Cork native LYRA has released her new single ‘Lose My Mind’, via Rubyworks label. It is the first new single to come from the as-yet-untitled new body of work due for release later this year.’Lose My Mind’ was written and co-produced by LYRA and Dane Etteridge (former Ordinary Boys guitarist), it was mixed by Grammy-nominated Darren Heelis (Sam Smith, Tom Walker, Liam Payne) in the US. Darren Heelis also worked with LYRA on her previous single release the Jackie Lomax cover of ‘New Day’, which achieved #1 chart positions with iTunes and Shazam.
‘Lose My Mind’ radiates with LYRA’s emotive and cinematic musicianship. Propulsive rhythms and blustery electronics exude dance anthem vibes while powerful vocals soar across a kinetic soundscape and anchor the listener within the tracks alternative pop backdrop. A dark and ominous undertone bubbles underneath, enhanced by tense drums and brooding verses that build to a fantastic hair-raising crescendo. LYRA is a master of her craft. Her striking, dynamic vocal delivery and ability to create thrilling, emotive arrangements that stir the soul is admirable and ‘Lose My Mind’ is a fine example of this.
About the track, LYRA said: “I had so much fun with this single, I wrote ‘Lose My Mind’ in the recording studio, it is a song about losing all your inhibitions, being free of mind, the idea that you can be possessed and yet exhilarated at the same time”.
Tommy Cullen has released his new single, ‘In the Winter’, a downbeat seasonal love song inviting cosy contemplation when it’s needed most. Featuring guest vocals by fellow singer-songwriter Amy Ellen, the single comes at a transitional moment for both artists. For Tommy, it caps off a series of songs recorded in ‘The Gatehouse’, his old home atop an urban river. These songs were released throughout various lockdowns, and encompass such diverse subjects as scary sharks, imaginary breakups, monochromatic rainbows and really nice trains. Likewise, Amy recently released her eagerly-awaited debut EP ‘Only You Will Know’ to enthusiastic reviews and international fanfare.
Drifting upon a delicate guitar and piano, ‘In the Winter‘ is a melodically lush new single from Tommy Cullen and Amy Ellen. This sweet and wholesome tune glides on a swooning melody while soft pines on guitar create an ethereal quality between supple percussive twinkles. It’s a soothing and emotive tune that highlights the compelling vocal tones within these two very talented artists as their voices ebb and flow, highlighting the emotion and tenderness within the lyrics, “Well love changes everything, You got the sweetest something, Smiling down so wonderful, And I don’t want to run”. ‘In the Winter’ is a warm blanket on a chilly evening – press play and enjoy.
With both artists preparing for the next phase in their journeys, it seemed like an appropriate time for something slightly different. As Tommy explains:“We met a couple of years ago at a gig we were both playing. Amy had heard the first single I put out and suggested we sing something together, so I had that in mind for a while. When I started writing what became ‘In the Winter’, I thought ‘this is the one’. The prospect of working with Amy made it easy to prioritise getting it finished, and it was such a joy to hear her contribution when the time came. I think we’re both really happy with how it turned out, the vocal blend seems to work nicely.”
Singer-songwriter Grace Ackerman has released her new single ‘Two Way Street’. 26-year-old Grace Ackerman first burst onto the scene with her 2017 debut ‘Feels Like Home’. Since then, the Watford singer-songwriter has spent the past few years gradually releasing her solo material, which has earned her a dedicated fan base across social media platforms.
‘Two Way Street’ is a beautifully arranged single that showcases the emotive and richly textured musicianship of Grace Ackerman. The track surges with passion enhanced by warm piano, driving rhythms, and a hair-raising cinematic chorus. Lush harmonies grace the backdrop in uplifting tones while Ackerman’s expressive, soulful vocals and velvety tone croons through the vibrant backdrop. The track’s heartfelt lyrics depict Ackerman asking to share in her partner’s anxieties; ‘Two Way Street’ is an exchange of trust and celebrates the intimacy of this moment through pulsing beats, twinkling guitars and soulful pop melodies.
