s Anchor | 9:30pm, Weds 15th April
Aine Tyrell | 9:30pm, Thurs 16th April (Live from Australia)
King Pallas | 9:30pm, Fri 17th April
The Big Lovin’ | 9:30pm, Sat 18th April
Sam Clague | 8pm, Sun 19th April

• More to be announced

Tune in at DeBarra’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DeBarrasClon/