#109 CPI Archive 2009: The John 'Spider' Koerner Podcast 

On a balmy summer evening in 1959, John ‘Spider’ Koerner first turned Bob Dylan onto folk. Andrew Hamilton chats to the legendary American about life as a musical maverick and being a blues man in a folk world.


There were never fans inside the Ten O’Clock Scholar. Even in August, the Minneapolis heat would besiege the walls of the grotty student haunt, mingling and scheming with the whistling steam of endless coffees, bewitching all who entered with the twin lures of free love and marijuana. To those inside, the sun-stricken world would slowly dissolve and melt, almost becoming translucent under the weight of heat, noise and smoke. It was in this den of 1960’s Americana, that John ‘Spider’ Koerner first met Bob Dylan. Koerner, an engineering student with a talent for folk and blues riffs and a voice built to frighten, liked the young Dylan - and slowly began to introduce him into his world. Starting, of course, with the music. “I had no idea about music or anything until I went to university in Minneapolis. I was there for a year and a half as an engineering student. A friend of mine invited me up to his house to listen to some music and it was folk music. He had a few records and could play himself and it was really interesting. He loaned me his guitar and a folk music book and somehow, within a few weeks, I was able to play a few tunes. That was the beginning of it,” says Koerner.

#109 The Spider John Koerner Podcast

#110 CPI Archive 2009: The Hoslips Podcast 

In a special extended interview, Andrew Hamilton, chat Johnny Fean about the rise, fall and eventual reformation of Horslips.

Johnny Fean was the first kid in Ireland to hear The Supremes. The year was 1961 - Kennedy was in the White House, a fledgling RTÉ was getting ready for its maiden broadcast and, in the small townland of Rineanna, something special was brewing. Factories were being built; factories which needed workers and workers who needed homes, shops and family. The Clare goldrush had begun. The Feans were one of dozens or maybe hundreds of families who made their way to Shannon in 1961. They came in search of a new life and found exactly that. Foreign investment meant foreign children and, for a teenaged Johnny Fean, this meant a vast melting pot of music. “My dad was a great jazz fan and he had a lot of recordings - a lot of 78’s and old recordings. Because he worked in the airport, he used to get a lot of records from the pilots coming in from America so I had access to a lot of great stuff. I was the first-born in the family and the very early days would have been me listening to the likes of Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole as a baby,” says Johnny.

#110 The Horslips Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: The Director Podcast

After the hype, inevitably comes the calm. Andrew Hamilton chats to Michael Moloney, lead singer of an older, wiser and more confident Director. 

In many ways, 2007 belonged to Director. Young, exciting and with the song of the summer safely tucked away in their back pocket, the road ahead looked rosy for the Malahide foursome. But something was not quite right in the state of Director. The failure to crack the UK led to a split from their then label, Atlantic, and a major rethink for songwriter and vocalist Michael Moloney. Two years of thinking, deciding and thinking again have led Director into a new space. Older and happier in their skin, the band have emerged from their ponderings with a second album, I’ll Wait For Sound, streets ahead of the first and with the confidence to go it their own way. “It is and it isn’t different. It’s definitely a bit rockier and a bit heavier - maybe a bit more instinctive musically. I think on this album we got a bit adventurous, for better or for worse,” says Michael.

#111 The Director Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: The Eleanor McEvoy Podcast 

Eleanor McEvoy is on the cusp of something new. Andrew Hamilton stumbles upon the hidden verses of this woman’s heart. 

Set in the centre of the East African Plateau, Uganda rises like a great wild plain from the rocky shores of Lake Victoria. A troubled land - beset by political corruption, war with its neighbours and hunger - Uganda remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Yet for Eleanor McEvoy, it is also a land of hope. After visiting the country with Oxfam last year, McEvoy was
moved by the happiness of spirit of the people she met. It moved her and, like all emotional moments, it helped shape and form the direction of her music to come. “My aim when I went out there was to do something for charity, to do a good deed. I wasn’t going out there to enjoy it but when I went there I was amazed by the beauty of the country and the warmth of the people. When I thought of Uganda, in my ignorance, I didn’t think of a very beautiful country but it was. That said, it was very harrowing, without a doubt - seeing the conditions that a lot of these people were living in and hearing about the atrocities that they had experienced. But in a funny way it was also very up lifting. I was looking at this extraordinary power of hope and this sense of community that they all had. It was a weirdly mixed experience.
“I think experiences like that can’t but feed into how you do your job as an artist. As long as I can remember, and I started writing songs when I was five or six, it’s always been the case. When something dramatic happens in my life, it comes out in my songs. But that’s not always a good thing and sometimes it can be quite frustrating," she said.

