Month: August 2020

Isaac Butler has just released his highly anticipated new single ‘Change The Past’, produced by Philip Magee (Kodaline, The Script, The Academic), today – the 28 August 2020. The release comes hot on the heels of recent radio hit ‘Paranoid’ which has racked up 4.86M impressions to date and broke into the Top 50 of the Overall Airplay Chart – at the time the only self released single in not only the Top 50 but the only self release in the Top 100 – as well as climbing to 13 in the Top 20 of the Irish Airplay Charts – again the single was the only self release in the Top 20 at the time. ‘Paranoid’ was also chosen as ‘Song of the Week’ on 2FM’s Breakfast with Doireann and Eoghan and as the Select Irish ‘Track of the Month’ for June.

Named in Her.ie’s “Ones To Watch for 2020″, Isaac Butler’s ‘Change The Past’ follows his previous singles ‘Moon Song’, ‘Rescue Me’, ‘Young Forever’ and ‘Paranoid’ which have an amazing 1.5 million streams on Spotify so far.

‘Change The Past’ is a song about reflection. Isaac Butler is a strong believer that obstacles or moments in your past can either be your downfall or what makes you. There are always going to be “what ifs” and like anyone else he has had a lot of them. Now and then he reflects on if he had acted differently in a situation or chosen different words, how different the outcome could have been and it can be frustrating. ‘Change The Past’ is his release from these frustrations. 

Speaking of ‘Change The Past’ Isaac Butler said: “I recorded the song in the Mill Studio with Phil Magee. This is the second track we’ve done and he’s become a great friend and mentor to me. He’s been so important in shaping my sound and I can’t thank him enough. He’s also just the nicest man in music. Doesn’t matter who you are/what you’ve done, Phil treats everyone the same. A legend in the Irish music scene!”

Isaac Butler’s show at The Sound House is now rescheduled to 11 March 2021, with all original tickets valid for the new date. It is his second headline gig, having sold out his debut in Whelan’s last November and follows a jam-packed festival season in 2019, which saw Isaac Butler play a host of dates around the country including Electric Picnic and Kaleidoscope.

Isaac Butler’s debut single ‘Moon Song’ went on to great success being picked up by German TV show “The Bachelorette”, appearing on the show which broadcasts to over 2 million viewers per episode. Since writing his first song at age 12, and going on to record it for a children’s charity CD, his first love has been music, complete with a passion for writing and performing his own original work.

‘Change The Past’, the brand new single from Isaac Butler is out now across all digital platforms.

Bronagh Gallagher has just released her brand new single ‘Truth Or Dare’ today, Friday the 28 August 2020. Gallagher is considered one of Ireland’s leading actors and voices of soul music and is deeply respected for both the quality of her song writing and her stellar live performances.

From the beginning of her acting career at age 17 as Bernie, one of the backing singers in Alan Parker’s The Commitments, Bronagh has appeared in countless films including Pulp Fiction, Star Wars, Sherlock Holmes, and award-winning TV dramas such as Jimmy Mc Govern’s The Street, and The Accused. She has also appeared in London’s West End, and Broadway Theatre Productions including Complicité’s Street of Crocodiles,the National Theatre’s Warhorse,and most recently Bob Dylan & Conor Mc Pherson’s award-winning musical Girl from The North Country. For more info visit hamiltonhodell.co.uk.

Alongside her acting career, Bronagh writes and produces her own music and runs her own independent label, Salty Dog Records. She has released three albums to date and past collaborators include Brian Eno, Maria Mc Kee, and Gary Lightbody.

She continues to honour her love of the Muscle Shoals Sound, Atlantic Records, Stax and Motown recordings, and their legendary producers and artists Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, Steve Cropper, Marvin Gaye, and Lou Adler. Bronagh writes and records her own records to incorporate the energy of music into her own unique sound.

Bronagh has recently been seen in Armando Lannucci’s feature film, The Personal History of David Copperfield, playing Mrs Micawber alongside Peter Capaldi, and also Belgravia – the latest series by Julian Fellows. Bronagh features again in the second series of the hit Sky comedy drama Brassic.

