Month: April 2021

Irish singer-songwriter Rory & The Island has just released the video for his brand new single ‘Miss This’ – out now. ‘Miss This’ explores the basic little joys we all miss during this crazy situation, and has become a firm favourite during Rory & The Island’s successful weekly Facebook Live broadcasts which have built up something of a cult following with an average of 30,000 weekly views over the past year.

Speaking about the video for ‘Miss This’ Rory & The Island said: “It was a simple concept of creating a contrast between old images of normal lively scenes of life such as music festivals, gigs, football games and busy cafes etc against the backdrop of being stuck indoors with my family during lockdown just waiting around and trying to pass the time without going insane, I filmed it on my phone and just edited it all together with old footage I had on memory sticks. My two sons Aidan (5) and Shay (2) , played their parts perfectly and deserve an MTV award. Strangely when I watched it back a week later it looked and sounded less like a lockdown video and more like a mid-life crisis! I hope this flaw makes it timeless, haha.”

Rory & The Island has had 12 Top 20 iTunes singles in Ireland in the past decade. His most recent single ‘When The Lights Go Down (Valhalla)’ reached Number 1 in early November 2020 and raised a few eyebrows when it kept Miley Cyrus, Lizzo and Dermot Kennedy off the top spot for the weekend. The single also climbed to Number 8 in the UK iTunes Songwriters chart.

Rory’s journey began as lead singer of indie-rock band The Revs, who alongside being hotly tipped by the likes of U2, found themselves topping the Irish charts with two top 5 albums and a string of successful tours that made waves throughout Ireland, Europe and even reached Australia with a top 30 single – as well as beating Damien Rice, Relish and Six to take both the Meteor IRMA award and the Hot Press Award for Best Newcomer. After the bands split in 2007, Rory moved to a remote island in the Canaries where he opened a live music venue ‘The Island Bar’. 

It was there the Donegal songwriter performed weekly residency shows building up a following of people from all over the world that would travel to the island to come and see him perform. It was also here that Rory & The Island was born – with Rory Gallagher beginning his solo project under the name to avoid any confusion with the Ballyshannon/Cork Blues Legend. Two albums later, Rory & The Island independently earned himself 8 top 30s, 2 top 10s and a Number 1 single in the Irish Charts alongside performing all over the UK and Ireland supporting the likes of Ocean Colour Scene, Feeder and Alabama 3. 2019 saw Rory leave the island, return back to Ireland and extensively tour, filling out rooms around the UK and Ireland with his London show at The Dublin Castle selling out within 48 hours of going on sale. 

In March 2020, Rory and his wife Cara announced the opening of a new music venue ‘The Wildcat’ in Edinburgh, sadly due to the Coronavirus pandemic it never reached its official opening night on the 21st March. Ever productive, Rory & The Island has spent the past 11 months writing and releasing new music and performing gigs through Zoom and Facebook continuing to build up a strong fanbase.

‘Miss This’ the brand new single from Rory & The Island is out now across all digital platforms.

Follow Rory & The Island:

www.roryandtheisland.com
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‘Hold Your Head Up’ is an uplifting, positive, timeless song, full of hope from Francie Conway. It’s the first single from the highly acclaimed album ‘Hidden Gems’, selected not by the artists, but by radio…

“While going through emails looking for music to go on our ‘Locked Down/Still Rocking Out’ slot, I came across ‘Hold Your Head Up’ (the old Argent song – the original of which I love) on Francie Conway’s new album ‘Hidden Gems’. I thought, this is going to be awful or brilliant. It was unusual, but brilliant!

I said to myself, someone is being very clever here, creating a really interesting re-interpretation of a song everyone knows, that everyone will hum along/sing to, and it’s less than three minutes, made for radio!!” Mike Maloney, Music One Ireland.

