This piece is a response to the guided christian meditations I experienced in secondary school, how weird and business like and impersonal it felt when surely something like religion should be completely personal. It's also a parody to a degree of the popular culture of 2016. 

Enjoy

8 Minute Relaxing Guided Christian Meditation 2016

A recording of my live performance @ The Empire Music Hall on the 5th of January, when I opened for Robyn G. Shiels.

Charlie & Deirdre - Live @ The Empire Music Hall

Charlie & Deirdre

Lake Irene

Old Churches

A Letter To Mark Loughrey or Funeral Song

A song about one of my best mates, among the most beautiful souls to have graced the earth.

Scratch My Progress Vol.8

Thought I'd Go Home

I'm back about a week now
from visiting my da
and wearing too much sunscreen
and sitting ar an trá

it's a different life
todo es manana
i think i'd like to live here
mostly to see my da

so we'll save it up until we're old and dumb and buy some property
in the sun near bars and resteraunts beside the motorway
and we'll be on til 3 o clock and then be on our way
we don't mind staying up late if it's warm during the day

there was nights he was working
and i went out myself
to walk along the sunset
and not think about the wealth

that must lay between the road and shore
because i've learned not to care
that half the town has nothing
and the rest are millionaires

throw it in the bin there's no recycling we don't care about the earth
and we'll be dead and buried before there's visible results
of our carelessness our disregard
but we'll take you out for lunch
no chat of politics or urban myths
just the growth in your net worth

credits
released March 16, 2020
Song - Joel Harkin
Produced by George Sloan @ Half Bap Studios
Mastered by Pete Maher

Vocals and Guitar - Joel Harkin
Mandolin - Niall Laverty
Piano and Vocals - Scott Crowther
Drums - George Sloan
Vocals - Nicole Harper
Bass - Herb Magee
Pedal Steel - Com McClean
Image by Aaron Cunningham

No Recycling

Vada is the second single form my debut album 'Never Happy' which is coming out on the 19th of May!

Pre-order @ joelharkin.com

Vada

"This is the sort of misery that I love" - BBC Radio 1

"Bursts of melody twist and turn within the piece, with Joel Harkin patching his indie confessionals to pop lucidity." - Clash Magazine

"The track finds the Belfast-based singer-songwriter ruminating on family life and inequality, while he brings his lo-fi alternative folk sound to emotional new heights." - Hot Press Magazine

"The Donegal singer-songwriter’s craft brims at every turn with pathos and pure insight, and is rounded off with a melodic sensibility all his very own." - The Thin Air

Joel Harkin calls himself an alternative, ambient folk singer. He writes songs about cherry blossoms and old churches, about lost friends and migrations and a fear of dying. He is a humourist, a poet and philosopher.

He’s been influenced by Modest Mouse, Phoebe Bridgers, Conor Oberst, Gregory and the Hawk and many others. He is glad that he didn’t follow his father’s advice and become a horse doctor. His ambition is happily unchecked.

Joel Harkin

Popular tracks