‘Freedom’ is the new single from Cat Dowling, out on June 25th. It’s the perfect summer anthem as restrictions ease – we can all join in as Cat sings “Freedom is sweet”! This new single follows recent release ‘Trouble’, and both will appear on her upcoming second album for release in the autumn. The album is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.
The song was borne from a momentous occasion in Cat’s life, “I wrote this song just after the birth of my second child. It was the early hours of the morning and he was sleeping on my chest. The days had no plan and I loved those quiet hours in the dead of the night when the world slept. The lines and melody landed together. I didn’t know where they came from at the time but now, they make sense – it’s a song about being free to be the person we’re born to be without the baggage and shackles of what went before us”.
Kilkenny born but now Dublin based, Cat Dowling will unveil her long awaited second album in the autumn. It will follow her much lauded debut album ‘The Believer’ from 2013 which featured in several ‘Best of Year’ music polls including The Sunday Times. The album title ‘The Believer’ featured as a closing track on the ground-breaking second series of ‘Banshee’ produced by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, American Beauty, True Blood). It also appeared on the TV Series ‘Witches of East End’ featuring Julia Ormond. ‘Somebody Else’ was featured in the highly received ‘My Name is Emily’ alongside Lisa Hannigan, Jake Bugg and James Vincent McMorrow. Cat has lent her vocals on many collaborative projects, the most recent of which, was selected for a closing track on ABC’s ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ with Emmy-winning actress Viola Davis. Dowling has fronted numerous music projects, the last of which was Babelfish which morphed into the successful electro/dream-pop Alphastates. As the front woman and main songwriter, she released 2 albums and gained admirers for the energy on the live stage and for her hushed and raw deliveries. Comparisons to Liz Frazer, Beth Gibbons, Karen O, Amanda Palmer, Feist and Kristen Hersh have regularly appeared.
GEAlive and MCD Productions are delighted to announce special guest vocalist Lisa Hannigan with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra for the spectacular new live experience, Our Planet Live in Concert at the 3Arena on 21st January 2022. Tickets for Our Planet Live in Concert cost from €46 including booking fee, and are available now.
The production will reimagine the Emmy Award®-winning series as a live experience, combining highlights from the series with some brand new arrangements to create an immersive journey across Our Planet. Specially developed by the series producers Silverback Films, and Oscar®-winning composer Steven Price, Our Planet Live in Concert is narrated on screen by legendary broadcaster, David Attenborough. Combining the outstanding natural world visuals of Our Planet with creative innovations in live production, this concert will be a live experience like no other.
Composer Steven Price’s Emmy®-nominated score has been reworked for an epic two-hour performance and will be performed by the RTE National Symphony Orchestra with Irish vocalist Lisa Hannigan singing alongside the 66-strong orchestra as music and special effects are delivered through 250 speakers to create a complete surround sound experience for the audience, allowing them to be further immersed in the production.
Our Planet Live in Concert will tour international arenas with the Irish premiere in Dublin at 3Arena on 21st January 2022.
The landmark eight-part Our Planet documentary series is being reimagined into a two-hour arena show with beautiful visual and sound effects and will be accompanied by a breathtaking 66-piece orchestra and live vocalist, Lisa Hannigan. Three giant screens will present the incredible cinematography of Our Planet on a scale that has never been seen before, allowing audiences to be fully immersed into the wonders of the Earth’s wildlife and their habitats. Intelligent lighting will heighten the visual experience beyond the screens and around the arena, programmed to run in sync with the footage.
All net profits from the Our Planet live project will be donated to WWF’s global Our Planet education and awareness initiatives. These include providing a wealth of educational materials for schools and young people, based on the series, with the aim to inspire and motivate the next generation to protect our planet.
Our Planet took the world by storm when it was released in April 2019. Taking viewers on a spectacular journey of discovery, showcasing the beauty and increased fragility of our natural world, the series explores the fact that humans have become the greatest threat to the survival of our planet, and all the species that inhabit it. The series also highlights the fact that there is still time to address the challenges that we have created, if we act now. It helped people to understand what is at stake and realise how imperative it was to lobby businesses and governments to start paying attention.