#112 The Eleanor McEvoy Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: The Size2Shoes Podcast 

What started as a way to make friends with his younger brother has now morphed into a new and exciting musical adventure. Andrew Hamilton chats to Eoin Ó Súilleabháin, son of Mícheál, brother of Moley and one half of Size2Shoes.

It's funny. They say that no news is good news, but in the newspaper business, good news really isn’t news at all. The same, some might say, could be said for the world of art and music. From Cobain to Cohen, Morrissey to Joy Division, the overwhelming majority of musicians have a huge leaning to the darker side of the tracks. The reasons for this are many - some write to confess, others to protest but the single greatest reason (according to page 23 of the rock ‘n’ roll bible) is that it is simply much more difficult to write great happy songs. Limerick band Size2Shoes are looking to re-write this particular piece of music lore. Sons of music legend Mícheál Súilleabháin, Eoin and Moley, have begun a campaign to put a smile back on music’s face. “I guess it was always the voices that we were interested in. The music that we would have listened to growing up was always driven by the music and something that we could sing along to. The two of us are huge fans of Michael Jackson and we just saw the This Is It movie last night. Things like that have always blown us away and it’s always what we wanted to do. It’s something that we really think attracts people and turns people on,” said Eoin.

#113 The Size2Shoes Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: The Delorentos Podcast 

2009 was the year that almost broke Delorentos. Andrew Hamilton chats to front-man Kieran McGuinness about the break-up, reformation and the winter of discontent that almost tore the band apart.

Blanchardstown is depressing at the best of times. But on hopelessly dark January evenings, when the rain and traffic transform the Navan Road into a World War One trench, all within the shadow of the Connolly Hospital is morphed into something reminiscent of one of Dante’s circles. It was on one such evening that it all came home for Kieran McGuinness. That record contract, the big one which had promised worldwide distribution, had just vanished, almost overnight, into this air. The band, sick with exhaustion from almost two years of non-stop touring and recording, was on the brink of collapse. And then, as if by some sort of sick slapstick joke, the company that distributes their records just happens to go bust. For Delorentos, a band which operates their own record label with no big industry assistance, this meant a trip to the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, to personally pack the car with thousands of their own CDs, their lives’ work, and bring it home to gather dust in an attic. Is it any wonder that two weeks later, singer and guitarist Ronan (Ro) Yourell decided that enough was enough? “It was a strange couple of months - a strange whole year really. We had had a great run with the first album. We played all over Ireland, we sold out venues that we never even dreamed or playing, and all the accolades that we got were humbling and brilliant. So we decided to go away and start writing the second album. As we did that, we started to get a lot of interest from record labels...

#114 The Delorentos Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: The Fionn Regan Podcast 

Army of one: “Write in recollection and amazement for yourself” - that was Jack Kerouac’s advice to the world. As he returns from his own American odyssey, Andrew Hamilton caught up with Fionn Regan.

Sooner or later, most musicians will tend towards solitude. Whether in their creative or personal life, the lot of many creatives can be an isolated one, a world peopled only by their own thoughts and ideas. For many, this is the nature of the beast - a price to pay for the creative process. “For me, it’s about ploughing your own furrow. Everything seems to work for me when I take the reins and take all the decision-making away from a committee situation. I have to go off into my own world to create something. It’s the same sort of feeling as you get from a lot of directors when they talk about their films. I need to see everything from the artwork right down to the very last tambourine hit. I have my own way of doing things - everything is cut live in the room and it has its own little world to it. If there were more people involved, they might find it maddening. With this record, I wanted everything to be on show, I wanted people to be able to hear the nuts and bolts of it. I didn’t want the edges to be smoothed out. I didn’t want it to be pasteurised or to sound like something it wasn’t...

