Unseen Sounds: The Aileen Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: In May of 2008, I started the Unseen Sounds series to provide a platform for up and coming Clare musicians and bands. The first article and podcast features Kilrush singer songwriter, Aileen. 

ASK any budding musical talent about the importance of commercial success and shifting ‘units’ and you’ll likely as not get an answer lifted straight from the streets of the Bohemian Montmartre — “It’s all about the music man.” The thing about Kilrush singer- songwriter Aileen, though, is that she really seems to mean it. After cutting her musical teeth at the age of 13 with soft rock five-piece Wire Bullet, it was the persistence of other people that dragged her slowly into making music. “The solo stuff started about three or fours years ago. One of my friends, Liam Frawley, was down in UL and he coaxed me down to record a demo with him,” said Aileen. 

CPIArchive2008 · Unseen Sounds: The Aileen Podcast

The Daniel Lanois Podcast

As he emerges from behind the mixing desk, legendary producer Daniel Lanois talks to Andrew Hamilton about his debut film, the Canadian revolution and the progress of U2’s twelfth album.

SOUTH over Custom House Bridge, through fields of fresh wrought cobble and a thousand 21st-century workhouses drip-drying with the fresh-dollar veneer of the IFSC; deep in this jungle of grey stands the great windmill of south Dublin. In the shadow of Stack A, the walls of Creighton Street breathe and grow like a plant. With layer upon layer of new graffiti, the psychedelic photosynthesis of youth survives unchecked in a steady truce between Ireland’s past and present. This is the old Windmill Lane Studio, the spiritual home of U2 and the birthing ground for Boy, October and War. A shrine to all that was once great about music on this island. Less than a mile away, from a ho- tel window overlooking St Stephen’s Green, U2’s legendary producer Daniel Lanois contemplates the future. In town for a long stay, the Canadian’s thoughts drift to his latest endeavour with Bono, The Edge et al and the work of the day over at U2 Towers. Success has thrown up a paradox in the life of Dan Lanois. His skills as a producer are unrivalled but have somehow overshadowed his own career as a performer and singer-songwriter. But now, after countless trips to Ireland, he has finally come to share his music and not just his skills at the desk. “I like to think of producing and recording as the one thing. Because the studio is so much a part of me, I never really separate it from live performances. If you’re asking me is it difficult to produce your own work, then the answer is yes,” he said.

CPIArchive2008 · The Daniel Lanois Podcast

The Jinx Lennon Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: People’s poet or pulp philosopher, Jinx Lennon is an artist who pulls no punches. Andrew Hamilton chats to the Louth musician about turning to radio and why he hates Billy Bragg.

IT’S the question of the hour; who (or what) is the Free State Nova? Answer that, and you go a long way to understanding Jinx Lennon. Standing square behind leviathan dark glasses, deliberately emblazoned with Tippex pop-mantras, he both hides and seeks. Student and teacher, he stalks the world through windows of broken glass and impenetrably clouded pools. Then, from rooms with no furniture, he yelps and screams his visions. Simplicity of feeling for intensity of emotion. Time’s running out, we’ll need an answer now, tick follows tock follows tick. He’s someone you know, someone you’ve seen but don’t always recognise, someone (deep down) you need. It’s a social thermometer, a challenger of rules, a stater of the obvious. Alter-ego or no, the Free State Nova is Jinx Lennon and Jinx Lennon is the Free State Nova. Later this month, Jinx Lennon brings his brand of pulp philosophy to the radio waves. Alongside long- time collaborator Pauline Flynn, legendary radio producer Eithne Hand and Mikel Murfi, the words and sentiment of the Free State Nova have been transformed into an RTÉ Radio 1 drama. “I found that a bit disturbing at first, to be honest, changing the songs into a play. I had never come across that before so it was some- thing new and strange. We were totally involved in the adaptation and myself and Paula play some of the roles in the play, as well as sing- ing some of the songs," he said.

CPIArchive2008 · Junx2021

The Gemma Hayes Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: With a new album and a new outlook, Gemma Hayes is back on form.
Andrew Hamilton chats to the Tipperary songstress about her quest for musical redemption.

