Month: April 2021

‘New Light’ is the new single from Dublin-based group Sun Collective, featuring contributions from world-renowned vocalist Lisa Hannigan, Australian flautist Lina Andonovska, and saxophonist Nick Roth.

Produced by Ross Turner (Lisa Hannigan, Villagers), and recorded by Ber Quinn (John Grant, Divine Comedy), ‘New Light’ features a bespoke artwork commission from Cork’s visual artist Sophie Gough.

Speaking about the song, the band’s front man Caimin Gilmore says: “I had been listening to a lot of Adrienne Lenker’s solo work before writing ‘New Light’. I wanted to somehow replicate the richness of her guitar recordings and cross pollinate it with arrangements like Nico Muhly’s on Sam Amidon’s record ‘I See the Sign’. I included a Nashville strung Guitar, and asked two of my good friends, contemporary classical musicians Lina Andonovska (bass flute) and Nick Roth (alto-sax), to improvise over the track. The result is a bastardisation of the two influences that I think created this very internal and dream like song.

It also features vocals from songwriter Lisa Hannigan, whom I have been fortunate to work with for a number of years and who gratefully lent her beautiful voice to the arrangement.”

‘New Light’ is the second of three singles shared in the run-up to, and in conjunction with, the groups’ appearance on award-winning and internationally acclaimed Irish music series, Other Voices, April  15^th on RTÉ 2 television. For U.K viewers on RTÉ player, & subsequently on Other Voices YouTube.

Bandcamp: https://suncollective.bandcamp.com/track/new-light

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/NewLightSpotify

Website :: https://www.suncollective.ie
Facebook :: https://www.facebook.com/suncollectiveensemble/
Twitter :: https://twitter.com/suncollective_
Instagram :: https://www.instagram.com/suncollectiveband/

Elgin release their brand new single ‘Oh Love’ on Friday, April 9^th 2021 and is the latest track to be taken from their forthcoming album ‘Weightless / Still’ out on May 28^th via Pixie Pace Records (ARC Music Productions International). 

‘Oh Love’ opens the beautiful atmospheric indie-folk record, which incorporates a wide range of instrumentation with lush guitars, synths, keys, brass and more, all enveloped in decadent vocal harmonies creating a vast, expansive sound.

The tracks on ‘Weightless / Still’ tackle themes of defeats, epiphanies, minor victories, smaller blessings and daily awkwardness, such as the idea of imposter syndrome in the lead single ‘Cherry Picked’, with its perfectly weighted line “You wanted a falcon, I gave you a finch”.

The Dublin duo Anthony Furey and Paul Butler came together and travelled the breadth of the globe as the acclaimed collective The Young Folk and now with ‘Weightless / Still’ they continue their musical journey under the name Elgin.

Elgin is a natural progression and represents a new direction for the band. Whilst still centred around the key contributing members of The Young Folk, Elgin gives them the freedom to play different instruments, to untangle themselves from the steady rotation of band members and get back to the simplicity of a duo, just like it was in the beginning.

“You can be any age with it,” says Anthony. “And you can play in any style you like and write lyrics about any subject under the sun.”

Anthony and Paul wrote almost all the songs for The Young Folk, Anthony often drawing inspiration from writers and poets – George Orwell, Seamus Heaney, Charles Bukowski and Colum McCann. Especially Colum McCann. But it just so happens that most of the material on Weightless / Still is Paul’s.

“I was in the right frame of mind,” Paul says. “Well… actually in the wrong frame of mind, but the right one to come up with all these ideas.” New ways, born of sleep deprivation, to express self-doubt, anxiety, loss and letting go of the past. “Things that I feel uncomfortable talking about,” he admits.

When Paul’s uncle, the filmmaker Brendan Bourke, died suddenly a few years ago, it hit hard. Paul found himself deprived of the comfort that religion afforded other members of the family. “I was quite envious that they could say ‘he’s in a better place, he’s not in pain’. It’s a great concept, but I don’t believe in it at all. And I was angry at this. Like, what am I supposed to do?” Those feelings form the lyrical backbone of ‘Oh Love’.

