One of Ireland's newest and best singer-songwriting talents is Brian Casey. His songs are brilliantly composed showcasing his fine vocals and insightful lyrics.
Head below his in-depth interview:
1. Who are you?
My names Brian Casey, I'm a musician, producer/recording engineer and sometimes I live something closer to a normal life when time permits!
2. Where are you based?
I share my time between Cork city, where I base myself for gigging and Bantry in West Cork, where I run my own recording studio.
3. What achievements do you want me to know about?
I'm releasing my second EP Rain Songs on November 20 and am touring the country after that. I am really proud of this EP, and it feels like an achievement, at least to me! Its entirely self produced and I completed it in about 5 days when I had some spare time from working on other peoples music.
4. What are you up to now?
Right now I am booking flights to London to play some small singer-songwriter nights, later this evening I am traveling to my studio to finish mixing and mastering a Hip Hop EP for an artist called Dr. Voodoo.
5. Name something unique about you or/and your product?
Everybody is different and its very difficult to say anyone or anything is particularly unique, and I definitely don't have the ego to claim I am that special...at least not yet!
People often are fascinated by the fact that I can't see (I lost my sight at the age of 4), but it definitely doesn't make me unique, and unfortunately despite what people think, it doesn't automaticaly give me magical powers of musicianship or bat like hearing. Although I can't deny its an influence in my life its not something I like people to focus on.
In terms of my music, I've completed 2 EP's under my own name, and I don't think any two songs are particularly alike, and there is no established pattern or formula in my music. I'm not sure its unique in 2014, but its definitely unusual, and it probably remains to be seen whether its something people will like about me or something that will put them off. My style doesn't vary that wildly, but I never churn out song after song in the exact same style, with the same instrumentation and same song structures.
6. What is the best song ever written?
My answer to this used to be Her Majesty by The Beatles, which is a tiny track at the end of Abbey Road, because it is so short and sweet in all senses of the word and it really captures a great feeling.
Now I think I'd have to say a song like "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", which is an old folk blues song, popularised by Lead Belly and then Nirvana on their Unplugged in New York album. Its stood the test of time for well over a century now, and its so full of different emotions and so open for interesting interpretations.
7. What's the best album ever made?
There are so many reasons to love an album, particularly for a recording nerd like me, but lately I'd have to say I think Neil Young's Harvest is one of the best ever. It has a lot of qualities I find important in an album. Instead of focusing on perfection or some stylistic statement it just does its own thing - there are slightly comical songs, there are really personal songs, there are political songs, heavy songs, quiet songs etc. It seems to me like it might really capture the time and place in which it was created.
Radiohead's OK computer or Kid A could tick many of the same boxes for me, but at this point in my life I always seem to be in the mood to listen to Harvest, even if OK computer or Kid A basically helped shape how I feel about music and the world generally in a way that no other albums have.
8. What are your future plans?
After releasing this EP and touring in Ireland to promote it I plan to tie up some loose ends in my music production work and focus on touring as much as possible abroad, because if I don't do it now I'll never do it. I've enough songs written for an album, but I'm not sure when the time will be right to take on releasing that, it could be next year but hopefully I'll be too busy touring with this EP to get around to the album for a bit longer.
I also want to keep producing stuff for other people as much as possible and I have my own alternative/electronic band, called Screenreader and we've a bunch of songs waiting on my hard drive that need finishing, so there's plenty to do.
I've been just about making a living from music full time for the last few years which is amazing, so I'm just going to try to keep that trick going as long as possible by keeping involved in as many things as I can.
9. Where can I spend money on you or your product?
My latest EP, 'Rain Songs' is available for preorder on iTunes from November 6 2014, and will have a full release on Nov 20. My debut EP Plain Sailing is available on iTunes, Band Camp,, Spotify and God knows where else.
At the end of the day, nothing beats someone coming up to me at a gig and handing over their hard earned money for my music instead of buying another pint, that's still such a good feeling when a person makes that choice.
Listen to the awesome single 'Believe' here:
Comments