Hmmm where do I begin…..I never really thought about ‘my story’ but if I’m interested in a band or whatever, I like to find out more about them just to see what makes them tick. So I’ll go through what’s happened up to now for anyone who might be interested…..
I first got into music when I was about 11. The first time anything really got to me was when I found a tape of Achtung Baby. I didn’t listen to the whole album, I just remember being really taken by the intro of ‘One’. Just the intro, didn’t bother with the whole song. Listened to it over and over, loved the sound of the riff. Don’t think much happened for a while after that, probably got a Sega Megadrive around that time too & Sonic The Hedgehog was far more important than Bono’s lyrics.
Anyway I started to take notice of the U2 thing. My brothers had most of the albums. A passing interest became an obsession and I was on a strict diet of Zooropa for about a year. I got into playing drums, my brother played jazz drums and Buddy Rich was always on in our house.
Joined my first band, Rise (we knew it was a naff name even then!) when I was in 2nd year in school. There were 5 of us. We were big into Nirvana, Radiohead, Blur and The Smashing Pumkins. Made some good demo’s and played some good gigs in our hometown & places like TBMC in Dublin. We took it really seriously and I thought we were great but after a few years we lost focus with exams etc getting in the way. A deal with Mushroom Records in Canada seemed a possibility at one stage but the A&R guy who ‘believed’ in us got fired just after we spent all our savings making another demo to send to him. We did see the funny side though.
During the time of the band I picked up a bit of guitar along the way and wrote some songs. I wasn’t in love with the guitar itself but I was really getting into song-writing and trying to get a singing voice. So when the band broke up I decided to put down the drumsticks and go solo. I met a manager who was a decent guy and I put some time into developing my craft. Recorded some demo’s with my brothers playing on drums and bass. One of them was a song called ‘Black Or Red’ which got a strong reaction from most people. Sent it out and the whole “we’d like to hear more” process began with record industry folk. Phantom FM played that song all the time and it got a few national plays too. Never did release it though as it was only a demo.
So I gigged around with my brothers and another guitar player as a band under my own name. Things were moving along nicely. In the space of a week we got to play the Witnness festival and the Point Depot supporting Aslan, which was just amazing.
I guess here’s where the story gets interesting. After a while the manager and I amicably decided to part ways. Pulling in different directions being the main reason. So my brothers and I continued on gigging. We went to New York to play some club dates, which went pretty well and created some interest from the powers that be. We were only there for a week though and a follow up trip was needed. Never did get around to that one.
They say in all comedy there is some element of tragedy and that’s fairly apt here. My brothers and I decided to record an album with our own money - money that we didn’t really have. We heard about this place called Grouse Lodge in Co.Meath. A state of the art, residential studio with all the trimmings. We took one look around and decided this was the place to record a world class album. Well, things didn’t quite go to plan. We only had 16 days to record the whole thing. There was a house engineer and I was producing it. We had rehearsed the songs to death and the lads got their parts down in super quick ‘this is costing us a lot of money’ time. Then I did my parts. Recorded them fine but I needed to write lead guitar and piano parts while in the studio. Big mistake. We finished it all right. It sounded ‘good’ but just not great. It didn’t have much personality. We toyed with the idea of fixing it but in the end it was a dog. At the mere cost of €26000 it was an expensive dog. I’d be paying for it for the next 2 years or so. Maybe it was foolish, naïve etc to do a thing like that but when you want to put a piece of work together badly enough you’ll do anything to get there. Never even regretted it. If I didn’t do it back then I’d still want to do it now so it was worth a shot. Michael Jackson is recording there now. I just hope he can afford more than 16 days.
Believe or not that’s a long story told very quickly. I bought a few new albums, went to a few gigs and then I got that buzz where I felt like playing again. Over the last few months I’ve written more songs than ever before. The different thing now is that I’m not looking to become successful quickly. Iggy Pop said that when he threw the idea of being successful out the window, he got to the most interesting places musically. That’s my attitude at the moment. Just play what comes out and don’t worry if it’s not for daytime radio or if it takes a few listens to get into. I know most people who are into music don’t care about that stuff either. So I’m starting again with this album, my first real one and I’ll see where it takes me.
Doug
