The Balcony TV Podcast (2008)

CPI Archive 2008

The first time I met Stephen O'Regan he was rushing around a Dublin Hotel, fuming, ready to confront the judges who had not seen fit to shortlist his project, Balcony TV, for a Golden Spider Web Award. Over the next few years, with little or no help from the Irish tech, music of government communities, he and his co-founders built Balcony TV into an international music phenomena. After beginning to broadcast from a small Dublin apartment, Balcony TV is now broadcast from 65 cities all around the world. In early 2008, Stephen O'Regan spoke with Andrew Hamilton.

CPI-ARCHIVE 2007 · The Balcony TV Podcast

The Other Voices Podcast (2007)

In 2007, Other Voices was just starting to emerge as a major force in Irish music. In November of that year, Andrew Hamilton spoke to programme creator, Phil King,  about the concept behind the programme and what makes St James' Church in Dingle such a special place for musicians. Sadly, the audio of this interview has been lost. The original text of the interview is available on the link below. 

The Phil King Interview

The Grand Pocket Orchestra Podcast (2008)

CPI Archive: 2008

Early in 2008, Andrew Hamilton spoke to Paddy Hanna from up and coming Irish indie band, Grand Pocket Orchestra.

IF all philosophical arguments were solved through the medium of thumb-wars, the battle between Alexey Pajitnov and Paddy Hanna would be the pollex-grudge-match of the century. Imagine the scene: Pajitnov, sat in the very red corner, removes his ushanka and strokes his gristly beard thoughtfully. In the slightly green corner, Hanna is looking confused; confused and liking it. On one side, a Soviet inventor who used his love of order and all things rational to bring Tetris to the world. On the other, a musician who, along with his band, looked confusion square in the face and decided it really didn’t look that bad after all. It’s all happened very quickly for Grand Pocket Orchestra. Having first come to notice at last year’s Working Class Heroes, the Dublin four-piece have started to carve out a home for themselves in Ireland’s emerging indie-electronic scene. Last Friday saw the release of their debut EP, Odd Socks. Sounding angry, happy, sad and enthusiastic, the aim is to be amusing and entertaining in equal measure. “Our EP, well as far as I know, is all about confusion and fear, but expressed in a happy way. It’s kind of like pulp philosophising really - everyone is happy but we are all very confused ultimately," said Paddy. 

CPI-ARCHIVE 2007 · The Grand Pocket Orchestra Podcast

The Maura O'Connell Podcast (2007)

CPI Archive: Just before Christmas in 2007, Andrew Hamilton spoke to Clare singer Maura O'Connell from her home in Nashville about here memories of Christmas at home in Ennis.

NEW YEAR’S EVE in Nashville. The temperature tops out at a balmy 82 as shoppers rush home in short sleeves and sandals to welcome in the New Year. A quick stroll down Lindawood Drive reveals not a single Santa or festive tree. Christmas here is over - its last week’s big news. That is until you reach the O’Connell homestead. With decorations still proudly on display, Christmas is still very much a going concern for Maura and her clan. It’s like a little slice of Clare, alive and well in the spiritual home of American music. “I’m looking out the door now and the sun is splitting the rocks and it’s more than 75 degrees. But who knows, it might get cold next week. I would prefer to have it a bit cool around Christmas time,” she says. 

CPI-ARCHIVE 2007 · The Maura O'Connell Podcast

The Declan O'Rourke Podcast (2007)

 CPI Archive: In the late 1990's Declan O'Rourke moved west, from his teenage home in Australia to his childhood home in Dublin. Ten year's later he moved west again, this time to his family's ancestral home in Kinvara, where career as a songwriter really began to take shape. In late 2007, he spoke with Andrew Hamilton.

"Simon rose at dawn, from a rest- less night. Watched his children sleeping and kissed his wife good- bye. Simon came out running, with his head held high. Painted green grass red, under God’s blue sky.” THERE are common traits that can reveal a nation. Often times in the past, the Irish have painted themselves as the jolly, tuneful and drunk; swilling their pints carelessly in the dark recesses of some pub in Boston or Sydney as the real world unfolds without them. It’s an old stereotype, but if there’s something that all stereotypes have in abundance, it’s endurance. Many green-blooded Irish have tried to shake this hackneyed old image, but none have succeeded in quite the same way as what we can loosely call ‘the Irish humanitarian brigade’. It started, let’s say, with Bob Geldof. Then came Mary Robinson and Bono, and now even the likes of Damien Rice are getting their bony toes and hemp slacks wet in the waters of righteousness. For Declan O’Rourke, however, the point is a little different. With the release of his long overdue second album, Big Bad Beautiful World, the Galway-based Dub has stepped confidently up to the plate with a collection of songs that reach right for the throat. And yes, there in the middle of the love songs and heart-felt tracks lies your classic protest song. In ‘One Day In A War’, O’Rourke has written a more subtle song of dissent. He’s not trying to change the world; he just wants to let you know how he feels. “It was inspired by a few things. One was all the crap that’s been go- ing on in the world — not just over the last few years; it’s been going on for ages. It was inspired directly from a quote from Ghandi. I don’t remember where I heard it but he said, ‘There are many causes that I would die for but none that I would kill for’," he said.

 

CPI-ARCHIVE · The Declan O'Rourke Podcast

The Simon O'Reilly Podcast (2007)

CPI Archive: In late 2007 Andrew Hamilton spoke with Irish artist, Simon O'Reilly, about his album Tribes, written and recorded with Luka Bloom.

IT’S evening time and Simon O’Reilly is in his small studio in Clahane. Outside, the sea is black and the wind is wild. Inside, Simon plays to a mixing desk, to an Apple Mac and pro-tools.
He labours alone. Tribe is a new album featuring a collection of songs written by Simon and Luka Bloom. The unusual thing about Tribe is that the album was written without Luka and Simon ever playing together in the same room. “We started off by sending each other a few different bits and pieces. I would start writing the music and send it up to him, and then he would put down some lyrics and ideas that he had and send them back to me,” says O’Reilly.

CPI-ARCHIVE · The Simon O'Reilly PODCAST

The Flaws Podcast (2007)

In late 2007, Andrew Hamilton spoke with Dane McMahon from Irish band, the Flaws.

FIRST you write the music. Then you get the money. And then...then you get the women. That’s how it works, right? No? Post big-studio rock and roll, things, it seems, just ain’t what it used to be.

Gone are the endless bar tabs; no more the lowly assistants, only too happy to trot off and fulfill your every M&M-related need. Could it be true? Could “sex, drugs and rock and roll” be a mantra for the past? Why not try this new vision for size? You finish up your eight-hour day, working on a building site or in an office somewhere — drive for three hours and play your heart out to a crowd for, wait for it, no money. You have a cup of coffee and then drive three hours home, ready for work bright and early the next morning. It sounds rough, but the days of big record labels are quickly coming
to an end and, if you want to make it, you have to be willing to put in those hard yards. “We were all working right up to a few weeks ago; we’re still working some of us. So trying to do both could be a big headache. It was more pressurized, but then I guess there’s more satisfaction in the end. It feels good to know that we’ve done all of this by ourselves. But at the time, it was just torture,” says The Flaws’ bassist, Dane McMahon.

CPI-ARCHIVE · Flaws 2020