CPI Archive 2009: You can see a surprising amount when the sun goes down. As they release their long-awaited debut album, Andrew Hamilton chats to Ennistymon man Fiachra O’Doherty - one fifth of Breakdown Rambler.

APOCALYPSE Now took more than a year and a half to shoot. In those 18 ill-fated jungle months, both cast and crew were tortured endlessly by tropical storms, as Martin Sheen suffered a heart-attack and Marlon Brando discovered two extra personalities and about four extra stone. All told, it was a fairly difficult production. More than five years in gestation, Witness by Moonlight is the debut album from folk-rocksters Breakdown Rambler. Five years is
a long time to do anything, but a half-decade pouring over the finer details of an hour of music is an eternity. And like Apocalypse Now, the completion of this album has freed Breakdown Rambler to re- open their collective eyes, and look again on a world reborn. “Yeah, it’s an amazing feeling to finally have it. The night we launched the album, I think everyone just breathed a sigh of relief. We had just collected the CD the morning before the show so it was touch and go for a while. But we got it and we ended up selling maybe 100 copies that night. It was amazing to actually have it there in your hand, physically, and to be able to launch it on the same day,” says Fiachra.

The Breakdown Rambler Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: The Froud Podcast
Loud and Froud: Andrew Hamilton chats to Martin O’Neill, frontman for Monaghan rocksters Froud.
The last decade has seen monumental changes in the world of music. As the great labels - those bastions of Gordon Gekkoesque greed - faltered and slowly began to crumble and the Internet created a worldwide palette for artists to share and influence, the music world has been transformed on every level. One of the unforeseen by-products of this new revolution is the rise
in artists finding a fanbase, not through gigging or albums, but through advertising. It’s worked for José González and The Killers, and soon it may start to work for Froud too. Having just signed a contract to distribute their music to some of America’s top advertising executives, Monaghan-based
band Froud are beginning to make waves all of their own. They have just been named as ‘Artist to Watch’ by influential music website Skoepmag.com, and their debut single ‘Nostalgia’ has been chosen for distribution in Italy. “It’s great for getting a band like us into America where we don’t have to go over there and go on tour - it’s like a subliminal way of getting over there. It’s been happening more and more lately,” says Martin.

The Froud Podcast

90. CPI Archive 2009: The Mundy Podcast
Blood on the dancefloor:  In the world of music, image and identity are king. As he tries to re-establish himself as a solo songwriter with the release of his fourth studio album, Strawberry Blood, Andrew Hamilton caught up with Edmund Enright, aka Mundy.
Everything in moderation, my grandmother used to say. A taste of this here, and a small dollop of that there, that’s all you need. It’s a pity, I think, that the music-buying public never met my gran. Over the last three years, it has become increasingly hard to see where Mundy stops and ‘Galway Girl’ starts. Through no fault of his own, the Offaly man has become shackled to hoards of partying hens, singing their way down cobbled streets. Nothing wrong with that – you can’t knock a good song – but it can have other, more unwanted, side-effects. So, as he released his fourth studio album, Mundy is an artist with an identity crisis. “It was like somebody saying that we could go down this road – a nice scenic journey - but I had no idea when the road was going to finish and when you were going to get back onto your own track,” he says.

90. The Mundy Podcast

#91. CPI Archive 2009: The State Gill Podcast
Andrew Hamilton discovers the joy of chocolate-flavoured White Russians with Dublin folkster turned electro-head, Stace Gill.

It’s not easy growing up. Things change, you change. Some of the things you loved - the things you thought you’d never get sick of - become old and boring, cast aside like a favourite pair of ripped jeans or that Bosco mug that you got with an Easter egg. Life is a circle and to grow in one direction it is often necessary to destroy something of the opposite. So it was for Dublin singer- songwriter Stace Gill. Gill’s first steps into the world of music were taken on a road well travelled. A child of new-folk, she grew up with the sounds of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan running through her head. Yet, as she continues to work on her first album, her folk tendencies have taken a back seat as she explores the undiscovered country of electronica. “I would never consider myself to be an amazing guitarist, I mostly like to write melody and lyrics. So I paired up with an amazing guitar player and producer called Goss - he makes the beats and I write the melodies,” she says.

#91 The Stace Gill Podcast

#92. CPI Archive 2009: The Baum Podcast

After touring with Van Morrison in 2006, it’s taken more than two years for Swiss musician Baum to pluck up the courage to finally tour Ireland. As he prepares to visit his musical motherland, he speaks to Andrew Hamilton.
As an English-speaking musician in Switzerland, Baum has often found himself on the outside looking in. With a list of boyhood music idols plucked from the British, American and Irish charts, the rocker turned singer/songwriter has often found himself ploughing a lonely furrow in his native land. And while he has gained a measure of success in his homeland, he always felt there was more to see. As the juiciest record deals and choice gigs went to his colleagues who sing in Swiss-German, Baum began to cast his eyes westward more and more. And now, after years of preparation, the Swiss musical invasion of Ireland is ready to begin. “It first came up a few years ago when I was touring with Van Morrison. So many people in the crew and around the tour were saying that I should come to Ireland or Scotland or England. But I was thinking no, maybe my music is good enough for Germany but not for Ireland or the UK,” he said.

#92 The Baum Podcast

#93. CPI Archive 2009: Ahead of their triumphant return west later this month, Andrew Hamilton chats to Ruairi Ferrie of Galway music perfectionists Dark Room Notes.

