West Cork native Molly O’Mahony’s power lies in her ability to feel deeply and to convey that feeling through her words and her voice. Her main mark on the music of Mongoose, both in writing and performance, is the raw emotion at its core. The pandemic gave rise to an opportunity, when she returned to her home place of Ballydehob after a decade of living in Dublin, with nothing but time, a guitar, and a broken heart. With a back pocket full of personal songs – extensions of her compulsive journaling habit and products of all the life she had lived – she was compelled to step out, strip it all back, and make an album that reflected her particular emotional experience of moving through the world.
The House of David is the product of her two years under lockdown, during which time she wrote, honed, and recorded the songs which tell the turbulent story of her twenties; a journey through living, loving, failing and creating in the city that made her the artist she is. Sound boarded against the musical ears of her siblings, Matilda and Fiachra, and utilising their complimentary voices to sit alongside hers, the arrangements were carved out with vocals at the fore. The rest of the textures came when it was time to record the album properly in the summer of 2021, with producer Alex Borwick at the helm, and musicians Shay Sweeney and Ailbhe Dunne, chosen to fill out the rhythm section. The tracks were recorded in a concentrated haze of musical alchemy at Black Mountain Studios, Dundalk, over the course of just a week.
Finally, after a big crowd-funding effort and a timely bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland, the album was made manifest.
“This album spans a decade of my life in song. It is a journey from innocence to experience; through all the awkward, lovelorn, shape-shifting I’ve undergone throughout my twenties. It is a monument to love, lessons and growth, and to the house of David, which has been my sanctuary through so much. Just as it has provided me with the infrastructure to live and create, my words and music are what I have to give back in honour of it now. This record is my humble offering in gratitude for all it has been to me and all it has seen me through.”
Molly has released three singles from the record so far – Remember to Be Brave, Brother Blue and Her Song – samplings which reflect the broad span of influences in her songwriting, her verbal virtuosity, and her ability to convey pure feeling.
The album is available exclusively on Bandcamp, with one single, ‘Bittersweet’ available on Spotify:
https://mollyomahony.bandcamp.com/album/the-house-of-david
‘THE HOUSE OF DAVID’ ALBUM TOUR DATES:
Nov 12th – The Duncairn Befast*
Nov 13th – The Loft, Galway**
Nov 18th – Alfie’s, Ennistymon*
Nov 19th – The Commercial, Limerick*
Nov 20th – Workman’s Cellar, Dublin**
Nov 23rd, The Green Note, London*
Nov 24th – Coughlan’s, Cork** (Quiet Lights Festival)
Nov 26th – Levis’ Ballydehob, West Cork**SOLD OUT
Nov 27th – Levis’ Ballydehob, West Cork**
(Performances by *Trio ** Full band)