#115 The Fionn Regan Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: #116 The Lisa Hannigan Podcast 

After 12 months on the high seas, Lisa Hannigan is coming home. Andrew Hamilton caught up with the Mercury Prize nominee and got a sneak preview of the new songs on the horizon.

One album, two American tours, three times round the UK and right around Ireland more times than she can count - the last year has been an amazing voyage for Lisa Hannigan. With her debut record Sea Sew capturing the hearts of fans and critics alike, the Meath singer-songwriter has finally found her own place in the sun, far from the reach of Damien Rice’s ever shrinking shadow. But now, after living and breathing the album for more than a year, the temptation to move on to newer pastures grows ever stronger. “It’s exciting. I have a few songs done and we are playing them all live at the moment. I definitely want to play them live for a while before we record. As soon as I write a new song, I want to play it live straight away. So we have been doing a bit of that and I think in January I’ll just hunker down and do some serious writing for the next album. I’ve got a good few done but I have a long way to go yet. Some people are able to keep writing all the time but I wouldn’t put myself in that category at all. I mean, I’m always getting bits of ideas but I tend to write more in bunches. I have a few on the go, you know, a few bits and pieces that might eventually turn into songs but there’s no rhyme nor reason to how I go about it," she said.

#116 The Lisa Hannigan Podcast

After two years touring Europe, David Hope is back with a new band and a new EP. Andrew Hamilton caught up with the Shannon singer-songwriter and found out what it takes to be big in Germany.

There’s something about the Irish sound that make the Germans stand up and take notice. More than that in fact; there is something about the music of the west, and Clare in particular. From the days when the Russell brothers were as famous in Dusseldorf as they were in Doolin, the Germans have always latched onto something in the music of Clare and taken it for their own. And so it remains. The latest in this long line of musicians is Shannon singer- songwriter David Hope. After releasing his debut album, A Picture, in 2007, things seemed to go a bit quiet for Hope. This perceived quietness in Ireland was brought about by the explosion in his popularity in Europe and in Germany in particular - something which may have had some influence on his latest EP, Daybreak Someplace. “I’m not sure if it has or it hasn’t. It’s hard to know what exactly can sneak in and influence you on a subconscious level. Stylistically, I don’t think it has really influenced me. The new CD is a little bit more rootsie, a more American kind of sound than the first album had - it was more Irish-sounding. I still like that element and I wouldn’t say that I’ve changed things too much since I’ve been touring over in Germany. I guess the reason I’ve been over there so much is that they like what I do and that reinforces it with me. Working as an independent artist, undertaking a record is a big, big responsibility. It’s all well and good to put together recordings and put them out there but unless you have time enough to do it and do it right, then maybe it’s best to wait. It’s not as if I took a break or anything. I was always writing or recording but never found the right group of songs or the right group of musicians to sit down and play with.

#117 The David hope Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: #118 The Mugger Dave Podcast 

Primal screams: It’s been a long time coming but Mugger Dave are about to arrive. Andrew Hamilton chats to Simon Noble, frontman of one of the most exciting and in-your-face bands to emerge from the west of Ireland in recent years.

Decide in haste, repent at leisure. That would seem to make sense, right? Well, unless you’re an artist, a musician let’s say, with near endless options and all the time in world to walk down each avenue and see just how it feels. For these poor souls, the moment of decision can be a fleeting one - a delicate butterfly being pushed ever farther by the winds of creativity.
The result, I’m afraid, is near complete inertia. It has taken Galway band Mugger Dave more than 18 months to record their debut album - roughly the same time it took The Beatles to release Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and The White Album. It’s an experience that frontman Simon Noble will not be repeating. “This album has been finished about three or four times in the last few months but now we’ve finally put a full stop behind it. It took a year and a half to record this album, which is far too long. We will never record an album in this way again. Next time we’ll book a studio for two weeks and when we leave the studio then that will be it. Some people say that you never really finish a song, that it’s just a version of a song at a particular time, and I guess that’s true. But this is our full stop for now for these songs. Both myself and Sean had been playing in bands before so we knew the process of getting together and playing music with new people so it didn’t take long to gel. We decided that we wanted to record very quickly into our time together so we went into the studio to record that first EP when we had only been together for about eight weeks or so. I think you can hear in that record that we’ve only been playing together for a short time but, still, you can hear the bones of what went on to be our album there too,” he said.

CPIArchive2009D