The album also looks at reaching a low point and remembering the low point before that one, and the low point before that in the song ‘Stone’s Throw’, which Paul says was, “A bit of a eureka moment for me”. Or the feeling of not being able to help somebody anymore (‘Bulletproof’), or sitting in the garden and letting the mind wander (‘Apple Tree’), or broken love (‘Fault Lines’), or feeling lost and clueless at the end of a relationship (‘Hopeless Swimmer’, written by Anthony).

Then there’s ‘Sloe’, a song inspired by Colum McCann’s short story Fishing the Sloe Black River, which was turned into a film by Paul’s uncle, Brendan. “Everything in that song is about something completely different – trips, love, life, holidays, friends,” he says.

The album captures so many feelings and states of mind, all aspiring ultimately perhaps to a feeling we often dream about, the feeling of being weightless and still. “As in out-of-body,” says Paul. “The feeling that we never have.”

On the day that the pandemic first made headline news in Ireland, Maria Kelly received a voice note from her friend Martha: “It might be the end of the world but, like, it’s fine.” 

To Maria, who had just moved back from Berlin to her native Ireland, it was a sentiment that was the perfect addition to a song she’d just finished. So much so that ‘Martha’ became the namesake of the first single Maria will release in over a year, due out on Wednesday 7th April via VETA Music. 

“I wrote the song just after I returned from Berlin and was taking stock of just how much had changed in my life throughout my early 20s. Here I was, having just had this really formative experience, disillusioned and directionless again. Not only that, but I was no longer the version of myself that had left Ireland – and not quite who I wanted to be yet either – just stuck in this floaty, in-between with a version of myself that I wasn’t quite used to yet,” says Maria of the new single. 

“The voice note Martha sent me felt like the perfect addition to the song, and it also gave me a chance to laugh at the fact that we have very little control over things we try so hard to control. This past year has felt like one big ‘in-between’ that we’re all trying to muddle our way through, so ‘Martha’ is about dealing with change and all that comes with it; regret, nostalgia, uncertainty, fear – but also acceptance and lightheartedness,” she continues. 

Maria Kelly’s world of delicately woven alt-folk is laced with a sincerity that cuts to the bone. Finding comfort in the confessional styles of artists like Regina Spektor, Daughter, and Lucy Rose, she soon transferred her own introspections to music, developing a sound that is as delicate as it is disarmingly frank.

A number of critically acclaimed releases on Veta Records have been accompanied by shows across Europe supporting the likes of James Vincent McMorrow, KT Tunstall, and Paul Noonan (Bell X1). Maria quickly became known for her heart-wrenching live performances, unassuming humour, and a ‘pin-drop’ vocal that is impossible to ignore. Maria’s work has continued to gain momentum internationally, rallying support from Mahogany, Consequence of Sound, and The Line Of Best Fit along the way.

After laying a foundation in the Irish music scene, Maria relocated to Berlin in 2018, a life-changing move that inspired her four-track EP, ‘notes to self’. Her stint in Germany saw her join All The Luck In The World on a month-long European tour, followed by her debut TV appearance on Other Voices Ballina. Maria finished up the year with two sold-out shows supporting Villagers.

2019 saw the release of ‘i leave early’ – a captivating track that showcases Maria’s continued development as an artist and one which quickly garnered more than a million streams on Spotify.

With the world at a standstill, 2020 saw Maria retreating to a small cottage on the south coast of Ireland. During this quiet in-between, Maria has found space to write and record her eagerly anticipated debut album – a blank canvas and an open sea with which to take stock and reflect on her 20s so far. Produced remotely by Matt Harris, the first single ‘Martha’, is set for release on Wednesday 7th April.

Colum Jordan (CADA) is a musician, producer, graphic designer and visual artist from Dublin Ireland.