The latest release from Gallagher sees her join forces with Dave Stewart (Eurythmics, Katy Perry, Mick Jagger) on the co-written and co-produced ‘Truth Or Dare’.

After a recent meeting in Los Angeles, through mutual friends, Dave independently looked into Bronagh’s music and approached Bronagh to co-write with him. ‘Truth Or Dare’ also features backing vocals from the brilliant L.A.-based LUCIUS singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig.

‘Truth Or Dare’ the brand new single from Bronagh Gallagher, is available on all streaming platforms and digital formats from 28 August 2020. 

Bronaghgallagher.com

Following on from the success of their self-titled debut album released in January of this year, VARO have today launched a fundraising campaign for an ambitious collaboration project, which will culminate in a series of live music videos, and a new album, featuring 12 of Ireland’s most exciting and exceptionally talented traditional and folk musicians on the scene.

Support the project at https://www.varodublin.com/collaboration-project

VARO are singers and fiddle players Lucie Azconaga (from France) and Consuelo Nerea Breschi (from Italy) who perform Irish traditional songs and tunes with arrangement influences from the Folk, Baroque and Classical traditions, weaving around the melodies with harmonies, drones and countermelody. The duo met in 2015 having moved to Dublin to pursue their love for Irish traditional music, and immediately started a fruitful collaboration. They travelled to Ireland along different musical paths, Lucie from jazz, classical music, and French folk, Consuelo from Irish trad, folk, and world music. 

Over the years, Lucie and Consuelo have had the pleasure of working in various other projects, such as Landless, Lisa O’ Neill’s Band, Ye Vagabonds, The Morning Tree, Alasourse, The Nomadic Piano Project; and now, they are assembling a phenomenally talented group for a new collaboration album and video series. 

Lucie and Consuelo’s idea for this project was born from the context of isolation artists have all experienced in recent months. They wanted to find a way to stay connected to their musical friends and create something a little different during these strange new times.

Varo approached twelve Irish traditional and folk artists to work with them.

The participating acts are: Ian Lynch (Lankum), Anna Mieke, Junior Brother, Landless, John Francis Flynn, Niamh Bury, Branwen, Slow Moving Clouds, Inni K, Alfi, Cormac Mac Diarmada (Lankum) & Ruth Clinton, Lemoncello.   

Each act will team up with Varo to learn and develop a traditional song that isn’t part of either of their repertoires, and they will combine their musical influences to create something unique for this project.

Careful research is being put into the selection of traditional songs for the album, which each relate to themes arising out of the COVID19 lockdown: loneliness, isolation, relationships, being away from your family or home, the importance of friends, mental health, anti-racism, and changes in society.

With your support, the result will be a series of eleven live video performances, shot in eleven different locations in Dublin and in the surrounding counties, which will premiere online between October and December 2020, plus an album of Traditional and folk music produced by John ‘Spud’ Murphy of Guerrilla Studios (Lankum, Crash Ensemble, Katie Kim), whichwill be released in December 2020.

The money raised in the Fundraising campaign will go directly towards technical costs associated with the production: Filmmaker fee + Lighting Equipment / Sound Engineer Fee (Live Videos + Album Recording) / Recording Studio Fee / Mixing Fee / Mastering Fee.

If you would like to support Varo through their musical journey, you can click on ‘Donate’ on their website and give what you can, or click ‘Rewards’ and choose one of many of the rewards on offer, which include: Digital Albums, CDs, Vinyls, Artwork Prints, T-shirts, Gigs Tickets, Workshops, and Garden Concerts at home. 

A message from Varo:

“We have never spent such a long amount of time without being able to play for and with other people. Sessions like McNeill’s, The Cobblestone, Walshe’s, where you go to play with your friends or just listen to them play over a pint were/are a very big part of traditional Irish music and an important part of our lives as traditional musicians.

After 3 months of lockdown, not knowing when this could happen again, we needed to find a way to create something but not only by making a new VARO album but by creating a context of musical encounters with people we used to share sessions with.

