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Month: April 2020

Courage Returns to Screens Tonight Along with Other Voices

Following on from the fantastic global response to the first two ‘Courage’ live streams with Ye Vagabonds last week and Sorcha Richardson and Caoimhín Ó’Raghallaigh on Tuesday Other Voices continue this Thursday with Grammy Nominated folk artist Rhiannon Giddens and musical partner Francesco Turrisi. You may be familiar with this Grammy nominated artist through her Jools Holland performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WxFHGIckgc or you may have seen her performing at Newport Folk Festival over the summer with Mavis Staples and Hozier.

Courage Live streams continue this Thursday 30th of April at 8PM
Watch Worldwide via YouTube, Facebook Live and RTE.IE

‘Courage’, is a new project that delivers uplifting, inspiring performances from brilliant artists to the public during the COVID-19 crisis.  Courage will beam these performances directly into homes across the nation, from a number of iconic cultural locations. Their goal is to provide essential cultural output during this period. Music collapses distance in this time of isolation, it gives us courage, consolation and brings us together. Performances will take place on Tuesday and Thursday nights and will be made available worldwide, free of charge, thanks to the support of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Intel and RTÉ. Courage will also be shown on RTÉ2 from the 7th of May every Thursday at 23:30.

The live stream starts on Thursday the 30th of April at 8PM sharp with acclaimed Folk singer Rhiannon Giddons and her musical partner the multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi from Whelan’s. 

Speaking of the project Minister Madigan said: “We know culture plays a hugely positive role in our collective wellbeing. The performances that will take place during the Courage programme are sure to raise plenty of spirits and can be enjoyed as people stay at home. It is in addition to the support that the Government is already providing to artists and those working in the arts and cultural sectors.”  

Tune in on Thursday at 8PM via Other Voices’ YouTube + Facebook Live and RTÉ.ie to watch the show. Music for the head and the heart. 

FINAL EPISODE OF OTHER VOICES SERIES 18 THIS THURSDAY AT 23:30

Ye Vagabonds will also be returning to your TV screens tomorrow night at 23.30 on RTE 2 as they are featured on the final episode of Other Voices series 18. This episode also features performances from Joy Crookes, Whitney and Anna Mieke. 

A new Other Voices Courage TV series will start at 23:30 from May 7th. 

Beoga Share Uplifting New Video

Fresh from releasing their new single ‘In A Rocket’ , which features vocals from Lissie and was co-written by James Bay , Beoga now share the track’s uplifting new video.

The video depicts the many creative and unusual ways in which the band as well as their family, friends and fans have kept boredom at bay during lockdown. It’s centred around adorable footage of Beoga’s Eamon Murray helping his daughter build a rocket and play at being an astronaut, while Lissie and Ed Sheeran (and his cat Calippo) make cameos.

The ‘In A Rocket’ video celebrates togetherness. Those of us who are separated can find ways to come together, while those of us who are cooped up with loved ones can make the most of the situation. As its concluding quote from Seamus Heaney states, “If we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere.”

The visual was directed by Billy Cummings, whose previous credits include extensive contributions to the Ed Sheeran documentary ‘Songwriter’ . Cummings and Beoga had already made plans for the video, which were all made impossible by lockdown. While thinking of new ideas, the director was freshly inspired by how the song’s lyrics reflected the current situation and hit upon the concept that we now see.

Cummings commented, “I really didn’t know what I was going to get back, but once the first round of footage came in, you couldn’t help but smile while editing it. I got a great buzz off getting a notification, turning on the computer and downloading the next file to arrive from L.A in the middle of the night! As a filmmaker it’s all about capturing a moment and a vibe. To try to capture what most the world is feeling is a challenge, but when you focus on just the good stuff it’s made easy. I’m very proud of everyone getting involved and it’s going to be one to watch again when looking back on this mad time.”

‘In A Rocket’ previews Beoga’s new mini-album ‘Carousel’ , which follows on May 22nd . It finds the band focusing on creating attention-grabbing hooks with a mix of rootsy instrumentation and elements of electronic pop production.

