Join Me In The Pines release their new album ‘Monomania’ 30 August

And announce Irish tour this October

David Geraghty is most well-known as a founding member of Bell X1 but in recent years he has been exploring a new solo direction under the moniker “Join Me in the Pines”.

JMITP release their highly anticipated second album Monomania on August 30^th 2019. Monomania brims with David’s distinctive vocal and songwriting style but this time he has ventured into an edgy 80s synth-pop world with hints of funk, conjuring shades of Prince, Bowie, Grace Jones and Donna Summer. The album was mixed by the masterful Ross Dowling (James Vincent McMorrow, Talos, Brian Deady) and will be released on Decal Records. In advance of the release, renowned Irish music blogger Nialler9 will exclusively premiere the video for ‘She Steps Into The Light’ on Thursday August 1^st.

David is the writer, singer and guitarist for Join Me in the Pines, and is joined on stage by Marc Aubele (BellX1, The Walls), Mick Major (Bon Ton Rouler) and Tim Donovan (Neosuperviatl, BellX1). Recently, the band were invited to open for the legendary Hall & Oates at Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens and Cork’s Marquee, and for the wonderful David Gray, also at Cork’s Marquee. This summer they also wowed audiences at Vantastival, Forbidden Fruit and Kaleidoscope, steadily growing their fanbase, and will cap it all off with a slot at Electric Picnic on August 30^th.

As a member of Bell X1, David has released seven studio albums to date. In addition to this, Geraghty released two solo albums under his own name. In 2014, David decided to delineate his solo work by giving it a new name, and so “Join Me in the Pines” was born.

David is a five-time Choice Music Prize nominated multi-instrumentalist and composer. In recent years, his solo output has caught the ear of film directors, allowing David to turn his talents towards composing for film and TV. His first project, a short film called The Crush, went on to be nominated for an Academy Award. Subsequent projects have won at Athens, Baton Rouge, Galway and Berlinale film festivals.

Join Me in the Pines will follow up Monomania’s release with a tour in October. These dates are:

Fri 11 Oct        The Commercial – LIMERICK

Sat 12 Oct       The Black Gate Theatre – GALWAY

Fri 18 Oct        Coughlan’s – CORK

Sat 19 Oct       Lost Lane – DUBLIN

Release new video ‘Find The Water’

See them live on this Summer at ‘The Long Way Home Festival’ in Cork, Galway & Belfast

The Coronas release their new video for ‘Find The Water’, the first single to be taken from their upcoming album which they are currently recording. The album, the sixth from the band, is being produced by industry legend Rob Kirwan (Hozier, PJ Harvey, U2, Depeche Mode) and is due to be released in spring 2020.

The Coronas have teamed up with long-time collaborator John Broe who directed videos for Give Me A Minute, Real Feel and We Couldn’t Fake It from their last release. “John sent us the treatment on a Wednesday afternoon last month, we booked the flights that evening and flew to LA that Saturday” explains Danny.

“I think the rest of the band especially loved the idea because they weren’t in it! They got the week off! Although they were a little jealous when they heard the location was LA!”.

“We kept the shoot very organic – rented the truck, drove out to the desert and just shot for 3 days. The light was incredible out there and some of locations we stumbled across were just perfect for the feel that John wanted”

“Musically, ‘Find the Water’ is unlike anything we’ve done before” says lead singer Danny O’Reilly “Melodically, the vocal delivery, even the arrangement is unusual for us – but yet it was one of those songs where we were all on the same page right from the start and it came together very quickly, which is always a good sign. The song is about self-improvement, both personally and on the band’s journey. A reminder to myself to appreciate what I’ve got and to convince myself that I can write a decent song or be a good friend or be a better person or whatever it may be.”

The last two summers have seen The Coronas play some of their biggest shows in their hometown, Dublin, including a sold out 3Arena and playing to 15,000 fans at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The band were amazed with how many fans travelled to these gigs from all over the country, so this year they decided it’s their turn to do the travelling and they’re taking the show on the road in the form of ‘The Long Way Home Festival’. 

