Once upon a time...
It all started back in Primary School when I heard on the grapevine that one of the teachers was going to be giving guitar lessons. I hastily gathered all my sheckles together and bought a Spanish style classical guitar with lovely soft nylon strings. All was going well until the teacher decided to stop giving the lessons only a few weeks later (to this day no one knows why). Low and behold the poor guitar was soon left in the corner of the bedroom gathering dust...
Fast forward 7 years to when I witnessed an older friend of mine playing songs by Nirvana on a similar nylon string guitar. This enlightened me; you could play cool songs on these simple guitars?? I quickly began to teach myself through watching videos and picking up things from other guitarists (those were the days before DVD's and the Internet) and soon I was well on my way to becoming an accomplished player.
Roll on the tape to the age of 16 when myself and a couple of friends got a band together. We decamped to our drummers garage and practiced till our fingers bled, well not really, but we practiced a lot anyway, enough to play our first gig in Behans Blue Room near the River Liffey in Dublin City.
The Band went as far as it could. Our music got great reviews in HotPress, we played all around Dublin City (Eamonn Dorans, Slattery's, Temple Bar Music Centre and even as far afield as Maynooth College!), did live sessions on some Radio Stations and really enjoyed ourselves along the way. Soon though, one member or another wouldn't be available for a gig, so instead of cancelling, I would volunteer to play a solo gig instead. And the seed was planted.....
Fast forward 7 years to when I witnessed an older friend of mine playing songs by Nirvana on a similar nylon string guitar. This enlightened me; you could play cool songs on these simple guitars?? I quickly began to teach myself through watching videos and picking up things from other guitarists (those were the days before DVD's and the Internet) and soon I was well on my way to becoming an accomplished player.
Roll on the tape to the age of 16 when myself and a couple of friends got a band together. We decamped to our drummers garage and practiced till our fingers bled, well not really, but we practiced a lot anyway, enough to play our first gig in Behans Blue Room near the River Liffey in Dublin City.
The Band went as far as it could. Our music got great reviews in HotPress, we played all around Dublin City (Eamonn Dorans, Slattery's, Temple Bar Music Centre and even as far afield as Maynooth College!), did live sessions on some Radio Stations and really enjoyed ourselves along the way. Soon though, one member or another wouldn't be available for a gig, so instead of cancelling, I would volunteer to play a solo gig instead. And the seed was planted.....
The Story So Far......
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The band broke up, and I decided that playing solo was the way forward. I started learning more cover songs and wrote more of my own original songs, all the while gigging everywhere and anywhere that would take me. In 2011 I recorded and released my first solo album. Entitled 'KILLER' it was made up of 10 of my own original songs all laid out in stereo sound glory. I fulfilled a life long dream by playing all the instruments on the album (acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass, harmonica and drum programming). When mixed it sounded like a full band, in the same vein as Dave Grohl's first Foo Fighters album.
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From then til now,,, |
With the album released I quickly started to promote it with live sessions on Radio Nova, FM104 Near FM and Dublin City FM, reviews in HotPress, write ups in The Fingal Independent and support gigs with some of the top Bands and Artists in Ireland; 3 gigs with The Coronas, 9 Gigs with Aslan, 6 gigs with Mundy, 3 gigs with the Pat McManus band and 1 gig with Keywest. These all helped to promote my album.
However I was always learning new cover songs to throw into my set and soon had over 150 to choose from encompassing many genres; pop, trad, country, indie and folk. Jump on to the next page to see a list of songs I do.... my repetoire awaits.. ************************************************************************* *The Smyths Sessions* In July 2017 I realised there was a distinct lack of venues for up and coming talent to express themselves in North County Dublin so I decided to use what I had learned to help others. I started 'The Smyths Sessions Open Mic' in Smyths Pub Donabate. It was held every Sunday from 6.30pm and soon the word spread and the room would be packed every week!! It was just a Summer experiment but soon I realised there was a real hunger for live music in the area. From September 2017 we went monthly (the last Sunday of the month) and were soon attracting musicians from all over the world! So far we have hosted artists from Brazil, Canada, America, Hungary, Australia, France and Spain. We also get performers from all over Ireland travelling to Donabate to play for us...what an honour! At present we are looking to introduced more and more comedians into the show with the plan of starting a Comedy Club in 2019. Watch this space!! ************************************************************************** *DB Sound Collective* For my birthday in April 2017 I decided to have a house party. I invited some musical friends, had a big drunken jam session and the seed was planted..... Myself and Colm (Bass) decided to start jamming together, then we invited Daragh (Sax) to join us. We played at The end of the Smyths Sessions each week which gave us a focus and an opportunity to road test our songs in front of an audience. But something was missing...the rhythm...so we asked Andre to throw down some beats and he obliged! The four lads were jamming away building up a repertoire, but there was still something missing. We needed a cherry on top....and that cherry was from Newcastle and came in the form of the best vocalist I've ever heard...Kim! She had performed with me at The Waterside Hotel Donabate on St. Patricks Day 2017. A friend of my wife's who had come to the gig, I asked her if she would sing a few impromptu songs with me. When I heard her she blew my mind!!! So me and the lads decided to hold out the Olive Branch and thankfully Kim accepted. The 5-piece was complete!! In April Daragh decided to call it a day and we were left saxless (not a nice situation to be in). We had a predicament; carry on as a 4-piece or recruit a new player? Enter Karen, a good friend of mine. We had worked together for years and had performed together before at The Smyths Sessions and with the band in Naomh Mearnog GAA Club on NYE 2017. Karen added violin, keyboards and backing vocals to the band and now we were really ready to take on the world.... DB Sound Collective at your service: Kim-Vocals Killian-Vocals, Guitar, Ukulele, Harmonica Karen-Violin, Keyboard, Backing Vocals Colm-Bass Andre-Drums |