‘In A Rocket’ is the third taster to preview ‘Carousel’ following ‘Matthew’s Daughter’ (featuring Devin Dawson) and ‘Make A Mark’ (featuring Ryan McMullan).  Other featured vocalists on the mini-album include Beoga’s old friends Foy Vance and Niall McCabe . Meanwhile the Grammy -nominated producer Jonny Coffer has helped the band’s fresh fusion of sounds to flourish.

The ‘Carousel’ title was chosen to reflect Beoga’s experiences over the past two years. They’ve navigated the murky waters of the music industry, signing and then escaping two recording contracts before teaming up with AWAL . It’s been a long and frustrating experience, but looking back they realise that they’ve been more creative than ever before. In addition to ‘Carousel’ , they also have the bones of a further two or three albums in place. Everything’s set up for Beoga to reach a whole new audience.

With an adventurous spirit and a passion for charting the road less travelled, Beoga have shown that Irish traditional music can take fresh new directions. That world-facing potential was proven by the popularity of their collaborations with Ed Sheeran on his all-conquering ‘÷’ album. Those two songs – ‘Galway Girl’ and ‘Nancy Mulligan’ – have been streamed over a billion times on Spotify alone.

‘Carousel’ is available to pre-order HERE now on iTunes.  Beoga will follow the release of ‘Carousel’ with a UK headline tour later this year. The dates are:

NOVEMBER
28th – London, Lafayette
29th – Manchester, The Deaf Institute

DECEMBER
1st – Leeds, The Wardrobe
2nd – Gateshead, Sage 2
3rd – Glasgow, Glad Cafe

‘Carousel’ tracklist:

  1. ‘Make A Mark’ (featuring Ryan McMullan )
  2. ‘Carousel’
  3. ‘In A Rocket’ (with Lissie )
  4. ‘We’re Blood’ (featuring Foy Vance )
  5. ‘Aurora II’
  6. ‘Matthew’s Daughter’ (featuring Devin Dawson )
  7. ‘Homebird’ (featuring Niall McCabe )

Spotify / Apple Music / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter www.beogamusic.com

Colm Wilkinson Announces New Original Single

Colm Wilkinson, whose extraordinary voice propelled the role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera, winner of multiple awards and much more, releases his new single ‘Harcourt Street’, which is written and composed by Colm, on Friday, 15th May 2020 on all Digital Platforms.

To quote Colm in his own words ‘HARCOURT STREET’, his first original release since 2002, is about: “Coming home to settle in Ireland after many years working abroad I happened to visit Harcourt Street in Dublin. Looking around Harcourt Street brought back so many memories of the 60’s and the 70’s and of the bands, the music, friends and relationships I had and of course the clothes we wore at that time. For me they were wonderful exciting years but as I say in the song………I was young and foolish, life was just a game.”

To lovers of musical theatre around the world Colm Wilkinson definitely needs no introduction. On stages in London, New York, Toronto and beyond he firmly established himself as one of theatre’s greatest performers. His definitive portrayal of such leading characters as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera have brought the Irish born singer huge critical acclaim, a trophy case crammed with awards and the adoration of millions of theatre goers.

He has regularly performed in Ireland due to popular demand and has finally returned home to Ireland to live.

Colm Wilkinson releases his new single ‘Harcourt Street’ on Friday, 15th May 2020 on all Digital Platforms.

Larissa Tormey to Release ‘Live Another Day’

Singer/songwriter Larissa Tormey is getting personal on her new project, with a lead single penned in response to life amid the Coronavirus outbreak. The song, ‘Live Another Day’ (together with a special lyric video), will be released on all digital platforms on Friday, May 1st. And as Larissa explained, it was written in the wake of some recent health scares in her personal life in the lead up to the Coronavirus impacting the entire world…

“As a songwriter, the ability to put feelings and emotions into words has always helped me, as it does so many other songwriters, too. When there are things you can’t control, or questions or problems you don’t have answers or solutions to, you can always put these things into a song. And at least this becomes a way constructively dealing with the situation. It’s often described as being like a kind of release-valve. And my new single ‘Live Another Day’ is another example of songwriting coming to my emotional rescue.”