Our Planet Live in Concert brings together some of the world’s greatest creatives, filmmakers, musicians and conservationists to provide an experience like no other.
Concert producer Floris Douwes at GEAlive commented, “All past and current natural history shows offer an orchestra with video clippings on a screen and static overhead lighting. Our Planet Live in Concert truly is an event! Audiences will feel like they are fully taken in by it. Three large screens will provide razor sharp video footage from across the series, in a narrative that is exclusive to this live event, interspersed with live camera direction of the orchestra and soloist performances. A huge quantity of smart lighting fixtures will extend the visual experience throughout the arena. Add a sound system that surrounds the audience with effects from 36 positions and nature will be as close as it can get. Last but certainly not least, we are thrilled and honored that David Attenborough has agreed to record an exclusive audio-visual narration especially for the live show.”
Colin Butfield, Executive Producer for Our Planet at WWF, said “We’ve seen first-hand the impact this series has generated by showcasing the wonders of our planet while also addressing the urgent need to protect it for future generations. We hope to elevate this message and deepen the audience’s engagement with the natural world by bringing the documentary into the event space on such a phenomenal scale.”
Alastair Fothergill of Silverback Films is a pioneer in creating concerts around landmark wildlife series with his previous projects Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet. He says, “ Our Planet will be the most ambitious concert performances we have ever created combining the advanced sound and visual technology with Steven Price’s wonderful score and the powerful images from the series. We are very excited by the ambition of the Our Planet concerts to take the quality of the audience experience to a new level”.
Academy Award®-winning composer Steven Price said “I can’t wait to bring the music of Our Planet to live audiences for the very first time. Using a combination of the most memorable sequences from the Netflix series exclusively designed for this show, our incredible musicians and I plan to take you on a journey that celebrates the wonders of our planet- the one home we all share- whilst showing the urgent need to treasure and protect it. It’s going to be an emotional and immersive experience and I hope to see you there.”
The ground-breaking Our Planet series premiered on Netflix in April 2019 to a global audience in 190 countries worldwide. It focuses on the breadth of the diversity of habitats around the world – from the remote Arctic wilderness and mysterious deep oceans to the vast landscapes of Africa and diverse jungles of South America – giving an unprecedented look at the planet’s most precious species and fragile landscapes. More than just a showcase of the Earth’s natural wonders, the series also reveals why the natural world matters to us all and what steps must be taken to preserve it. Our Planet was watched by 33 million households in the first month of its release inspiring people around the world to connect to the one place we all call home.
Tickets for Our Planet Live in Concert priced from €46 including booking fee, and are available now.
Irish indie pop artist, Brí is releasing her fifth single ‘If I Wasn’t Scared’ on June 16th and with it is reaffirming her credentials as one of the most exciting artists around. With powerful yet fragile vocals over delicate instrumentation, Brí takes us on another magical journey into her melodic lamenting world.
About the song Brí says, ‘”If I Wasn’t Scared’ assumes a man’s perspective of a relationship as he struggles to balance his feelings with a ‘tough guy’ image, particularly among ‘the boys’. It is a toxic masculinity tale that strips back cold layers of indifference and questions the fear that it uncovers.”
“The vocals on this track were recorded remotely from my home while my bandmate Aidan Mulloy’s electric guitar melodies carry the song and my producer Asta Kalapa surrounds it with his magic. The gifted Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz who is also in my band, plays cello on this track and elevates it to another level. Every song that Kaitlin (of alt folk duo KC VIK) and Aidan play on, is a song I fall deeply in love with.” – Brí’
Hailing from Offaly, Brí has previously released 4 singles, debut track, ‘Low Supply’, ‘Polite’, ‘Burying’ and ‘More Than’. From the success gained from these releases she sold-out her own Whelan’s headline show, received high praise from a multitude of blogs and radio and was selected to perform at Beatvyne’s Music X Tech Experience. While 2020 saw performances from Brí at the esteemed Whelan’s Ones to Watch, The Ruby Sessions, headliners in The Sound House, Spirit Store and festival line-up announcements such as Vantastival, 2021 sees Brí building momentum for her anticipated debut album ‘Hide’, which is due for release in October.
