“tina's song”

this song was written after the most amazing day with someone, but it all had to end too soon. the experience still lingers in the back of my mind every day since, almost a year later.

i found the backing guitar effect by accident, the day i started recording. got everything in the one take, i put a few violins and cellos on it and the whole song was ready in about 30mins. i dont really mind if anyone gets this song it really is just meant as a message to one person, but i was really happy with the final result.

The Barter

i cant remember much from this cul de sac, i remember the park up the road with the slides (i am told this park are now flats) i remember walks with my father thru the nearby woods and a boy across the road called cian. he had a tractor and trailer which i wanted real bad. i must have been three at the time when we agreed on a trade, he was four, but he didnt know what he wanted in return. i remember seeing a 6pack of sliver wrapped choc bars in the kitchen and decided this would have to do. when we meet halfway between our houses for the trade he was delighted with the bars, grabbed them off me and ran into the woods to devour them. i spent the rest of the day until it got dark playing on my new automobile. my mother came looking for me and asked where i got the tractor and i told her from cian and we swoped for the bars in the kitchen, my mother freaked at what i had done and came over to cians house with me to return the tractor, where we found hat his mother had killed him too. he got back his tractor and trailer back and i never saw those choc bars again.....and i learned my first lesson; nothing in life goes the way you want it to.

Gig Story

"The Phoenix"
Union Quay
Supporting: Captain Crotch.
22-07-05
my setlist tonite was:
1_collisions
2_thank you for memories
3_save your breath(with dav)
4_Thirty-Three (Smashing Pumkins cover)
5_IN VIVO
6_wrestle me to the ground
7_1200 Riverside Drive(with aiden)

i enjoyed the gig tonite, cant believe i forgot a verse in collisions! i sat on the edge of the stage which was prob a bad idea cos not many people could see me. "save my breath" got a good reaction, people clapped along, dav went down well with the crowd. it felt good playing "thirty-three" and "IN VIVO" and aidens guitaring sounded amazing on the last song, "1200 Riverside Drive", and was a perfect song to end with. Captain Crotch really got the crowd going and played a well deserved encore. horaay for the euro saver menu in macdonalds!! ha!

The Cul de Sac

i cant remember my exact first memory, but i have a few vivid ones. i remember living in blackrock in a cul de sac. my mothers spagettii apron, my fathers image coming to the front door on the frosted pane when he was finished work, walking around in his "giant shoes", him cutting the hedges on the wall next to our house, my toy which i used play with all the time(it was a toy with a cane that you pushed and things in a plastic dome used hop up and down), i also remember going into the front room and knocking the couch on its back(how strong was i?!) and crawling into the new shelter i had made.

“Sure i Sure”

this song was written after the first isinglas gig in pine lodge about 4 in the morning, my ears were still ringing and was i shaken up after backing into someones car by accident and brian was like "DRIVE, DRIVE!!" this is my first attempt at bass on a recording, mike mills from R.E.M is my fav bass player of all time so tried to play something like he would. the song is in the same line as "save your breathe" if your hear carefully you can hear clapping but i wish it was more promiment...

“1200 Riverside Drive”

The music for this was written 2 years ago in clon(if ciara is reading this, you were there when I fooling with chords!) the words were re-written in LA after I hung with this girl I was crazy about all nite at a party on the 4th of July (cops were called and everything twas crazy!) anyways thru this girl she hooked me up with this guy alex who was in this band they asked me to go jam with them in there house on the other side of Burbank. They picked me up after work and I came armed with this song and my new Gibson. They had the garage turned into a band room with lots of gear. alex played drums and guitar and his brother played bass(very well I might add) we started to jam the song, I sang thru a shitty PA and played my guitar thru a sweet marshall stack, alex played my ebow at the start of the song and as the song picked up he played the drums. These guys were totally fucked up on drugs and alcohol that nite, but they still managed to play in sync! It was unreal! The third guy was just dancing like a hippy while we jammed with his eyes closed. The guys were shocked the song was so different to what they usually had heard cos of bands like linkin park and hoobastank were what they were used to. We jammed until the sun came up and I ate some crazy Mexican food I never heard of before. They then dropped me home (still not quite sober!) I got two hours sleep before I was woken and we had to take mairead to LAX in a shitty RV that fell apart on the 101 but that's another story.....

“IN VIVO”

ok the subject matter in this song is pretty obvivous so im not gonna explain it! ha! but i played this song to a friend the other day after i had recorded it, when i came back a couple of mins later( i always leave the room when people listen to my songs!) shes was balling crying saying the song was so painfully honest and touching, suddenly all this time ive spent playing music has been worth ever second just for that moment...thank you carol for doing sucha a fantastic job on the vocals!

“7 Musical Interludes for a Motion Picture”

ahh yes the pretentious song, ha! i decided to structure this songs with themes etc and not let the song go with the flow as i normally would and think everything out. i wanted the piano to sound like something from a film, hence "Musical Interludes for a Motion Picture" part. 7 being my favourite number i want 7 different parts, emer played the bass drum on this, she added to the concept by making the drums sound like a heart beating, i recorded the sounds in fountainstown on the beach and at the playground in carrigaline on a big romantic adventure with annie one sunday after work. nature, youth, meeting someone, starting a family and death were some of the things i wanted include in the song with the sounds, i was include some lyrics but decided to leave them out. i taught they might take away form it. thanks for listening to pretentious song if you did!