Larissa continued, “I went through a two or three month period where a lot of things were happening which were bringing life and death into focus for me. Which was not something I wanted or had expected! [laughs]. But all of a sudden it seemed like I was confronting the possibility of potentially very painful losses in so many ways. I’m a huge cat person, and we have a beautiful fourteen year old cat at home, Marcell. But he became very, very sick back before Christmas and we were terribly worried that we were going to lose him. And as anyone who has had a pet for that length of time knows, they become part of the family. So that was a very anxious time. But thank God we were recommended a certain home remedy to try, and Marcell is still with us today!”

No sooner was Marcell out of the woods, however, before illness struck again, again laying low a close family member…

“Marcell was just the start of it all. Not long after that, someone else very close to me became ill all of a sudden, and for a while we didn’t know what was going to happen there either. They ended up needing a very serious procedure on their heart, so that meant hospital. Thank God they’re alright now too, and have made a great recovery. But at the time, it was a cause of great concern. And very emotional, because you don’t want to think about the worst that might happen, but at the same time, it’s almost impossible to keep all of those thoughts out of your mind.”

But it was what happened next that really made Larissa wonder if God himself was trying to test her strength and resolve. The Kilbeggan based entertainer found herself next in the firing line following a routine check-up with her doctor just as the country was about to go into Coronavirius shut-down. 

“Yes, it started to feel a bit like God was saying O.K. Larissa, if you can cope with that, I’ll give you something else to try now! [laughs]. I suppose with everything else that had happened, and because the news about the Coronvirus was just beginning to get serious, I started to feel concerned about my own health. So I made an appointment for a regular check-up with my doctor, and we discovered a little something that I need to keep an eye on myself. Tests have been done, but we haven’t been able to get any results yet because the focus of the health system is understandably on dealing with the crisis at hand. Everything will probably turn out grand, so fingers crossed. But it was really the fact that so many things like that seemed to come one after another, that’s what got me thinking, and what eventually lead to me writing ‘Live Another Day’.'”

“Now if I didn’t have music and songwriting”, remarked Larissa, “I hate to think how I would have coped with being in this position. But being able to put my heart into ‘Live Another Day’ has been a life-saver all of its own for me. In fact, I had so much to pour out, that I wrote this song in just about five minutes. The words, the melody, everything, they all came together and that quickly. Sometimes when you write a song, even when it’s coming from a very personal experience, you know that you can write it in a way that others can relate to as well. And because of the deeply saddening events occurring daily all around the world right now, I think a lot of people are reflecting on their lives and how they will begin or get back to living their lives once all of this is over.” 

“Right now”, the singer observed, “what we all want and wish for, before fame or wealth or anything else, is just to live another day. How simple life has become.” 

‘Live Another Day’, the brand new single from Larissa Tormey, and the lead single from what will be her sixth studio album, will be available on all digital platforms from Friday, May 1st. You can stay up to date on all the news about this and more by checking out www.larissatormey.com 

Badself Channel 1980s Rock Gods in ‘Stay Down’ Video

Former Future Kings of Spain members guitarist Karl Hussey and drummer Bryan McMahon join ex-Bambi bassist Dan Barry to bring you Badself. Finally finding time in ‘Lockdown’, Badself release ‘Stay Down’, the opening track and first single from the band’s debut album ‘The Three Daughters of Mara’ which was recorded with producer Ronan McHugh (Def Leppard). 

With a video that literally recaptures the look and feel of Survivor’s ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ and Journey’s ‘Separate Ways’, ‘Stay Down’ is a slice of straight up four to the floor AM radio rock with just a touch of grit.

With jagged edged songs, the music of Badself combines the forces of punk rock, blues, lyrical dark humour and a nod to the unrelenting movement of AC/DC. Sonically, you should also expect things stripped to their bare essentials, bright sparkling guitars, low down dirty bass, solid drums and no-nonsense vocal showers throughout.

Debut album ‘The Three Daughters of Mara’ is out now.

