In 2014, when electronica musician Daithí Ó Drónaí came out of his record deal with Sony Music, he considered leaving music behind altogether. Although working with the label was a great learning curve, as an artist, he admits to feeling quite stifled, because the radio-friendly stuff he was writing was more for someone else than himself.
“It didn’t really take off like crazy,” explains Daithí. “As well as that, you are looking at it from a living perspective; am I going to be able to make a living off this for the rest of my life? So I was like, I’ll release one more EP, I swear to God, that was all.”
Having spent the last while producing for others, Daithí decided his next collection of music, Tribes, would be for himself, reflecting who he was and his background. From this, the epic viral hit Mary Keane’s Introduction emerged. If you haven’t heard it (what?) stop right now, go, Google and come back.
Kilfenora
The 28-year-old is from Co Clare and Mary Keane’s Introduction embodies his west of Ireland influences and culture. Mary Keane is Daithí’s now 93-year-old grandmother and the track features excerpts from an interview she did about growing up in Ireland, mixed over contemporary dance music.
“One day I was helping her clean out her dresser and there was a CD, I put it into my car and it’s like a two-hour long interview about her growing up and what it was like at the time,” enthuses Daithí.
You are always trying to find something unique that people don’t have. So writing about what you know and taking influence from your background is a really, really good thing to do, because your background is completely unique to you
“There were certain parts like, ‘I met my husband down in Kilfenora and I fell in love with him’, where you could just hear her voice cracking. What I really love about it is you don’t actually hear a lot of Irish people talk like that at all. It’s just this really honest raw thing, but it’s also incredibly Irish.”
The track became, as the name suggests, the Introduction to Daithí’s Tribes EP and upon release, immediately went viral. The day after, Daithí went down to his grandmother’s thatched cottage in Ballyvaughan to tell her Ryan Tubridy had played the song on his radio show. To which she was not overly impressed and wanted to know had it been on Clare FM yet? The local station being her own barometer of success.
Céilí band
As much as Mary Keane has been thrown into the spotlight by her storytelling, she is not Daithí’s only famous grandparent. On his father’s side of the family, Daithí’s grandfather is legendary concertina player and co-founder of the Kilfenora Céilí Band, Chris Droney.
Naturally, Daithí’s family are steeped in traditional music and he himself plays the fiddle. The musician states that his electronica doesn’t have any intentional traditional influences per se, but it finds its way in regardless.
“Just because I learned fiddle traditionally, I think the style comes out with my music. I would never really consider a lot of my music as having traditional Irish influences, it’s just the way I learned music seeps into it a lot,” he reflects.
“I have a track called Holiday Home, which has this bodhrán recording underneath it. It’s just this rhythm, so it does feel like this Irish traditional thing, but the main reason I put it in there is because it feels like a rhythm that I know quite well, so it’s almost accidental.”
The west of Ireland is a much more deliberate inspiration for his music, which makes sense, seeing as he grew up in the Burren and his father has a beef farm. Daithí has a huge folder on his computer of nature sounds that he collects along the Wild Atlantic Way. He mixes these into his music, helping him root the song in the particular place where the sound originates.
“You are always trying to find something unique that people don’t have. So writing about what you know and taking influence from your background is a really, really good thing to do, because your background is completely unique to you, that’s what you should be taking from,” he reflects.
You just spend years grafting to get to a point where you can get paid for music
His own way
Initially, what got Daithí noticed was playing the fiddle over a loop station. It was with this arrangement he appeared on both the The All-Ireland Talent Show and Sky 1’s Must be the Music.
In his teens, Daithí began to gravitate from traditional music towards rock, playing first the bass guitar over a loop station. He then decided it would be more interesting to play the fiddle in this way, as it was more versatile in that you could make more sounds such as plucking and bowing.
Daithí then went to college, studying TV, radio and journalism as Gaelige in An Cheathrú Rua. It was here in Connemara that he really got into dance and electronica.
“There were like 100 people in the school, so if you had a house party, there were 100 people at your house party.
“These really mad crazy house parties, that’s where I first started playing. That’s where I kind of learned how to play in front of an audience. Where I started realising; ok, people are kind of into this. Then you just spend years grafting to get to a point where you can get paid for music,” he laughs.
Now at that point, Daithí has just embarked on a winter tour, taking in different venues around the country. He is also currently releasing a series of double A-sides, the latest of which contains the tracks Lavender featuring Tandem Felix and Orange featuring Sinéad White.
Much of his new music was written this time last year on a retreat of sorts in rural France, when he unplugged from all social media to maximise creativity. These tracks were compiled following a breakup and the emotion is evident in them. But, you would expect nothing less from a musician who has always been true to himself.
Daithí plays Cyprus Avenue, Cork, on
9 November and Connolly’s of Leap
on 10 November. For more information, see his social meida channels.
