Laois-based alternative rock artist Damien Cain has teamed up with UK singer Jamie Wiltshire for new song, Caleb. We asked Damien the BIG questions . . .
56-year-old Damien's career spans over three decades and his work includes a collaboration with the late actor Christopher Lee.
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Jamie Wiltshire has composed music for shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC, and Channel 5.
Caleb is described as "a rare male/male duet about memory, loss and letting go. Released ahead of Pride Month, it carries a subtle queer perspective within a universal story".
Tell us three things about yourself . . .
Even though I am probably the biggest optimist in the world, a quiet melancholy runs through my life; a mixture of longing and hope, which isn't negative at all, but a constant companion.
Anyone who knows me knows that my inner child is always active beneath the surface. There are phases where I can be playful and really silly, which some oh-so grown-up people might find embarrassing, but for me, it is both a drive and an outlet, and I don't want to change that anyway.
In addition to that, I can be quite stubborn: when I sink my teeth into a topic, I won't let go until it is either settled or resolved in my favour, or until I eventually have to accept that it can't be solved. My mother used to call me short-tempered as a little boy; the only thing that has really changed since then is that I no longer throw myself on the floor, drumming my arms and legs to get my way. At least not as often as I used to… maybe that’s also why I am musically incorrigible.
How would you describe your music?
Dark and melancholic, but not for its own sake, rather because it best reflects my moods. I process what I see, experience, and feel through my lyrics and music; a lot of it revolves around love in all its facets. Sometimes those are quiet tones, but sometimes I just have to scream it out loud. In every case, they are stories from my own experience. Consequently, my musical career has been shaped by everything from metal, emo, Celtic punk, and gothic rock to pop-rock… a real algorithm-killer, better not try to put me in a box.
Who are your musical inspirations?
I grew up in the 1980s, and all the impressions of that decade have left their mark. There were bands like Queensrÿche or Dream Theater, The Mission and Fields of the Nephilim, ranging to New Model Army and Bad Religion, strange outliers like Fischer-Z, all the way to Melissa Etheridge, Pat Benatar, Depeche Mode, The Pet Shop Boys, The Pogues, Genesis, Spandau Ballet, The Alan Parsons Project … and basically everything by Jim Steinman. And thanks to my great aunt, I got a taste of classical operettas, which can be quite inspiring (highlight: The Tsarevich by Franz Lehár). I didn’t stop at anything and let myself be inspired by whatever I liked. By the way, I still do that today.
What was the first gig you ever went to?
That was - and is probably one of the reasons why I live in Ireland today - Chris de Burgh: November 9th, 1984. Westfalenhalle Dortmund, Germany. 15,000 people with their arms around each other, singing A Spaceman Came Travelling together, and me as a fourteen-year-old right in the middle of it. His album was number 1 in the German charts back then. I know that mentioning his name today triggers very different reactions. And I can partly understand that, because with The Lady in Red, he perhaps lost a crucial piece of his musical integrity, considering he was a fantastic romancer and storyteller until that hit (yes, his biggest one). I took that from him: the storytelling, the sharing of experiences, processed into chords and rhymes.
What was the first record you ever bought?
That’s another musical outlier: it was The Visitors by ABBA. Actually a band that my mother loved above all else alongside Elvis Presley, but BFBS (the British Forces Broadcasting Service in Germany) played I Let the Music Speak back then, a song that a German station probably would never have played simply because of its length of over five minutes - and I was thrilled and had to have the album. I still listen to the record today; even though it was ABBA’s last one (before the 2021 reunion), for me, it is the album by the band.
What’s your favourite song right now?
I only half-heartedly follow the charts and my favourite bands have been surprisingly quiet recently, but there is actually one song that really touched me: Younger You by Miley Cyrus and Lainey Wilson, specifically the duet version. The simplicity of this country song in an era of overproduced music, the wonderful lyrics, and of course the voices of both singers are just a fantastic combination that really grabbed me. And the last line of the song: "When you’re standing on the stars, just don’t forget who you are…, " can be so beautifully applied to everything happening in the world right now. And for some reason, I love duets in music anyway.
Favourite lyric of all time?
Thank God there are so many good lyrics, so it’s hard to pick just one song. But if I have to commit, it will be a classic: "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls . . . " Yes, The Sound of Silence is one of the strongest lyrics in the world for me. It’s lyrics like these that I always try to measure myself against, even if I’ll probably never be their equal. What I appreciate about good lyrics is that you just can tell they were created with heart and soul, and not by some rhyme generator, may it be human or AI.
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Hard question again, but my undisputed all-time favourite is The Kill by Thirty Seconds to Mars. For me, the ultimate Emo anthem, though today the song is likely considered a general rock classic. The musical and lyrical struggle with oneself is a masterpiece. When I heard the song for the first time, my musical focus was completely different, but The Kill with Jared Leto’s vocal power, the fantastic songwriting, and of course the music video, which I only saw for the first time years later, brought me back to my musical roots, and I thank Jared and his band for that.
Where can people find your music/more information?
Linktree. I genuinely appreciate everyone who stops by to listen and I'm always open to honest feedback or a good discussion.
Alan Corr
