How IRISH Makeover was produced!

Mark McAvoy's (DOWNTOWN) article.

Having firmly established himself, both nationally and internationally, with acts such as Chapterhouse, Métisse and more recently as a solo artist, Cork producer and musician Skully embarked on an ambitious and bold new project. Working on his new album Irish Makeover (2008) saw Skully recruit and collaborate with emerging talent in an effort to bravely reinterpret and revamp classic Irish folk songs. The fruits of this labour are a triumph: a record which should achieve both longevity and critical acclaim.

Skully, who is based in Ireland, reflects on how the album was conceived. He reveals: "It was on a winter's night in Cork about two years ago. Métisse had kind off wound down. We had stopped recording together. I was working on my solo album and I met Charlie Pinder from V2 and Sony Publishing in Cork. I remember the brutal rain pouring out of the sky. We were running back to his hotel and he turned around to me and said: 'I have a great idea! Why don't you do Skullyized folk songs?' None of us took it very seriously. I had never thought of it before. Even the thought of Irish folk songs would have put my barriers up. After a couple of weeks of living with the idea, I kind of thought: "Let's give it a crack!" I started at the Rushbrooke Hotel in a little garage looking out over the river and it was just a stunning backdrop. It represented the turning over of a page for me musically and the beginning of a new era. I was now going to work with lots of different people on a very exciting project."

Skully enlisted an impressive array of talented musicians to aid him on this new musical departure. He enthuses: "I didn't want to go for the old favourites. I wanted to use what I thought were the up and coming vocalists. So everybody is very young on the album. It is a Cork project and this album was made on the shores of Cork harbour, although it is very colloquial and very local with very local ideas, it is still a worldwide project."

One musician enlisted by Skully was Cork troubadour Mick Flannery, who recently entered the Irish top ten album charts with his second long-player White Lies (2008). Skully is delighted with Flannery's performance on the track The Lakes of Pontchartrain. He explains: "What I was trying to do here was take these songs into the 21st century. What is The Lakes of Pontchartrain? It is one of the most beautiful folk songs that we have. Everyone is used to listening to this, sitting at a fireplace in a pub down in West Cork or in Kerry or somewhere like that. Mick Flannery has this incredible raw voice. Although he is very young, he sounds weathered. My brief to Mick was to sing this like he was in a pub, which he did sitting on a chair with his head in his hands. Then I just twisted this piece of music so far away from what you would be expecting. It has suddenly become a very electronic sound, very far away from its origins, which were the pub. Mick's voice was the only voice that could have done that."

Another well-established Cork vocalist who appears on Irish Makeover is songstress Annette Buckley. "Annette did Scarborough Fair. Although it isn't really an Irish song, it is on every single Irish compilation album. It's a beautiful folk song. Again, I wanted to break down all the preconceived ideas of what Scarborough Fair is about. We all know the song and the Simon and Garfunkel version. Nothing of that is in this song. In fact, there is a quality to Annette's voice which is like a 1920s voice. There is a gorgeous quality to it. Here you have an Irish version of an English folk song sung by an Irish Girl that sounds like it comes from the 1920s, yet it is electronic. It's very odd! But it works."

During the process of recruiting vocalists for this project, Skully discovered a new
Cork vocal talent - Kate Murphy. Skully recalls: "Kate Murphy is from Douglas. She is a friend of my sisters. That is how I recruited her. I was at a party one night and I heard Kate singing and she blew me away. She is a folk singer and a very talented songwriter. She sang Blackbird and All Around My Hat, which I still think is an Irish song, but some people say it's English. Kate was a stunning vocalist to work with!"

Juno Falls main-man, Myles O'Reilly, was given the unenviable task of singing on the interpretation of the classic The Ballad of Molly Malone, which for this release has been simply renamed Molly Malone, presumably to distinguish the new dark version from the original. Skully confesses: "Miles and I go back a long time and he is an awesome, awesome vocalist. Miles did two tracks; She Moved Through The Fair and probably the most recognisable, yet weirdest track on the album, Molly Malone. This is a really sinister, twisted version of the song that we all know and Miles's voice cuts through it."

