At the start of each year, like many other gullibles worldwide, I like to set myself some goals and figure out how to hit them. This year one of these was to give one album a week a deep listen.
Category: Music
(Originally published in University Express, March 2021)
Welcome back to our look at Bandcamp Friday! This piece continues last issue’s column, where I talk to Colm Cahallane of HAUSU Records.
This issue we’re talking to Dan Walsh of Fixity, the Tan Jackets, Cork Improvised Music Club, and much more. The Cork multi-instrumentalist is a big proponent of owning your output: He focuses on Bandcamp and Patreon releases, with no Spotify presence. That’s why we thought he’d be a good person to continue the conversation around it.
(Originally published in University Express, March 2021)
Back in March 2020, online music retail platform Bandcamp announced that on the first Friday of every month they would cut their cut on items sold from about 30% to nothing, leaving all funds to the artist. It was a great move on a marketing and moral basis, but a year on, how’re artists finding it? I sat down with Colm Cahallane, self-described ‘PR rat’ at Cork indie label HAUSU Records.
(Originally published in University Express, October 2020)
On the 13th of February, Matt Corrigan played his first headliner upstairs at the Roundy, which he sold out. Wearing a white shirt, dark jeans and a look of intense solemnity, he lilted out the ‘dah, da-da dah’ bridge of ‘Tokyo’. A room dimly lit by stage lights, crammed full of friends, and their friends who’d just become acquainted, and tourists and fans, sang it back to him. Then we kept going and going, on and on, until Corrigan and his band couldn’t help but break into sheepish grins, taking in an audience that never wanted it to end. It felt like a beginning: Curtains close on the first act for Ghostking is Dead.
Almost one month later to the day, colleges, schools and pubs were shut down.
(Originally published in University Express, October 2020)
2020’s been a milestone for Irish music, even in a year without gigs. Denise Chaila’s gone from underground to RTÉ darling, while artists like Jafaris and Nealo are making airplay and playlist waves, disproving notions about race and heavy brogue in Irish rap.
But meanwhile—and more importantly—the fight against Direct Provision has become more prominent, with the government committing to end it by the end of its term.
Direct Provision is Ireland’s system of housing people seeking international asylum. Migrants are placed in housing and hotels in groups en masse and must wait, often for several years, for their papers to be accepted or rejected. Canteen mealtimes are strict, privacy is minimal and supports are non-existent. It’s drawn widespread criticism worldwide: New Yorker magazine describes it as a “strange, cruel system”.
(Originally published in University Express, August 2020)
The live music industry has been devastated by COVID-19. Cyprus Avenue, The Roundy, Cork Opera House: They’ve all been shut since March, and the future is uncertain as phase four stretches into the future. With the law restricting indoor gatherings of fifty-plus (inclusive of staff and band), many venues are waiting it out or still trying to pivot towards the new normal—and some, like electro venue Dali, will be looking for a new home in latter-day 2020.
(Originally published in Motley Magazine, May 2020)
The Kerry producer-bassist looks back to the New Wave
(Originally published in Motley Magazine, February 2020)
Ghostking Is Dead is alive and well, and talks to Cathal Donovan O’Neill about doing it for the 021
(Originally published in Motley Magazine, January 2020)
Motley Music Editor Cathal interviewed Craic Boi Mental to find what makes the West Cork rapper a cult smash
(Originally published on motley.ie/Motley Magazine, November 11 2019)
Singer/songwriter David Gray’s stopping in Cork for the 20th anniversary of Ireland’s biggest-selling album, Motley reports.