Each festival show will have support from some of The Coronas’ favourite up-and-coming acts followed by a full Coronas show in which they’ll showcase some songs from the new album as well as their beloved back catalogue. “As much we love touring abroad, there’s a special place in our hearts for Irish audiences and the we’re so excited to bring The Long Way Home festival around the country this Summer”

See The Coronas live this Summer;

22 June                   Independent Park, Cork with Sigrid and All Tvvins

28 July                    Galway Arts Festival with Le Boom, Ryan McMullan, True Tides, and The Clockworks

23 August              Custom House Square, Belfast, with Tom Odell and Roe

Release new single ‘Black Star Dancing’

TAKEN FROM THE FORTHCOMING ‘BLACK STAR DANCING EP’ RELEASED 14^TH JUNE

Listen to the single ‘Black Star Dancing’ HERE

Photo credit: Mitch Ikeda

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds release a brand new single – ‘Black Star Dancing’, available digitally now.  The single, which is produced by Noel, is taken from the EP of the same name – available digitally and on 12” vinyl to pre-order now – released on 14th June, the same date that Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds headline Isle of Wight Festival.

Noel says of the single: “It manages to combine the influences of David Bowie, INXS, U2, Queen, Indeep AND ZZ Top FFS! … I might have been watching too much Top Of The Pops recently … anyway, it’s ‘dope’ … not my words, but the words of Nile Rodgers who literally danced in the studio when he heard it!”

Featuring new kaleidoscopic artwork by Gareth Halliday, the EP includes 2 new tracks ‘Rattling Rose’ and ‘Sail On’, a 12” mix of ‘Black Star Dancing’ plus a remix by London-based French DJ/producer Nicolas Laugier, aka The Reflex.

The full EP track-listing is:

1. Black Star Dancing

2. Rattling Rose

3. Sail On
4. Black Star Dancing (12” Mix)

5. Black Star Dancing (The Reflex Revision)

The release of the new single and EP announcement comes as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds prepare to embark on a short run of intimate live shows across the UK.  The 11-piece line-up will then follow these dates with a host of headline festival appearances across the Summer, including a show in Dublin’s Malahide Castle on 16^th June.  The shows, which also include a huge homecoming gig at Manchester’s Heaton Park, will give fans the chance to hear the new material for the first time. ^th June                      MANCHESTER, Heaton Park

16^th June                   DUBLIN, Malahide Castle

This release follows a hat-trick of Number 1 albums for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – most recently the Mercury-nominated ‘Who Built The Moon?’, which achieved gold certification less than two weeks after its release in 2017. It’s also a record breaking 10 consecutive chart-topping studio albums in the UK for Noel.

For further information please visit noelgallagher.com

 Two Balloons

Screens as part of the Fantastic Flix Shorts programme on Sat 23 Feb at Virgin One Media Dublin International Film Festival 2019

The magical stop-motion animated short film Two Balloons was produced in Portland, Oregon and premiered at the 30th Foyle Film Festival in Ireland in November 2017. Since then the film has been screened at some of the most prestigious international film festivals and won many awards. And now the filmmakers are delighted to announce that Two Balloons has been selected to play as part of at this year’s Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival as part of the Fantastic Flix Shorts Programme. The film will screen at the Lighthouse Cinema on Saturday 23rd February at 11:00am and at the Odeon Charlestown on Saturday 23rd February at 12:00pm.

Two Balloons was four years in the making and it tells the spellbinding story of two adventurous lemurs travelling the skies in their wondrous airships. One night they meet by chance and forge a bond which sees them through a calamity and cements their friendship.

Two Balloons was inspired by the music of Peter Broderick, a celebrated American composer who has collaborated with Philip Glass, Efterklang, Yann Tiersen, M. Ward and Dustin O’ Halloran amongst many others, as well as composing his own music and film scores. When director Mark Smith heard Broderick’s ‘More of a Composition’ he knew instantly that he wanted to work with him. Even though the film was inspired by an older Broderick composition, Peter recorded the score for Two Balloons from scratch, revising and expanding the music to fit each frame. The complete score plus a 9-minute electronic rework titled ‘Techno For Lemurs’ was released as an EP in November 2018, on limited edition vinyl and as a digital download.

Originally the film was envisaged as a live action short and the plan was to build two real airships, but the production ran into problems when they couldn’t secure an aircraft hangar for the required length of time. So instead Mark decided to create the film as a stop-motion animated film despite the fact that he had no prior experience of stop-motion. As he says: ‘I was obsessive about preparation because I had never produced a stop-motion project. Sometimes I saw pre-production as training for an endurance race I had never run before.’

One of the first questions asked when they made this decision was, ‘what form will the characters take?’ Mark took inspiration from Cyril Connolly’s The Unquiet Grave in which Connolly admires ring-tailed lemurs: ‘they held the secret of life to me; they were clues to an existence without thought, guilt or ugliness wherein all was grace, appetite and immediate sensation.’ And so the two curious adventurers in Two Balloons were born.

