2022-10-30 Zaska - The Grand Social, Dublin

It's funny, I've seen Zaska play many times, just never at his own gig... So, when I saw he was having an album launch party for A Better Way, I thought to myself, I'll head to The Grand Social for that!

Then things got crazy. I ended up in Scotland that week for a family wedding, got home, the car was in the garage for repairs (still is as I type this) and I'd to figure out the logistics of late night public transport in Ireland for the first time in years!

Was it all worth it? Oh hell yeah! It was a fantastic night of music and the room was filled with lots of love for this man! Special guests on the night included Gemma Dunleavy, Tolü Makay, Karen Cowley (Wyvern Lingo), Melina Malone, Jess Kav, Faye O'Rourke (Soda Blonde), Precious Okpaje, Carly Coonagh and J Smith. It was a veritable who's who of Irish music talent.

I finally got to meet up with Adele McAlear, Zaskas manager, chatted with the one and only Danny G (might of hatched a plan there) and just had an absolutely brilliant night. The new album sounds wonderful and I made sure to pick up a copy before I left for home!

Speaking of home, on the way there I met the Bearded Badger. Who? The Bearded Badger! You may or may not know him from TikTok, but he is a storyteller with a love for sticks and he, to quote him, fucking loves sticks. Check him out!

Anyway, go buy A Better Way. In fact, go buy it, put it in your collection, then stream it on your phone!

And now for the part none of you were waiting for, the photos:

2022-03-26 Buskers on Grafton Street, Dublin

I took a walk around Dublin today, thought I'd check out the buskers on Grafton Street. There's a fine history of busking in Dublin, acts like Hothouse Flowers , The Frames , Rodrigo y Gabriela , Damien Rice , Paddy Casey , Kodaline and a host of others all cut their teeth on and around Grafton Street. It stands to reason that some of those busking today will be successful in the future! So, who did I get to see today? Well, check out the photos below: Zoe Clarke Allie Sherlock Paul Jenkinson

Bye Bye Spotify...

I ditched Spotify Premium this weekend. Why? Well, I read an interview with Daniel Ek , the CEO of Spotify, and I profoundly disagreed with what he said and his attitude towards musicians in the interview. So I said 'F*ck it', and closed my premium account. I still do have a free account* as many bands choose Spotify to release their music, so I'll keep it for that reason. What now though? Well, I'd created a large library of music on my home server over the last 20 years or so. Every time I bought a CD, it got ripped to the server. Every time I bought digital music from Bandcamp , Google or 7 Digital , they too got stored on the server, and that was fine for home use, it worked well. But now I'd dumped Spotify, what could I do, how could I access my music outside the house? I'd played around with software called Plex a few years back, but had no use for it. I ended up doing nothing with Plex, but for this project, I decided to revisit it. I knew that i

Pete Kavanagh - Mercy Video Shoot

I've been asked a few times if I'd be interested in shooting a music video. Each time I said no because, well, I'd no idea what to do. I'm not technical behind a camera. I know the look I want, I take my photos and, that's it. I honestly don't know what I'm doing, it just works for me, sometimes (they're the photos you see!). I've known Pete Kavanagh a long time. We both grew up in the same Kildare town and know many of the same folk. Over the last few years we became friends through music. He played, I listened and or photographed. So, when he asked me if I'd shoot his video for 'Mercy', I said yes, albeit a hesitant yes, one filled with self doubt! Day one of shooting came around all too quickly for me. I'd looked in to shooting video, read up a bit on how to do it on my camera, what settings to change and so on, just so I wouldn't look clueless on set! I charged all the batteries and lights, packed all the gear away an

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