Dublin solo artist Conor Furlong has released ‘Survive’, the fifth single to be taken from his album ‘Recurring Dream’. This magnificent tune surges with the dreamy, intricate and vibrant musicianship of Furlong and is a joy to listen to. Furlong spreads driving guitars, lush hazy soundscapes and divine melodies over tightly weaved percussion to create a wholly immersive and tantalizing listening experience. His smooth vocals wrap the song in luxuriant supple tones while swooning strings, expressive guitar embellishments and rich layers create a prismatic and soothing shoegaze vibe. Blending tones of melancholia with bright euphoric soundscapes ‘Survive’ is a gloriously compelling tune from Conor Furlong.
Soul-Pop singer, Sion Hill (Nathan Johnston) has announced the release of his highly anticipated new EP ‘A State Of Permanent Flux’ on November 19th, 2021 with his new single ‘Could Have Had It All’ released today. Recorded in Hamburg, Germany shortly before moving to London, ‘Could Have Had It All’ sets the scene for what is to come from the new EP, which is released on Johnston’s own label, Dead Rent.
Delicately encased in soft soundscapes, retro waltz-like guitar twinkles and moving songwriting, ‘Could Have Had It All’ is a touching new single from Johnston. The track flows upon a blanket of soft percussion and lush melodies while warm trumpets and strings exude an elegant 50’s-esque charm. Johnston’s velvety vocals surge with soulful tones. His smooth but supple vocal delivery invites listeners to experience the heartbreaking and emotional vulnerability expressed within the lyrics “please won’t you come back home because I want to be yours again”.The track is lavishly arranged with swooning tones blended superbly between biting guitar moments to create a well-balanced tune. Johnston has outdone himself with this passionate ditty. The earnest lyrics and refined production makes ‘Could Have Had It All’ a must listen.
Cuan Dingle have announced three live-stream concerts from the Dingle Hub on the 30th – 31st of October. The series is an online celebration of artists based on the Dingle Peninsula and features Dréimire, Dairena Ní Chinnéide, Niamh Varian Barry, Gerry O’Beirne, Billy Mag Fhloinn, Maggie Breen, Pa Sheehy and Julie Jay over the two days. Tickets priced at €10 are on sale now from https://tvlive.ie/. Each concert will run for 1 hour, featuring one music act (45 minute live performance) and one non-music act (15 minute pre-recorded segment).
I caught up with singer-songwriter Pa Sheehy who will be performing on part three of the event on Sunday to talk about the livestream, his new EP ‘The Art Of Disappearing’, and his first solo tour.
At 9 pm on Sunday Pa Sheehy will perform followed by one of the most exciting new voices on the Irish comedy scene, comedian Julie Jay. The performances will take place in the Dingle Hub which overlooks the beautiful Dingle Marina. The Dingle Hub has a strong creative connection to the community on the Dingle Peninsula. The concerts will highlight the incredible views of the Dingle Marina with a multi-camera production, paired with the highest professional sound and lighting. Being part of the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht, Cuan Dingle will also incorporate the Irish language into the series with a number of performers fluent in Irish.
“Yeah, it’s all going to be live there on Sunday night. It looks like a great set up and it’s a good lineup so yeah it will be good craic”
After a decade fronting the Irish chart-conquering Walking On Cars, Sheehy decided last July that it was time to leave the group and has released his own music and EP called ‘The Art Of Disappearing’, which hit the Top 10 Irish Charts. We discussed how daunting it was for him to go solo and discover his sound outside of a band aesthetic
“ The first few months was all about taking a step back and re-evaluating everything. Then I spent an awful lot of time in the studio over the last 18 months trying to figure myself out a bit and just writing songs every day and sooner or later, it just kind of dropped. I was like okay, this is where we’re going. So what you are going to hear in the first EP is the end of my Walking On Cars, kind of vibe and a step into a new world. Then a second EP, that’s when you really get to know what I found when I sat on my own for a year, it’s more chilled out, a bit more acoustic. Yeah, it’s just a different step from Walking On Cars.”