Mark and his crew spent sixteen months storyboarding and building a stage to encompass the sets of the half-scale lemur world. Only then did they begin to shoot, which was an intensely time-consuming process: shots which were only ten seconds long took two months to shoot. The result is the nine-minute long Two Balloons, a poignant and heart-warming film which was a labour of love for all involved.

Since its debut at the Foyle Film Festival in 2017, Two Balloons has shown in Ireland at Kerry Film Festival 2018, Galway Film Fleadh 2018 and Animation Dingle 2018, as well as many international film festivals including Flickerfest International Short Film Festival (Australia), Santa Barbara International Film Festival (USA), Tribeca (USA), Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival (France) Anima 2018 (Belgium), and Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia (Spain).

Two Balloons has also won numerous awards, most recently the Special Mention Jury Award at Animafest Zagreb, the longest running animation festival in the world. The crew of the film was especially delighted with this award, highly coveted as it is within the animation industry. Other awards garnered by Two Balloons include Hoka Award Best Animated Short Film (Oxford Film Festival), Adult Jury Award: Best Animated Short Film (Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF Kids), and Jury Award: Best Animated Short (Sonoma International Film Festival).

The team behind Two Balloons are grateful for the opportunity to bring the film to the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival, one of the most important film festivals in Europe now in its sixteenth year. Ireland is regularly one of the top nations for cinema visits in Europe (tied with France in both 2017 and 2018) and VMDIFF celebrates this important part of our culture. In November 2018 Virgin also showed Two Balloons as part of What’s On Vera on Virgin Atlantic, their monthly highlights show written and presented by film critic Jason Solomons.

Watch the trailer: Two Balloons: https://www.twoballoons.film

See awards that Two Balloons has achieved https://www.twoballoons.film/awards/

Releases a beautiful tribute to his mum

‘The Stars’ single and video due out on 25 February

Taken from his album Scars and Tones

pre-order ‘The Stars’

Dublin songsmith Colin O’Shea is set to release ‘The Stars’, the fourth single from his acclaimed debut album Scars and Tones, on Monday 25^th February. The 25^th marks the five-year anniversary of the passing of Colin’s mother after a courageous battle against breast cancer, and ‘The Stars’ is Colin’s heartfelt tribute to her. On Colin’s website, people can pre-order the track for a minimum of €1 (they can choose to spend more money if they like) and all proceeds will be passed onto the Marie Keating Cancer Society.

Colin’s mother was a single parent of five children who gave selflessly to everyone else for her entire life, a true Irish matriarch. Colin moved home to care for her during her final illness and ‘The Stars’ was written during her last months. Colin found the process both therapeutic and cathartic and although he struggled with the intensity of his emotions, he forced himself to write the song during that period as he knew he wouldn’t have the strength afterwards. The result is a bittersweet piano ballad with raw vocals, and lyrics that will speak to anyone who has lost someone they love: ‘The stars don’t come out, ‘cause you’re not about.’

The single is accompanied by a simple yet powerfully effective animated video (artwork and production by Lia Wright, videography by Adam Kelly) which conveys the message of the song using beautiful line drawings and illustrated lyrics against a paper background.

To celebrate the release of ‘The Stars’, Colin will play all-ages shows in two DART stations on Saturday 23^rd February: Heuston Station from 11am to 12.30pm and Connolly Station from 1.30pm to 3pm. For the price of a DART ticket you can hear Colin perform ‘The Stars’, amongst other songs from his album. Colin will also play Upstairs in Whelan’s on Friday 10^th May.

O’Shea’s debut album has received acclaim and accolades from industry press with comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, Nick Cave, Bob Dylan and U2. Produced by David Prendergast (Kodaline, Shane McGowan, The Riptide Movement, Kila), Scars and Tones is a collection of cleverly written eclectic songs influenced by heartbreak, loss, bliss and even being a victim of a kidnapping in South America, an experience that inspired the stunning ballad ‘My Angel’.

Colin is currently in the studio recording his sophomore album, with David Prendergast again taking production duties. Scars and Tones was influenced by the melancholy and heartbreak accumulated over a few years. The new album will see a notable progression, moving in a more positive lyrical direction with electronic musical influences.

