Maria Doyle Kennedy introduces her new album, Fire on the Roof of Eden, recorded at home under lockdown with husband and musical collaborator Kieran Kennedy.
Hola mi Guapos, how are the heads? I think it looks a small bit brighter now, I'm feeling hopeful for hugs and gigs and people together.
Something good, something beautiful that has been birthed to us (by us?) in this time is new music and so (especially for those of you who have been looking for the new tunes, but always for whoever might want or need it), we bring you a new album, Fire on the Roof of Eden, full to the lip (72 minutes) with our year.
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It is truly a document of the time and all the things you might feel in a year where the world sometimes seemed to be hanging by a thread and you couldn’t travel to play live music, to share the thing that you were making in the usual way - but also time in which you got a really good look at yourself and those who were nearest to you, and a time when you had a lot of good thinks about what life is for, or how it should proceed from here.
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Listen: Maria Doyle Kennedy talks to RTÉ Arena
I have no idea why this project is still called 'Maria Doyle Kennedy' as it is definitely more than 50% of Kieran’s (NB: Maria's husband and musical collaborator Kieran Kennedy) work and genius and 100% of his energy. He was always able to go to the studio ( which is set up at one end of the kitchen) and put the headphones on and disappear into the tunes for several hours a day. He didn’t think about the outside world while he was there , and just plain refused to be distracted from his purpose of making this album. I, on the other hand, flailed around a bit like Chicken Little... "The sky is falling... Is the sky falling? Are the kids ok? Is all the recording going to be in the kitchen? How will I avoid eyeing up the laundry?How the f&*% do you make Zoom a thing that feels like real connection? Are the kids ok? I don’t have all the lyrics yet... My voice is a bit croaky... Will any of us ever want to go out and gather again? Is the sky falling?"
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Luckily, my husband has experience in such matters. Slowly he persisted, and got me to the microphone. We began by working on some songs we had already previously recorded, as it was kind of a good way to get going. There were tunes that we hadn’t fully realised or let go of, or we were just hearing them in a different way now after some more years of growing. Then the new songs began to arrive and they were connected and coming from the same place. And there are lots of small splashes of beautiful music without words too... There are always pieces of tunes floating around after you make an album but this time somehow, they seemed not to be unfinished songs but instead little keys into the work itself, like little magic doors.
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The album title, by the way, also came from Kieran. For me, it means a threat that has come to all you know, a danger that might unmoor and raze to the ground - and how will you cope or hold on or change?(But really, you will have to ask him.) I am very, very happy to share it with you.
Also, there’s a prize for the first person to spot the child/washing machine/cat in the background of a tune...
Fire on the Roof of Eden by Maria Doyle Kennedy is out now - find out more here.
