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A fascination with Hally

March 29, 2017

I first came across the artist known as Hally sometime around the end of the 90’s. I saw him play at the small “Stables” venue in Mullingar, which was at that time, a kind of musical church, with a different preacher passing through every weekend. I don’t remember the exact year but it was one of the earlier shows I had attended at the venue. A friend of mine had invited me along to the show, he was keen to see the opening act… some guy that had once been the lead singer with a band called Juniper. That was the first time I ever heard the name Damien Rice. It was the first time I heard those songs. First time I had heard songs of that power in real life.

That was the beginning of my years of enchantment with Damien and with the singer songwriter genre as a whole. In truth the name of Hally only stayed with me because he played that first time I heard Damien. That was it. The name Hally remained there, lodged in some corner of my brain, frozen in frost, preserved, but rarely visited. I had no reason to think of the man. For 17 years I moved through my days happy and Hally-less. Then, earlier this year, a friend of mine sent me a link to a video … “check this out, I think you’ll like it…” and there he was again, this Hally, with his face painted white, dressed in a striped jumper and waistcoat, singing about beach balls and handstands:

 

 

My friend was right. I did like it. It turns out that this was the first song of a proposed 52 song project called “Peeling Onions”. The project will run throughout 2017, with one new song & video being released every Sunday. I had never heard of such a thing! What a wonderfully ambitious project ! I loved how Grand the whole thing was, the very idea was seductive. My main thought: Could it be done?. Well so far so good… At time of writing the project is in it’s 14th week, and each week, as promised, a new piece has been released online. It’s been at different times dark, playful, explosive, wild. The quality has been consistently high and the music eclectic. There is a jazz element running through many of the tracks. Some are spoken word, some are half sung – half scatted. All of them are interesting and fall left of field. Already this is becoming an impressive body of work.

In the years of Hally’s “absence”, his time away from live performance, he was still writing, still learning. He spent some years in New York City at the beginning of this century where he became more and more interested in the recording side of the music business. Here, he made his first steps on the road towards becoming a record producer. Upon returning to Ireland, Hally studied Music and Media technologies at Trinity College Dublin and eventually set up his own “Arthouse” studios in Naas, Ireland. This has been the headquarters for the Peeling Onions project for these past months. I had the pleasure of hanging out with him there for a few hours recently, drinking tea and eating biscuits and laughing about the ups and downs of a musical life.

 

 

Equally impressive as releasing a new song each week, is the fact that each one has an accompanying music video. These videos are made in collaboration with visual artists, illustrators and creators the world over, many of whom Hally met during his time in New York. Some, I believe are compiled from footage sourced online that is in the public domain, spliced among footage that Hally and team hally have produced themselves. Whatever it takes to get it done. As this project is developing in real time, and there is still some way to go, Hally is always looking for people to collaborate on these videos. So if you read this, and that’s your world, and you think you’d like to be involved with this project, do reach out to Hally on Facebook.

The latest song from the project “White”, is one of the strongest so far. The production and instrumentation is of the highest quality as always. The song opens with the line “White powder falling out my nose, my clothes have been the same for almost a year”. “White” is accompanied by maybe the strangest video of the bunch to date. It was taken down by facebook for excessive nudity. As Hally told me over the phone “It’s not in the least bit sexual”… The video, as with almost everything in this project, is challenging… it pulls you out of your ordinary day and makes you shift your thinking in the way that only art can. You can watch all the skin and nudey parts here:

 

His is an unusual musical world and this work will not be for everyone. But I’m very excited to see and hear what’s coming down the track. This is a brave and Grandiose project and I for one applaud it! and I really hope that it reaches the audience it deserves.

 

Click here to check out all of the songs at Hally’s Youtube channel

The first of four album release concerts is happening on Saturday April 8th at Dublin’s Unitarian Church. It’s a full band show for Hally & I’m honoured to have been invited to open up the show. If you’re in the area do come along. I’m planning on playing a bunch of new songs too.

Tickets, €15, are available here.