“ I guess, every decision I had to make was just trust my gut, and sometimes I got it wrong sometimes I got it right. A prime example of that was the single, Róisín. That took me so long to finish because I was so undecided on what parts to put where. There was so much that I muted on the record in the last maybe month of making I just kind of threw everything that burst out of me onto the song and it became apparent that I had too many ideas in there. It was one of those things where I needed an outside head and I remember one day I showed the song to my sister, and she listened to it, she loved it. Then the following week, I changed a little bit and I took out the post-chorus because I felt there were way too many melodies on it, and I played it to her and she was like, man, that’s the best part of the tune, what are you doing. I was like, Okay, I needed to hear that and so I put it back in and obviously, that was a good move to actually talk to someone outside of me and get their two cents on it.”
“ It was a case that I knew it was a good song, but I didn’t know where Iwanted it to end up for a long time in the process of making it. So it took me three times of recording it to finally say okay, this is the one. I went to London around this time last year, and I met up with a few producer buddies of mine. We recorded it and it just felt really flat and not what I had envisioned at all. I came home and I was gonna delete everything and start again and slowly but surely it started falling into place. Day after day I’d come back to it or I’d hear something else that was a little bit wrong. I just tweak it and eventually, it all just fell into place.”
‘The Art Of Disappearing’, is an utterly time stopping EP filled with heartfelt emotion and moving songwriting. It’s lyrically deep and personal and Sheehy explained how difficult it was to express these raw emotions.
“ To be honest, I avoided a lot of these songs for a long time. But every time I sat down with a guitar, the same themes would come up for me and that means that I need to write about this and get it off my chest and move on to something else. So yeah, the themes in the EP are pretty grim, pretty sad, pretty close to home. But I feel now that they’re written, I can move on to some more lighter subjects.”
Sheehy cements himself as a powerful and vivid songwriter in the Irish music scene with this EP. He uses expressive, eloquent lyrics that perfectly place you in the setting of the songs or depict the gripping emotions within, “Oh you know I still remember the day you chose to go. Mom was in the kitchen, saying, “now we’re on our own”.- ‘I Saw You At A Funeral’
“I don’t think that’s something you can look at while you’re writing. I just do my own thing and if people like it then great. If people acknowledged the skill in it along the way, sure, isn’t that kind of a bonus.”
“I’m not sure. I feel I’ve so much yet to prove because, obviously I left the band and it’s just only my first outing. I feel I’ve got so much work to do and so much more to prove to myself, to be honest.”
“ And that’s so exciting. I can’t wait for the next round of songs. I have a tourplanned for next March. A couple of dates in Ireland, a couple of dates around Europe. So yeah, like you say, I get to do my own thing and there’s a magic and a freedom that I really enjoy.”
There is a cinematic quality to the EP. A fine example of this is within ‘Drop Me In The Ocean’. Sheehy creates a beautiful and mesmerising backdrop through the use of soft piano and echoed backing vocals that contrasts the tracks powerful and evocative melody. It’s quite the remarkable tune.
“ I love that song. I wrote it with a guy called Jamie Norton. He’s a UK based songwriter and he is an amazing piano player. So basically in the last year, the whole writing scene, when I got bored of myself, I was like, Okay, I need to write with some new people. Basically, everything was on Zoom. So I had a Zoom call with Jamie Norton, who I had written with before so I knew we vibed and I had this vision in my head. I’d been listening to a lot of Radiohead at the time, so I was really into, loose acoustic guitar sounds, lazy drums, really organic sounding.”
“We wrote a song and I sang it and I recorded it. I recorded the drums, the bass, the electric guitars. I had this vision for it and I was like, this is great, this is exactly what I’m going for. I sent the song to Jamie and I was like, what do you think of this?, add a few bits if you want but I think we’re on the right track. What he sent me – he took the drums out, he took the bass out, took the guitars out and he just laid down this piano for the chords that we were playing and it just gave everything the song was about a deeper meaning and a deeper feeling.”
