Episódios
-
Cíara Byrne joins to talk about Glastonbury 2025, in particular CMAT, Bob Vylan and Kneecap, favourite albums of the year (so far), album news, new track recommendations, gig news and more.
Preorder For Those I Love - Carving the Stone: https://forthoseilove.terrible.group/
Pot-Pot - Warsaw 480km - https://potpot.bandcamp.com/album/warsaw-480km
Throwing Shapes - Throwing Shapes - https://garethquinnredmond.bandcamp.com/album/throwing-shapes
Jameson x Mo Chara tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/jameson-connects-presents-sean-mckenna-dug-asha-ari-tickets-1441559426049 -
Texas-born, Laois-raised, London-based artist Kean Kavanagh returns to talk about his debut album The County Star. An introspective work, it finds him examining all those sides of his being: USA, Ireland, and London as he adopts the dual persona of a cowboy county star/GAA county star. Kean, who many will know as a close collaborator of Kojaque (they co-founded Soft Boy Records) released his debut project Dog Person in 2020. He suffered a vocal injury on tour with Kojaque in 2022 and had to undergo vocal therapy and relearning how to sing. It's something he examined on the 2023 EP Wrestling Music. It is also inherent on this album.
We talk about all this and more in a 40-minute chat. We talk about community, traditional music and GAA, making videos with Kojaque starring comedian Peter McGann, collaborating with Karma Kid and Baz Kaye in making the record, and why he's not counting Dog Person as his debut release.
Buy The County Star: https://heaven-sent.ochre.store/
Kean on TPOE 192: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6DaEf882Y1VjoWBQVeuTOP?si=ecbf6ddd8c2046bb -
Estão a faltar episódios?
-
Eoghan and Cíara chat about their weekend at Beyond the Pale and the difficulties the music festival faced in the week preceding it. There's also music news, review of Kean Kavanagh's debut album The County Star, and new track recommendations.
0:00 Intro and Beyond the Pale review
18:51 Music News
21:00 TPOE Album Club: Kean Kavanagh - The County Star
27:48 New track recommendations
Links for music discussed
Kean Kavanagh - The County Star: https://heaven-sent.ochre.store/
Kez - In The Arms https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/kez11/in-the-arms-2
Laurie Shaw - Please Can You Cut That Out (And Stick It In My Almanac) https://laurieshawofficial.bandcamp.com/album/magnetosphere -
Eoghan is joined by Stevie and Jake Lennox of Belfast’s Junk Drawer, who released their second album Days of Heaven on June 6 via Pizza Pizza Records. Formed in 2015 alongside Brian Coney and Rory Dee, Junk Drawer blend Weezer-esque riffs, shoegaze and indie rock.
Fresh off an eight-date tour of Ireland with Cola and M(h)aol, the brothers reflect on the DIY logistics of putting it all together, the origins of the band and the evolution of their sound, working with producer Chris Ryan, what it means to make "weird, cosmic Ulster music", playing SXSW, the Belfast music scene and lots more.
Buy Days of Heaven: junkdrawerbelfast.bandcamp.com. -
Eoghan and Cíara return to chat about the music news, including new albums by Altered Hours, Big Thief and Cate Le Bon, discuss Pulp and Iggy Pop coming to Dublin, dive into our first TPOE Album Club with post-punk band M(h)aol's second album Something Soft, discuss new albums coming out this week, and finish with two track recommendations.
04:34: Music News and Upcoming Releases
14:39: TPOE Album Club: M(h)aol - Something Soft
31:06: Recommendations and closing thoughts -
Limerick artist Laura Duff released her debut album Sea Legs on May 23. A meditation on grief, it sees her confront the death of her father and the fallout in the following months and years. “I was setting out to write Sea Legs in my dad’s memory,” she says. “It was very intentional in that way. All of the lyrical context is based around that, and his life, as well as trying to maintain some level of communication. Sea Legs is inspired by my experience of navigating everything that comes with losing a parent; dealing with grief as time passes, family relationships and the physicality of death.”
Sea Legs was recorded, produced and mixed by Mícheál Keating in Knockaderry, Co Limerick, with the band featuring Keating, JJ Lee and Christopher O'Sullivan.
Buy the album: https://lauraduff.bandcamp.com/ -
Dublin-based traditional Irish duo Varo (Lucie Azconaga and Consuelo Nerea Breschi) released their second album The World That I Knew on May 9.