 


Older Post: 10 Years of Rain ↠

Anthem

January 21, 2017

Last week I finished the great book “Sapiens: A brief history of human kind” by Yuval Noah Harari… It’s a wonderful book that I came away from with a better understanding of our species, where we’ve come from and where we might be headed. I highly recommended checking out the book… Some nights after finishing the book I had dream in which I heard or spoke the words “change the anthem”. When I woke I thought this was a cool idea. Around this time I had a new piece of music on the go… So I combined the dream-phrase, the after thoughts of the book and this piece of music together and a new song started to form…

Here’s a snippet from it. Hope you enjoy.

~ Peter

New song in the works… "Anthem" Rewrite the anthem rip up the contract(s) I feel a golden age coming on rewrite the anthem – rewrite the song when the Kingdom falls and the king don't come When the dam won't hold and the water runs When the veil lifts and the pieces fit We trade our skin for a new skin We trade our skin for a new skin Oh – let's play Oh – let's play on Oh yeah let's play Let's play God #singersongwriter #acousticguitar #bourgeoisguitars #irishmusic #originalmusic #indiemusic

A video posted by @peterdoran on Jan 21, 2017 at 7:51am PST


↞ Newer Post: 10 Years of Rain

Older Post: Bowie, Spooky Ghosts & Creativity ↠

The Great Trade

June 22, 2016

Introducing “The Great Trade”

 

For the past couple of years, in fits and starts, with great bursts of creativity quickly followed by long periods of distraction or working on other things, songs have been coming together for a new project called The Great Trade. These songs have been co-written with my friend Brian Murphy, a fellow Mullingar native who has contributed electric guitar and lap steel on my last two records.

The first beginnings of this project came when we were on tour in the UK and Holland in 2013. We were both looking for a way to play some shows outside of Ireland and somehow this tour came together. The entire tour lasted about three weeks I think and in that time we spent a lot of time together in vans, trains, hotel rooms, back stage areas and coffee shops. So much of being on tour involves waiting. You’re always waiting for the show to start it seems. Hurry up and wait. We filled these spaces with chatter and dreamings and wandering conversations. Out of some of these conversations came songs, or the beginnings of songs, the outlines of ideas.

It was interesting to be kicking around song and melody ideas with another human being for a change. It was exciting and had a speed and energy that I don’t often encounter when working on my own. This was the first signs of something coming together. There was a feeling, still is, that we could write some good songs together and more importantly enjoy challenging each other to write well.


The Great Trade

The Great Trade



After this 2013 tour I went on to write and record my “Outlines” album and then tour that. Brian has been busy with his other original project “Arrow in the Sky” and playing guitar with the band Cronin. In this way the time gets filled. We grabbed some time here and there in 2014 / 15 but have really turned our attention back to the project this year. In April we recorded our first video with the help of Mark Bennett and Darragh Glennon. The song is called “Blackberry Wine” and was inspired by a book I read about the life of Billie Holiday. I hope you enjoy:

Please let me know what you think. Does it sound different to my solo stuff ? If you have a moment to share the track on Facebook / Twitter so other folk might here it that would be super!! Songs get lonely too you know. Share it aboot.

Good wishes and thanks for reading

~ Peter


Blackberry Wine (Lyrics)

Meet me in the after-hours We’ll drink blackberry wine
There’s a place not far from here I think you’re gonna like
Caroline has fixed a little something for your mind
I’ve picked a dress to match your eyes
You’re gonna sing tonight

Let’s go to the good time house where the wine never spills
Let’s go to the good time house where nobody sees in
INTO this LOW HEAVEN

Pull the sheet from the piano they wanna hear you sing
Fly on up there don’t be frightened, show a little skin
Try anything you like
Little Bird don’t be shy

Let’s go to the good time house where the wine never spills
Let’s go to the good time house there’s no such thing as sin
DOWN in this LOW HEAVEN

-solo-

Fire cracks, opera echoes, Suzie cuts the deck
Horn players all blown out just blown in from the night
Here on top of the world
Little bird why so still

Let’s go to the good time house where the wine never spills
Let’s go to the good time house where nobody sees in
I won’t hit you too hard honey no just a little sting
HERE in this LOW HEAVEN

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Tour Announcement: Ireland 2015

March 19, 2015

Up Close & Personal Promotions Present:

Peter Doran Irish Tour 2015

Mullingar Singer-Songwriter Peter Doran takes his new album “Outlines” on the road from April -June with a series of intimate shows across Ireland, with all roads leading to a headline show at The Sugar Club in Dublin on June 20th. Read More

A week in Germany

March 14, 2015

Photos and journal entries from my recent German tour:

Last September, quite out of the blue, I had a mail from a German lady called Shel, inviting me to Cologne to play some shows. She explained to me that she organises private house concerts and other small shows there, and that artists like Mundy, Mark Geary, Liam O’Maonlai etc. had all played at her place. I’ve always wanted to play shows in Germany so I jumped at the chance! The tour was arranged for the end of February – last month – and I went into it with an open mind and high spirits. It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable weeks I’ve ever had, musical or otherwise.

Read More

The death and life of an acoustic guitar

February 20, 2015

With my martin J15 / Photo by Luke Danniells

January 20, 2011.

The fog was heavy and thick and we could hardly see the road in front of us. I was in the passenger seat staring out into the fog, a little nervous now and uncomfortable. This was not a night for driving. Out of the blackness on our left came another car. It cut across the road directly in front of us. It was too close and there was nowhere to go, we swerved, but our car hit the other and we both spun.

Read More

Exceptional Irish Songwriters: Damien Rice

February 11, 2015

In this series I take a look at some of my favorite Irish songwriters. Some you may know, others you may not. With any luck you’ll make some new musical friends along the way… Please enjoy… Mr. Damien Rice


Damien Rice – Manhattan.
photo by Lisa Carpenter Photography

There Once Lived a Beast and Beauty

I remember it well… The first time that I saw.  He was wearing a duffel coat the color of sand, hood-up like a monk. It was a winter night in Mullingar and Damien Rice was opening a show for a songwriter called Hally, who had just released an album called “A fascination with Poppy”. I was around seventeen years old, with a great love for music, but no particular interest in songwriters. But something about this Rice guy caught my attention. It may have been his intensity? his voice? the songs? Probably all three. There was  a sense of mystery about him, a story… That story was that he had walked away from a band seemingly on the edge of success (Juniper), travelled around Europe, and even spent some time living as a farmer in Tuscany. So far, so romantic. Read More

The World is Wide

September 3, 2014

“The World is Wide” official video (By Lucy Jones) coming this month… Listen to the album track and see stills from the video below:

Lucas and Zakk Baker in the Official Video for “The World is wide”


I’ve got a friend called Lucy. Lucy is a video maker, and a saint. Last year at a show, she heard me play a song called “The World is Wide”  and she was struck with the idea to make a video for it. Well I’m delighted to tell you that she’s done it! She followed through and turned the idea into reality, and it looks beautiful. Read More

A Film-Maker, A Songwriter and a Grandmother walk into a Room…

August 25, 2014

Written by Peter Doran for peterdoran.com. Sign up for free newsletter here

Last month I had the pleasure of spending a day with Myles O’Reilly, an Irish Film-Maker whose work I’ve been a fan of for a long time. I knew that good things would come from the day but the resulting 11 minute film is greater than I could have ever wished for. I am so excited to share this with you:

“Brilliant 11 minutes. So much more than a music video. Bone-marrow Irish but some how also Universal. So Fine.” – @Stilpix via Twitter

Read More

Diving with a clear mind + Album release dates

July 23, 2014

Written by Peter Doran for peterdoran.com. Sign up for free newsletter here

Swedish high diver Arvid Spangberg at the 1908 Olympic Games from the fourth Olympiad.

I was chatting with a friend recently, let’s call him Brian – because that’s his name – we were listening to my soon-to-be-released album “Outlines”. I told him that I was starting to feel a bit stressed out about what to do next. The recording process had been so natural, organic and peaceful the whole way through, but now that the record was done I was starting to feel overwhelmed about next steps. Read More

Exceptional Irish Songwriters – Rhob Cunningham

July 16, 2014

Written by Peter Doran for peterdoran.com. Sign up for free newsletter here

Photograph by Tristan Hutchinson

In this series I take a look at some of my favourite Irish songwriters. Some you may know, others you may not. With any luck you’ll make some new musical friends along the way… Please enjoy… Mr. Rhob Cunningham. Read More

Video: Live From a Dublin Café

July 9, 2014

Written by Peter Doran for peterdoran.com. Sign up for free newsletter here

New songs “Things You’re Dreaming of”, “Always Kind” & “Tug”, filmed live in Dublin May 2014.