Hidden Gems – The Album

http://www.hiddengems-francieconway.com/broadcast-quality

The seeds for this album ‘Hidden Gems’ were sown when The Zombies were inducted to the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in March 2019 in New York City. Due to this achievement widespread interest has grown in the band members individual projects which include ARGENT, Colin Blunstone and The Chris White Experience.

Francie and Chris have a longstanding musical relationship since the 80’s and Francie is featured on three of the albums from The Chris White Experience; these songs are also included on ‘Hidden Gems’.

‘Hidden Gems’ is a feelgood rock album with some outstanding performances from many iconic musicians, including:

Tim Renwick (Pink Floyd), Russ Ballard (ARGENT), Russ also wrote many classic songs including ‘God Gave Rock’n’Roll To You’, ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, plus so many more… John Verity (ARGENT), Jim Rodford (ARGENT/The Kinks), Bob Henrit (ARGENT), Vivienne Boucherat & Chris White (The Zombies), Jan Akkerman (FOCUS), Christy Dignam (Aslan), Finbar Furey (The Fureys), Gerry O’Connor (Joe Bonamassa/The Dublin Legends), Keith Donald & Matt Kelleghan (Moving Hearts) plus many more..

One of the hidden gems is a first recording of a new song written by Paul Williams, Oscar and GRAMMY award winning songwriter, with Keith Donald and arranged by Fiachra Trench.

A hidden gem from the archives, a live recording from a TV show in RTÉ Dublin 1974, when Francie was just a kid!!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/francie.conway.7

Twitter https://twitter.com/francieconway?lang=en

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/francie_conway/?hl=en

Fontaines D.C. are one of the most lauded alternative rock bands to emerge from Ireland in recent years. They released their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Dogrel’ in 2019 which went on to be nominated for the Mercury Prize and the Choice Music Prize. They’ve toured extensively worldwide selling out shows in iconic venues such as the Brixton Academy and playing renowned festivals such as Glastonbury Festival. 

They also performed on the hugely popular American talk show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Their follow up to ‘Dogrel’, ‘A Hero’s Death’ was released on July 31st to rapturous reviews and was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best Rock Album category and the band have also just picked up a Brit Award nomination for ‘Best International Group’.

Other Voices are delighted to share the band’s electric set from the iconic location of Kilmainham Gaol which was filmed during the Courage series, in its entirety. This one off special episode will contain a never before seen interview and performances that have not been previously broadcast on television. Tune in to RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player at 11pm on April 8th – it’s not to be missed. 

A performance from the Kilmainham set was played as the opening act to U2’s live stream of their iconic 1983 concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. This stream was shown on U2’s official YouTube channel as part of their Virtual Road series. In 2021, Fontaines D.C. have been nominated for a prestigious Libera Award for best Live / Livestream Act for this performance. 

Other Voices Series 19, presented by May Kay and Huw Stephens, will run for 10 weeks, and will include compelling and uplifting performances that capture in full flight the brilliant diversity of the most exciting Irish voices creating the soundtrack to our lives right now. 

RTÉ2 & RTÉ PLAYER | THURSDAYS | 11.00PM

Other Voices Founder Philip King, said: “On July 14th last year a remarkable gig took place behind the walls of Kilmainham  at the height of lockdown as part of the Other Voices Courage series. On that evening Fontaines D.C. played music from their about to be released album ‘A Heroes Death’. Grian Chatten, says the album’s name was inspired by a line from Brendan Bethan’s play the hostage..”If we give ourselves every breath, we are all in the running for a Hero’s Death”. The Jail was the perfect location for this heroic music, echoing its turbulent past with energy and passion. It was a unique and inspiring performance.“

Justin Healy, Executive Producer at RTÉ, said: “RTE is very proud to be involved in this long-running and much loved series. The Irish music scene, despite its particular challenges right now, has arguably never been so rich in new talent and we’re delighted to feature so many of them on Other Voices this season. Viewers can enjoy the show on Thursdays on RTÉ2 or on catch-up at their convenience on RTÉ Player.“

Great art has the power to somehow articulate the abstract, to explain the inexplicable. After a year of turmoil beyond words singer-songwriter Sean Murphy, has channeled this swirling darkness in to a hauntingly beautiful album: ‘The Dark Below & The Isle of Dogs’.