ULTAN CONLON

Releases a new single ‘In The Blink Of An Eye’ on 1 March

Announces shows in Cork, Dublin & Galway this March

Acclaimed Galwegian singer-songwriter Ultan Conlon is set to release a new single ‘In the Blink of an Eye’ on Friday March 1st, ahead of his first Irish tour. ‘In the Blink of an Eye’ was written by Ultan over the Christmas holidays and produced in January in Sun Street Studios Tuam by John Douglas (Trashcan Sinatras) and Boo Hewerdine. The single was mixed in the US by six-time Grammy Award winning producer Vance Powell (Jack White, The White Stripes). The result is a buoyant tune that belies the stoic nature of the lyrics and the underlying message that despite our individual troubles we all suffer and recover in essentially the same way.

Ultan’s unique ability to capture the fragility and sensitivity of the human spirit through his lyrics has been honed over almost two decades of writing and performing. The quality of his songwriting is equally matched by his powerful yet melancholy voice that critics have likened to the great Roy Orbison. ‘In the Blink of an Eye’ further showcases Ultan’s distinctive gift and is a memorable addition to his catalogue.

Ultan’s upcoming Irish tour includes headline concerts in in Cork at Coughlan’s on Friday March 15^th, in Dublin at Whelan’s on Saturday March 23^rd and the Black Gate, Galway on March 28^th. This tour comes on the back of a very successful year for Ultan with a series of big shows at the 3 Arena as a guest of the legendary John Fogerty, and at the Trinity College Summer Series at the invitation of Bryan Ferry. He also toured Ireland and the UK with Eddi Reader and The Stunning.

In April 2018, Ultan’s third studio album ‘Last Days of the Night Owl’ was chosen ‘Album of the Week’ on RTE Radio 1 with two singles from the album, ‘The Measure’ and ‘A Weak Heart Like Mine’ (duet with Mary Coughlan), each receiving extensive radio airplay last summer and autumn.

Ultan is currently working on a four-track EP for release in early summer. The EP will include the single ‘In the Blink of an Eye’, two new songs, and a cover of the John Martyn’s 1984 classic ‘Fisherman’s Dream’ which Ultan recorded recently in Galway.

Friday 15 March                                   Coughlan’s Cork

Saturday 23 March                             Whelan’s Dublin

Thursday 28^th March                          Black Gate, Galway

www.ultanconlon.com

https://www.facebook.com/ultanconlonmusic/

https://twitter.com/UltanConlon

Release ‘We Caught It’ on Fri 18 January

Listen

Grit-pop duo Thanks Brother release their first single of 2019, ‘We Caught It’, on Friday 18^th January. This is the second single from the pair, following 2018’s ‘We Are Different’ which saw the band playlisted on national radio and perform live on The Late Late Show and The Today Show and followed on with sold out shows in Dublin and Paris. ‘We Caught It’ is a slice of anthemic pop, describing magic moments of lost inhibitions. Co-produced and mixed by Grammy Award winner Ruadhri Cushnan (Mumford & Sons, Ed Sheeran) the songs crisp production highlights O’s powerful vocals, evoking shades of Florence and The Machine and HAIM.

Thanks Brother is comprised of Róisín O, who has enjoyed great success as a solo act since her debut album ‘The Secret Life of Blue’, and John Broe, formerly the writer and singer with Irish band Miracle Bell. They began writing songs together in 2014, originally for a Róisín O solo album, however realising that there was an undeniable creative chemistry when writing, they embarked on the collaborative project Thanks Brother at the beginning of 2018.

The band’s unusual name comes from a chance encounter that took place at a concert in Ireland, where the duo met one of their screen heroes, actor Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones, Three Billboards), whose brief response to a gushing Broe’s praise was simply, ‘Thanks Brother’.

Thanks Brother have also written songs that have been used for television series and advertising campaigns as well as co-writing for other artists. The pair recently co-wrote singles with Irish band The Coronas, including ‘Real Feel’, the first U.S. single from their chart-topping Trust the Wire album.

‘We Caught It’ is the first of four single releases this year culminating in an EP this winter. The video for the song is shot by the duo on their iPhones when they were crashing a Christmas party in December. Róisín explains, ‘It was a spur of the moment decision to film it while we were at The Google Christmas Party in the RDS… which we weren’t really supposed to be at… but it all sort of fit in with the imagery of the song: doing shit you’re not supposed to when you’re drunk.’

The video will be released on Monday January 21st.  Meanwhile, Thanks Brother plan to embark on a UK and Irish tour in March/April.