Produced by Ronan McHugh and Badself

Twitter https://twitter.com/badselfmusic
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/badselfmusic/
Spotify – http://open.spotify.com/album/3GfGQB6Fhyl1l77bXlpfZj
iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-three-daughters-of-mara/id905204862?uo=4
Bandcamp – http://badselfmusic.bandcamp.com/

ICE launches ‘Licensr’ service | A simplified, self-service, multi-territory licensing tool for online music services

ICE has launched Licensr, a new online self-service tool that enables smaller online music services to get multi-territory coverage for use of the ICE Core repertoire in a matter of minutes.

Licensr simplifies life for those developing new music services and increases the speed new services can be brought to market. The user can select, pay for, and receive confirmation of a licence covering ICE Core repertoire (the ‘ICE Direct Licence’) in a quick and easy process that requires no prior knowledge of music licensing.

For creators whose rights are included within the ICE Core repertoire, Licensr helps ensure their rights are being represented when their work is being used on new services and supports the development of new music experiences.

The launch of Licensr highlights a commitment from ICE towards making the licensing process simpler. It will continue to work with music services and rightsholders to add new functionality to the tool.

“Licensr is a simple self-service solution to enable new and developing music services to license ICE Core repertoire” commented Ben McEwen, VP Commercial at ICE. “It starts to bring greater simplicity and flexibility to those with ideas for new services that utilise music but are daunted by the complexity of licensing and we are keen to collect feedback to further enhance the solution over time. In the meantime it immediately adds another income source for creators as we continue to seek to ensure rightsholders in the ICE Core receive fair value for the use of their work.”

Pascal De Mul, CEO of Exit Live, the first Licensr customer, an innovative service offering fans audio recordings of live concerts remarked “Simple licensing is essential to helping services like us innovate and focus on our core proposition, which for Exit Live is helping artists monetise live performances both on the evening of the gig and historically. Licensr has been by far the easiest rights process we’ve had.”

Through Licensr services will receive publishing (mechanical & performing) rights for music in the extensive ICE Core repertoire. Typical services that would utilise the Licensr service have revenues under €250k per annum, operating across areas including on demand and interactive streaming and download stores.

Licensr additionally supports non-broadcaster services moving online in the current climate, such as those streaming fitness classes or other live video services with on-demand functionality. They can quickly and easily get their mechanical & performing rights for ICE Core repertoire through Licensr and use the form to contact ICE for an additional guided process to support them in clearing and/or signposting them to additional rights they may need.

Find out more at www.iceservices.com/licensr

New App Is Set To Help Artists Be Discovered From Their Front Rooms

New music discovery platform, Andrson, is an app that will help artists get heard and discovered from their ‘front room’ and also enable A&R executives to connect directly with the artists they need to fill their rosters—without ever having to step into a gig. Andrson has been designed to reimagine the digital A&R process. Rather than focusing on passive metrics like listening behavior and social media popularity, Andrson’s technology uses AI and machine learning to produce unbiased analyses of users’ music, which makes it easier for musicians to be discovered by their unique sound and for industry professionals to quickly find the sound they’re searching for. Andrson also helps musicians connect with other artists for collaborations.                           

Andrson launched on 27th April 2020, with artists poised to sign up across Ireland, the UK, and the US, and a goal to be a truly global platform in the next year. Andrson will be offering all artists a premium free trial for the rest of 2020 – given that digital connections are becoming more important — if not essential and necessary — right now. This extended free trial and access allows artists to upload as many tracks as they want for analysis, as well as allows them to have industry visibility (which is gated for free users). To get their music listed for industry search, all musicians have to do is sign up for the premium free trial.

Andrson completed a seed round of €550k and was recently named as part of enterprise Ireland’s HPSU (high potential start up) class of 2020 which also delivered an additional €250k of match funding. The platform is co-founded by Zach Miller-Frankel and Neil Dunne, who came up with the idea for Andrson whilst they were at university in Dublin. Both experienced and passionate music industry professionals, Andrson was born out of their own pain-point for inefficiencies working in music discovery and A&R – and a passion and purpose for helping new musicians having the chance to be better discovered and heard. With $4.5 billion spent on music discovery each year globally and over $2 billion worldwide – Zach and Neil created Andrson to close the gap between new talent and A&R executives.