A collaborative album produced by John 'Spud' Murphy (Lankum), it features some of the most acclaimed names in the Irish folk music world in 2025: Ruth Clinton (Landless, Poor Creature), Cormac Mac Diarmada (Lankum, Poor Creature), Alannah Thornburgh, Inni-K, John Francis Flynn, Anna Mieke, Niamh Bury, Lemoncello, Junior Brother, Ian Lynch (Lankum), Branwen (Rufous Nightjar), and Slow Moving Clouds, among many other musicians too.
Five years in the making, The World That I Knew began a month into lockdown. Lucie and Consuelo began working on a meaningful project related to the challenging and historical times the world was experiencing, selecting 10 songs, written between 30 and 300 years ago, that speak powerfully to our present moment.“Through the passage of time, political, social and cultural contexts vary, but the core of people’s experiences remain the same,” say Varo. “Themes like loneliness, heartbreak, racism, homesickness, and human connection are universal. These songs still speak truth.”
Buy The World That I Knew: https://varodublin.bandcamp.com/ -
Dublin rapper Curtisy released his debut album What Was The Question on May 3, 2024, and releases his new project, a mixtape made with producer Hikii called Beauty in the Beast, on May 30, 2025. We talk about both releases - marking a year of the debut album - and everything in between as Curtisy won a whole host of new fans with his searing and honest lyrics and was nominated for the Choice Prize. We talk about influences from Earl to Kendrick to horror, his crew which includers rapper Ahmed, With Love and producer Rory Sweeney, Curtisy's journey in music and the future
Buy What Was The Question: https://curtisy.bandcamp.com/album/what-was-the-question
Preorder Beauty in the Beast: https://spindizzyrecords.com/products/curtisy-what-was-the-question-deluxe-edition-cd
Intro music: Curtisy - Wok to Blackrock
Outro music: Curtisy - Milk & Honey -
Dublin-based artist Danny Groenland (fka Danny G and the Major 7ths) released his third studio album Burning Rome on April 25. He says: "The issues I focus on with this album - climate disaster, war, genocide, division, homelessness, inequality, mental health, police brutality, institutional racism - all stem from the same root cause. Our economic system is destroying our planet. We need a complete systems change, with everyone pulling in the same direction. And we need it now. Despite the gravity of the above topics, I wanted this album to be optimistic. These songs come from a variety of feelings. Love, anger, empathy, sorrow, fear and hope. I do have hope, otherwise I wouldn’t have recorded it. I have faith in humanity. We’ve been conditioned to think that things like poverty and war are normal and will always be. It doesn’t have to go like this. I hope this music gives you both comfort in solidarity, and the energy to be the change that’s needed."
Danny chats about all this on the TPOE podcast, as well as growing up in a musical family and initially playing trad music, his journey into the Dublin soul scene on the early 2010s, why and how he started Danny G and the Major 7ths, playing in a wedding band, and how and why he got political on Burning Rome.
Buy the album: https://dannygroenland.bandcamp.com/album/burning-rome
Danny Groenland launches Burning Rome at the Sugar Club, Dublin, on Friday, May 9: https://thesugarclub.com/tc-events/danny-groenland/ -
Paddy Hanna released his fifth album Oylegate on April 11 via Strange Brew Records and returns to the podcast for the first time since TPOE 90 in 2018. That was around his second album Frankly, I Mutate. In between, there have been two albums, The Hill in 2020 and Imagine I'm Hoping in 2022, which Paddy himself says flopped. While he's got married and become a dad of two since we last chatted, artistically it's been a tough road.
---
From the press release: OYLEGATE, the upcoming album from Paddy Hanna, is a journey through the euphoric highs and crushing lows of parenthood, delivered with his signature blend of melancholic wit and lush, off-kilter charm. Elation and exhaustion. Love and terror. The weight of responsibility and the strange, disorienting beauty of watching life unfold before your eyes.
After his fourth album, Imagine I’m Hoping, arrived to critical acclaim but not the mainstream success needed for him to continue on as a full-time musician, Hanna found himself at a personal and artistic low point. However, thanks to support from the Arts Council and the encouragement of his family, Hanna has returned as the intrepid captain of his own ship; he may not know the destination, but he’ll see us along the journey with his graceful pop sensibilities.
Determined to sidestep the usual sentimental trappings of writing about having a child, Hanna found an unlikely creative companion in grim Soviet-era cinema. As he wrote, films like Solaris flickered in the background—bleak, meditative landscapes that mirrored the depths of sleep deprivation and the existential wonder of bringing a new life into the world. This contrast of warmth and detachment, of intimate revelation and surreal detour, courses through OYLEGATE’s DNA.
