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NIALLISH shares new single Sudoku

February 24, 2023

NIALLISH is a producer and songwriter from Dublin. Although he grew up with jazz roots, Niall’s first contact with making music was the “banna ceoil” in Scoil Uí Dhálaigh. Soon after, piano lessons classically trained his eager ear and allowed him to entertain. Having grown through the transition from CD Walkmen to YouTube music, Niall became lustful to consume all varieties of sound.

As interest in indie rock grew, Niall picked up guitar and drum skills in his late teens. Exam pressure produced a writer’s burst where several songs would be penned daily, although few would include lyrics or even melodies. An exploration of chords and rhythms commenced with each of his instruments.

Recordings did not appear until 2016 (age 20) on Erasmus exchange in Amsterdam. These phone loop demos were uploaded to SoundCloud to combat loneliness, boredom and insanity. His older brother, a music tech graduate and producer, encouraged the endeavours by gifting him an akai mpd complete with Ableton lite. Electronic instrumentals were regularly produced throughout the remainder of his time in Amsterdam, as delusions of grandeur took hold.

Upon coming home to Dublin he was bursting to pick up and record an electric guitar which is what birthed the indie vocal release “Finish Up” – a song good enough to warrant a music video and a Facebook launch.

Writing and recording took a back seat when Niall landed his first full-time graduate employment position. He soon found this to be draining and demoralising. Refusal to work in the office during Covid 19 gave Niall the time and foresight to begin releasing music officially. The debut EP titled NIALLISH was 5 tracks 4 of which had been stagnating on SoundCloud. Niall found that Spotify placement gave his music a new lease of life and generated buzz.

He landed his first Spotify editorial placement in 2022 with the contagious track INDIE NIALL, featured in the Breath of Fresh Eire list.

He went on to record more projects while working from home but eventually decided to quit the job and pursue music full time.

His latest single Sudoku was released this week.  Speaking of the song Niall says “The concept of this song came to me after a session with my band Cable Boy. We were mixing as a group and panning clashing frequencies. At this point I visualised the mix in a 3X3 grid akin to a Sudoku puzzle. Left, middle, right X lows mids highs. You’ll hear two bass lines left and right with the kick drum sat in the middle. Same for vocals and high frequency percussion+synths. For the lyrics I aimed to write words that would be suitable for both chatting to someone in the club or solving a sudoku.”

You can stream Sudoku below:

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