Also, the crisis that the world is going through at the moment is having such a big impact on people’s lives, not only regarding work or wearing a mask but everything from the very basics of social life to the way society is being run at the moment. So we decided to do something that would bring us happiness in the making and that would be meaningful in the times we’re living.”

https://www.varodublin.com/collaboration-project

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On the 28th August, CATALAN! release the second single, ‘Fortune’ from forthcoming debut album ‘Veritas’.

‘Fortune’ is the second single from the forthcoming debut album Veritas being released through a new Northern Irish record label, BOLDER, founded by Ewen Friers, Rory Friers (ASIWYFA) and Brian Coney, Luik Records (Belgium) and Gunnar Records (Germany).

CATALAN! is a straight-up celebration of diversity and curiosity. Marking a clean break for Belfast-based musician Ewen Friers, one-third of Northern Irish punk trio Axis Of, it’s bombastic, forward-pushing indie rock emboldened by the world around us. 

Fortune maintains the rhythmical and bouncy energy established on previous CATALAN! single Roussillon Serenade, but there is a wistful twist to this follow up. For CATALAN!, mixing that reflective and emotive flavour with world music swing is everything. CATALAN! should feel like an eclectic adventure to the listener and this poignant lyrical poetry merged with indie guitar loops and Latin inspired beats achieves just that.  

Dublin-based indie rock band Lavelle are this week announcing the release of their latest single ‘For You I Will’ on all digital platforms.

The new release off their forthcoming album, ‘For You I Will’ has a mournful melody underpinned by clean guitar and piano tracks over a prominent dynamic bass line. The melancholy lyrics throughout the verses are offset by a bright and hopeful chorus, with the track building to an explosive climax.

Together since 2014, three-piece Lavelle have spent the past two years in and out of Dublin’s Camden Recording Studios working on their debut album ‘Stem The Flow’ (scheduled for release in the autumn) with veteran Irish producer and sound engineer Conor Brady.

The band’s four-track EP ‘Feel Like I Do’ was released in April 2017, followed last year by ‘Something New’ – their first single off the album. Most recently they released the mellow harmonic track ‘In The Light’ and heavy rock tune ‘Moving To The Sea’.

Commenting on the theme of their latest release, Lavelle’s lead singer and songwriter John Ryan said: “The song came about from a simple email I received from a friend a couple of years ago. In reply to my ‘Happy Christmas’ they said, ‘I will for you’. Those four words sat with me awhile and I spent my Christmas that year trying to figure out the song and where it would go. It was hard enough to write but it turned out to be one of the easiest songs for us to record.”

‘For You I Will’ is available on all digital platforms from Friday, 28th August.

For more information about the band, visit lavellemusic.com

http://www.lavellemusic.com/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/lavelleband
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCznOiJQz-mj6ZIZD8zipKAQ
https://twitter.com/lavelle_music
https://open.spotify.com/artist/06N113DWCcm821fGtpiw5p

Denise Chaila is the highest charting Irish female artist of 2020. Today, Friday 28th August 2020, she releases ‘Holy Grail’ – the second single to be taken from her forthcoming mixtape, ‘Go Bravely’ on narolane records. 

Since the release of her previous single ‘Chaila’ in May, Denise has amassed some 12 million radio impacts across the UK and Ireland, over 200,000 streams on Spotify and widespread critical acclaim. 

This Saturday night, 29th August, at 8.15pm, RTÉ One will broadcast RTÉ Shine – a very special performance featuring Denise Chaila and fellow chart topper Dermot Kennedy with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, filmed at the National Concert Hall. RTÉ Shine On on the RTÉ Player will feature exclusive backstage interviews and performances. 

This follows Denise’s incredible performance for Other Voices’ Courage series, where she performed at the National Gallery. Watch Denise perform ‘Chaila’ at the National Gallery of Ireland here. 

Denise Chaila says:⁣⁣ “’Holy Grail’ is a celebration. For everyone who still wants to make their inner child proud. For glow in the dark stars that become constellations, lip syncing at little break that became bigger stages, and everyone who still remembers what they wanted to be when they grew up.” 
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‘Holy Grail’ is accompanied by a feature music video directed by Stephen Hall and Outsider YP. 