Scullion’s self-titled 1979 debut album included abstractions from James Joyce – ‘The Fruit Smelling Shop’. Now, in celebration of Bloomsday, Wednesday 16th June, the seminal folk rock band share a reimagined version of the song as part of The Bloomsday Festival – a unique literary festival happening online for 2021, which is made possible thanks to Culture Ireland, The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht Sport and Media, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, and the James Joyce Centre.
This reimagining of ‘The Fruit Smelling Shop’ came about because of an invitation to Scullion member Sonny Condell from Darina Gallagher, the Director of The James Joyce Centre in Dublin.
Darina says:
“In my role as director of the James Joyce Centre, I have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and appetite for Joyce, his literature, and his legacy, from a truly global audience. As I began to think about another online Bloomsday Festival, in these strangest of times, I plucked up the courage to write to Sonny Condell and ask him if he might be interested in reimaging the Fruit Smelling Shop for this audience. To my joy, Sonny responded positively and immediately set to work.
For Bloomsday 2021, I decided to celebrate Dublin, the place that inspired so much of Joyce’s writing and in his mind, the city that Joyce never really left. The Fruit Smelling Shop captures so much of the extraordinary energy of Joyce’s Dublin. I am so happy to have been a small part of this beautiful new recording.”
This special recording was captured at The Clinic Recording Studios Dublin by David Anthony Curley, and produced by Leon O’ Neill. It features performances by Scullion – band members Sonny Condell, Robbie Overson and Philip King, with strings arranged by Gemma Doherty (Saint Sister) and performed by Crash Ensemble – Cora Venus Lunny on violin, Maria Ryan on violin, Lisa Dowdall on viola, and Kate Ellis on cello.
Sonny Condell reflects on how ‘The Fruit Smelling Shop’ first arrived, back in the late 70’s:
“I think songs come out of the blue, either very quickly or after long and painful period of trial and error, its seems to depend very much on one’s mood. But it is very exciting when things go well and you find you have given birth to something new.
Sometimes when I’m trying to write a song, I get quite tired of my own lyrical ideas and this was the case when I opened at random a page in James Joyce’s “Ulysses”.
Unusually for me I was playing around with a few piano cords at the time, (normally I use the guitar ) I propped open my copy on the piano and started to try fit the words to a developing melody.
‘The Fruit Smelling Shop’ came into being very quickly, it just happened, the cord sequence worked, and the words pushed and pulled me; into a chorus where “Blazes Boylan at the counter….” Seemed to call for a strong C major, then the serving girl’s submissive “yes sir I will sir” felt like an E minor, A minor sequence.
The hard part was done, the atmosphere was all in the wonderful writing of Mr Joyce, then I began to wonder, what right do I have to do this? I still don’t have the answer to that.
But having been asked by the James Joyce Centre to do a new version of the song, has in some way legitimised the creation of the song. I’m very grateful to the James Joyce Centre for their interest and their support.”
Scullion had asked for, and received permission to use the segment when they first recorded the tune in the late seventies. They have now recorded it for the second time, as part of the Bloomsday festivities, and for their new Scullion album set for release this autumn.
A specially commissioned film for ‘The Fruit Smelling Shop’ created by Myles O’Reilly (Arbutus Yarns) is available online via the Other Voices YouTube Channel.
The Bloomsday Festival celebrates Irish writer James Joyce and his famous novel Ulysses set in Dublin city on 16th June 1904. This unique literary festival will once again be online for 2021 but it will aim to inspire and entertain the many thousands of global fans and hopefully gather new audiences for Ireland’s greatest writer.
Now more than ever we need to look to the creative strengths that surround us, our writers, artists, performers, and musicians to guide us out of this pandemic. In Ulysses, James Joyce reminds us of the joy of the ordinary and every day, but also that the local is universal, ‘if I can get to the heart of Dublin, I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world’.
The Bloomsday Festival 2021 has been truly inspired by the response of Irish and international artists, writers, performers, musicians, academics, reading groups, and all who love the works of James Joyce. It seems that Ulysses has indeed some special resonance for these times. As we look towards 2022 and Ulysses 100, the centenary celebrations of this great novel, we hope we can once again welcome everyone back to this great city, and like James Joyce, we will all have Dublin ‘written on our hearts’.