JANUARY 25, 2008. Unseasonably warm rain has washed the hills of Beachwood Canyon for more than four days, creating fast-running gullies, impromptu puddles and a new whitewashed look of freshness. As the mist finally gives way to California sunshine, the rain-soaked landscape begins to shimmer in a kaleidoscope of brilliant light. A liquid horizon, an oil painting that never quite dried — Los Angeles has never looked so beautiful. Curled up before her bay window, Gemma Hayes sits to write. Still wet from her slow walk in the torrent, drops of water from her hair mingle and blotch with ink as she writes. Oblivious to the staining, she works unheeded. True confessions can bear no distraction. This is a day of self-atonement, a day for Gemma Hayes to draw a line under her musical past, her record label days, and re-announce herself to the world. She writes a letter to her fans. "It can be so hard to really connect with people. I just wanted to do something where I felt that I was really opening up to people. Just take away all of this impersonal stuff — there was so much unnecessary stuff in between me and the people that I want to reach,” she says.

CPIArchive2008 · The Gemma Hayes Podcast

The Infomatics Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Andrew Hamilton chats to Steo from Irish hip-hop group, The Infomatics.

FIVE years is a long time to spend grafting. Touring and writing is one thing, but ask any band and they’ll quickly tell you that to be truly able to stand up on a chair (perchance in a pub, perhaps late at night) and pro- claim to the gathered punters that you are in fact a musician (hear me roar), well that takes the confidence that only an album can bring. For those with an album, music is a career. But for those without, well, music still sits somewhere between a pass-time and a handy few bob (stare at your feet, kick that imaginary tyre). An album is like a musical cherry, and after it’s popped, life really is different. So for Steo and his Infomatic, writing and touring since the early months of 2003, the temptation must surely have been mighty to dive in and announce themselves to the world with a round metal and plastic calling card. But like a Catholic virgin of old, The Infomatics decided to wait. “We started off doing something and we wanted to get it to a certain level, to create a sound of our own rather than put something out there that is half what we wanted and half something else. We wanted to achieve a certain level of something. We put out a few bits and pieces over that five years but, as far as the album was concerned, we wanted to hit with an impact. I think all of us are happier to have waited,” said Steo.

CPIArchive2008 · The Infomatics Podcast

The Walter Mitty and the Realists Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Andrew Hamilton speaks to Colin Bartley from Limerick funksters, Walter Mitty and the Realists

EVERY scene has its characters and Limerick is no different. From the unbridled angst-grinding metal of Giveamanakick and the rock and rock euphoria of Vesta Varro to the avant-garde power pop of We Should Be Dead and the heartfelt acoustics of Eoin Coughlan, Limerick is a town with all its musical basses covered. Where then, among this ever crowded soundscape, is there room for Walter Mitty And The Realists? Where then indeed? Like a musical Moses standing atop the slow-moving ebb of the Shannon, this Limerick/Leitrim four-piece has discovered they possess the power to turn mere water into pure funk. And people are queuing to be baptised. “We’re into a lot of different kinds of music and I think the sound evolved from all that. The writing came after that and the sound changed again, you know, when we started writing together as a band. We weren’t really thinking which route to go. We were just jamming and the songs came out of that,” says bassist Colin.

CPIArchive2008 · The Walter Mitty and the Realists Podcast

The Dave Rotheray Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Andrew Hamilton spoke to Dave Rotheray of The Beautiful South about his new project, Homespun.

IF 20 odd years in the music business has taught Dave Rotheray anything, it’s the importance of control. Since the summer of 1989, when Paul Heaton asked him to join the fledgling Beautiful South, Dave has been one part of a big team, a musical company-man. It’s the natural order of things. Bands by definition are often more about compromise and conciliation than full creative freedom. And in bands, more often than not, you’re going to lose more battles than you win — doubly so when you’re the chief songwriter in a a band with two chief songwriters. Now, as a resurgent Rotheray prepares to launch his third album under the Homespun moniker, he holds all the cards. Despite the presence of heavyweight musicians such as Tony Robinson (Super Furry Animals), Claire Mactaggart (Portishead) and Gary Hammond (the Nina Simone band), things are finally getting done Dave’s way. “It starts with me on my own. I have a mate called Alan, who lives down the street from me, and when I’ve written something new, I play it for him on tape or whatever. That tends to be the song. I get all the others up for a weekend and they get all their bits down, including the singing of course,” he says.

CPIArchive2008 · DaveR2021