Read more
Only a woman
Farming and tourism in the Burren
In 2014, when electronica musician Daithí Ó Drónaí came out of his record deal with Sony Music, he considered leaving music behind altogether. Although working with the label was a great learning curve, as an artist, he admits to feeling quite stifled, because the radio-friendly stuff he was writing was more for someone else than himself.
“It didn’t really take off like crazy,” explains Daithí. “As well as that, you are looking at it from a living perspective; am I going to be able to make a living off this for the rest of my life? So I was like, I’ll release one more EP, I swear to God, that was all.”
Having spent the last while producing for others, Daithí decided his next collection of music, Tribes, would be for himself, reflecting who he was and his background. From this, the epic viral hit Mary Keane’s Introduction emerged. If you haven’t heard it (what?) stop right now, go, Google and come back.
Kilfenora
The 28-year-old is from Co Clare and Mary Keane’s Introduction embodies his west of Ireland influences and culture. Mary Keane is Daithí’s now 93-year-old grandmother and the track features excerpts from an interview she did about growing up in Ireland, mixed over contemporary dance music.
“One day I was helping her clean out her dresser and there was a CD, I put it into my car and it’s like a two-hour long interview about her growing up and what it was like at the time,” enthuses Daithí.
You are always trying to find something unique that people don’t have. So writing about what you know and taking influence from your background is a really, really good thing to do, because your background is completely unique to you
“There were certain parts like, ‘I met my husband down in Kilfenora and I fell in love with him’, where you could just hear her voice cracking. What I really love about it is you don’t actually hear a lot of Irish people talk like that at all. It’s just this really honest raw thing, but it’s also incredibly Irish.”
The track became, as the name suggests, the Introduction to Daithí’s Tribes EP and upon release, immediately went viral. The day after, Daithí went down to his grandmother’s thatched cottage in Ballyvaughan to tell her Ryan Tubridy had played the song on his radio show. To which she was not overly impressed and wanted to know had it been on Clare FM yet? The local station being her own barometer of success.
Céilí band
As much as Mary Keane has been thrown into the spotlight by her storytelling, she is not Daithí’s only famous grandparent. On his father’s side of the family, Daithí’s grandfather is legendary concertina player and co-founder of the Kilfenora Céilí Band, Chris Droney.
Naturally, Daithí’s family are steeped in traditional music and he himself plays the fiddle. The musician states that his electronica doesn’t have any intentional traditional influences per se, but it finds its way in regardless.
“Just because I learned fiddle traditionally, I think the style comes out with my music. I would never really consider a lot of my music as having traditional Irish influences, it’s just the way I learned music seeps into it a lot,” he reflects.
“I have a track called Holiday Home, which has this bodhrán recording underneath it. It’s just this rhythm, so it does feel like this Irish traditional thing, but the main reason I put it in there is because it feels like a rhythm that I know quite well, so it’s almost accidental.”
The west of Ireland is a much more deliberate inspiration for his music, which makes sense, seeing as he grew up in the Burren and his father has a beef farm. Daithí has a huge folder on his computer of nature sounds that he collects along the Wild Atlantic Way. He mixes these into his music, helping him root the song in the particular place where the sound originates.
“You are always trying to find something unique that people don’t have. So writing about what you know and taking influence from your background is a really, really good thing to do, because your background is completely unique to you, that’s what you should be taking from,” he reflects.
You just spend years grafting to get to a point where you can get paid for music
His own way
Initially, what got Daithí noticed was playing the fiddle over a loop station. It was with this arrangement he appeared on both the The All-Ireland Talent Show and Sky 1’s Must be the Music.
In his teens, Daithí began to gravitate from traditional music towards rock, playing first the bass guitar over a loop station. He then decided it would be more interesting to play the fiddle in this way, as it was more versatile in that you could make more sounds such as plucking and bowing.
Daithí then went to college, studying TV, radio and journalism as Gaelige in An Cheathrú Rua. It was here in Connemara that he really got into dance and electronica.
“There were like 100 people in the school, so if you had a house party, there were 100 people at your house party.
“These really mad crazy house parties, that’s where I first started playing. That’s where I kind of learned how to play in front of an audience. Where I started realising; ok, people are kind of into this. Then you just spend years grafting to get to a point where you can get paid for music,” he laughs.
Now at that point, Daithí has just embarked on a winter tour, taking in different venues around the country. He is also currently releasing a series of double A-sides, the latest of which contains the tracks Lavender featuring Tandem Felix and Orange featuring Sinéad White.
Much of his new music was written this time last year on a retreat of sorts in rural France, when he unplugged from all social media to maximise creativity. These tracks were compiled following a breakup and the emotion is evident in them. But, you would expect nothing less from a musician who has always been true to himself.
Daithí plays Cyprus Avenue, Cork, on
9 November and Connolly’s of Leap
on 10 November. For more information, see his social meida channels.
Read more
Only a woman
Farming and tourism in the Burren
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