Mark McCausland is an Irish songwriter/producer/musician known for his work as one half of The Lost Brothers. In the past couple of years he has been on a bit of a prolific home run, producing his own solo material under the name McKowski and collaborating with an eclectic variety of artists – notably Nick Power of The Coral – as well as forming a super-trio along with M Ward & Howe Gelb, (collectively known as Geckøs). More recently, one of his short stories got turned into a full length feature film, The Spin, which he also composed the musical score for.
Featured single, ‘Laughs for the Lonely‘ sits as a highlight moment in the film’s soundtrack, offering a melancholic counterpoint to the movie’s comedic charm. Written and performed by McCausland with a newly formed band ‘Dead Goat‘ (Matt McGinn, Steven Scullion, Declan McManus & McCausland) the track was hand-picked to be included in a key scene by the film’s screenwriter, Colin Broderick.
‘’The music and the movie were both written simultaneously”, explains McCausland, “at times the music and the story fed into each other, informing one another where to go next. We worked closely together and kept ping ponging ideas to each other, which egged us on to the finish line..”
It was during one of these brainstorming “ping-pong” sessions that Broderick first heard the Dead Goat demo of ‘Laughs For The Lonely’, that stopped him in his tracks.
“I was working mostly on the musical score, which is mainly instrumental.” reflects McCausland.
“But we still needed a song for a pivotal music scene in the film. I had just recorded Laughs For The Lonely the day before with my friends, Dead Goat. Unrelated to the movie, I played the track to Colin. I turned around and with tears running down his cheek he immediately said, “I don’t need to hear any more songs. This is the one.
I didn’t realise it when we were writing/recording it but the lyrics in the song – mainly the “a good friend is hard to find” chorus – pretty much sum up a lot of the themes of friendship in the film. It was one of those meant-to-be moments. And it was completely by accident.”
The single is accompanied by two instrumental tracks from the soundtrack album, firstly ‘Ask the Dust‘, which is the opening theme to the movie. Reminiscent of soundtracks such as Dylan’s Pat Garret or Jack Nitzsche’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest theme, the track also features Howe Gelb, Steve Wickham, Dave Murphy, Laura McFadden & Paul Brainard.
The second instrumental, ‘Mountain Drive’, sees McCausland in McKowski mode, a dark and atmospheric soundscape that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Nick Cave / Warren Ellis soundtrack.
The soundtrack album also features contributions from a multitude of artists such as Jolie Holland, John Parish, Pieta Brown, Nick Power (The Coral), Gemma Doherty (Saint Sister), and Mark’s younger cousin, Niall Moore, making his recording debut on trumpet.
The soundtrack by Mark McCausland is set for release on October 24th via Deltasonic Records, while the single for ‘Laughs Of The Lonely‘ is available to stream now. A full length album from Dead Goat is also scheduled for release early 2026. For more information and to pre-order the record, visit McKowski.com