‘Liminal V’, released 16/4/21, was recorded and produced in CADA’s home in Dublin 8 during the various stages of lockdown.

With rich soundscapes, complex arrangements and abrasive rhythms it carries on from where Muloc left off. 

CADA utilises synths, drum machines and traditional instruments in equal measure during the course of the album to fluidly traverse genres. 

The tracks themselves move between impassioned and the absurd dealing with themes of liminality and uncertainty. This is compounded by the title and cover artwork (CADA’s front door).

‘Liminal V’ will be released on the 16th of April on Bandcamp and the usual streaming services.

www.cada.bandcamp.com

Irish composer Eimear Quinn has been voted in to the the Classic FM “Hall of Fame” 2021 with her piece ‘In Paradisum’

Classic FM’s “Hall of Fame” is the world’s biggest poll of classical music tastes. It is broadcast annually over the four days of the Easter Weekend.
First broadcast in 1996 the show counts down the 300 most-popular pieces as voted for by listeners, culminating in the number one on the evening of Easter Monday.

Quinn ranks as one of only five female composers in the 2021 chart, alongside Clara Schumann, Debbie Wiseman, Yoko Shimomura and Phamie Gow.

Quinn tweeted:
“It’s a true honour to stand with these women; Clara Schumann, Debbie Wisemann, Yoko Shimomura, Phamie Gow. 
It’s encouraging, and also against the grain, that we are 4 living composers along with Schumann. I’m grateful that Classic FM has brought us to their listeners.”

‘In Paradisum’ is recorded with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and features on Quinn’s 2020 release ‘Ériu’.

It is the final movement of Quinn’s “Requiem for a Promised Child” which is near completion and due to premiere in 2022.

https://twitter.com/EimearVox
https://www.instagram.com/eimearvox/
https://www.facebook.com/EimearQuinnVox/

Originally a Cork native, the now Dungarvan based singer-songwriter, Colm Hayes is set to release his long awaited debut solo single, ‘Mosaic’ across all streaming platforms on Thursday April 8th.

Although this will be Colm’s first official release, he will be a familiar face to many in the Irish scene. Alongside the success of past ensembles, Kudos, and The Mandolas, Colm’s solo material has always had a cult following in Cork City and beyond.

The song explores the relationship between a father and his new-born daughter, and the natural evolution of caregiving that occurs through life, presented on an enthralling, dreamy backdrop. Hayes is joined on the track by Grace McMahon of The Art Crimes Band, whose beautiful vocal compliments the piece perfectly.

‘Mosaic’ was recorded and mixed by Niall Dennehy of Flashpoint Creative Consultants in Monkey Orphanage Studios, Cork, and mastered by the legendary Tony Cousins at Metropolis Studios, London (Bat For Lashes, Adele).

“It could be the beginning of a journey, or it could be the end,” says Hayes, when asked about the single, as it features many of Colm’s former bandmates and musical contemporaries. Niall Dennehy (The Art Crimes Band, formerly Kudos), Michael Grace (BRIARS, formerly The Mandolas), Cian McCarthy (New York based composer/conductor, formerly Kudos), Cárthach O’Núanáin (Noatak, formerly Kudos), and Tim O’Leary (The Art Crimes Band) all appear on the recording.

‘Mosaic’ will be released across all platforms on Thursday April 8th, alongside a lyric video on YouTube and Facebook.

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/colmhayesmusic

Twitter – https://twitter.com/ColmHayesMusic

Cork-born Toronto-based singer-songwriter Tiz McNamara has shared a new video, directed by Ignas Laugalis, for his song ‘April Fool’, in dedication to his brother and father, who tragically passed away April 1st 1991.

Tiz says: “This song is written about my brother and dad who both drowned when I was 10 months old while sailing. I release a song on April 1st each year as it’s their anniversary and it helps make a pretty tough time of year into a more productive one. These songs are extremely personal and close to the bone, but for me that has always been what making music was all about. It’s about telling stories and hopefully giving comfort to others.