How It Works:

Once musicians sign up, they can immediately access the platform and view all the features, and are encouraged to create their own profile, showcasing themselves, their music, video and influences. Andrson’s technology will digitally fingerprint their music and video uploads, and compare it against a database of thousands of songs from top artists to rising stars, creating search reference points based on their results.

On the other side, record labels and A&R executives also register and can then search the platform for music types or profiles that their roster needs but can’t find. As music executives search for the sound they need, Andrson serves them results in seconds through the use of audio AI and predictive analytics. For example, if Andrson says an act sounds 70% like Beyonce and a label searches for that, the artists who match that criteria will be returned in the search results, and the label can listen to the artists and reach out directly to any musician of interest—all done in-app.  Andrson exists to give musicians the opportunity to be discovered by the top A&R teams, bookers, promoters and producers. At the same time the platform’s proprietary algorithm enables rapid discovery for labels to help them fill specific gaps on their roster and successfully monetise new music.

Other key features:

  • An interactive user dashboard (home screen) provides meaningful account data: user specific analysis detailing who’s listened and from where; who is a connection and how many and frequency of searches artists have appeared in as well as any deals secured. 
  • Musicians receive ‘LinkedIn-style’ notifications when a professional interacts with their profile (i.e. “someone from XX label just listened to X” or “Joe Bloggs from XX just sent you a message”)
  • For 2020 all users will be able to use the premium service which gives them visibility to industry engaging with their music, network with other artists and full audio analysis. Free users (2021 onwards) can network with other artists and receive limited audio analysis.

Ken Allen, Founder at Faction Records says: “Andrson is a really interesting concept, the nature of how we discover artists is changing and having a platform like Andrson would be hugely helpful to our A&R process.”

Zach Miller-Frankel, Co-Founder at Andrson comments: “At Andrson we are passionate about new music discovery and using technology to help talent get discovered by the music industry and vice versa. Based on our own experiences in A&R, we believe that a new way of doing business is required within the music industry. Whilst there will always be a place for on-the-ground discovery, our proprietary algorithm leverages the power of tech to help save time and money for the music industry – as well as enable discovery whilst we’re socially distancing.”

Neil Dunne, Co-Founder at Andrson adds: “We want to help music acts get heard and discovered, after all they deserve their talent to be showcased as well as to make meaningful connections with other artists. Andrson is an online platform from where new talent can be discovered from their ‘front room’.”

http://andrson.com/

Swimmers Jackson Announces Debut Album

On Friday 8th May 2020, Swimmers Jackson will release his long-awaited debut album, ‘Murmuration’. 

Opening with the poignant and timely ‘Summer’s Herald’ leading into ‘Summer’s Here’ and ‘Believe’, it’s instantly easy to hear why music journalist Brian Coney (Editor, The Thin Air) recently described Swimmers Jackson as having, “a country-spanning, genre-flaunting track record of digging deep to deliver something brimming with pathos and intent.” 

The latest single from the album, a calming, melodic track called ‘Bliss’, was released in March of this year. A song about enjoying the simple things in life, it resonated with listeners across Ireland and the UK gaining airplay on the likes of BBC Radio London, BBC Radio Ulster, RTÉ Radio 1, 2FM, Today FM, Cork’s 96fm, Dublin’s 98fm and 8 Radio, to name a few. 

Other tracks from the album that have been released including ‘Pain in the Heart’ and ‘Life’s Short (Embrace It)’ have done well with Spotify listeners, amassing numbers in the tens of thousands. 

Of the album title, Swimmers Jackson (AKA Niall Jackson) says: “‘Murmuration’ is not only my favourite word in the English language, but also one of the most beautiful sights seen in the sky. The behaviour exhibited when a flock of starling are foraging or in flight sometimes feels like it echoes the coming together of all the different decisions we make in life, personally or musically.”

As an album, ‘Murmuration’ also displays several different sides. Over its duration it opens up to reveal itself – from the stripped back feel of its beginnings to the more indie/emo sound of the final few tracks. 

The beautiful artwork for ‘Murmuration’, an original painting, also by Jackson, perfectly captures the album’s mood of pausing to find joy in the everyday. 