Thanks to the Internet, Skully sought input from his fans across the world while working on this album. This was also a factor in terms of creating the album's quirky artwork. Skully admits: "Sean O'Leary who designed the cover wanted a dog with a pair of headphones. So we decided to ask everybody online from our My Space page if they could send us in photographs of their dogs wearing headphones. We got llamas, rabbits, pigs and dozens of dogs. We even had people complaining that their dogs ate the headphones. Eventually we got our dog and headphones for the album cover."

Irish Makeover is released nationwide on October 20. For more information visit the website www.myspace.com/irishskully.

Irish Song Lyrics From Irish Makeover

IF I WAS A BLACKBIRD

I am a young maiden, my story is sad
For once I was courted by a brave sailin' lad
He courted me strongly, by night and by day
Oh, but now he has left me, and sailed far away

Chorus:
And if I was a blackbird I'd whistle and sing
And I'd follow the vessel my true love sails in
And on the top riggin' I would there build my nest
And I'd flutter my wings o'er his lily white breast

Chorus

Well, he promised to take me to Donnybrook Fair
And to buy me red ribbons for to tie up my hair
And when he'd come home from the ocean so wide
He would take me, and make me, his own bonny bride

Chorus

Now his parents they slight me, and will not agree
That me and my sailor boy married will be
But when he comes home, I will greet him with joy
And I'll take to my heart my dear sailor boy

Chorus

MOLLY MALONE

In Dublin's fair city where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
As she wheels her wheel barrow through the streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive alive-o

Chorus:
Alive alive-o, alive alive-o
Crying cockles and mussels alive alive-o

She was a fishmonger but sure 'twas no wonder
For so were her father and mother before
And they both wheeled their barrow
through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive alive-o

She died of a fever and no one could save her
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone
But her ghost wheels her barrow
through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive alive-o

ALL AROUND MY HAT

I had a true love, if ever a girl had one
I had a true love, a brave lad was he
One fine Easter morning, with his gallant comrades
He started away for to set Ireland free.

cho: All round my hat, I'll wear the tri-colored ribbon
All 'round my hat I'll wear the green white and gold;
And if anyone should ask me the reason that I'm wearing it
It's for my true love (I never more shall see) or (in the I.R.A.)

He whispered, "Goodbye, love, Old Ireland is calling
High over Dublin the tricolour flies;
In the streets of the city, the foeman is falling
And wee birds are singing, "Old Ireland, arise!"

His bandolier 'round him, his bright eyes a-shining
His short service rifle, a beauty to see,
There was joy in his eyes, though he left me behind him
And started away for to set Ireland free.

[My true love is a soldier, he's fighting for old Ireland
His short service rifle is a wonder to see;
And as the moon was declining, he left me repining
His bright bayonet shining, to keep old Ireland free.]

or:
All around my hat I wear the tricolor ribbon
All around my hat, until death comes to me
And if anybody's asking why do I wear it
It's all for my true love, I never more shall see.

In prayer and in waiting, the dark days passed over
The roar of the guns brought no messge to me
I prayed for Old Ireland, I prayed for my true love
That he might be safe and Old Ireland be free.

The struggle is ended, they brought me the story
The last whispered message he sent unto me,
I was true to the land, love, I fought for her glory
And gave up my life for to keep Old Ireland free.

RED IS THE ROSE

Come over the hills, my bonnie Irish lass
Come over the hills to your darling
You choose the rose, love, and I'll make the vow
And I'll be your true love forever

Chorus:
Red is the rose that in yonder garden grows
Fair is the lily of the valley
Clear is the water that flows from the Boyne
But my love is fairer than any

'Twas down by Killarney's green woods that we strayed
When the moon and the stars they were shining
The moon shone its rays on her locks of golden hair
And she swore she'd be my love forever

Chorus

It's not for the parting that my sister pains
It's not for the grief of my mother
'Tis all for the loss of my bonny Irish lass
That my heart is breaking forever

Chorus