Here - Music

There Is More Than One Artist With This Name 1 Paul O'Reilly Writes Songs To The Night To The Sky To The Birds For The Birds. It's A Gentle Revolution That Began When Mam And Dad O'Reilly Bought Paul A Guitar On His First Christmas In Dublin Having Moved There From Cork When He Was Ten. Growing Up In Swords North Dublin Paul Confesses To Having Spent His Childhood "Drawing Slayer Logos On My School Books" Then "miming In The Bedroom To Guns 'n‚ Roses Just Beating My Guitar Up." Fortunately For Paul And His Battered Guitar However An Encounter With The Sweet Sounds Of Acoustic Folk Music In The Summer Of 1999 Sent Him On A More Mellow Path And "It All Just Changed. I Went From Being An Angst Rocker To Being A Whiney Arsed Folk Idiot." Late '99 In Dublin Proved To Be A Perfect Time For This "whiney Arsed Folk Idiot" To Learn His Craft. Publishing His Own Fanzine Melancholia And Organising Gigs In The Intimate Blue Room Café Allowed O'Reilly To Nestle Into A Resurgent Dublin Song Writing Community Playing With Amongst Others Glen Hansard David Kitt Steve Fanagan Goodtime John John Hegarty And Adrian Crowley. Through These Gigs Paul Was Also Able To Nurture His Gently Distinctive Voice And Finger Picking Style. It's A Style That Resulted In Volta Sounds Heading Down To The Blue Room To Offer Paul A Record Deal. Deal In Place When It Came To Recording The Songs He'd Been Working On Paul Automatically Looked To Producer/cinematographer And Occasional Live Accomplice Steve Fanagan. A Few Months After Paul's Live Debut He And Fanagan Set About Laying Down Album Tracks In His Suburban Dublin Studio. As Paul Reveals "It Just Seemed Really Natural. Steve And I Recorded It Over Various Saturdays Between October 2000 And January 2001. There Was No Hassle No Pressure. It Was The First Time I'd Done Anything Properly In The Studio. I Just Wanted To Have A Guitar Bongos And Vocals. I Was Really Naïve About The Whole Thing. Thank God Steve Was There. I'd Call Round To The Studio In His House And He'd Be Like 5 Mins Out Of Bed. I'd Go And Watch T.V Then We'd Go And Do Some Recording Like Steve Doing Backwards Guitar Vocals Or Samples. Then We'd Listen Back. If We Liked It We'd Leave It On. It Was Fairly Simple But It Was Really Important To Have Steve There." Since Finishing First Thing In The Morning In January O'Reilly's Had The Spaceand Time To Hone His Act Supporting Self-Confessed "musical Heroes" Such As Will Oldham Dave Pajo Kristen Hersch January And The Frames. He Has Also Released A Split 7" With The Dudley Corporation On Scientific Laboratories And Covered Mojave 3's "Who Do You Love" On The Chinese Firedrill Fanzine Compilation. ____________ 2 Paul O'Reilly PAUL O Is A Singer Songwriter And Playwright From Enniscorthy Co. Wexford Ireland. He Has Been Song Writing And Performing For Many Years On The Local Traditional And Folk Music Circuit. In 2002 Paul Made A Conscious Decision To Dedicate More Of His Time To His Creative Side And As A Result Set About Designing His Home Recording Studio To Enable Him To Record His First Album And Also Wrote The First Draft Of His First Play. He Continues To Develop This Creative Work Today! Paul Was Born Paul Bernard O' Reilly On 24th August 1972. His Father M.J. And Mother Breda Reared Paul In A Music Rich Environment. M.J. Has Seven All-Ireland Titles To His Credit In The Genre Of Lilting Whistling And Newly-Composed Ballads As Gaeilge . M.J. Is Also A Fine Poet Singer And Musician And Paul's Mother Breda Is Also A Very Fine Singer. Their Duets Together Are Legendary In Enniscorthy. M.J.'s Father Myles Was A Fantastic Singer Rendering John McCormack Classics He Was Often Compared To The Great Tenor And Also Won An All-Ireland Whistling Title In The 1960's. Paul Began Learning To Play The Bodhran Around 1977 And This Talent Peaked With Him Winning The All-Ireland 15-18 Bodhran Championship In Sligo 1990. This Completed A Three Generation Span Of All-Ireland Title's For The O'Reilly Family. By 1990 Paul Had Been Playing The Guitar For 2 Years Learning The Hard Way By Travelling To Traditional Music Sessions And Jamming With The Old Masters. Paul Completed His Leaving Certificate In The CBS In 1990 And Went On To Study In Carlow RTC. He Stayed There Until 1994 Attaining A First Class Honours Degree In Software Engineering. Paul Followed A Dedicated Software Engineering Career Right Through His Twenties In Cork Dublin And Waterford Often Neglecting The Songs And Music He Once Had Adored. Over The Years However Paul's Song Writing Composing And Energetic And Melodic Guitar Playing Did Gradually Mature With Influences Ranging From His Father M.J.'s Traditional Ballads Paul Brady Jimmy MacCarthy Luka Bloom Kieran Goss Andy Irvine Donal Lunny Thom Moore Noel Brazil Mary Chapin Carpenter Bob Dylan Neil Young Phil Coulter Nick Drake Richard Thompson James Taylor Carole King Christy Moore Mick Hanley Kate Rusby And Many More. In 1998 Paul Had Two Songs Recorded By Local Wexford Artist Reilly's Daughter On Her EP "Underneath The Lights". Also In 1998 Paul Moved Back To His Native Home Enniscorthy And Began To Play Guitar More Regularly And Began Making Demo CD's On A Then Modern Windows 98 PC. It Wasn't Until 2002 However That Paul Finally Found The Time To Dedicate To His Songs And His Other Writings. This Was A Productive Year In Which Paul Finally Set Up His Home-Studio Capable Of Recording A CD Quality Sound Recorded His First Solo Track On A Publicly Released Album "Practically Every Day!" And Also Wrote The First Draft Of His First Play "These Old Walls". Paul Was Inspired To Write This Play After Attending The Enniscorthy Drama Festival And Witnessing Performances Of Fabulous Plays By Wexford Playwrights Billy Roche Belfry Andy Doyle Something About Roses And Also Martin McDonagh's "The Lonesome West". Paul's Drama And Prose Influences Are Varied And Include Wexford Writers Billy Roche John Banville And Andy Doyle As Well As Martin McDonagh Frank McGuinness Roddy Doyle Samuel Beckett Harold Pinter Brendan Behan Sean O' Casey And Bernard Farrell Amongst A Few. In 2003 Paul Decided It Was Time At Last To Have A Go At Making His Own Solo Album. As A Result Paul Spent Most Of The Year Producing Recording And Mixing His Debut Album 'Take A Wish' Which Was Released In November 2003. Paul's Second Play Of His 'Vinegar Hill Trilogy' 'Wild In The Country' Was Short-Listed At The Listowel Writers' Week In 2004. Paul Is Currently Secretary To Enniscorthy Launch Pad And Was One Of The Organisers Of The Very Successful Launch Pad Creative Writing Weekend Held In Enniscorthy In July 2004. read less