Despite its moments of cold introspection, OYLEGATE is sonically rich and enveloping—an effect captured in a single request to producer Daniel Fox: "sweet, sweet caramel." Hanna wanted the music to feel like satin lining the listener’s ears, wrapping them in warmth even when the themes tilt towards darkness.
True to form, OYLEGATE marks yet another creative leap for an artist who refuses to be boxed in. "One advantage of being an ‘artist’s artist’ is that you never have to worry about being creatively different between albums. There's real freedom in doing whatever you want and not being judged for it. And even if you are judged, who gives a shit?
That spirit of fearless exploration—of finding joy in the unknown, the absurd, and the deeply personal—defines OYLEGATE. An odyssey of tenderness and turbulence, it’s the sound of an artist embracing life’s messiest, most beautiful contradictions.
Buy Oylegate: https://paddyhanna.bandcamp.com/album/oylegate -
French-American musician and composer Zoé Basha released her debut album Gamble on April 17. Blending storytelling traditions, Appalachian mountain songs, Irish traditional music, and American blues and ragtime, the album is a woozy melange. We talk about her life journey, travelling around the US, joining the Occupy San Francisco protests, moving to Dingle, Dublin, France to learn traditional French timber framing, and back to Ireland. Throughout it all, there's music, though she did fall out of love with it for a while before Rufous Nightjar started up with Anna Mieke and Branwen Kavanagh. And now comes her debut solo album Gamble. From the press release: Zoé’s debut is an intimate exploration of identity, grief, the deconstructing of societal norms, and the complexities of human connection, all delivered with a mesmerising voice that echoes the vulnerability and depth of her diverse influences. Inspired by the greats of times passed such as Billie Holiday, The Mills Brothers, Jimmie Rodgers, Joni Mitchell, Texas Gladden, Edith Piaf and The Steve Miller Band– as well as her peers in the Irish folk music scene, Zoé Basha savours the sounds of golden eras with contemporary nuance and shameless honesty.
Zoé Basha tour dates:
April 24: De Burgos Club, Galway
April 25: The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton, Leitrim
April 26: The Duncairn, Belfast
April 27: The Record Room, Limerick
May 1: Fennelly’s of Callan, Kilkenny
May 2: Bray Jazz Fest, Wicklow
May 3: The Crane Lane Theatre, Cork
May 4: Blennerville, Tralee, Co. Kerry (co-headling with Rachel Sermanni)
Buy Gamble: https://zoebasha.net/album/3407338/gamble -
Daniel McIntyre aka Lullahush released his second album Ithaca on April 11 via Future Classic. Having collaborated with the likes of AE Mak in the past and attended the Red Bull Music Academy, Lullahush released his debut album A City Made of Water and Small Love in 2022, an ode to his home town Dublin. He's developed a complicated relationship with it, which he explores on Ithaca, having moved to Athens in recent years.
From the press release: Ithaca weaves a narrative interrogating ideas of pride, home and belonging. Longing for home in exile has been widespread amongst the Irish diaspora over the years. This includes 19th-century famine refugees, 20th-century exiles fleeing the Catholic Church's oppression, those who left during the economic depression of the 1980s, and more recently, those affected by Ireland's housing crisis and Dublin's embrace of Big Tech. Daniel explores all of this as well as his own odyssey with him now living in Europe as a result of his homeland becoming “economically uninhabitable.” “I miss it, but I have a difficult relationship with it” says McIntyre. “‘Ithaca’ is where Odyssus is trying to get back to in the Odyssey - my search for a sense of home since leaving has made me think about what Ithaca means. Maybe it's not a place, maybe it's a series of circumstances, maybe it's something internal, maybe it’s something you carry around with you.”
Lullahush supports Róis at the Workman's Club on May 1.
Buy Ithaca at https://lullahush.bandcamp.com/album/ithaca-2 -
Alan Duggan Borges, the guitarist in Gilla Band, released his debut self-titled EP as The Null Club on April 4. Comrprising three tracks, 'Frameshift' features the rapper ELUCID (one half of Armand Hammer), '14 Hours' features Faris Badwan (The Horrors), and 'Slip Angles' has vocals by Valentine Caulfield (Mandy, Indiana). We talk about how the Null Club began and what it was like making the tracks with those contributors and what the future holds. We also discuss Alan's previous 'other' band, The Claque, and topics from Fontaines DC to Gilla Band's cover of Blawan's 'Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage', which felt like a turning point for them, techno music, and supporting Iggy Pop at In The Meadows on June 7.
