The Bring Your Own Hammer Project, which features Fergal Lawler of The Cranberries have released From the Tombs, the first single and title track from their upcoming second album. We asked Mike Smalle of the project the BIG questions . . .
We need your consent to load this Spotify contentWe use Spotify to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Bring Your Own Hammer is a music and history series in partnership with London label Dimple Discs, which specialises in Anglo Irish relations, and brings historians and composers together to create new and original songs based on historical sources and to re-interpret song material rooted in the history of nineteenth-century Ireland and of the Irish diaspora.
From the Tombs is rooted in the story of an Irish servant in New York City in 1881 and includes contributions from Mike Smalle (cane141; Augustus & John and B-Movie Lightning), June Miles-Kingston (Everything but the Girl), Marcus Holdaway (High Llamas), Bernard Butler (Suede, McAlmont & Butler), Ian Catt (Saint Etienne) and Terry Edwards (Hot Chip).
On 5 October 1881, the New York Tribune reported that a servant was committed to the Tombs, charged with infanticide. She is later convicted of manslaughter in the 4th degree.
She is sentenced and sent to Blackwell Island. On 15 June 1883, her sentence is commuted by four months for good behaviour and she is released on 25 July 1883 after serving nearly two years.
However, she then disappears from the historical record. From the Tombs is a sequel song to and largely based on the same sources as Old Oak Road by Mike Smalle with Cathal Coughlan and Jah Wobble, which was a lead single from their first album, My Grief on the Sea.
Tell us three things about yourself . . .
I'm a librarian by day. I have two dogs. I once starred in a George Kuchar movie.
How would you describe your music?
Homespun melodic pop and instrumental music using an array of acoustic and electronic instruments.
Who are your musical inspirations?
My musical inspirations range from ’60s pop through post-punk, dub and reggae, northern soul, Flying Nun records, Italo disco, and all sorts of experimental and electronic music. Perennial faves include Broadcast, Arthur Russell, Vini Reilly, The Go-Betweens, Basil Kirchin, Can, Love, Scott Walker, Microdisney, Aphex Twin, Cocteau Twins, Burial, and Augustus Pablo.
What was the first gig you ever went to?
Status Quo at Leisureland in Galway.
What was the first record you ever bought?
The Youth of Today by Musical Youth.
What’s your favourite song right now?
Even Dogs in the Wild by The Associates, a wonderful track from 1980 by the late great Billy Mackenzie and Alan Rankine.
Favourite lyric of all time?
The Wrong Road by The Go-Betweens, penned by Grant McLennan, 20 years gone this year: "A trader in furs living in exile, Boy what a kook, Look at that passport, Stale bread and paper without privilege, If you live here learn the language, When the rain hit the roof, With the sound of a finished kiss, Like when a lip lifts from a lip, I took the wrong road round".
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Ordinary Joe by Terry Callier.
Where can people find your music/more information?
Alan Corr
