Ciaran Lavery

3 months ago

This is only a selection of new music – dig into more or follow the Spotify playlists.

1. Johnny Climax – Mood

Dublin-based artist Jonny Climax takes influences from traditional and contemporary hip-hop and R’n’B. This track sounds like a class hip-hop anthem, one that triggers powerful nostalgic ’90s vibes.

2. O Emperor- Make It Rain

The Cork-based alt-rock five-piece have re-emerged and are set to release a string of new music this year. The first release is a delightful mix of afro-disco, funk, soul, and jolly vocals, the perfect ingredients to put you in a hazy groove.

They play The Bello Bar on Saturday February 17th.

3. Janksy- LIMBO

18-year-old Dublin native Joseph McGuirk or Janksy makes music from his bedroom and is building a following for himself on Soundcloud. This track has a certain Gorillaz-esque vibe to it. More from Jansky is on the way this year.

4. Winter Aid – The Dance

This is Shane Culloty or Winter Aid’s first release from his forthcoming EP Halfland.

“It’s about a few things, but revolves around the way our concept of home changes, as we move and settle somewhere new: the strange feeling of moving past what you thought home was and loving it anew from a distance.”

5. Brigid Mae Power – Don’t Shut Me Up (Politely)

This track from Galway-based Brigid Mae Power’s new EP The Two Worlds deals with such issues as women being suppressed in society, featuring haunting vocals and lyrics that are fused by emotive guitar riffs and drum beats.

6. Ciaran Lavery – To Chicago

Northern Irish singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery’s latest track is from his forthcoming third album Sweet Decay which will be released on April 13th. The track is an upbeat, catchy and honest acoustic love song.

Posted on February 1st, 2018

Tags: ireland Irish New music

Artists: Brigid Mae Power, Ciaran Lavery, Janksy, Johnny Climax, O Emperor, Winter Aid

About 1 year ago

Ciaran Lavery’s Let Bad In is one of the finest Irish albums of the year (more on that later today), and ‘Okkervil River’ is an immediate standout.

Let Bad In feels less like a singer-songwriter record and more like an assured and well-arranged version of Lavery’s established craft. Lavery has also imbued his material with extra sonic details taken from found sounds and old VHS tapes, which support the album’s theme of childhood and a loss of innocence.

The video for ‘Okkervil River’ then by Daniel Holmes puts Emily Lamey as the central protaganist singing the track.

Director Holmes says:

The “Okkervil River” video was a close collaboration between myself, actress Emily Lamey, and cinematographer Kevin Treacy. One of Ciaran’s strengths as a songwriter is his ability for his song’s themes to emerge in a way that’s evocative without being too obvious. Without saying too much in the way of explanation, this is what largely informed my approach to the video and it’s a testament to Ciaran’s writing that every image and idea in the video emerged as naturally as it did.

Tour dates

Wednesday 5 October 2016: DUBLIN – THE SUGAR CLUB
Tickets: €17.00 inclusive of booking fee from Ticketmaster.ie or 0818 719300

Thursday 6 October 2016: DUNDALK – SPIRIT STORE
Tickets: €10.00 plus booking fee from Spirit Store

Friday 7 October 2016: CORK – CYPRUS AVENUE
Tickets: €12.50 plus booking fee from Cyprus Avenue

Saturday 8 October 2016>: KILKENNY – CLEERE’S
Tickets: €13.00 plus booking fee

Sunday 9 October 2016: GALWAY – ROISIN DUBH
Tickets: €10 members/€12 non-members from Roisin Dubh

Posted on July 6th, 2016

Artists: Ciaran Lavery, Daniel Holmes, Emily Lamey

About 2 years ago

With the forthcoming release of Let The Bad in and a productive and eventful SXSW Festival behind him, Ciaran Lavery has revealed the second single from the album due on May 27th.

‘Okkervil River’ adds a fresh perspective to Lavery’s craft, moving from ambient folk pop with digital beats to brass-lead crescendo swirling around his breathy vocals.

Lavery says Let Bad In is an album based on the naivety of childhood & the loss of that innocence with age. It all started as his uncle handed him an old VHS tape with home video footage of a family trip when he was seven.

Listen to the first single ‘Return To Form’

Ciaran Lavery Live shows:

6th May Belfast, St George’s Church
14th May Dublin, Freemasons Hall
23rd May Brussels, Huize 23 AB
24th May Hamburg, Prinzenbar
25th May Berlin, Badehause Szimpla
26th May Amsterdam, Bitterzoet
27th May London, St Pancras Old Church

Posted on April 13th, 2016

Artists: Ciaran Lavery

About 2 years ago

Antrim singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery has announced a second album Let Bad In to be released on May 27th.

The album promises that the largely acoustic-based musician will take influences from Americana and hip-hop but on first single ‘Return To Form’ its the Lavery we know well coming through:

Let Bad In‘s inception was inspired by home video footage of Ciaran at age seven and addresses childhood innocence and naivety.

“I was watching myself being so carefree, just doing things because I felt like it. I didn’t react to anything, I just did”, says Lavery. “It made me think about how much I can’t relate to that person anymore, as an older version of myself – I’m scarred by experience & previous life choices that have altered all my decisions for better or worse. No matter how much I try, I will never be that 7-year-old version of myself, I will never have that wide eyed innocence.”
“I have written 10 songs based all around that nostalgic innocence of youth & now, older, how I look at things, what things I face in the future. It’s a very personal album” he tells us. “How I felt about certain things at a certain age or point in my life, others reflective as an older version of myself looking back then forward. I felt it important to lace audio from the family trip throughout the album: it represents the who that I was. You can hear different members of my family, myself and even a scene of my brother and cousin showing off their tattoos for the camera. It’s all 100 % genuine.”