The video was shot during lockdown this past year so added a few layers of difficulty but Ignas sent me the video treatment/idea he had which was quite closely related to the story of the song and we went with that. He put together an incredible team of talent and brought the vision to life. I hope you like it.”

Tiz McNamara is an Irish singer-songwriter and drummer, currently based in Toronto, Canada, who has racked up over 12 Million streams on Spotify with his independent releases.

Tiz’s songs have featured on UK TV shows Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, as well as gaining support from some of the industry’s heavy weights including BBC Radio 2, Amazing Radio and NME. Tiz has toured with BRITS ‘Critics Choice Winner’ James Bay, and has sung alongside one of his musical heroes Sir Paul McCartney, as well as Robbie Williams, and Shane McGowan under the name ‘The Justice Collective’.

This song ‘April Fool’ features on Tiz’s 2020 EP, which goes by the same name.

Listen here on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2Jh5BKZf6k9n5J7RD6YLVN?si=nTOyeRFrR5O0kgpozxxIPg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TizMcNamaraMusic/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TizMcNamara

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tizmcnamaramusic

ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/artist/tiz-mcnamara/611681145

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/15ulC0nwlKgA3hYyr4QgvS

Post-Party are set to release their brand new single ‘Wasting Time’ on 2 April 2021. Proving themselves as one of the Irish acts to watch in 2021, recent single ‘Being Honest’ was placed number one on Vevo’s Incoming Indie playlist, alongside being featured on Spotify’s New Music Friday, Breath of Fresh Eire and Hottest New Bands playlists.

Recorded in Dublin’s famous Windmill Lane Studios, ‘Wasting Time’ sees Post-Party explore the fact that not everything is forever, not all relationships have to last and that’s OK. This song celebrates those short lived connections that we make. Fast paced and energetic, this is a song for people who like the pacey guitar lines of The Strokes, the synths of The Killers and the vocal melodies of Blossoms and The Vaccines. The third single also sees the band release their first ever limited edition merchandise run.

Speaking about the single Keelan O’Reilly of Post-Party says: “We are really excited to release ‘Wasting Time’ and we feel it’s the type of high energy tune that everyone needs right now. The song is about embracing the fleeting moments that life is made up of. It all came together really naturally and we knew after playing it live and the amazing reaction we got from the audience that it was one to be proud of.”

Since forming the band, they have played venues such as the Roisin Dubh in Galway, sold out headline Dublin shows, toured Ireland, performed at Electric Picnic and Independence, supported the likes of Miles Kane and The Sherlocks, as well as playing their own headline show at London’s Islington. 

Drawing from episodes of their formative years, Post-Party imbue their guitar pop with a honed youthful energy of catchy hooks and bouncy lyrics. The band have set the bar high for what is to come from the quartet in 2021. After spending the course of 2020 writing new material, the band are set to release much awaited new music in the months to come.

A four-piece Indie Pop band based in Dublin; Post-Party consists of Keelan O’Reilly, Peter Toal, Colin Peppard and Matthew O’Reilly.

Forming in late 2018 in Dublin, Post-Party have built up a reputation for their live performances playing in various well-known venues across Ireland and the UK. Bonding over a mutual passion for music and film, the band aspire to create something reflective of their own experiences of growing up. Their influences consist of The Vaccines and Phoenix and they aim to bring fun, jangly guitar pop to the masses with their energetic live performances.

 ‘Wasting Time’ the brand new single from Post-Party is out on 02 April 2021 across all digital platforms.

Apella are set to release a limited edition vinyl and CD of their debut album ‘1963’ this Friday April 2, 2021, alongside brand new single ‘Buried You’. Since the album was digitally released on January 29th, it has been going from strength to strength with a whopping 500,000 streams racked up to date.

Pre-orders for the physical release launched in January via apellamusic.com with 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this album going directly to The Marie Keating Foundation specifically to help fund the outstanding support services they provide to women affected by Breast Cancer.

