Emerging Cork songwriter Kevin Walsh shares the music video for his debut single Embrace the World in aid of AsIAm Ireland, based on his life experiences with autism.
The single, released April 2022 for World Autism Month, topped the Irish iTunes Singles Charts and Rock Charts on release day, AND entered the Irish Homegrown Charts at #19.
Described by MusicNGear as “soaring and symphonic”, the supergroup ensemble arrangement features vocal styles such as folk, hard rock and musical theatre, which in Kevin’s words “is designed to aurally reflect the spectrum of Autism as a diagnosis”.
The moving music video for Embrace the World, directed by award-winning writer/director/producer Yvonne Coughlan of RSVP (www.rsvpireland.net), depicts Kevin’s true to life experiences from childhood to present day.
Shot over ten days, in 18 locations, with 14 crew, Kevin and the 8 featured vocalists (including esteemed Irish artists Emma Langford, Ger O’Hanlon, Lisa Curran, Molly Lynch, Rebecca Houlihan, Caroline Kay and Mark Daly) were supported by an astoundingly talented cast of 56 artists; 21 actors in character roles, 13 Joan Denise Moriarty School of Dance students, and 22 special extras.
An Taoiseach Michael Martin, praised Kevin and his team at the single’s April launch “Kevin’s decision to apply his musical talent and hard work in support of AsIAm is a mark of his quality and his selflessness as a person”.
The video production dramatically illustrates key moments of Kevin’s life as an autistic person, especially the impact on his family, of a non-verbal child with eating difficulties to an adult with a First Class Honours degree in music. Jean Law (Fair City, The South Westerlies) plays Kevin’s mother, and Logan O’Leary, Paddy Hayes and Roy O’Connor portray Kevin at various ages. Both Logan and Roy are on the autism spectrum, as the project works to follow the disability maxim, ‘Nothing about us without us.’
AsIAm benefits from proceeds of streams and downloads of the single, as well as Shopify merchandise, Kevin credits their work with giving him the courage to speak openly about his life experience as an autistic person, based on their ethos of a strengths-focused approach to Autism.
SHOPIFY LINK: https://kevinwalshmusic.myshopify.com/