Formerly a three-piece, Jackson released two EPs under the name ‘Swimmers’, (‘Swimmer’s Year’ 2013, ‘This Burning Circus’ 2015). After moving to London with no bandmates, he was left reconfiguring Swimmers songs back into solo versions. This new found confidence led to the recording of nine new songs between 2017-2019. Singles creeping out as seen fit, before the debut album ‘Murmuration’ finally sees the light of day this May 8th 2020.

His influences include Elliott Smith, early Weezer (emphasis on early), Andy Shauf, Stephen Malkmus, David Berman, Cat Power, Villagers, So Cow, Pixies and R.E.M.

Jackson’s other acts Bouts & Sweat Threats continue to enjoy success and have toured the UK, Europe, and North America, opening for the likes of Johnny Marr, Cloud Nothings, Yuck and P.U.S.A. In January 2019 Bouts released a new album ‘Flow’.

Bandcamp :: https://swimmersjackson.bandcamp.com
Spotify :: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6fgCqPLseTtoW658y6TOb7
Soundcloud :: https://soundcloud.com/swimmersjackson
Facebook :: https://m.facebook.com/pg/swimmersjackson
Twitter :: https://twitter.com/swimmersjackson
Instagram :: https://www.instagram.com/swimmersjackson/?hl=en
Website:: https://hyperurl.co/SwimmersJackson

‘This Is Who We Are, Longwave Music Volume 1’ Released 8th May

Longwave Music founded in 2018 has put together this collection of songs from emerging artists, composers and bands in the Greater Cork Area collated between 2018-20. This is just a small collection of the music in the region. “Without being too parochial about things, we decided to confine our search to a geographical area this time.” 

Longwave Music strives to support and encourage the very best upcoming Irish artists through their range of services so the artists can continue to create and get their fair share for what they produce. 

It has been a privilege meeting and collaborating with this community of artists and musicians, who continue to ply their trade for the love of what they do. This album is the first of its kind in showcasing such a wide variety the very best up and coming Irish artists of diverse genres and styles varying between rock, electro, dance, folk and AOR. 

We are proud to present This Is Who We Are: Longwave Music Volume 1.

To all those making original music today, inspirations from the past and the promise of more to come.

Website: https://www.longwavemusic.ie/ 
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LongwaveMusic/ 
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/longwavemusic/
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/longwave-music/about/

Tracklist:

1. Quicksand – The Burma
2. Beach House – Bordeaux 
3. Darklight to Starlight- Fiery Red 
4. Towards a Camelot Within / Aching Heart- Wisherkings 
5. Good Morning – Sam Clague 
6. Harvest Home – David O Donovan 
7. Ain’t Love Forever – Bland Orlando 
8. Young Naïve Me – Eve Clague 
9. Take My Hand – Clare O Riordan 
10. Is It Me – Moody Roots 
11. And When I Awoke – Wisherkings 
12. Rabbit Hole – Bordeaux 
13. Lavender Hill – Low Mountain 
14. On Your Way – Sam Clague 
15. Time Away – David O Donovan 
16. I’m Home – Bland Orlando

Eimear Announces Latest Single ‘Enough’

After years of singing funk and rock, and performing at Electric Picnic, Oxegen , Eimear went on to release a solo album ‘SCARS’ in Nov 2018. Since then she has been touring full-time, supporting and dueting with artists like Jack L and Mary Coughlan . Last summer she played 28 dates in August alone! This year, she was due to tour with Jack L throughout April playing Galway (Roisin Dubh), Cork (Coughlans and Crane Lane) and Dublin (Whelans), before the country went on lockdown . Her album launch in Sugar Club is scheduled for Oct 9 but like everyone, unsure of plans for the rest of the year.

Enough is the first single from her second album, and it is a beautiful and haunting track. With beautiful instrumentation, powerful vocals and a deep message this song is so fitting for today’s world. Eimear’s voice carries lots of emotion and takes listeners on a journey. Eimear’s vocals have been compared to Adele, Alison Moyet, Cyndi Lauper and Mary Coughlan.

‘Enough’ is the first single from the forthcoming album ‘Pieces’ due for release in late 2020.

www.eimearcrehan.com

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