Originally from Cork, Ireland, living in Dublin and having spent the last 12 months in London, Sean Murphy has seen this last disastrous year through the lens of an artist. Working under the moniker All The Queen’s Horses, Murphy has crafted a raw, guttural and emotive response to what he has observed as a darkness bleeding across the land and in to all of our lives. A twisted narrative is weaved in folktronica-rock; a patchwork of poetry, cello, synths and mournful pianos. A kind of warped, contemporary tapestry, the story of 2020 unfolds in low light and fun-house mirrors.

As a production, ‘The Dark Below & The Isle of Dogs’ has been something of a family affair – fitting for a year in which we have retreated into tight confines and familial bubbles. Murphy’s heavily pregnant wife, Sinead provided backing vocals; Uncle, Kevin Murphy (Slow Moving Clouds, Blindstitch) played cello and long time friend, Darragh Molloy, added further backing vocals. A makeshift community around the record gives it a feeling of collage and layering, something tangible and tactile. The resulting 14 tracks tap in to the national psyche, unlocking an almost freudian out-pouring of grief, darkness and trouble. Most of the record was made overlooking the Isle of Dogs from which it takes its name. Darkness became the overriding theme, a constant pandemic gloom through a rollercoaster of a year with, impossibly, only downs in place fo ups.

Astoundingly this is Murphy’s first full album. Murphy began playing the piano as a child, later exploring synths and guitars and playing in some college bands. The odd inertia of 2020 has provided a space (albeit a dark one) for him to really focus and produce a stunning body of work. There is a winding narrative to navigate here; from a relationship going ‘spectacularly and staggeringly wrong’ in ‘Raised By Wolves’ to a protagonist at war with their own demons in ‘The Dark Below’, the listener is invited into a gloomy theatre of self doubt, implosion and human flaws. With a first single set to drop as spring begins to lift in 2021, others will follow with a planned full album release in early autumn. With live performances lined up, 2021 promises to be a year of a different kind of change for All The Queen’s Horses.

The 14 songs on the album plus the hidden track of ‘The Dark Below and The Isle of Dogs’ were produced by producers David Virgin (SPK, Sekret Sekret), Rohan Healy and Al Quiff at Beardfire Studio in Dublin.  The production team, made up of father and sons who have worked with the likes of Nick Cave, INXS, Leslie Dowdall (In Tua Nua), Mary Black, The Cruel Sea, Cat Power, Billy Bragg and Lloyd Cole – on stage or in the studio – during their six decades of musical experience together, to name but a few.

Singer & songwriter Tiz McNamara, who produced the songs (‘The Dark Below’, ‘Close Your Eyes & Think Of England’, ‘A Letter Of Recommendation To The Angels’), has already toured with James Bay and his songs reached over 15 million streams on Spotify.

The album will be released in autumn 2021, with 3 singles and videos upfront, kicking off with the single, ‘Raised By Wolves’ and ‘The Ides Of March’ , as an A/B side which was released on 26 March 2021.

The band All The Queen’s Horses is ready to conquer the stages and will play several European showcase festivals in 21/22.

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/allthequeenshorsesmusic

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/allthequeensho1

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/All-The-Queens-Horses-101240098689682

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJtw2DA4ejrWixqo1IqDeGw

Sarah Hickey is known for her reflective, ethereal yet earthy music.

After immersing herself in songwriting and performance, the Cork based artist is now in her second year of a Masters degree in performance. She is collating her own songs after years of crafting and developing her sound.

