Tag: dublin

Today my album went live on iTunes

I’m not gonna lie – that brought a big smile to my face. It’s about €1 more expensive than it is to buy it direct from Bandcamp, but iPhone users can download it direct to their phones through the iTunes store, if that’s something that you wanna do, whereas with Bandcamp, you do really need to be at your computer, and not on your phone, to download it.

If you are enjoying the record, and use iTunes, then please consider rating the album and writing a little review that people can read on the iTunes store page. That would make me very happy indeed.

There are delays with the physical CD, and it’s looking more and more like it won’t be ready for the actual launch days. But sure, I’ll still play the gigs and celebrate this album going out into the world. If you’re around Galway or Dublin next week, drop in and listen to me playing songs from this record live.

At each of the gigs, there’ll be a small little choir group singing with me for a few of the songs. It’s different people in each city, and they’re basically friends and acquaintances, and strangers and twitter followers, who all said yes when I asked if they’d like to sing with me. I’m really looking forward to getting them up on stage with me. It should be a lot of fun.

I’ll also be playing some songs that aren’t on the new album, which I held over for the next one, or which have been written since this summer. And I’ve reworked some of my favourite covers too.

Album launch nights in Galway and Dublin

I’ve organised two little intimate gigs to launch the album – one here in Galway, which seems only apt, and one in Dublin too. I hope most of the people who helped fund the record over on Fund:it can make it to one of those two nights, and celebrate the end product of a lot of hard work, grit, determination and enjoyment. I’m really so pleased to have been able to do this record and it really has been worth it. I quite like the album itself, and I’m very proud of it. I can only hope at this stage that other people listen to it and that some of those people will like it enough to listen to it some more.

The Galway date is November 30th, upstairs in the Róisín Dubh, and the following day is the date in Dublin on Dec 1st in the Loft space in the Twisted Pepper – which is also home to Elastic Witch record shop, which is one of the retailers here that will be stocking the record. The wonderful Wing Nut record store in the Bell, Book & Candle bookshop will also be stocking it, and I’ll update if any more stores do stock it.

But you will be able to buy it directly from this site too, through my bandcamp page, when the album goes live online. Bandcamp is also the best place to buy the album as a digital download, as quite frankly, more of the money goes to me that way instead of to other middlemen. But the album will be sent to iTunes music store and other digital retailers, which I will post links to when the album is live on those stores.

Studio Days: week 4

I was back in the studio this week, finishing off all my piano and vocal tracking for the most part. Managed to get everything done that I had planned, and even have some extra time at the end of the session to knock out some bonus live takes in the studio. They actually turned out better than I expected, and I was listening back to everything last night. The only things missing in the ref tracks I was listening to were the extra backing vocals and one piano retake that I did on one song, but that’s not majorly important for me to get a sense of how the record is shaping up at the moment.

the lovely studio piano

Next up I have a drummer, bass player, and a cellist scheduled to come in, as well as some more vocalists, including my wonderful fund:it backing singers. It is at the point where I can see the end of the tracking in sight, and I’m busy planning the mixing and mastering stages. It’s a major change from a month ago when I was running the fund:it campaign, and unsure of whether it would be successful, and unsure of whether I would be able to afford to finish off the recording this year, let alone this summer.

the studio piano set up for a live takethe studio piano in a live set up


The engineer working away.the studio piano and the vocal mic, a portrait

50 cent sessions @ The Matchbox Theatre

Dublin is proving to have many little hidden gems at the moment. When I played the Saucy Sundays sessions in January, I was blown away by the venue upstairs in the Grand Social. Wonderful place to play, and the audience were fantastic. I had a similar experience with the very intimate Matchbox Theatre, which is downstairs in Le Café des Irlandais on Georges St (where Café Bar Deli used to be).

This beautifully intimate café theatre hosts the 50 Cent Sessions every Wednesday at the moment, and is the perfect venue for this kind of an evening. Last wednesday I was playing a wee set there, and it was wonderful to get to hear such a variety of other acts.

I had the odd experience of following another pianist (it’s not often you run into piano-based songwriters at nights like this, for some reason. Lots of guitars, not so much piano), so we decided to share the same set-up, to save time and hassle on the night. So, I was playing an unfamiliar digital piano, which just felt all kinds of wrong. And I was sitting down. I realised that I’ve never actually done a solo gig sitting down at the piano. I seem to play standing up when I’m performing pretty much always. It really is more constricting to be sitting, and I ended up contorting and piano-bench humping and understanding just why someone like Tori Amos ends up writing around on the piano bench while performing. It’s not in me to sit still while playing.

Watch me being all awkward with a strange piano. But it was the night before Paddy’s Day, so I sang one of my Irish language songs.

Nevertheless, it renewed my love for my own gear, as I really do love the digital Roland I’ve had for the last 8 years or so. It’s heavy as hell, and a pain in the ass to move between gigs sometimes, especially since my case has now lost all handles and broken both wheels, but I really noticed the difference it makes when I was without it last Wednesday. Needless to say, next time I’ll forgo using someone else’s, even if it is less hassle, as I’m just more comfortable with something that feels closer to a real piano.

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