‘Buried You’ will also drop on the day of release accompanied by a vigorously high energy, vivacious music video directed by Ray Keogh. 

Talking about the video Director Ray Keogh said: “I have been part of the Apella journey since inception and this music video captures everything they represent. Quilty and Nolan are two extraordinarily talented performers. We set it up and executed this video just like we were headlining a music festival! This is Apella. I am incredibly proud of this.”

Thoughtfully named after the birth year of his mother, ‘1963’ is an incredibly personal record from frontman Dara Quilty, who has teamed up with The Marie Keating Foundation.

Speaking of the album Dara Quilty said: “The response to the album on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube has been overwhelming. I still enjoy opening up my phone and simply seeing it exist in the world. As I mentioned before, we’ll be donating 100% of all the physical sales proceeds directly to The Marie Keating Foundation. Up against COVID-19 and BREXIT, I am delighted that production is complete and we can finally release our beautiful Vinyl and CDs! I am eternally grateful to everyone who has pre-ordered and we’ll continue to donate sales after the release date!”

100% of the proceeds from this album bought on apellamusic.com will go directly to The Marie Keating Foundation’s Positive Living support group, Survive and Thrive programme, BRCA awareness and support programme and School’s Cancer Awareness Programme.

Fresh off the back of their radio chart topping single ‘Point Of View’, ‘1963’ is a juxtaposition of rhythmically crafted chaos delivered by drummer Ronan Nolan and impeccable talent of singer/songwriter and producer Dara Quilty. 

‘1963’ –  Tracklisting:

We Met at a Party
Buried You
City Limits
Graceful Dancer
New Things Get Old
Shadows of My Personality
Crossfire
Logic
Deja You
Ferris Wheels
Little Bit Less
Point of View

Apella’s brand new single ‘Buried You’ is set for release on Friday April 2, 2021, alongside the release of a limited edition white vinyl and CD of their debut album ‘1963’.

Proudly supported by:

Dublin Vinyl, Mission PR, Custom Built Ireland and Natalie Keville Design.

Pat Carey, former vocalist and songwriter with The Hard Ground, launches a new solo project How I Became A Wave, with debut single ‘Fading Out’ on Friday April 2^nd 2021. A collaboration between Carey and some of Ireland’s finest musicians, the single is taken from the upcoming How I Became A Wave album due for release in Autumn 2021.

Part of a new wave of collaborative contemporary folk music from Ireland, the song ‘Fading Out’ features a hugely talented array of artists including Cork composer Cormac McCarthy, Maria Ryan (Strung, Crash Ensemble), Aoife Burke, Matthew Berrill (Niamh Regan) and Brian Casey (Screenreader, John Blek). 

As with many projects born in 2020, the single was recorded both in studio – Casey’s Wavefield Studios in West Cork – and remotely in the homes and studios of featured artists. The song blends an intimacy of vocals with a richness of texture that hints at a more cinematic sound to come. 

How I Became A Wave is the solo project of Pat Carey, formerly vocalist and songwriter with Cork based band The Hard Ground, who garnered a national following and critical acclaim with the release of two albums in 2012 and 2015. Since stepping away from The Hard Ground, Carey has been heavily involved in various elements of the Irish Music scene, including with Right Here Right Now Festival and Cork Opera House.

The upcoming How I Became A Wave album features multiple collaborations between some of Ireland’s finest musicians, composers and songwriters including Cormac McCarthy, Clare Sands, David Murphy, Maria Ryan, Brian Casey, Aoife Burke, Matthew Berrill, Davie Ryan, Hugh Dillon and more. Each song on the album is coloured by the unique conversations taking place between the artists, writing, recording and creating in isolation from each other. The overall collaboration showcases the wealth and diversity of musical talent in the country and the richness of musical expression that exists across genres.

Fading Out is out on all platforms from Friday April 2^nd and is available for pre-saving now. 

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Photography: Brid O’Donovan Photography