Photo: Kathrin-Baumbach / llustration: Glen-Kennedy

Tracklist

Sonoma
Okkervil River
The Show
Return To Form
Tell Them All
Let Bad In
Blood Red Fist
Wilder
Failing Light
Train

Live shows:

8th March The Social (Huw Stephens Presents), London
15th–19th March Austin TX, SXSW
6th May Belfast, St George’s Church
14th May Dublin, Freemasons Hall
23rd May Brussels, Huize 23 AB
24th May Hamburg, Prinzenbar
25th May Berlin, Badehause Szimpla
26th May Amsterdam, Bitterzoet
27th May London, St Pancras Old Church

Posted on February 17th, 2016

Artists: Ciaran Lavery

About 2 years ago

This year, Antrim singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery collaborated with Ryan Vail on the evocative windswept Sea Legs, but all the time, his solo career continued to reach more ears and tallied up over 22 million Spotify streams in the process.

His 2013 debut album Not Nearly Dark has just officially received a German market release and today, he embarks on a UK tour starting in Glasgow’s Nice N Sleazy tonight (dates below), so Lavery has chimed in with a new video for his standout track ‘Little More Time’ made by Film By Rocc.

UK Live Dates

October
16 Glasgow Nice N Sleazy
17 Newcastle Upon Tyne The Cluny 2
18 Leeds Games Room, Brudenell Social Club
19 Nottingham Rescue Rooms
20 Birmingham The Kitchen Garden Cafe
21 London The Islington
22 Brighton The Hope & Ruin
23 Bristol The Louisiana
24 Cardiff Four Bars at Dempsey’s
25 Manchester Castle Hotel

Posted on October 16th, 2015

Artists: Ciaran Lavery

About 2 years ago

Update: We had to reschedule the original date due to rainy weather which means that Elephant is playing instead of Ciaran Lavery.

After last year’s whopper success of a gig with Booka Brass Band and Somerville at Fitzwilliam Square, in which hundreds of people turned up, Happenings and Nialler9 present a special new Irish music outdoor double bill for the summer of 2015.

Ájo Arkestra are a big collective of musicians who know how to get a party started with their uptown downtown African funk – drawing from the rich heritage of soul, funk and rock of the African continent.

Joining them, are the rising tones of Dundalk’s Shane Clarke who performs brittle and beautiful music as Elephant.

The gig will take place on Sunday afternoon in the beautiful private park of Fitzwilliam Square. Families and all-ages are welcome.

Summer bites of falafel, locally sourced burgers and creamy coffees will be there on the day courtesy of Irish Village Markets.

Facebook event.

Posted on July 3rd, 2015

Tags: Fitzwilliam Square Happenings nialler9

Artists: Ajo Arkestra, Ciaran Lavery

About 2 years ago

As they did with Leo Drezden, Smalltown America hosted a performance from Sea Legs, Ciaran Lavery and Ryan Vail’s project that produced a short EP which evokes and is inspired by the Donegal coast.

As the EP is quite short, the pair performed a cover of SOAK’s ‘Sea Creatures’ as part of the set. Check out it below along with two video performances from the set.

The live set is available in HQ lossless formats via Independentmusic.com until 15th June.

Posted on June 11th, 2015

Tags: cover

Artists: Ciaran Lavery, Ryan Vail, SOAK

About 2 years ago

My new music show is live every Thursday from 10pm to midnight on TXFM. The show starts about six minutes into the first hour.

You can listen live on Thursdays to the show on 105.2FM, online, the iOs app, Android app or if you missed it, along with all the other shows, via the listen back section

Posted on June 5th, 2015

Tags: Radio show TXFM

Artists: Bicep, Boot & Tax, Ciaran Lavery, Crystal Knights, Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment, Jake Houlsby, Lianne La Havas, nozinja, SOAK, Vök

About 3 years ago

Sea Legs, the short collaborative album between Derry producer and Belfast singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery takes its serene atmosphere inspiration from the Donegal coast, which also leave an indelible ambient mark on the Sea Legs EP through captured fisherman chatter, the birds, winds and sea of the place throughout the release.

For such a small formed thing, that theme is accomplished enough for the musicians to weave impressions and songs throughout. ‘The Colour Blue’ and ‘Nick Cave’s Band’ are easy highlights as is ‘The Sea At Night’, which has Lavery’s folk song shrouded in tumultuous electronic textures with the man singing “i’ll become you when you rest.”

The album and CD are out now on Quiet Arch and can be pre ordered via www.pledgemusic.com/projects/sealegs.

It’s also on Spotify.

Here’s an interview I did with Quiet Arch’s Lyndon Stephens.

Posted on April 20th, 2015

Tags: Sea Legs

Artists: Ciaran Lavery, Ryan Vail

About 3 years ago

Ciaran Lavery & Ryan Vail’s joint EP as Sea Legs on new NI label Quiet Arch takes field recordings from the Donegal coast and weaves them into a tapestry of meditative folk and electronic tracks.

The pair have given us a listen to the lovely ‘The Colour Blue’. Here’s ‘Nick Cave’s Band’ from the short 18-minute 7-track EP.

The album will be released on April 17th/April 20th (Ireland/UK) on Quiet Arch on limited CD and a 10″ sea-green marbled vinyl record. Cover art by Theo Weedon.