Galway singer-songwriter Kevin Herm Connolly has returned with his new single Cariñito, ahead of the release of this third album later this year. We asked him the BIG questions . . .
Recorded between ARAD Studio in Dublin and Rio Bravo Studio in Valencia in Spain, the track is a cover of a classic song from the Peruvian cumbia repertoire.
"It was on a tiny dancefloor in Mancora, northern Peru, where I heard Cariñito for the first time," he says. "I was living there at the time and was immediately taken by it, its rhythm, its catchy chorus, the fact that everyone was singing along and dancing like crazy. I decided I had to work up my own version."
His translated version went viral in Peru during the pandemic when, during one of the various lockdowns, he posted a video performance online.
The press there latched on to it and it was shared widely, eventually reaching the ears of the widow of the original writer of the song, Aníbal Rosado, who contacted Kevin to give her approval.
Kevin is currently on the promotional trail in South America.
Tell us three things about yourself . . .
I wrote my first song when I was eight. It was about alcoholism. I can recognise any Beastie Boys song within three seconds of it starting. I got kicked out of Irish college as a teenager.
How would you describe your music?
With difficulty, but here goes... Indie folk, now with a Latin and Mediterranean tinge, due to my time spent living in Spain and South America.
Who are your musical inspirations?
They are a multitude but three of them would be Tom Waits, the aforementioned Beastie Boys, and maybe Leonard Cohen.
What was the first gig you ever went to?
Dire Straits in what was then called the Point Depot, in Dublin. I would have been about ten and I remember being annoyed that the guitar solos weren't the same as on the studio recordings.
What was the first record you ever bought?
I think it was a cassette single of Parachute by the Irish band Something Happens.
What's your favourite song right now?
A 1000 Times by Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam. So catchy and such a great vocal.
Favourite lyric of all time?
Impossible to choose but a line which comes to mind is Leonard Cohen's "You live your life as if it's real", from his song A Thousand Kisses Deep.
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
It would take me a long while before I got sick of Should Have Known Better by Sufjan Stevens, I imagine...
Where can people find your music/more information?
My website or on my social media pages: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
