Irish Musician and Producer Skully Releases His First Solo Album!

Article for The Echo by Mark McAvoy.

SKULLY STEPS OUT OF METISSE SHADOW AND GOES DIGITAL ON HIS NEW ALBUM.

Stepping out of the shadow of his popular and extremely successful duo Metisse, acclaimed Irish musician and producer Skully is blazing a trail to chart success with the release of his eagerly awaited solo album.

The culmination of two years' work, WITHOUT A VOICE (2007) has just been released worldwide and sees the Irish man explore new musical and technological territory.

The Cork-based producer, together with his management, has decided to break new ground with the distribution of his debut album.

Skully reveals : 'This is my first totally digital release. We felt that there was still a demand for CD's but the people that are still looking for them as a group is getting smaller and smaller and smaller, So we decided, lets be brave and just give it a digital release. So this is our first one."

Given the huge success that Metisse have enjoyed in various online Myspace Charts, Its not surprising that Skully would see the obvious merits of a digital online release. The talented Irish music veteran points out : " I'm number two to Metisse at number one. Metisse have been number one for seven months and I have been number two for nearly four months. Metisse are so far ahead that i'll never catch up with them." But it is striking the gap between America and Europe when it comes to using digital music as the famed producer discovered.

He recalls: "America seems to have decided that CD's are a thing of the past. We are using a digital system where we can provide radio stations in America with broadcast quality MP3s, "What we found was that we sent the same player out to radio stations in Ireland and their response was to ask us to send out hard copies. We did the same thing with America but when we sent them out to America we asked them if they required hard copies and none of them did."

WITHOUT A VOICE features 12 instrumental tracks. Asked how he would describe the album, the former REAL MAYONNAIZE front man responds ; " I won't describe it! the wonderful thing about MYSPACE is fans can come back and tell me. The feeling I'm getting back from everybody is that they love the emotion in it. There is a lot of emotion in the songs. There are two very personal piano tracks on the album. "With an instrumental album it is very difficult to vary it, but I'm very happy with the mix of tracks. It jumps from being very electronic to very acoustic to a kind of a strong jazz feel to it and yet it hasn't strayed too far from the Metisse sound."

Released on BLINDFAITH DIGITAL, WITHOUT A VOICE is now available on iTunes.

Fans can hear tracks from the album by visiting Skully's Myspace : www.myspace.com/skullymusic

WITHOUT A VOICE Tracklist:

1. Nomah's Land (for 3 pianos)

2. Arduity Sails By

3. Important Staff Announcement

4. Crime Of Honesty

5. Self Fulfilling Prophecy

6. Trouble

7. The Arcadia Ballroom

8. The Seaport Fudge Factory

9. Gare De Montrabe

10. Release The Balloons

11. It rained That Morning

12. My Waltz With Matilda

****ALL SKULLY MUSIC CAN BE PURCHASED FROM ITUNES, OR ON SKULLY'S WEBSITE AT WWW.SKULLY.IE.  METISSE MUSIC IS AVAILABLE FROM ITUNES ALSO.

INSPIRATIONS (From Skully's blog)

(GARE DE MONTRABE)
MONTRABE TRAIN STATION

I used to live in the GARE de MONTRABE. (Montrabe Train station) near Toulouse in France.

I was living with the Station Master. A beautiful French girl who would open the station every morning while I made the coffee!

My life revolved around the movement of trains. I became immune to the unbelievable noise of a train racing by outside our window. Unlike many of our guests who would end up screaming in panic at the foot of our bed thinking the world was ending, because the 3.30am goods train was trundling past.

In my tribute to that beautiful old building, MONTRABE TRAIN STATION, perhaps you can hear the rhythm of the trains, and a slight French flavor from the accordion that makes an appearance from time to time...

TROUBLE

SKULLY makes TROUBLE!

TROUBLE was one of the most difficult tracks I have ever recorded, Here is the reason why!

In the 1970s Irish rock legends HORSLIPS had a massive hit with their song TROUBLE WITH A CAPITAL T, on which my great friend Jim Lockhart played this legendary flute melody.

In 2004 HORSLIPS came back together to record ROLLBACK a selection of their greatest hits, recorded Acoustically. And for this album, they recorded a wonderful acoustic version of TROUBLE, this time a different melody equally as good, played on guitar.

I wanted to hear what the song would sound like with the FLUTE and GUITAR together. So although recorded over 20 years apart I set to work. Firstly isolating both samples. Then tuning them to each other, and finally stretching and synchronizing them to each other.

In my version, I introduce the two instruments separately, first the FLUTE then the GUITAR and then both together. So now for the first time you can hear the FLUTE and the GUITAR together. 2 melodies written years apart, and yet fitting together like a glove. I think you will agree, well worth the TROUBLE.

ARCADIA BALLROOM

My Father's Band played there! My Manager was DJ there, and my record
company promoted it!! It was a huge concert hall here in Cork city, Ireland.
That had obviously seen better days, before I knew it!!

Live bands played at this massive venue every weekend, and every weekend I
was there!! The bands that performed there read like a who's who in the
music world : THE BEAT, THE SPECIALS, THE WHO, UB40, U2, HORSLIPS, ASWAD,
CIMERONS (best gig I ever saw) DR FEELGOOD, LINA LOVICH, BOOMTOWN RATS, ELVIS COSTELLO........ (Cork people
might help me with the rest?)

And so at the tender age of 14 when I formed my first band REAL MAYONNAIZE.
Our whole ambition was to play "THE ARC"

After months of practice, and dozens of concerts, including some amazing
gigs at the legandary SIR HENRYS, we were finally good enough to play the
ARC!

After a grueling negotiation with the promoter Elvera, REAL MAYONNAIZE was
booked to play the ARC for £15.

And so it was that two days before the gig was to be played, I recieved a
phone call to say, that the ARC had closed down, and REAL MAYONNAIZE was to
be one of the first bands to play at the beautiful new SAVOY in Cork City.

A few days ago I drove past the ARCADIA BALLROOM, it is no more!
replaced by luxury appartments, And I wondered if the people living there
know how important that location was to so many people?

My track ARCADIA BALLROOM can be downloaded from iTune