“I was just knocked out when he sent it back, a part of me was sickened because my vision of the song was destroyed but what he had created, what he turned the song into was incredible. When he sent the piano track to me, I just started putting subtle kick drums and subtle strings on it just to move it along but it didn’t need a whole lot once the vocal and the piano were sat nicely. Then from the piano, the ‘ooh’s’ jumped out at me and I sent them back to him and he was like, ‘Yes, man, we’ve done it!’. So it was just one of those things that grew and grew and took a few turns on the way.”
A track that stands out in the EP is the nostalgic ‘The Years Never Waited’. The harmonies and sweet arrangement create a perfect hazy atmosphere. Sheehy aptly captures feelings of the sweet memories we all have that make you smile through pulsing beats and sun-speckled guitar causing the listener to reminisce on their own youth while enjoying the refined musicianship and captivating soundscapes within the track.
“I suppose it defines where I was at that time. I’m in my early 30s and as yougrow up, you just lose touch with friends and you don’t hang out as much. People go off and do their own things, people move away and have families, people have busy jobs and you just don’t keep in touch as much as you’d like. This song captures that in a nostalgic way rather than a super sad way. I didn’t want the vocal to be too harsh. So what you’re hearing on the record is three different vocal styles blended into one. The harmony is very prevalent in it so yeah, I wanted it to be a smooth soft vocal and I didn’t want to go to chesty on it. I was just looking for a new style to use my voice in.”
The EP is penned in a very emotive indie, singer-songwriter style yet Sheehy slips into a soft country rock-esque tone for closing track ‘Through The Fields’. It’s a beautiful end to the EP.
“To be honest, that song was in my pocket for about five years. It was never a Walking On Cars song. So when I left, I looked at the batch of tunes that I did have that weren’t in Walking On Cars world and that was one of them and I really wanted to bring it to life. The last lyric in the song is “goodbye from me”. That’s just to say thanks for listening to EP, I’ll see you on the next one kind of thing. It just felt nice as the last tune”
Sheehy has embarked on his first tour as a solo artist playing to a sold-out Whelan’s, Dublin on the 27th October and sold out Roisin Dubh, Galway on the 28th October 2021 as well as a sold-out show at St. James Church, Dingle on the 30th October.
“Yeah, I’m loving it. We did Cork, Cyprus Avenue on Monday, and that was incredible. That was a full room it was a really nice moment. People were singing along with the EP tracks and people were really enjoying the new music. I played an hour set and all new music so I think people are just interested to see what I’ve been up to for the last 18 months. ”
‘The Art Of Disappearing’ is a heartfelt collection of tracks filled with themes of loss, nostalgia and love. The EP is a sublime and passionate display from Sheehy and boasts the artist’s melodic mastery and meaningful songwriting. His performance on the Cuan Dingle live-stream is sure to be a timeless display. Cuan Dingle have selected a diverse and entertaining lineup for this live stream event and it is one not to miss.
Tickets for the livestream are priced at €10 and are on sale now from https://tvlive.ie/.
Stephen Kelly returns with his new single, ‘All The Trouble I’ve Caused’.The track was written, produced and performed by Stephen himself in his own studio, it is the first of multiple singles intended for release in advance of his debut solo record ‘Bad News Best Forgotten’ coming in early 2022 via Gentleman Recordings. Stephen Kelly is an IMRO award-nominated songwriter known for his work as founder of notorious Irish indie rock favourites RAGLANS – who have toured and released Kelly’s songs to much acclaim at home and abroad appearing on some of the worlds biggest stages.
‘All The Trouble I’ve Caused’ is vibrant in sound, buoyant in spirit and beaming with Kelly’s melodious hearty musicianship. With an ear-grabbing intro of swelling drums and jangly guitar, the song radiates feel-good vibes from the get-go. A catchy uplifting and anthemic chorus evokes images of a live audience bellowing back the lyrics while the verses lyrically express earnest and candid reflection, “Wondering if I should tell them I’m hopeless”. The track is an absolute joy to listen to; the balance of deft songwriting and rich musicianship makes ‘All The Trouble I’ve Caused’ an impressive and compelling tune to listen to again and again.
