London and Dublin based Keelan X marks his stunning return to the world of music with his reflective single ‘No Fall of Rome’, set for release 11/11/21.
The new track conjures the grandeur of its title and the multi-layered style Keelan X has to life and music. A texturally rich, guitar-led atmospheric exploration coloured with retro-pop synth sounds, No Fall of Rome builds on the artist’s late 70s & 80s pop/rock influences, lyrically exploring themes of agency and fortitude in life, no matter what shows up.
“There’s a synergy between how you live and what you write…it’s inevitable. ‘No Fall of Rome was’ born out of a fascination I have with both Rome and people’s journeys. Freud referred to the mind as being like Rome (in Civilisation and its Discontents) with a long rich past. It all begins in the mind and how you manage it. I’d seen people in different life-stages entertaining giving up on themselves a bit – letting their earlier hopes and dreams slip. I liked the metaphor of Rome and your life as having all the attributes of a city and hypothesising that there ain’t no fall of Rome gonna happen on my watch.” – Keelan X
Thematically the song signals the artist’s observations reflected through his own personal journey. Keelan X (real name Keelan Cunningham) found success with co-founding and front-manning late 90s indie-pop band The Marigolds with who he toured Ireland, played US and UK gigs, released two acclaimed EPs, and received coveted television and radio coverage. The artist suffered a blow in the late noughties when his laptop and hard drives were stolen, practically erasing a years’ worth of recorded songs overnight.
“I took the disappearance of my songs at that time as a sign that now was not the time… Now roughly 10 years on, I felt compelled to go dust off my guitar buried in my parent’s attic and over the last 9 months have thrown myself into recording the most part of an album”
Cunningham had found himself on the verge of bankruptcy and knew he had to make a change. The artist spent the decade building his web technology business and getting into property investment development, all the while developing a more spiritual side. Diving into yoga and literature, Keelan excavated his own depths, pushing his boundaries, which in turn took him to back to music.
Audiences can look forward to hearing ‘No Fall of Rome’ on 11/11/21.
