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Badhands shares opening track from new album ‘The Wheel’

March 24, 2023

Today, Friday 24th March 2023, the award-winning composer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Fitzpatrick, aka Badhands , shares a new single ‘For A Little While’  and reveals that it is the second to be taken from his upcoming third album, The Wheel , due for release on Friday 5th May .

Badhands will play live dates in Derry, Dublin, Kildare, Cork and Mayo throughout May.

05.06 – Derry / Bennigans
06.06 – Dublin / Workmans Cellar
12.06 – Newbridge / Flanagans
13.06 – Kinsale / Prims Bookshop
27.06 – Louisburgh / Atlantic Lodge

‘For a Little While’ is the opening track from the nine track album. The atmospheric opening of the song sets a gloomy scene, with lyrics that describe people mindlessly and perpetually wandering the same bleak, empty streets.

This dystopian theme is reflected in the  synth and bluesy piano-led intro, with the song soon building from the moody beginning into an epic band performance that is positively euphoric by the end.

The song was recorded live in the Meadow studio, with extra vocals then added by Aoife Ruth and Paddy Hanna, which take the latter part of the song into Fleetwood Mac territory.

Daniel Fitzpatrick says: “This song is a good reflection of the new album overall, it captures a really good, lively performance from the band, which we hammered out in two takes – Ken Mooney on drums, David Tapley on bass, Chris Barry on guitar and Aoife Ruth on synth. The performance is loose but full of energy, and the addition of Aoife and Paddy Hanna’s vocals on the choruses really allow the song to take flight by the end. Sonically I wanted a Blade Runner style synth to help give the music a bit of a dystopian sound to match the lyrics.”

This collaborative effort is a sign of things to come on the album, which Daniel reveals was written in a relatively short period of time after he and other band members watched Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary ‘The Beatles: Get Back’.

“We had all been really inspired by the Get Back documentary; watching The Beatles flounder and struggle, but ultimately pull it together, and this provided the impetus for starting the project,”  he shares.

The result is a more collaborative effort than previous albums, with a looser and more live feel, which also saw Fitzpatrick composing and working predominantly on piano as opposed to guitar.

The compositions continue to demonstrate the influence of Fitzpatrick’s work in the realm of wildlife documentary soundtracks, evident in the instrumental track that closes out the album, and lyrically the songs delve into new themes.

The release of ‘For A Little While’ follows February’s single ‘Movie Nights’.

Badhands’ 2022 album Far Away was praised by The Irish Times  for possessing “a wonderfully rich sound inspired by mid-period Scott Walker and blue-chip legends and luminaries such as Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Lee Hazlewood.” Totally Dublin  called it “luxuriously cinematic”, so appropriately a track from Far Away will feature in the upcoming series of Smother on RTÉ.

Badhands has spent the past number years composing scores for wildlife documentaries in collaboration with some of the world’s largest TV organisations, including the BBC, PBS, and RTÉ. He soundtracked the BBC series The Wild Gardener in 2022, and some of his songs were recently used in Tommy Tiernan’s Epic West. In 2019, his score for the Wild Cuba documentary won an award at the prestigious Jackson Wild Film Festival in the U.S., as well as winning Best Score at the 2021 Green Screen Wildlife Festival in Germany. Badhands also collaborates with artists in theatre performances, working with Maud Lee and Zoe Ni Riordan on some of their acclaimed theatre productions, such as the recent launch of their Irish Language project Éist Liom in late 2022, along with Glasshouse ensemble, at the Project Arts Centre.

Badhands 

‘The Wheel’ 

Album Tracklist

 

  1. For a Little While
  2. I Don’t Mind
  3. Bad Dreams
  4. Something to Sell
  5. Good Things Never Last
  6. No Way to Live
  7. Head in the Clouds
  8. Movie Nights
  9. Head in the Clouds Reprise

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