VARO are singers and fiddle players Lucie Azconaga (from France) and Consuelo Nerea Breschi (from Italy) who perform traditional songs and tunes with arrangement influences from the Folk, Baroque and Classical traditions, weaving around the melodies with harmonies, drones, and countermelody. The duo met in 2015 having moved to Dublin to pursue their love for Irish traditional music, having travelled to Ireland along different musical paths – Lucie from jazz, classical music, and French folk, Consuelo from Irish trad, folk, and world music.
Following the success of their self-titled debut album released in January 2020, VARO are preparing to launch an ambitious collaboration project later this year, which will see the release of a new album featuring Varo alongside twelve of Ireland’s most exciting and exceptionally talented traditional and folk musicians and groups on the scene:
Ian Lynch (Lankum), Anna Mieke, Junior Brother, Landless, John Francis Flynn, Niamh Bury, Branwen, Slow Moving Clouds, Inni-K, Alannah Thornburgh, Cormac Mac Diarmada (Lankum) & Ruth Clinton, and Lemoncello.
For this collection, Varo have curated a selection of traditional songs, which each relate to themes arising out of the COVID19 lockdown: loneliness, isolation, relationships, being away from your family or home, the housing crisis, the importance of social interactions, mental health, and anti-racism.
As part of Tradition Now 2021, VARO will perform music from their debut album, and exclusively showcase some of their new collaborations welcoming special guests John Francis Flynn, Alannah Thornburgh, Niamh Bury, Anna Mieke, Branwen and Slow Moving Clouds to join them on stage.
Consuelo of Varo says “We feel extremely honoured and grateful for having been invited to play at Tradition Now this year. If you think about it, it’s quite surreal.
Before the first lockdown we had just launched our debut album as Varo and managed to do a month tour in Ireland before everything stopped its normal course. Since then, we have experienced a year of almost no live gigs at all, no sessions, no social gatherings.
Everything had to be re-imagined, and so we started a collaboration project, to fill the gap left from the lack of interactions with other musicians and friends. Now we are bringing this project to a venue like the National Concert Hall…something I definitely wouldn’t have thought about a year ago.
This year has taught us that it’s always possible to fill a gap, to maintain human connections, through exchange and creativity. We would like to thank Tradition Now and the National Concert Hall for giving us the opportunity to share this collective work, which for us represents a continuation of the sense of community that is so inherent to the Trad and Folk scenes.”
Lucie of Varo adds “We’re very excited to be playing the National Concert Hall, although it’s very surreal to be honest. And to be able to bring our friends with us, all these amazing musicians that we’re so lucky to have on board with us for our collaboration project… It’s going to be a bit of a mad night for us on many levels, playing our songs in this huge iconic venue, being on stage with so many friends after a year of almost nothing, and presenting for the first time some of the songs of our upcoming collaboration project.
So on the night, this hour of music will be divided into two parts. We will perform a Varo set in the first half, with songs from our first album and some new materials too. And in the second half, we will be joined by six acts from our collaboration project.
The idea of this project was born a year ago and consists of a selection of traditional songs written over the three last centuries, but that can illustrate people’s feelings and experiences over the past year in a kind of poetic sense. So we’ve been working with 12 other acts for it and it’s been a very special experience… The album will be recorded over the summer and our gig at the National Concert Hall will be the first show to present such a large part of it.”
Varo + special guests Live Stream from The National Concert Hall stage as part of Tradition Now, this Sunday 20th June. The concert will be available to ticket holders for a week following the performance. Tickets €12 are available from nch.ie
Despite challenges posed by Covid-19, the past year has been an exciting one for Ambient Neoclassical Pianist/Composer Úna Keane. A classically trained pianist with a background in Tech, she mines deep. Her work lives + breathes in a unique, multi-disciplinary space incorporating piano, electronics, field recordings, movement & film.
