Dublin-based artist GALVO released his debut album The HeARTist on 26/09/2023 and it is now available to purchase on Bandcamp and stream on all major platforms. The album was heralded by the release of singles Getting Better, and Maybe, each accompanied by beautiful and entertaining music videos, several B-Sides of demos and live songs, all accompanied by AI music videos on GALVO’s YouTube channel. The songs collectively have received over 150,000 streams on Spotify alone, and his music videos have also racked up over 10 thousand views on YouTube.
GALVO – The HeARTist on Spotify | The HeARTist – Visual Album on YouTube
The HeARTist is an indie-folk record made up of 14 passionate, emotionally impactful songs from an original voice. It’s a wholly independent record from an independent, working class artist – GALVO isn’t backed by a label or a management team, this record is literally and figuratively the result of his own blood, sweat and tears. It’s funded by hard earned money working crack of dawn, physically demanding shifts in a factory. Made with the help of his collaborators giving their time, expertise and talent, loans from friends and family who love and believe in him and his songs.
The songs are raw and emotional, at times they are so delicate they feel they might just break, and at others they are full bodied, dense arrangements brimming with self-assured confidence. They are melodic and filled with hooks yet avoiding saccharine over-sentimentality. Critically they come from real lived experiences – of family trauma, of love and heartache, of losing faith, of self-determination, and of eternally swimming against the tide. His lyrics are sometimes lucid and linear, and at others they are more dreamlike impressionist depictions, but they always come from GALVO’s own idiosyncratic point of view of the world and his life.
Key to GALVO’s sound is his acoustic guitar, his unusual playing technique of upside-down open tunings and soft strummed rhythmic riffs and gentle fingerpicking, with textural blends of banjo and bouzouki, memorable hooks played on atmospheric electric guitars, melodic percussive piano, and pounding beats with unusual rhythms. His voice has echoes of Elliott Smith, or James Mercer of The Shins, or more contemporary comparisons with Angelo de Augustine and Ben Cooper of Radical Face. But the comparisons don’t do GALVO justice – his voice is his own voice, his songs are his own story.
GALVO grew up in the Ballymun flats in the 1980s, surrounded by violence and drugs in the stairwells and environs of the iconic towers. His family escaped the chaos of Ballymun to the more sedate Dublin suburb of Swords, where he discovered music and like-minded souls. After playing in bands throughout the late 90’s and early 2000’s, he formed alternative rock band September Sun with his brother Stuart and some friends (including Conor Adams of All Tvvins/Cast of Cheers) and they released an album in 2006, touring it all over Ireland until they imploded with all the drama of a rock n’roll cliché.
After struggling through difficult times in his home life, battling addiction, kicked out and sleeping in his Seat Ibiza for weeks on end, GALVO moved to Spain in search of a clean slate. It was here he rediscovered his love of acoustic guitar and began writing more sensitive reflective songs, and, as a lefty, relearning how to play upside-down on a right-handed guitar that he picked up in a charity shop.
When he returned to Ireland in 2010 he brought dozens of songs and ideas and formed indie folk band A Dark Horse with fellow Swords man film composer Hugh Rodgers (One Million Dubliners, How To Tell A Secret) and drummer/engineer Niall Woods (Amazing Few, Polly Scattergood, Gabby Young, Codes) and in 2012 they released their self-titled debut EP featuring drummer Adrian Mullan (Fight Like Apes), cellist Vyvienne Long and pianist Luke Slott. The EP was described as “a rich, cinematic and substantial sound” by Nialler9 and “one of the most accomplished and exciting debuts that have passed through Hot Press towers this year” by Hot Press. It landed them live slots on RTÉ Arena, Today FM, and 98FM, and a slot at Hard Working Class Heroes festival, a SoFar Sounds performance, and drew favourable reviews from music publications all over the world as well as interest from major management, labels and publishers. Their single ‘The Heart Won’t Lie’ reached #6 on the AmazingRadio UK Chart and was voted #90 in the Amazing Radio Songs of 2013. A Dark Horse subsequently went on a hiatus for a few years and GALVO moved to London where he began working as an actor. He landed roles on the stage as well as parts onscreen – including as a Knight of the Vale in HBO’s Game of Thrones. When he returned to Ireland a few years later, he reconnected with Hugh Rodgers and they began writing new songs together for a follow up to the A Dark Horse EP. They also started working on some of GALVO’s solo material along with Niall Woods and in 2018 GALVO released his debut single ‘The Weight’ which Hot Press called “a stunning debut single” and chose it as the Hot Press Track of The Day.