Buy The Null Club EP: https://thenullclub.bandcamp.com/album/the-null-club-ep
The Null Club live dates:
May 2: The Workmans Club - Dublin
May 13: Corsica Studios - London
May 14: Rough Trade - Bristol
May 16: Yes, The Basement - Manchester
---
Press release: Spending time over the last few years learning about synthesis, production, and how to record has been an incredibly rewarding experience for Alan. This project has created an opportunity to explore genres and styles of music outside of Gilla Band that he's never done before, as well as being completely in control of the production and instrumentation. It’s also been an opportunity to work with incredible artists who Alan truly admires and have had a massive influence.
Getting the caliber of talent on the EP happened very naturally and somewhat unremarkably. He reached out to Val from Mandy, Indiana via Instagram and she thankfully agreed. Faris and ELUCID had both reached out to Gilla Band to say hey and he jumped at the opportunity to get them involved in the project.
The EP will be released on a limited run of 500 12” white label records, each hand stamped by Alan and released independently on a label ran by his wife and himself. The EP was mixed by Daniel Fox (Gilla Band), and mastered by Jamie Hyland (M(h)aol). with vocals contributed by the artists. All instrumentals were performed and recorded by Alan in his home, and rehearsal studio in Dublin, Ireland. with vocals being recorded in a mix of places – NYC, London, and Manchester (sometimes in studios, sometimes in the artists homes).
There will be a number of solo shows across Ireland and England where Alan will be reworking the tracks from the EP live along with a number of unheard pieces of music. There will be numerous synths, noise machines, guitars, and many pedals on stage all being looped into different amps to bring the songs to life in a live setting. Tickets on-sale now. -
Matthew Xavier Corrigan, an artist who splits time between Cork and Dublin, released his debut solo album Beast of Changing on March 21. Written in reflection of a tempestuous season of change across Irish coastlines, centred on Ballinskelligs in Co. Kerry, Myrtleville in Co. Cork and Clare Island in Co. Mayo, Beast of Changing follows a story of growth, of love lost and found, of crossing the threshold into dark, cold, saline water - of surrender. Themes of environmentalism and how we shape the coasts, of erosion and rising water, are woven throughout. Matthew Xavier Corrigan’s debut album was cut to tape with a single collaborator, Mike Halls, over five days in Liverpool, the product of years of writing rendered in a few day's takes. After pushing to a more intimate and organic sound on the From ten, with love EP, the artist now goes deeper; covered in analog warmth and rich harmonies, delicately performed, taking inspiration from the likes of Andy Shauf, Bill Callahan and Robin Pecknold. This renewed focus on analog warmth even comes out in the imagery; the press photos and album/single artwork were captured on expired film by Ronan Burke on vintage film cameras.
Matthew talks about his former project Ghostking is Dead, why that came to an end, the Cork scene and working on festivals such as his own River Runs Round, Quarter Block Party, Quiet Lights and Sounds from a Safe Harbour, the story behind Beast of Changing, and lots more.
Buy Beast of Changing: https://matthewxaviercorrigan.bandcamp.com/album/beast-of-changing -
Declan McClafferty aka Ramper released his debut solo album Loner on March 7. Formerly a member of the award-winning Donegal band In Their Thousands, along with his brother, Declan is a session musician who plays as part of Ryan McMullan’s band. He says of Loner: "It’s about lots of things. About my childhood growing up and feeling the wheel go around when I had children of my own and I was on the other side. About the characters I grew up around and the way of life they had that’s almost unrecognisable now. It’s a reminder to keep things simple. I made it for the love of making music. Starting with nothing but ideas and ending up with 10 things that paint a bigger picture is a great lesson. Anything else that’s come along after that is a bonus - and I’m grateful for it all!"
Press release: Loner is an apt name for the album; Ramper played every instrument on the LP, which he recorded and self-produced over six months at his own home studio during stolen moments when his sons were napping. The record was mixed by Daniel Ball (Chubby Cat, Ryan McMullan) and mastered by Richard Dowling (David Bowie, Sinead O’Connor).