The Dubliner released critically-acclaimed Live Album ‘Collaborations’ at the end of 2020 on digital format. Named Irish Album of the year by Broadsheet.ie, it garnered a glowing 8.5/10 review from Hot Press and 4 stars from The Irish Times. It features work from her last 2 LPs, as well as some new work and in-the-flow improv. She played a headline show at Dublin’s Pepper Canister Church on March 5th 2020 (a week before lockdown), and was joined on the night by some very special guests: Stephen Shannon, Liam Ó’Maonlaí, Lōwli, Gareth Quinn Redmond & Ronán Conroy. What ensued was a lot of improv, between musicians playing with one another mostly for the first time. Something special happened, and everyone felt it. The concert was recorded, mixed and mastered by Adam KJ, and Úna and Adam co-produced.
Bolstered by the warm reception to the record, she founded a record label, UKM with a couple of friends, and ‘Collaborations’ gets its Vinyl / CD / Streaming release via UKM on 16/7/21.
Just a few months before Covid hit, at the end of 2019, Úna released sophomore instrumental Album ‘In the Deep’ with shows at D-Light Studios in Dublin and Servant Jazz Quarters in London. Lauren Murphy, reviewing for The Irish Times drew comparisons to the work of Ólafur Arnalds and Max Richter, citing her use of looped tracks and field recordings, while RTE 2FM’s Dan Hegarty heralded it as a “stunning piece of work that will have you floating from tears to joy“. Of her work over the past few years, Tony Clayton-Lea has named her “probably one of the best exponents of instrumental music that comes from a quiet, calm place”.
She’s been wearing quite a few hats the past few years: composer, musician, producer, graphic designer, film editor, PR and radio liaison. This all ties in with Keane’s self-sufficient, DIY approach. It’s not that she would necessarily choose to do all these things, but necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention.
Irish music luminaries Sack return to the stage with their first headline show in over three years at The Grand Social, Dublin on Thursday, December 23rd, 2021.
The Dublin 5 piece took full advantage of the downtime over the last year, working on new material of which details will be announced very soon. The Grand Social show will see the band debut these new songs in public, alongside Sack favourites like ‘Laughter Lines’, ‘What Did The Christians Ever Do For Us’, ‘Latitude’ and many more from their varied career.
The band will also take part in a special online performance with Live from the Red Room at Outhouse alongside Ailbhe Reddy and Paul Quinn as part of Dublin Pride 2021 on Saturday, June 26th at 7pm at www.dublinpride.ie while also featuring in the OPW Rathfarnham Rhythms: Reels To Rock concert series on Thursday, July 22nd at 8pm, which will be available to view at www.rathfarnhamcastle.ie
Sack is a Dublin-based 5-piece band comprising Martin McCann on vocals, John Brereton (guitar), Tony Brereton (drums) Derek Lee (bass) and Ken Haughton (guitar)
To date they have released 3 albums, ‘You Are What You Eat’, ‘Butterfly Effect’ and ‘Adventura Majestica’.
The band describe their sound as “Frank Sinatra fronting the Pixies”. Formed from the ashes of Lord John White the band came to notice with their strong melodic songs, biting political lyrics and new wave, guitar driven sensibilities.
SACK live at The Grand Social, Dublin Thursday, 23rd December 2021 Tickets €17.50 on sale Thursday, 17th June at 10am from Ticketmaster.ie
Chapeau Music is glad to present this first limited vinyl release from Niceteed. ‘Nothing But Pain EP’, out 25th June, is an harsh and obscure record wrapped by hard and uncompromising dancefloor-oriented raw grooves and punchy low ends. Only 300 copies, gone is gone, no repress.
The title track ‘Nothing But Pain’ shows the sound evolution that Niceteed is taking and opens the label to new music styles; huge rounded kick, violent sub bass, warm n’ dirty groove elements absorbed inside the reverberated synth stab and an epic shrill vocal, a track which belongs in the peak-moment of every secret rave. If we consider we also have a more Tech-oriented banger remixed by the award winning, Irish talent Josh Coakley everything collides on an absolute terrific A-side.
