Paddy Dennehy joins us in the Upstairs venue on Friday night. In advance of his show, Paddy took some time out to talk to us about his career to date, his inspiration and his plans going forward.
Dennehy’sfirst ever gig in Dublin was performing on 'The Late Late Show' after their booking team stumbled across him on YouTube. His first time playing his own material in Cork was a personal invitation from Glen Hansard to join him onstage at the Everyman Theatre after hearing him play 'Hard Times' on an old upright piano at the back of Benner's Hotel in Dingle.
The first full band show to a mesmerised audience at Electric Picnic's 'Trailer Park Stage' left no one in doubt that they were seeing the beginning of something quite special indeed.
“I grew up just outside of Bruree in County Limerick but moved to the city when I was thirteen to go to St. Clement's College”, Paddy says. “I'm not quite sure where that leaves me regarding whether I'm from the country or the city”.
Music seems to be in the Dennehy genes. Paddy has two sisters, both of whom are teaching in the Limerick School of Music.
“We all went to piano lessons and were encouraged to play another instrument of our choice. It's something my parents were very insistent upon as it was an opportunity they never got. It's only looking back now I realise how lucky I was”, he says.
“I bumped into my old babysitter a while back and she told me that when I was five years old I got up and announced "I'm going to bed now to write a song" so I suppose I was always into it really for whatever reason”.
One of Paddy’s early musical memories was when he heard Mick Flannery for the first time. He made a trip to HMV on Cruises St the next day to buy Flannery’s album.
“It was too loud in town to hear it properly so I had to pause the walkman until I got to the Tutorial. The first two chords on the album were Em to D on the piano, nothing else. That blew me away. Everything else I'd heard up until that point was whatever was in the house (pop, opera or classical music), so just to hear a piano and that voice knocked me sideways. I guess it was my first time hearing folk music”, he remembers.
Dennehy describes Mick Flannery as a first major influence and is still one of his favourite songwriters. Flannery’s music brought an introduction to the work of Tom Waits.
Dennehy performing on Late Late Show
“I listened to Waits too much I suppose and tried to sound like him which set me back a bit. It took me a very long time to figure out my own individual sound. Waits got me into Cohen and Randy Newman, who is still my favourite songwriter. He's able to develop a character so much and so eloquently in just a few verses”, he says.
“Cohen is great too as I think he raised the bar for everyone regarding lyrics. I'm a big fan of the Frames and Big Thief. Both of whom have these incredible lyrics but they're delivered in such a way that makes you feel like you've gotten something off your chest just by listening to it. My own style is something of a halfway house between all of the above”.
Dennehy says that he tends to work best late at night.
“There's no magic to it. I sit down, usually at the piano and just play. I could be playing the same chord progression that I've played a thousand times before but for whatever reason every now and again, it sounds new for a moment and that's the start of a song for me”, he notes.
“The lyrics will always be the most challenging part. I generally always have three or four songs that I'm working on. Everything is recorded on my phone, even if it's just humming and a few notes so that when I walk the dog I can go back over everything and see what worked. If it's going really well, the song could be finished in a week. I was going back over earlier phone recordings last week and found that the song I finished last week was first recorded as a 30 second snippet over a year ago!”
His proudest moment? That moment when he was invited to make a Late Late Show appearance or getting the invite from Glen Hansard to join him on stage at the Everyman Theatre in Cork are two of the stand out moments from Paddy’s career to date.
Paddy considers Limerick as the best place in the country to start a music career. He sees Limerick as a city where there is a venue to match where you are on your journey every step of the way, which he says is extraordinarily rare.
“Moreover you have Dolan's actively trying to push local artists. When I first started gigging I would look up who was playing in Dolan's for the next month or two, listen to all of them and send a ridiculously long email to Dolan's saying why I would be a suitable support”, he remembers.
“Then I'd call in and plead my case! What I took for granted at the time was that Sean Harrold or Mick Dolan would actually come down and have a chat with me and ask how my music was going and ask questions to see if I would be a good fit. I can't think of many other venues that would have a cup of tea with some kid looking to play there!”
Paddy has recently released a new song called 'Snow Song' which he recorded with Christian Best (recorded and produced Mick Flannery which has had wide coverage on RTE Radio 1 thanks to Fiachna Ó'Braonáin and Hazel Lake with Dublin City FM being very supportive too. This Friday's gig in Dolan's is the end of the tour he has been doing to support the new single.
He says he has finally finished a new album this year which he hopes will be out before the summer in 2020.
“Actually hearing the full album is something else. I've been working on it for three years. I recorded one already but scrapped it as I didn't think the songs were good enough so I was really nervous about how this one was going to turn out”, he says.
“I'm really proud of it. A lot of that goes to Christian Best who produced it and played drums on the tracks. He got so much more out of the songs than I ever could. I'll have a new single 'Abednego' out in January and more to come in the lead up to releasing my first album in the Spring”.
Paddy Dennehy plays Upstairs in Dolans on this Friday, December 20th. Tickets are on sale here