In 2020 GALVO started working on his debut album at Niall’s Porchlight Studios. The album features a collection of songs about love, loss and hope against the storms of life. The album was produced by GALVO and Niall Woods with additional production by Hugh Rodgers; recorded and mixed by Niall Woods; mastered by 9 time Grammy Winner Dave Collins (The Police, Soundgarden, Weezer).
In July 2022 GALVO released ‘Leave The Light On’ as a single featuring a cinematic music video directed by GALVO and Conor Beegan.
LEAVE THE LIGHT ON Music Video: https://youtu.be/E2PKChU5ZSM
In July 2023 GALVO released the single and music video ‘Getting Better’ heralding the release of his debut album, ‘The HeARTist’.
‘Getting Better’, the lead single from The HeARTist, is a song that feels very much like a mantra, not just for the enigmatic songwriter himself, but for anyone in an on-going struggle for self improvement. It deals with ideas of inner demons, the personal battle against society’s view of what makes someone a success or a failure. It’s pushing back against your critics and those in your life who hold you back or keep you down with the refrain “oh no-one’s gonna stop me, no-one’s gonna push me down, no-one’s gonna get inside of that trying”. It’s a rousing, inspirational song that builds from an intimate intro of classical guitar and atmospheric vocals, to an epic finish, replete with catchy melodies and cinematic production.
While the song is beautiful and vulnerable, the music video takes a quirky approach to the theme – there is that side to GALVO, he’s not the stereotypical aloof artist, he is darkly funny and irreverent. Somehow this works with his sentimental and reflective music.
GETTING BETTER Music Video: https://youtu.be/dfhE5UCVGL4
GALVO followed up with another single and music video, ‘Maybe’, released in August 2023. It has now reached over 53,000 streams on Spotify since its release. ‘I’m Not Lost’, one of the B-Sides of the release, was singled out as one of Nialler9’s Top 12 Irish songs of the week.
MAYBE Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmIN4ITh-Cw
GALVO is an artist with a vision, and apart from the songs and music videos he has worked on for the singles with filmmaker Conor Beegan, he has also created a collection of animated music videos based on the themes for every one of the songs on the album using AI generative tools. The resulting 14 song / 52 minute piece is beautiful and mesmerising, capturing the mood of his album. He has taken these new controversial AI technologies to realise a vision he had for the whole album; GALVO sees it as a new way to experience his music – to zone out and absorb the songs and pictures as one.
The HeARTist will be released across all platforms 26th of September, 2023.
Press Quotes for GALVO and A Dark Horse:
“Atmospheric, intense indie-folk” Galvo – The Weight, Track of the Day Hot Press (IRE)
“A sound that is compelling, dense, and dreamy, A Dark Horse prove themselves to be more than commercial-radio-ready.” Seattle Weekly (USA)
“A completely immersive affair, but slowly, like rising water… Let yourself get swept away.” Amazing Radio [UK]
“A rich, cinematic and substantial sound.” Nialler 9 (IRE)
“Pur sang pop.” Les Inrockuptibles (FRA)
“The most melodic & enchanting EP.” Siobhán Maguire of The Sunday Times (IRE)
“With each listen, you allow yourself to fall deeper and deeper under its spell.” Gold Flake Paint (UK)
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-301530868
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4dsnynMOBHr0Xh4hnF8F8G?si=9oO1J2KARN6ksTYy8kenNQ
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfRP6mElZrwaYBynE_YSySA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/galvo_galvo/
Website: https://www.galvo.org