Ramper takes the best of primal rural simplicity and transports it into the future whilst telling the stories of our past and ever-changing present. Based on a childhood lived before the internet and in the Irish language first, Ramper captures those moments in time that are almost so simple you may not notice them at first, but when you let them settle hold a beauty that cuts through the noise. Much of his music ruminates on the slow erosion of our language and culture: “It’s not a right-wing approach that things should be conserved and locked down, or that other cultures are not welcome. It’s a lament that the culture of a place and skills like weaving, fishing or boat building are lost, while the people who should be carrying that on are in Australia and priced out of returning.”
Loner’s songs, adorned with woozy pedal steel and deftly fingerpicked guitar, are about the peace of rural living (‘Cold in the Morning’, ‘Back to the Start’), the drawn-out death of Irish traditions (‘EYES’), the struggle to accept depression (‘Pale as the Moon’), the satisfaction of a job well done (‘If You Want a Good Dream’, ‘Promised’), his culture shock upon moving to Brighton for college (‘I Can’t Pretend’) and the many lessons McClafferty learned from his neighbours growing up in Donegal. These neighbours populate the songs, bringing rich colour along with them—like the “real quiet character” on ‘Cold in the Morning’. McClafferty remembers her as “humble and kind, but not very confident. This song is remembering her and putting her at the centre of the narrative for maybe the first time.” Or there are the two very different men on the penultimate track ‘Don’t Forget to Look Up’. “One worked every hour that was sent his way until he eventually accepted retirement and the other read books, smoked cigarettes and was an alcoholic. I attended both of their funerals in the same week,” McClafferty recalls. “This song is trying to zoom out from what a life is and realise the importance of balance. Both these characters would have changed things I think.” -
Maria Kelly released her second album Waiting Room on February 28. The followup to 2021's The Sum of the In-Between, the title is a very real place as Maria found herself stuck in sterile clinics hoping for answers to inscrutable chronic pain, and a dream-like, surreal space representing her own inner world. “This album is an exploration of the roadblocks, both internally and externally, that keep us feeling powerless and taking away our agency,” she says.
On this episode of the TPOE podcast, we talk about her health issues, the impact of the housing crisis, and channeling those experiences into creating Waiting Room. We also discuss her living room tour, supporting Tom Odell at Live at the Marquee, facilitating her writing night Tangent Dublin, and more.
Buy Waiting Room: https://mariakellymusic.bandcamp.com/album/waiting-room
Tangent Dublin: https://www.instagram.com/tangentdublin/ -
Julie Feeney won the inaugural Choice Music for her debut album 13 Songs in 2005. Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Choice on March 6, Julie talks about what it was like to win the award and the impact it had on her career. We also talk about how she made 13 Songs; playing all of the instruments, including a clock, across the record; self-financing the LP; why albums still matter; and lots more.
-
The Choice Music Prize for Irish album of the year 2024 will be announced at Vicar Street on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Ahead of the show, John Barker from new Irish music show Tilt (Dublin City FM) joins to run through the 10 nominated acts and help predict a winner.
The 10 nominees:
A Lazarus Soul - No Flowers Grow In Cement Gardens
Curtisy - What Was The Question
Fontaines D.C. - Romance
Orla Gartland - Everybody Needs a Hero
KNEECAP - Fine Art
NewDad - MADRA
Niamh Regan - Come As You Are
Róis - Mo Léan
Silverbacks - Easy Being a Winner
SPRINTS - Letter To Self -
Mayo harpist Alannah Thornburgh talks about her debut album Shapeshifter, released February 12. She is inspired by the traditions of fairy folklore and mythology from rural Ireland. The project began when Alannah was commissioned to compose a piece for the Linenhall Arts Centre’s New Music in Mayo series, curated by traditional musician Emer Mayock. With the support of the Arts Council's Next Generation Award, Alannah conducted interviews with nearly 50 historians, storytellers, and locals, collecting stories and experiences that inform her music. These conversations are woven throughout the album.
We talk about all this, as well the Thornburgh family band and the influence of her saxophone-playing dad, the influence of the late Conor Walsh, and her various collaborations with the likes of Lemoncello and Varo.
Buy Shapeshifter: alannahthornburgh.bandcamp.com
Alannah Thornburgh tour dates:
April 4: The Linenhall Arts Centre, Co. Mayo
April 11: Levis’ Cornerhouse, Ballydehob, West Cork
April 12: Maureen’s, Cork City
April 17: The Cobblestone, Dublin
April 27: Prim’s Bookshop, Kinsale, Co. Cork
May 9: The Duncairn, Belfast
May 10: Fennelly’s, Kilkenny - Mostrar mais