“This EP means a lot for me and for the label, I have dreamed for a long time to release a vinyl on Chapeau and It’s hard to say how happy I am about this achievement. During these difficult months for the scene I had enough time to think and to concentrate about what I want to do and the direction I want to take, it was a very deep inner process. This vinyl style perfectly represents what I want to play out, I feel the overall production workflow and my production approach was more spontaneous and less thoughtful on these tracks.” – Niceteed
The flip side opens with ‘Leben’, a tribute track for the crew that Niceteed is part of in his hometown. Here the fast and weighty kick drum hugs the rhythmic components, gritty hi-hats and claps. Everything settles down on the straight and impact synth stab line. In the breaks the doubled high-pitched vocal completely captures the attention, then the heavy kick drum restores the late-night techno mood, literally surfing on the distorted 909 rides. The final track ‘Ketama Aurea’ introduces us in the darkest part of this record, a gloomier zone that perfectly fits the end of this EP. Over the saturated groove and the baggy kick drum everything is under the hypnosis of the tangled synth melodies, their sounds are intertwined in the mix like arms of ravers in the murkiest warehouse party. In the breaks the melancholic and significant vocal is followed by the warm bassline that stands out in an impressive way.
“Vinyl has always had a special place in my heart. Growing up my Father was a DJ in the 90’s and would regularly play vinyl in the clubs. He now collects his favorite records from back in the day, and gets them signed by the artists and frames them on our wall. He has this ability to be able to tell a story of each one, on where he played it or heard it, the year and the club it was played at. Unbelievable. He was the one who introduced me to the art form and I was instantly hooked. Everything just sounds better on vinyl. I have spent many weekends travelling into the city to the various record stores, spending hours listening and buying records as well as ordering various records from the various retailers.” – Josh Coakley
London label Dimple Discs has announced the signing of Irish psychedelic dreampop outfit Keeley to its roster, not long after releasing the critically acclaimed new album from Cathal Coughlan (The Fatima Mansions, Microdisney). The label will release her debut ‘Brave Warrior’ EP digitally on June 18 with a physical release planned for autumn with a long-player scheduled for 2022.
Hailing from Dublin and fronted by vocalist and guitarist Keeley, the band includes Marty Canavan on keyboards, Martin Fagan on bass and Pete Duff on drums.
This four-track collection was produced and engineered by Alan Maguire, who mixed it together with Keeley, and mastered by Anthony Chapman (Franz Ferdinand, DEVO, Cathal Coughlan, Jesus Jones, Wolfhounds).
Lead track ‘The Glitter and the Glue’ is a blistering buffet of psychedelic rock, post-punk and the fuzzier, more frantic end of the dreampop spectrum. The shortest, fastest and most ecstatic explosion of energy released by Keeley to date, this is a hook-laden, melodic monster of a song with very unusual lyrical content. It is already receiving Irish airplay from Newstalk FM, Radio Nova, 98FM and has now been added to the playlists of Dublin City FM, KCLR 96FM and 8Radio.
The ‘Brave Warrior’ EP demonstrates the multi-faceted songwriting smarts of one of Ireland’s most talked-about emerging bands, ranging from this upbeat lead track to more spacey, darkly-dreamy electronic offerings, drenched in drama and soaked in sadness. Keeley pursues an unusual conceptual thread, conceived several years ago, focusing on German tourist Inga Maria Hauser, whose murder in Northern Ireland in 1988 remains unsolved.
For the past five years, the band’s frontwoman and songwriter Keeley has been publishing a blog with a devoted global following – ‘The Keeley Chronicles’ – documenting the many facets of this unique, harrowing and mystifying case, correcting the falsely published details of Inga’s life and piecing together what really happened in the final days on her trip. By working in close quarters with Northern Irish police, senior politicians and Inga’s legal representatives in Northern Ireland in concerted efforts to advance and resolve this notorious case, she is keeping the memory of this beautiful and mysterious soul alive.
“Inga is the subject of everything I write. From the moment I first read about her exactly five years ago now, her cause became a burning obsession for me. Since that day I haven’t written a song about anyone or anything else… I consider myself a concept artist and my purpose is to give Inga a voice,” says Keeley.
