Pearse McGloughlin

'Keg' is the new album from Pearse McGloughlin. Combining modern folk stylings with an indie rock heart that weaves between the tender and the uplifting, Pearse McGloughlin has been honing his singular songwriting craft since before his debut record ‘Busy Whisper’ appeared in 2009. Often dealing with literary themes his writing speaks to the personal and the nostalgic, sometimes recalling actual events, at other times reaching out into the fantastical and the “artistically hifalutin”. Pearse’s latest work and his sixth studio album - Keg - is an upbeat delve into the rag and bone shop of the psyche, channelling Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Neutral Milk Hotel, Joe Meek and the lo-fi glint of a nineteen sixties documentary film. It is a melting pot of personal nostalgia, drum machines, spectral tape hiss, grief, glossolalia, media overwhelm, quiet country roads and giddy highs. Pearse has provided soundtracks and music for film (‘Shine’ and ‘Around Here’), myriad art projects (his music has featured in the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo (collaborating with his brothers , directors, Kevin and Páraic) and in commercial advertising. The music has been described as captivating, elegant and nuanced and has appeared in The Irish Times, on the BBC and RTE as well as at festivals such as Electric Picnic and on Irish television TG4. 'Keg' was recorded to tape by producer Julie McLarnon (Jeffrey Lewis, The Vaselines) at Analogue Catalogue in Newry, Northern Ireland. “We recorded Keg over a series of studio sessions in 2021/22. The process (of recording direct to tape) is more exacting than working digitally as you only get a few tries at it. You have to literally rewind the tape (and in so doing, write over your previous takes) to do another shot. So in a way, this album is actually a multi- layered collection, the final recordings most prominent among the ghosts of previous takes running through it.” Join Pearse and his brilliant band, Nocturnes (Billy Donohue, Yvonne Ryan, Enda Roche, Sweeney Lee) to hear new and old songs on June 30th in Bello Bar. 'songs of autumnal ambience, bringing shades of a serene Sigur Ros or Beach House' … The Sunday Times ‘softly embellished folk songs, often with a softly sweeping cinematic bent, the faint burble of electronics and a sense of the avant garde’…. Lauren Murphy, The Irish Times Special Guest: Poet Colm Keegan Colm Keegan Colm Keegan is an award winning writer and poet from Dublin, Ireland. His first book “Don’t Go There” was released in 2012 to critical acclaim. His latest collection “Randomer” is now available from Salmon poetry. His debut full-length play “For Saoirse” was staged in Axis Theatre and shortlisted for the Fishamble New Writing award in 2018. His short play “Something Worth Saying,” commissioned for the Abbey Theatre’s Dear Ireland project in 2020 was called ‘exquisite and devastating’ by reviewer Emer O’ Kelly. He was a co-founder and board member of Lingo, Ireland’s first Spoken Word festival. In 2014 was awarded a residency in the LexIcon, Ireland’s largest public library. He has developed numerous creative writing projects for schools and colleges across the country. He is a creative writing teacher and co-founder of the Inklinks Project, a writing initiative for young writers, and was the writer in residence for Carlow College St Patricks in 2019. He also developed and co-ordinates South Dublin Epic for SDCC arts office. He has recently released a special 10 year celebration limited edition of Three Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About (co-written with Kalle Ryan and Stephen James Smith), now available as a book for sale here and as an audio play on Spotify.