Dates confirmed so far are:

Friday 15 March          Mc Gettigan’s Paddy’s Day Party, Dubai

Friday 22 March         De Barra’s, Clonakilty

Friday 29 March         St. Columb’s Hall Cinema, Derry 

Thursday 9 May           Mike The Pie’s, Listowel

Connect with:

https://www.facebook.com/ThanksBrotherBand/

@thanksbrother­_

THE PAPER BOATS EP

ACOUSTIC EP AVAILABLE NOW ON IGNITION RECORDS 

INCLUDES THE SINGLES ‘BURN BLUE’, ‘FALL TO EARTH’ & ‘ANOTHER LESSON’ PLUS A STUNNING VERSION OF ‘TRUE LOVE WILL FIND YOU IN THE END’

“..a sparse but poetic rendering, driven by one of Rosborough’s purest, most heart-felt vocals yet” CLASH

 ON TOUR WITH DMA’S + HEADLINE LONDON GIG ON JAN 24^TH PLUS SUPPORT DATES WITH SEAFRET + AMY MAC DONALD

Tracklist:

1. Burn Blue (Acoustic Version)
2. In The Moment (Acoustic Version)
3. Another Lesson (Acoustic Version)
4. True Love Will Find You In The End
5. Fall To Earth (Acoustic Version)

‘The Paper Boats EP’ is the debut EP from Derry newcomer Rosborough is available now on Ignition Records. Compiling acoustic versions of the singles ‘Burn Blue’ (nominated for Best Single in the 2018 Northern Ireland’s Music Prize), ‘Another Lesson’ and ‘Fall To Earth’, plus a stunningly authentic cover of Daniel Johnston’s ‘True Love Will Find You In The End’, the EP also includes the previously unreleased song ‘In The Moment’.

Throughout 2018 Rosborough has received critical acclaim for his soaring, cinematic tunes (“Strident, urgent, and anthemic songwriting”CLASH, “Jawdropping” Daily Mirror) while touring relentlessly.

He started the year with a headline Irish tour then supported Neon Waltz on their Spring UK tour before performing at a plethora of prestigious festivals over the summer. Following his recent tour in support of Seafret, Rosborough is currently on tour with DMA’S including a date at London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum on December 17^th. He will then headline London’s The Waiting Room on January 24^th before joining Seafret again on a European tour in February and then supporting Amy MacDonald throughout March and April.

On tour with DMA’S, remaining dates:
15 Dec – University Union Asylum, Hull

16 Dec – O2 Academy, Sheffield

17 Dec – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London

Headline gig:

24 Jan – The Waiting Room, London N16

On tour with Seafret:

2 Feb – Le Pop-up Du Label

8 Feb – Mascotte, Zurich

10 Feb – Durer Kert, Budapest

11 Feb – Grelle Forelle, Vienna

12 Feb – Strom, Munich

13 Feb – Privatclub, Berlin

15 Feb – Hotel Cecil, Copenhagen

16 Feb – Nochtspeicher, Hamburg

17 Feb – Yuca, Cologne

18 Feb – Paradiso Noord, Amsterdam

20 Feb – Nijmegen, Doornroosje

21 Feb – Tivoli De Helling, Utrecht

24 Feb – Patterns, Brighton,

25 Feb – The Bodega, Nottingham

27 Feb – The Wardrobe, Leeds

28 Feb – The Caves, Edinburgh

1 Mar – Gorilla, Manchester

2 Mar – The Castle & Falcon, Birmingham

4 Mar – The Bullingdon, Oxford

5 Mar – Thekla, Bristol

6 Mar – Islington Assembly Hall, London

On tour with Amy MacDonald:

21 Mar  – Eventim Apollo, London

22 Mar – O2 Apollo, Manchester

24 Mar – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels

25 Mar – Tivoliredenburg, Utrecht

26 Mar – Elysee Monmartre, Paris

28 Mar – Osnabruck Halle, Osnabruck

29 Mar – George-Friedrich-Handel-Halle, Halle (Salle)

31 Mar – Alter Oper, Frankfurt

1 April – Colosseum Theater, Essen

2 April – Admiralspalast, Berlin

4 April – Halle 622, Zurich

5 April – Teatro dal Verme (Indoor), Milan

7 April – Gasometer, Vienna

8 April – Circus Krone, Munich

9 April – Den Atelier, Luxembourg

plus special guests

Doves – DMA’s – Blossoms

 MALAHIDE CASTLE 16 JUNE 2019

  Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds  summer show at Malahide Castle on 16^th June 2019.

Special guests are Doves, DMA’s and Blossoms.

