CPI - The Archive: Paul Brady

Legendary singer-songwriter Paul Brady has just released the most challenging album of his career. Andrew Hamilton chats to the Strabane songsmith about changing direction, growing old and the freedom that comes when you just stop caring.

Giving up and not caring are very different things. When you give up and resign yourself to defeat, sooner or later you must entertain the idea that maybe, just maybe, you were wrong all along. And that can be a bitter pill to swallow. But to just stop caring, to decide that the argument is no longer worth having, and retreat - ethical football in hand - to the safety of your own convictions, well, that can be an altogether more fulfilling exercise. Over his long and varied career, Paul Brady has never been afraid to experiment. But somewhere between the dulcet tones of 2005’s Say What You Feel and the re-entering the studio last year, something happened. He stopped caring. The freedom that came from finally telling his critics and those who direct his musical career to take a walk has proved to be the driving force behind his tenth and most experimental record, Hooba Dooba, which was released earlier this month. “I don’t really care anymore which is why I can go out there and make an album like Hooba Dooba. I feel sorry for artists who are still in the clutches of a record company. Once the accounting and marketing men moved into the record business it was really the end of creative spontaneity and everyone then started looking over their shoulders trying to focus their brand," he said.

cpiarchive2010a@gmail.com · #122 The Paul Brady Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: From Planxty to Sweeney’s Men, Andy Irvine has done it all. He chats to Andrew Hamilton about Australia, the Paul Brady reunion and his anger with conservative audiences.

CELTIC Connections, well, you can say that again. A small festival, almost lost in the cold hibernation of the Scottish winter, but a breeding ground for memories. There, on a stormy Wednesday evening this January, a tempest of music not heard in a generation was once again to find its voice. It’s incredible to think that Paul Brady and Andy Irvine had gone 30 years without playing a tune together in a meaningful way. But all that changed this year in Glasgow, prompting the re-release of their eponymous 1976 album. “Paul and myself had actually been discussing how we might go about playing together again and this just fit the bill. We rehearsed quite a lot, because there was an awful lot to get done. In the end we played our entire repertoire which is more than two hours of music. So relearning all of that was not a simple task. It was tough, but it was a great success. This was a real fan’s gig - a concert with microscopes on - so we knew that we had to get it exactly right,” he said.

CPIArchive2008d · The Andy Irvine Podcast

Clare People Interactive

Clare People Interactive (CPI) was founded in the late month of 2006 by West of Ireland journalist Andrew Hamilton. The project was a step into the unknown, an attempt to bridge the gap between the old world of print media and the emerging new media technologies.
At the core of the CPI was a long running series of interviews with Irish and international artists, mostly musicians. These interviews, which appeared first in print and then as free audio podcasts, attempted to provide a richer experience of the subject than had previously been possible in print media. The focus was always on the artist and the work, with journalistic intrusions rare and usually (mercifully) brief.
Between 2006 and 2010, Clare People Interactive grew to just shy of 150 audio podcasts. There were also a dozen video podcasts - the Gonzo Nation series - as well as hundreds of album and gig reviews - which have all, sadly, been lost to the internet.
This archive contains the original 146 audio podcasts in their original format. As the series grew, the audio quality and (hopefully) the standard of journalism grew with it.
Clare People Interactive is the work of Andrew Hamilton. Eternal thanks to John O'Rourke for his technical support, Noel Barrett for designing the many logos and to Gerry Collison for his optimism and support.
This, is Clare People Interactive.