A few weeks back, I played a show at Bewley’s Café Theatre, one of my favourite venues in Dublin. Musicians With Cameras, the good people behind the “Every Little Thing” video, were in the crowd on the night and made this short musical film:

“From the opening swaying notes of ‘The Things You’re Dreaming Of’, Peter Doran’s music seems to fill the venue as the soft ambience of shimmering guitar backing the songwriter’s gently performed vocal. With the camera work cutting from Doran and his band performing to reactions from the captivated crowd, the musician’s clear talents are visually conveyed to great effect.”

– The last Mixed Tape Blog


Enjoy the Video? Feel like being awesome?…

Help us get the music to more people by sharing the video on Facebook / Twitter / etc.  Grab it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thiu_o-SpRo

I hope these songs bring you some kind of joy. ~PD


 Credits:

Filmed at Bewley’s Café Theatre, by Luke Byrne and Stephen Allen, Thursday 29th May 2014. Edited by Stephen Allen

All songs by Peter Doran. Performed by Nicky Brennan (Electric Guitar), Darren Sweeney (Bass) and Peter Doran (Acoustic Guitar & Vocals)


I’d love to hear your thoughts on the songs and the video! Would you like us to do a show in your town? Write to me at peterdoranmusic[at] gmail [dot] com or use the comment box below. I will get back to you.




“Outlines” – New Record is DONE

July 2, 2014

Written by Peter Doran for peterdoran.com. Sign up for newsletter & get free music here

Here, in this little house, we made a record.

 “Outlines”, the fourth album from Peter Doran is due for release this Autumn.

My fourth album, “Outlines” has crossed the finish line! The album was mastered on Monday by Roger Seibel of SAE Mastering,  in Arizona. Roger did an amazing job and the record sounds absolutely gorgeous! I chose Roger because he has mastered albums from many of my favourite singer/songwriters including Bill Callahan, Alela Diane, Laura Veirs, The Decemberists and Elliot Smith. He’s pretty much the man for this genre of music. Read More

Musical Values in a digital age:

June 19, 2014
Written by Peter Doran for peterdoran.com. Sign up for newsletter & get free music here.

Photo by Sergey Sergeev (Wet Plate Collodion)

Some thoughts on abundance vs scarcity, & the values of recorded and live music in the digital age:

Read More

Tea, Chocolate, Music, Books.

June 5, 2014

My mouth tastes of dark chocolate and green tea. I’m at the kitchen table listening to Jeff Buckley’s “Grace” record, a life-shaking album if there ever was one!  I’m not feeling in full-blown essay mode this week, but I’d like to share some of the interesting things that have crossed my mind, eyes and ears in the last week or so:  Read More

The Story of Sleepless Street

May 28, 2014

 My second album “Sleepless Street” celebrated its fourth birthday this week. If you haven’t heard it yet, now is the perfect time to discover it… For a little while, “Sleepless Street” is available as a free download over at bandcamp.com.

> CLICK HERE TO GET SOME SLEEPLESS STREET IN YOUR LIFE <

Name-your-price Download of “Sleepless Street” at Bandcamp.com

Please share this music with anyone who might enjoy it. That’s what it’s there for after all.

Read More

You want the Moon?

April 24, 2014

“Last Night I was dreaming about you my love, last night I was dreaming of you. In the morning you didn’t materialise, in the morning you didn’t come true” – Peter Doran , “Moon”

Come close, I’ve got a new song for you…

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon, Mary. ”
― George Bailey

Read More

Exceptional Irish Songwriters – Pearse McGloughlin –

April 16, 2014

“You and I have hearts that are lonely hunters” – Pearse McGloughlin, “Spherosphere”.

I decided recently that I would take more care with this little website of mine. The plan is to add something new here each week. I want the site to grow, to give value, to entertain! Today, I want to introduce you fine people to some new music. Read More

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