Tickets priced €49.90 including booking fee go on sale at 9am Thursday 6th December

Noel Gallagher has now been one of the most loved and successful songwriters for over a quarter of a century and recently won the 2018 Q Awards for Outstanding Contribution To Music and Best Solo Artist – adding to Noel’s list of prestigious accolades including the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection in 2013, NME Godlike Genius Award in 2012 and the Q Icon Award.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds first emerged in 2011 with the eponymous album released in October that year on Sour Mash Records. The album went double platinum in the UK and has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.

Recorded in London and completed in Los Angeles during 2010 and the first half of 2011 it was co-produced by Noel and David Sardy, with whom Noel has previously worked with when in Oasis.

Noel stresses “Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds is me and whoever is around at the time of whatever it is that I’m doing, a loose collective kinda thing”

By the time a follow up album was due for release, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds live show had already surpassed playing 150 shows in 32 different countries.

The follow up album ‘Chasing Yesterday’ was released March 2015- the first album to be produced as well as written by Noel.  On producing the album, Noel said: “It was a major pain in the arse., managing sessions from one end of the week to the other proved extremely difficult. I had all these people looking at me and saying: ‘right, what are we doing today?’ I felt like i was making the whole thing up as I went along.”

The album spawned live favourites ‘In the Heat of the Moment’ and “Lock all the Doors”. There followed another 122 shows in 28 countries.

A third album ‘Who Built The Moon?’ was recorded in sessions spanning 2 years with renowned producer, DJ and composer David Holmes in Belfast and London.  It was released in November 2017.

The album debuted in UK at Number 1, achieving gold certification in less than 2 weeks after its release – making it a hat trick of Number 1 albums for Noel. Live, Noel continued to tour the world relentlessly, encompassing landmark open air shows and festival headlines, with a selection of songs he’s written and released over the past three decades, and this time with an expanded 11 piece band.

‘Who Built The Moon?’ was also a record-breaking 10^thconsecutive chart-topping studio album in UK for Noel – no other artist has achieved such a feat.

To connect with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds on social media and find the latest release, tour and ticket information visit:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoelGallagher

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noelgallaghermusic

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themightyi/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/NoelGallagherTV

www.dovesofficial.com

www.dmasdmas.com

www.blossomsband.co.uk

Releases her debut single

Do Like I Do

And announces her first show in Grand Social, Dublin on 21 Nov.

ZAPHO releases her debut single ‘Do Like I Do’ on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Apple, Deezer, etc. through Distrokid on the 7th of November, premiered by Nialler9. From Rathfarnham, Dublin, 25-year-old singer, songwriter, musician, producer and performer ZAPHO (aka Ele Breslin) writes the kind of smart, svelte electro-pop/soul songs that arrive only from an intuitive understanding of the form.

Do Like I Do was a long time in the making. Written and produced by ZAPHO, with varying inputs from various producers, Steve McCann, Andy Savours and Steve Osbourne, this single is truly the product of creative collaboration. Reefing Pop by its neck collar, ZAPHO’s debut single is set to turn our senses on their toes, reminding us of what we love about Pop as a genre, while unsettling our expectations of what it should be. Like ZAPHO herself, Do Like I Do, is a standalone piece, but in the same breath the song is a resounding shout-out to that feeling of doing whatever we want to do, whenever we want to do it while owning the confidence of knowing you’re great at what you do. Do Like I Do, was mixed by James Darkin of Dublin’s Herbert Lane Studio and mastered by Pete Maher.

Joining ZAPHO onstage in the Grand Social will be her not-so-small entourage: Chris Cahill (Guitar and Live-mixing), Laura O’Sullivan (Piano/ Violin/ Backing Vocal), Donal Pywell (Bass), Katie Ryan (Backing Vocal) , Niamh Casey (Drums) , Ryan Hardagan (Sax). A whopping 7-piece extravaganza, comprising luscious walls of harmonies, and a rhythm section your ears will thank you for.  ZAPHOs band is a showcase of the new and ever-evolving contemporary musicianship Ireland currently has to offer, all brought together in ZAPHO’s quest for genre defying Pop music.

Bang on target, the next six months will see ZAPHO’s music filter out via songs and accompanying videos, with an occasional remix delivered for good measure. And those songs? Skillfully produced and expertly performed, prepare for lush and lively tunes that reference ZAPHO’s “deepest, darkest thoughts and desires, and everything else in-between that I’m not brave enough to, or wouldn’t, do.”

Don’t miss this special show on Wed 21 November in The Grand Social, Dublin, support on the night comes from TADGH & DEADLYMAN. Doors 8pm and Tickets €10.