Ahead of the release of a new anthology collecting the finest of his '80s output, cult Irish music legend Stano writes for Culture about taking a look back, musically - and looking forward.
In 2018 John Byrne contacted me about re-releasing my debut album Content to Write in I Dine Weathercraft. through All City Records. My initial response was 'why are you keen to reissue an album I released in 1983?' and their response was that ‘There has never been anything quite like it’.
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To my surprise, it received amazing reviews in Britain - Boomkat gave it a glowing review saying that the album was uncategorisable, referencing the new young Irish bands like Fontaines DC, Girl Band and Murder Capital. I suppose the link there was that I sang in my own Dublin accent, and the 1983 reviews in Ireland referenced Beckett, Joyce and other literary figures. That year, Boomkat put it at number 2 in their reissues of the year and number 5 in their classic album charts alongside my musical peers, people I’ve admired over the years - Philip Glass, Brian Eno, Talk Talk and Can.
The first 2 pressings of Content to Write in I Dine Weathercraft sold out very quickly so All City Records asked if I would be interested in releasing an anthology. As I was so close to the material, I asked Olan O’Brien (All City Records) and Cork native and music archivist John Byrne to select the tracks. When I’m recording an album I’m totally focused on it, and when it’s finished I don’t really think about it any more - my focus turns to the next one - so it was really useful to have their input into the track selection.
The anthology has encouraged me look back at not just the body of work (15 albums since 1983) but to those early days of being a young punk in Dublin, the freedom and excitement of the time. Searching through the old reviews and the posters of all the gigs here, in London and around Europe, remembering the great musicians and performance artists I’ve shared a stage with. Truly exciting times.
I’m also looking forward to recording more stories for my In Between Silence, where we really exist collection when the restrictions are lifted, I have great contributions from Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, Dermot Bolger, Joseph O’Connor, Robert Ballagh, Paula Meehan, Theo Dorgan, Aidan Gillen and many more Irish artists and writers - the collection currently stands at 100 stories.
Before lockdown, I was in New York and recorded stories from 3 generations of the same African-American family and the legendary Jazz bassist Ron Carter, I had been commissioned to record migrant stories for the UN this year but that had to be postponed due to COVID 19 travel restrictions.
Working on the anthology has been an amazing experience, and a surprise to me that we could only fit 1982 - 94 on the double vinyl. I suppose I’ve underestimated the quantity of work I’ve produced over the years. Now I’m really looking forward to Volume 2, which will include tracks from number 16, which I’m working on at the moment.
Stano - Anthology is released on September 26th on AllChival - find out more here.