The track is taken from Denise’s forthcoming LP ‘Go Bravely’, set for release this autumn. 

State Lights will add to the band’s increasing eclectically original discography with the new single, ‘Give Me Something Human’ released 28th August;  a track some are already saying is the band’s most infectious to date. 

Over the past twelve months in particular State Lights have firmly established themselves as one of Ireland’s best Live acts. The band recently sold out a headline show at Whelan’s in Dublin and London’s Islington and their track ‘Let You Go’ from earlier this year was ‘Track of the Week’ on the 2fm Breakfast show with Doireann and Eoghan.

The band will now headline the Button Factory in Dublin on Saturday February 20^th 2021.

The band’s music has also secured ‘Homegrown Hero’ on Today FM’s flagship morning show Dermot & Dave, recent performances also include RTE 1’s  ‘The Late Late Show’ and together with some solid radio support here at home the band has also tallied substantial airplay support from KROQ Los Angeles, Radio X (UK) and a host of other International radio stations.

This positive uptake resulted in a slot at the prestigious Electric Arena Stage at Electric Picnic in 2019, where they shared the stage with The Kooks, St Vincent and Cigarettes after Sex. This was followed by support slots with The Fratellis and The Academic.  Last summer the band also played the highly acclaimed Indiependence and Kaleidoscope Music Festivals.

You Tube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCiDgPon1TQMmbwbC1XQ88w
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/statelights/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/statelightsmusic/
Twitter: @StateLights

The Alternative Sunday Social Club Presents The Black Pitts in The Wild Duck on Sunday, August 30^th at 4.00pm.

Putting the raunchy back into rock n roll and the garage back in punk, The Black Pitts are a power three-piece fronted by a double vocal of Ive on guitar, Ado on bass and more drummers than Spinal Tap ever had and the band have been ripping it up for over a decade now. Formed out of the remnants of a CBGB era covers band, but taking it to the darker streets of Dublin, they have gone on to write and record two albums, ‘B-Movie Extra’ and ‘Nevada Jacks’. In the 90’s Ive started out with a band called The Dreads, (The Black Pitts MK1, it’s been said), where he cut his teeth on the recording process. He then went onto produce well into the ‘10s under the name Ridgewalkers but that’s a whole other story. Meeting Ado through DJing they discovered a common love in early garage and punk records, and they formed The Black Pitts, a no holds barred rock n’ roll punk band, out for a good time.

The Black Pitts self-produced their debut album in the Summer of 2016, ‘B Movie Extra’, and with help from Liam Mulvaney on mixing, they produced a modern slice of punk’s history, receiving cracking reviews across a wide spectrum. Their live sets are full of attitude, life lesions, humour, horror stories with catchy choruses and not forgetting those pounding beats. They perfected their live sound playing FOAD Musick nights around Dublin and have opened for legends such as Richie and CJ Ramone, The Outcasts and Paranoid Visions as well as playing a string of shows at Rebellion, the U.K’s longest-running Punk festival. In 2019 The Black Pitts returned to the studio to produce their 2nd album, recruiting Jay Bagnell (Paranoid Visions) on drums and Liam Mulvaney back in full engineering role, and ‘Nevada Jacks’ was born. This album has not only allowed the band to open up on their influences and also deliver it in a more defined ‘Pitts Sound’ way.

This is not ‘77 punk, this is 2020 punk!

Míde Houlihan is a West Cork bred singer-songwriter, who has captured the hearts of many an Irish audience over the last number of years. 

With some early high profile support slots with the likes of FRED and Canadian folk singer Doug Paisley, as well as international cult star, Jenn Grant, Míde put herself on the map as one of Ireland’s brightest prospects.

As part of a new song-writing initiative established during lockdown by IASCA (Irish Association of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors) , Míde has teamed up with the award-winning double platinum-selling artist Mick Flannery , and Canadian producer Danny Ledwell, to take part in a songwriting camp, resulting in the release of a new single out today, titled ‘Idle Words’ . 

