Composer, producer and performer Kormac has released his new single, Waiting On You featuring MayKay, ahead his Easter Saturday Retrospective at The National Concert Hall, Dublin on 30 March. We asked them the BIG questions . . .
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Kormac's career has spanned 15 years and he has released three albums, played hundreds of live shows the world over and composed major TV and film soundtracks.
He will celebrate his career with Always The Sound: A Retrospective at The National Concert Hall.
To mark the occasion, he has collaborated with Fight Like Apes singer and Other Voices presenter MayKay.
Speaking about the new song, he says, "There are three completely different uses of MayKay’s voice in the track; the sombre, delicate opening where it's simply her voice and piano, the chorus hook made to sound like a sample, and the chopped up, glitched, distorted snippets of her voice"
The NCH is quite a sentimental venue for Kormac: "My most recent album, Equivalent Exchange, was actually written with the National Concert Hall in mind," he says.
"It was the first body of work I’d written that used an orchestra on every track and I visited the hall every week for over a year watching any orchestra I could, learning as much as possible.
"Over that period, I really fell in love with the room. When it came time to mix the album, I tried to make it sound as if the listener was sitting right in the centre of row four."
At the show, he will perform tracks from his back catalogue and early releases as well as Equivalent Exchange.
His ensemble and the Irish Chamber Orchestra will debut some of his film and TV compositions.
"I can’t think of a better venue to showcase my earlier work, the music I’ve been making recently and to show people where I’m headed in the future. I’m so delighted to have a huge number of the collaborators I’ve worked with over the last 15 years joining me on the night. I think it’s going to be one for the books!"
Tickets for Kormac’s Always The Sound: A Retrospective are on sale now from NCH.ie.
Tell us three things about yourself . . .
MayKay: I’m from Ardclough in Kildare. I love the darts. I have a dog that I found in a bin.
Kormac: I was born in Dundalk and live in Dublin. I'm nonplussed on the darts. I had a budgie (RIP) and never got over it...
How would you describe your music?
MayKay: Absolutely fine
Kormac: Ever-changing! Hardest question to answer, that….
Who are your musical inspirations?
MayKay: Jenny Lewis, Jamie Fox, Baxter Dury, Elaine Mai, Kormac.
Kormac: Sonic Youth, A Tribe Called Quest, GoGo Penguin, Jeff Mills, MayKay!
What was the first gig you ever went to?
MayKay: I really don’t know the answer to this but the one I remember being life changing is The Immediate in Whelan’s of Dublin.
Kormac: Guns N’ Roses at Slane Castle with my Dad
What was the first record you ever bought?
MayKay: Aquarium by Aqua.
Kormac: Use Your Illusion - Guns N’ Roses.
What’s your favourite song right now?
MayKay: Can I have two? Waiting on You by Kormac and Fiáin by Huartan.
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Kormac: I’m Still Somehow by El Michels Affair and Fight Like Apes’ cover of Sinéad O’Connor’s Black Boys on Mopeds.
Favourite lyric of all time?
MayKay: McLusky - To Hell With Good Intentions. "My dad is bigger than your dad, He's got eight cars and a house in Ireland, Sing it, My love is bigger than your love, Sing it, My love is bigger than your love, Sing it".
Kormac: Not sure if it's of all time but love Little Simz. I got bangers out in the world soarin', And I got bangers in the vault I've been hoardin', Yeah, true I got tennis in the mornin', Before I start swingin' that man's gonna need a warnin'".
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
MayKay: The Well Below the Valley-O from Pauline Scanlon’s criminally underrated 2022 album The Unquiet.
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Kormac: At the moment it feels like Sweet Dreams - Angel Olsen (the demo version) but this changes constantly.
Where can people find your music/more information?
Instagram - maykay316. Kormac - my website.
Alan Corr