London’s Brick Lane is alive with people. Ancient and modern, its medieval cobblestone heaves under the weight of Bengali traders, Bangladeshi soothsayers and graffiti artist such as Banksy, D*Face and Ben Eine. Each plying their own particular art, each carving their own path. Around the corner from the lane,
in a small room with no windows, another group is doing its own thing. As the temperature rises in studio, Dark Room Notes are a band on a mission. Fourteen days to record 14 songs can mean only one thing - pressure. But sometimes, a little pressure is no bad thing. “That was Ciaran Bradshaw, our producer’s, plan. We set up everything as we would do live in a rehearsal studio or on stage. We played and played and played the one song over and over again. In most cases, we managed to get the song down that day,” says Ruairi.

#93 The Dark Room Notes Podcast

#94 CPI Archive 2009: The Nell Bryden Podcast
As she returns from her second tour of duty entertaining the troops in Iraq, Andrew Hamilton chats about anything but politics with American country star Nell Bryden.
Outside the wind blows and the sand stirs. As the surprising cold of a spring Iraqi evening descends on the desert, the temperature inside the large makeshift canvas tent is beginning to rise. Ali Al Salem is a military airport and, like most military airports in this region, it is filled with American soldiers on their way to or from Afghanistan and Iraq. The faces in the crowd are well worn, altered by what they have already seen or misshaped by the worry of what they are about to see. But tonight is different, tonight is all about letting go. Clearly starting to enjoy themselves, the soldiers begin to sing along. On stage, Brooklyn girl Nell Bryden is starting to enjoy herself too. Caught up in the emotional release and the energy of the moment, her mind races with excitement. ‘Louder, louder, I must play louder - I want everyone to hear.’ But the feeling is temporary, burst by an indescript noise a mile or more to the north. And just like that, reality is restored. They are once again Americans in a warzone, with more enemies than friends. “For me it was all about leaving the politics to one side. I went over there as someone who wasn’t supportive of the war and I’m
not someone who ever thought of themselves as a ra-ra patriot. I went there because I realised that music is a great communicator and I could do something real for these people just by singing a song. I think that a song can sometimes make everyone get onto the same human level, no matter what rank of officer they are or how long they have been in the country or what they are going through in their own life,” she said.

#94 The Nell Bryden Podcast

#95 CPI Archive 2009: The Jerry Fish Podcast

Believe the Untruth: Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club are back and ready for road. Andrew Hamilton chats to Gerry Whelan, aka Jerry Fish, about commando recording, herbal remedies and why he likes working with inferior musicians. 

There was a moment in 2002 when the considerable musical talents of Gerry Whelan were almost lost to the world. After 14 years and three albums, the big UK or US break that would have transformed An Emotional Fish into a household name seemed all but lost, floundering somewhere over an ever more distant horizon. Yes, it wasn’t always easy to be An Emotional Fish. Their early thunder was stolen when they became unwitting scapegoats of a BBC Radio 1 corruption scandal. Then, when Whelan and Co finally managed to re-gather some momentum, their image was tarnished by their constant labelling in the media as U2 impersonators. Add to this a three-year legal wrangle with their German record company and what you have is more than a few reasons to call it a day. But music has a way of pulling you back in, just when you think you’ve finally broken free. “I think the catalyst for Jerry Fish was the birth of my daughter. With An Emotional Fish, it wasn’t so much a full-stop as a series of commas and then a full-stop. An Emotional Fish came to an end because of a dispute with a record label and being in court for three years or more. So that was a mess. It was hard to know could we go ahead and make another record,” says Gerry.

#95 The Jerry Fish Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: The Julie Feeney Podcast
Renaissance woman: Composer, conductor, actor, artist and singer-songwriter - Julie Feeney has a solid claim to be the Renaissance woman of the Irish arts scene. Andrew Hamilton chats to the Choice Music Prize-winning Galway woman about her latest album and finding her classical feet in a rock and pop world. 

I think Kermit the Frog said it best - sometimes, it’s just not easy being green. While the similarities between our Kermie and Julie Feeney might not be immediately apparent, the two, surprisingly, do share some common ground. Like Kermit, Feeney is a bit of a one-off. As a classically trained musician, composer and vocalist, her CV might well have been rejected from rock and pop circles with one word stamped across the cover letter - overqualified. In the recent past, you see, classical and pop music have had a slightly stodgy relationship. And like young teens at a disco, they have stared at each other from afar, each unsure of what to make of the other or what, if anything, to do next. There, in the middle of that dance floor, stands Julie Feeney. “I have always felt in an odd place. I’m like the girl who was really, really tall or someone who is tiny, or whatever. It’s about getting to that point when you can say to yourself, this is actually the way I am. I’m 6 foot 7; that’s the way I came into the world,” she says.

The Julie Feeney Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: The Pearse McGloughlin Podcast
Andrew Hamilton chats to singer-songwriter Pearse McGloughlin, the driving force behind Walkperson.

After serving his apprenticeship in bands like Socialite and Thy Swan Army, Pearse McGloughlin has decided to go it alone. Well, sort of alone. For the last number of years, Pearse has been working and making music with an ever-growing and evolving set of musicians, loosely tied together under the moniker Walkperson. So where exactly does Walkperson stop and Pearse McGloughlin begin? “It’s an interesting question really. For the Lahinch gig it will be me going under my own name, but there are different musicians who will be with me for some of the other gigs. Walkperson is a fairly loose term. I swing between being Pearse McGloughlin and being Walkperson. At the moment I’m Walkperson but at other times there would be a few different talented musicians involved. It’s hard to say sometimes where Walkperson stops and Pearse McGloughlin begins,” he says.

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