Following the success of his debut single, ‘Time Out’ (just under 4 million streams), London-based pop singer-songwriter AJ Wander has released his new single, ‘Take It All’, via Elevation. The track was produced by co-writer Gethin Williams alongside Brad Mair (Dean Lewis, Jamie Cullum, Kygo). Prior to the ongoing pandemic, AJ had been running himself ragged playing covers at piano bars and hotels across the UK. Once lockdown hit, he turned all his energy and focus into creating his own music and pushing forward his solo career. Wander’s drive paid off as his new music led him to sign a management and recording deal with Elevation, a USA-based music company that specializes in artist development, and a publishing deal with BDi Music, administered globally by Bucks Music Group.
‘Take It All’ is a cinematic new tune from Wander. Eloquent and vivid songwriting flourish throughout the track while gripping and expressive musicianship adorns the backdrop in suspense and drama. Filled with lamenting piano strides, swelling soundscapes, pulsing drums and thick electronics the track is a dynamic and heartfelt display from Wander as he croons atop the breath-taking melody “all the words I have are caught behind my teeth and they’re choking me it’s getting hard to breath”. AJ Wander’s sound is emotive, expressive and laced with passion. His earnest songwriting and intricate musicianship is impressive and makes him an artist to keep an eye on.
About the track Wander said: ‘’Take It All’ is me learning to let go, reminding myself not to get distracted by glimpses of light amongst the darkness. I wrote the track with my mate, Geth, in his caravan in rural Wales last November in the midst of a toxic relationship.”
Laura – Mary Carter has released her new single ‘Town Called Nothing’. Laura – Mary Carter is best known as one-half of rockers Blood Red Shoes. Laura will make her solo debut this December with the release of her mini-album, ‘Town Called Nothing’. The record was produced by Ed Harcourt at RAK studios, UK, who also played bass and piano, plus Jorma Vik (The Bronx, Eagles Of Death Metal) on drums.
‘Town Called Nothing’ is an enticing country-rock tune that chugs with a steady tempo within a laid back atmosphere while Laura- Mary Carter’s smooth vocals croon atop a mellow melody. This track is gloriously infectious as Laura builds and layers wonderful guitar embellishments over a spacious, seductive backdrop. ‘Town Called Nothing’ exudes the boundless talent and charm of Laura – Mary Carter’s musicianship and provides a keyhole glimpse into the many facets of this artist’s music.
Town Called Nothing was written in between tours at various sublets and studios in the UK and Los Angeles. About the track Laura said: “I found a beat up acoustic guitar and without thinking about it songs just started to come to me, The idea of writing on an acoustic guitar was new to me, I’d always written songs for my band which has a very heavy disposition. I realised that writing in this intimate way exposed my voice and changed the way I was writing and singing lyrics.”
California-based indie electro-pop act Margot Polo has released his new single, ‘it’s my birthday.’ This sweet tune is a quirky, witty and melodically lush display from Margot Polo. Blending slide guitar with a dreamy melody and buoyant beat, Margot Polo creates a glorious tune for listeners to enjoy. His smooth vocals croon through 50’s-esque doo-wop harmonies while warm acoustic guitar exudes a folk-like hue. There is something compelling and joyful about this tune as jangly percussion and carefree, fun lyrics maintain a sing-along charm throughout “Honey, I try so hard to make believe, I’m only 27, can’t you see?, I ain’t goin’ gray, But baby, my back aches”. It’s the perfect birthday song – true, honest and wonderfully nostalgic. Love it.
About the track, Margot Polo said: “Crazy story about this song: On the morning of my last birthday, October 14th, 2020, I woke up from a dream in which I was around a campfire with all my close friends and family–including my great-grandma, who had passed away just some years ago–and we were all singing the chorus melody of this song. Entirely from this dream, I had almost the whole song: melodies, production, arrangement, entirely laid out for me in my head. “
Stream ‘it’s my birthday’ below.
Author: Danu
Indie: (n) an obscure form of rock which you only learn about from someone slightly more hip than yourself.
