Brian Corbett has released his new single ‘Wonder’. I spoke to Corbett about the new single, his return to Ireland after moving to Toronto five years ago and working with Pa Sheehy on a new collection of songs.

‘Wonder’ discusses Corbett’s teenage years as he reminisces on lacking the bravery to tell a close friend that he wanted to be more. Corbett uses beautiful lyrics to take the listener on this nostalgic journey.

“So a couple of months ago I went to Dingle in Kerry. I met up with Pa Sheehy and I was nervous going down because he’s a well-known artist. We talked and he’s like, what would you like to write about? So I told him about the story, about my friend, how I felt. Four hours later we came up with the song. I think it was the adrenaline from meeting him and being nervous it helped me for some strange reason with the writing. Yeah, four hours later, ‘Wonder’ was born.”

“I was like, should I say it? Should I not? [ to Pa Sheehy] Is it too soon?, but then you know what something beautiful could be made here so why hold back and just be honest and put everything on the plate.”

There is a warm twinkling guitar melody that exudes a folk tone and reinforces the nostalgic theme within the song. 

“Pa had a guitar riff that he actually made while we were on our way down there. Just an acoustic, he just looped it and I just fell in love with it straightaway. That’s when the inspiration just straight away clicked. It was just so easy to play off it.”

The song is sonically impressive and boasts deft production and dreamy tones with an intricate pulsing rhythm anchoring the listener in the track’s ethereal soundscapes.

“ We had the guitar sound and we wrote alongside the guitar sound. Then eventually, we left it simmer for a while for a few weeks and then Pa started messing around with these beautiful dreamy sounds that just came into it perfectly and just fitted with the song. I think that’s the feedback we’re getting off the song too. It’s a summer vibe song, it’s a sad song but a happy song at the same time.”

Brian Corbett’s music oozes wonderful folk elements with a contemporary twist. We spoke about how he crafted his style and sound.

“ I think it’s just the way I sing. From a very young age, I was surrounded by folk music, especially Irish folk music, and I was reared in the countryside. So I had that country twang, more or less and I just brought it into my music and gradually developed it over a few years. It goes pretty well with the music that we are making at the moment.”

Corbett moved across the Atlantic five years ago to live in Toronto and found himself in a music scene he had never experienced before. Through rubbing shoulders with a variety of artists and writers Corbett gained a new insight into his music and writing.

“To be honest, I started taking it seriously. I didn’t really believe. I knew I could sing. I knew I could play the guitar. I started going to open mics and stuff like that, just to go to them to listen and have a beer or whatever and then I started making friends and rubbing shoulders with some really amazing musicians. That’s when I started to write and develop my writing. I wasn’t great at the start, but it’s like turning on the tap and getting the dirty water out first, eventually the clean water comes through. So it really helped me, the city life, and just being surrounded by different musicians and different cultures and stuff. It really had a golden plus for me.”

After five years away from home Corbett grew tired of city life and moved home to Connemara and is living in a remote cabin with artistic friends writing music. I wondered if the nostalgia of being back in Ireland is giving Corbett material to write.

“It has yeah, it’s like past situations you’ve been in and moments of sadness, moments of happiness, but it really helped me. It’s really nice to be back. It’s like writing a book, you need to sit down and your like, Alright, what do I write about? How do I feel and when did that happen? When did this happen? So it’s good to be home, it’s good to be on the Irish soil again. But, hopefully, this music takes me out there again.”

“I live in a little house in Connemara. Some of my friends are musicians and I bring them down for the day or two. I have a little studio here in the house and we just chill, we eat, we talk, we make music, we eat more and then we make more music and then it just develops from there. It’s a really nice humbling situation.”

“I live in Clifden in Connemara, it’s just magic. It’s surrounded by water, surrounded by greenery and surrounded by mountains and it’s just inspirational. So being in Toronto in the busy city for nearly five years, six years it was nice to come home. Once I came home I was like this is so nice to be just able to think again and just like relax.”

Corbett has some exciting plans for the rest of the year with new releases and an upcoming EP.

“It’s the first song off the EP, that me and Pa are putting together at the moment. So we have a few more songs down. It’s hard to just put a full stop on it. I was like should we not make another one. It’s easy to make it into an album. But I want to make an EP first and then we can talk about albums. In the next few months, we’ll have another song that we’re ready to put in the oven.”

Brian Corbett is a compelling artist who has the ability to create passionate songs filled with rich instrumentation. He is developing his sound beautifully and displaying a talent for creating cinematic musicianship and emotive lyrics – ‘Wonder’ is a sublime example of this. 

Watch the video for ‘Wonder’ below 

Author: Danu