‘Idle Words’ is about taking someone for granted. Someone who’s not around anymore. You know when someone is in your life every day, and you start getting annoyed by little things they might say or do; it’s about wishing you could have those things back. What you once considered ‘Idle Words’, you’d give anything to hear again.

Because of recent events and during this period of social isolation, IASCA began trials allowing members to collaborate with each other via video platforms from their homes and/or home studios, to create new music together. 

Speaking about the experience, Míde says: “I didn’t really know what to expect as I began this experience, it’s definitely new territory writing a song over a video call. But as soon as we started it felt very natural, we agreed pretty quickly on what subject we wanted to write about, and then went off for 15 minutes at a time to write lyrics and call each other again. Mick had a lovely chord progression worked out and soon after that the song was ready. I’m really proud to have been a part of something like this.”

 Sinéad Troy, IASCA’s General Manager said: “It was a joy to connect Mick and Míde as our first virtual co-write session to trial. The feedback from both was so useful to us and will be to other songwriters.

Songwriting for many can be an isolating time, and Covid-19 has brought so much uncertainty for the future, that IASCA wanted to do something small to connect Irish songwriters and encourage them to do what they do best together – write and record music!”

‘Idle Words’ by Míde Houlihan, co-written by Mick Flannery, and produced by Danny Ledwell, is available now:   https://ffm.to/idlewords

Míde:
https://www.facebook.com/midehoulihanmusic/
https://twitter.com/MideHoulihan
https://www.instagram.com/midehoulihanmusic/

IASCA:
https://www.facebook.com/IASCAIreland/
https://twitter.com/iasca_?lang=en
https://iasca.ie/

Photo: Simon Curran

A new premium recording studio, The Clinic, has been launched by former OTHERKIN Band Member and Producer David Anthony Curley in Dublin.

Specialists in the art of noise, some of Ireland’s finest artists including James Vincent McMorrow, Sorcha Richardson, Royal Yellow, Denise Chaila and Blood Donor have already been welcomed through the brand new studio doors.

Situated only 5 mins from Dublin City Centre, the studio specialises in recording, mixing, production and songwriting services with a focus on analogue electronics. 

Founded by producer David Anthony Curley (formerly of OTHERKIN), The Clinic Recording Studios was born out of a need to provide solutions to the issues he encountered in the various studios he recorded in throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe. Seeing a gap in the market for a space that utilised both the highest spec modern recording technologies and the most sought after analogue equipment, The Clinic was built to cater to the ever changing landscape of music production and to be an inviting space for all regardless of engineering prowess.

David Anthony Curley says: “From my time in OTHERKIN I was fortunate enough to work alongside world class producers in state of the art studios throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe. During the initial recordings for what would become our final release, we worked alongside producer Steve Dub (The Chemical Brothers) in a studio called the Toy Rooms in Brighton, UK. Specialising in electronic music, the walls of the studio were stacked floor to ceiling with analogue synths. This spurred in me an infatuation with electronic instruments, and in thinking about the next steps in my career lead me to the realisation that there was room in Dublin for a studio that could bring together the most sought after analogue synths and drum machines, and pair them with the highest spec modern software, to create an open creative space catered to electronic and modern pop production.“

One of the most exciting live bands in the country, OTHERKIN’s debut album ‘OK’ was one of the most hotly anticipated Irish rock albums of the year and hit Number 2 in the Official Irish Charts in 2017 – alongside being nominated for Choice Prize Album of the Year. Channelling the ferocity of their music into their shows, the band performed at some of the biggest festivals across Europe including Download, Reading/Leeds Festival, Electric Picnic as well as supporting Guns N’ Roses at Slane Castle. Their six-track mini-album called ‘Electric Dream’ would be their parting release for fans in 2019.

THE CLINIC RECORDING STUDIOS
18 CRESCENT PLACE, MALAHIDE ROAD, DUBLIN 3

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https://www.theclinicrecordingstudios.com/
https://www.instagram.com/theclinicrecordingstudios/