Sarah Hickey is about to release her second single ‘Free’ on 30th April, as a follow up to her recent debut single ‘Hollow’. She has performed in many venues throughout Ireland singing her own music and has provided backing vocals for various Irish artists. 2020 afforded Sarah the time to delve into more introspective work which has lead to an exciting new chapter in her musical development.

https://linktr.ee/SarahEveHickey

Seba Safe strips it back with his beautifully folk infused debut EP ‘Map Runner EP’ (02/04) and accompanying video for lead track ‘Map Runner’.

One of Ireland’s most interesting talents to emerge in 2020 is Seba Safe, who follows the success of his single ‘In Waiting’ on Paragon Records by releasing his debut EP the ‘Map Runner’ EP (02/04).

 Writing candidly and honestly on personal relationships, love, loss and change, Seba Safe’s pertinent lyrics are wrapped in a sound that combines Pop, Folk, Dance and R’n’B with inspirations spanning from the sparse folk pop of Maggie Rodgers, Big Thief and Julien Baker to the more modern production of Dermot Kennedy and Lil Peep.

With an artistic range that saw him collaborate with Æ MAK on ‘I Dance In The Kitchen’, the track saw heavy radio and  DSP support including being named ‘Track Of The Day’ on KEXP.

2021 sees Seba Safe securing solid DSP editorial support across his releases to date, selling out a second headline show in Dublin’s The Grand Social (20/11/21), and garnering significant airplay support from BBC 6 Music, RTE 2FM (including Record of the Week from Tracy Clifford), RTE Radio 1 playlisting amongst many others.

“The ‘Map Runner EP’ was written and recorded at a time where I wasn’t confident in my music or myself. I had just gone through a significant break up and I was really struggling with the fact I hadn’t done anything with my music. The aim of this release is to celebrate growth and to acknowledge the past. These songs might not necessarily be my current sound or represent the person I am now but they are a huge part of my journey and I feel proud to finally release them. I owe this release to the version of myself who went through everything it took to write. These songs used to make me feel sad when I listened to them but now I understand their value and their importance to my personal growth. This EP for me is as much about moving on now as it was then. I hope you enjoy the songs. 

P.s Things get better and life goes on.” –  Seba Safe

LIVE

Seba Safe, The Grand Social, Dublin, November 20th 2021 (Headline show with MCD)

Seba Safe Instagram  Seba Safe Facebook  Seba Safe Spotify  Seba Safe Twitter

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.”

‘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/

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/

ELKIN have just released latest single ‘Tuesday’. The duo team up again with Ivor-Novello nominated producer lullahush in this cool-girl banger about an anti-climactic breakup. 

“Our last song was kinda deep. This song isn’t deep at all. Who breaks up with someone on a fucking Tuesday? Obviously a messy break-up is emotionally draining, but the drama of it all can be gas as you retell the stories to your girlies. But when the break-up is as boring and predictable as the relationship itself, you’re left thinking – ‘I didn’t even get a good story out of that’.”

Tuesday is Part 2 of ‘ANTHOLOGY’, a collection of singles released Feb-Aug 2021.

Ellen and Carla were writing and singing together from the age of 15 before taking their music to a new level as ELKIN. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Joni Mitchell the duo began writing and performing folk-pop, but it wasn’t until they began working with producer lullahush that ELKIN blended their love of thought-provoking folk lyrics with fierce alt-pop production.

ELKIN made their mark in 2019 with singles Green Eyes, Cut My Tongue and DIY, as well as releasing  ‘Fall So Easy’, a collaboration with Cork producer 1000 Beasts. The self-managed duo have received growing support with ELKIN being selected to perform at showcases such as Whelan’s Ones to Watch, Music Cork and Ireland Music Week.

2020 saw O’Mahony and Ryan continuing this momentum with new release ‘Win Win’ alongside performances at OutPut Showcase in Belfast and Other Voices Music Trail, Ballina. With the Covid pandemic putting a halt to their other plans, the duo spent the rest of the year writing and recording a collection of singles, ‘ANTHOLOGY’, which will be released Feb – Aug 2021. This will be followed by an EP release funded by the FMC Recording Stimulus Grant.