In October 2020, Keeley released the debut single ‘Last Words’, topping Newstalk FM’s airplay chart, getting playlisted by RTE Radio 1 and 8Radio, and attracting support from radio in multiple countries. Picked by legendary broadcaster Tom Dunne as one of his ‘Top Tracks of 2020’, it was listed at #12 in Radio Nova’s ’Top 15 Irish Songs of 2020’ and, upon its release, she became the subject of full-page articles in the Belfast Telegraph and Derry Post newspapers, a frankly unheard-of feat for an indie artist on their debut single.
Dimple Discs is a new Peckham label with deep Irish music connections, founded in 2018 by Damian O’Neill of The Undertones and Brian O’Neill, initially as a vehicle for Damian’s solo projects. It has now grown to encompass such artists as The Undertones, Cathal Coughlan, Kev Hopper, Eileen Gogan, Dragon Welding, Nick Haeffner and Baby Shakes with forthcoming archive material from Microdisney and Fatima Mansions.
“We are thrilled to have Keeley joining us as she is an exciting new talent – we were hooked from the opening bars of ‘The Glitter And The Glue’. Welcome to the family Keeley!” says Brian O’Neill.
Already recording new works at Darklands Audio in Dublin, where Fontaines D.C. recorded their first album, Keeley looks forward to releasing this ‘Brave Warrior’ EP on June 18. It can be pre-ordered via Bandcamp with ‘Glitter and The Glue’ being offered for immediate download with any order.
SAIV’N is a synthfolk musical project created by Saidhbhín a folk singer songwriter from Dundalk and producer Danny who is from Dublin. It is collaborative blend of both their musical stylings (Folk/electronic) formed in May 2020 during lockdown.
Saidhbhín became interested in playing music at the age of 8 taking up guitar and soon after drums. She began a solo music career at 16, playing small gigs around Dundalk as a singer songwriter. Her inspirations in her music style of writing come from Damien Rice, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Hayley William (Paramore)
Continuing to focus on music Saidhbhín went onto study Applied Music in DKIT and went onto specialise in sole performance. It was in this course she became a member of the band Sonnets & Sisters in 2015 who went onto gig all over Ireland performing at festivals such as Body & Soul and Electric Picnic.
After the band went their separate ways in 2018, she decided to focus on finding a producer to work with to create the folk mixed with electronic sound she had been searching for but didn’t have the tools or knowledge to do so. After two years and a number of producers, her sister introduced her to officecoffee (Danny) over social media and from there they began to develop their unique sound, Sythfolk. A blend of Saidhbhín folk style writings and officecoffee’s electronic workings.
Over a decade as a professional performing musician playing around 200 shows a year has made the stage officecoffee’s spiritual home – having been inspired by the wild sonic styles of Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Blur’s Graham Coxon to first take up guitar at the atypically ripe age of 19.
Drawing on influences from disco, funk and electronic music, officecoffee began writing and performing with a seven-piece indie funk band, exploring a keen love for clean, angular rhythm guitar while incorporating his burgeoning fascination with audio-mangling digital effects, vintage electronic toys and sampling into the fold.
While working as a studio engineer, his work in sound design and foley for film and radio led to an increasing obsession with synthesis . Amassing a self-sufficient rig of drum machines, synthesisers and samplers and eventually led to his solo debut at Electric Picnic in 2019.
Both Saidhbhín and officecoffee have yet to meet in person, as this has been a 100% social media/internet communication due to the pandemic. The two live roughly 84km apart so Covid19 made it impossible to meet on most occasions over the last year. This however didn’t stop them from creating ‘Tunnels’, their debut single. The two have taken advantage of the internet to create and perfect this track, sending many recordings back and forth, editing it down, sending notes and fixes till it was at it final completed stage.
They are currently creating more track ready for release within the next year.
‘Tunnels’, out Friday 18th June, is about the inner struggle, all your negative thoughts chasing you to no end. It is about the battle to stay positive and break away from that negativity. The feeling of driving through a tunnel with the lights and everything else passing by representing a racing mind, is emulated with motifs bubbling up and passing away like the emotions expressed in the lyrics. ‘Tunnels ‘was written pre-pandemic but certainly became very relevant since last year.
