December 2012 Limerick band Bleeding Heart Pigeons signed with major record label Virgin EMI. The band had performed live only a few times, never toured, never travelled to perform showcase gigs for record companies. The story of the band so far is an extraordinary one and testament to the quality of the music the trio is producing in their home studio in Knockaderry in West Limerick.
THE debut album from Bleeding Heart Pigeons went on release in February and reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, “Deeply compelling”, from Irish Times, “Intriguing” from Mojo and “a heady brew of art-rock experimentalism”, from The Sunday Times.
The main songwriter is Michéal Keating on vocals and guitar, joined by Brendan McInerney on drums and Cathal Histon on synthesisers and sampling. All three write the music.
The trio have taken influences from Radiohead, Four Tet and Interpol and forged their own sound and are fearless in experimentation and taking it in new directions. The tracks on the debut album ‘Is’ are epic in stature, but the songs are heartfelt and chart the trio’s emergence from teenage years into early adulthood.
Michéal says in a letter that was published with the release of the album that writing ‘Is’ was cathartic for the writer.
“Putting all these despairs to music with Cathal and Brendan makes me feel that I can own them, even if it is just for the duration of the song. It is a kind of exasperated sense of freedom that only comes through despair, no longer requiring any sort of meaning – feeling that I have learned to take pleasure in a meaningless and often horrific world.”
The album is a 76 minute journey into the psychedelic world of BHP, all flowing melodic passages with a musical freedom reminiscent of ‘Soft Bulletin’ era Flaming Lips. It is an album that benefits from repeated listening to become fully immersed in the world of Bleeding Heart Pigeons. It must be an early contender for Irish album of the year, and a Choice Music Prize nomination for 2016.
Speaking to Limerick Post Newspaper this week, Michéal reflected on the reaction to the album, self producing ‘Is’ and getting out on tour.
“Yeah, really happy with it. I’m just glad that people understood it very quickly. They knew what we were getting at, which is nice.”
Bleeding Heart Pigeons got their break when Michéal sent a demo to the Facebook site of Dublin band Little Green Cars. Their manager Daniel Ryan (ex The Thrills) got in contact and soon had record company execs heading to West Limerick to visit the band’s studio (a garage on the family farm) and listen to them play.
Virgin EMI got the band’s signature. The decision to allow the band to produce their debut record is an unusual one. It has resulted in the creative abandon that makes Bleeding Heart Pigeons so unique.
Michéal says, “Naturally, there was a lot of talk when we signed about who we would get to produce us. We had no idea who we wanted to produce us. We were afraid of the kind of sound that would arrive from somebody that didn’t fit.
“We had released EPs that we made ourselves, so why not go ahead and record the album ourselves? We were able to invest in a few modest pieces of equipment. We wouldn’t hear from the label for a number of months, there was long periods when we were just working away ourselves.”
In so many ways Bleeding Heart Pigeons are any record company’s dream band.
Operating more like an independent act, practically all the album is produced in their home studio except for the recording of drums and the mixdown in David Wrench’s studios. Wrench was engineer of choice for Jamie XX, FKA Twigs and Everything Everything. The band also conceived and made their own videos using local locations, creating surreal montages from the everyday mundane that only add to the band’s mystique.
“A lot of videos are kinda crap and it is a difficult medium to work in because, it is like an over-saturated market. We wanted to do something that we were into, did not want to end up with something generic. Then it was just a case of get a guy with a good camera to shoot it and edit it for us.”
For the rest of the year Bleeding Heart Pigeons will play UK and Ireland festivals over the summer, support Pixies in Cork and go on tour with Andrew Bird in the UK.
“Playing live is one of the things we enjoy most. We’re confident musically about the live shows. There are a few adaptations that we might have to make to do acoustic things or if a piece of equipment breaks down. We are ready to tackle it anyway.”
The next single from this album recorded in a home studio on a farm in Knockaderry, County Limerick will be ‘They’re Cutting Down The Old Oak Tree’. This is one of the band’s earliest compositions.
“‘Old Oak’ was the first song that really made us sit up and say that we could really do something. It was the first really good song we had.”
Unsurprisingly, the name Knockaderry is from the Irish Cnoc an Doire, which means ‘the hill of the Oak’.
It will be fascinating to watch how the rest of the world will react to this intriguing work of art carved out of the hill of the oak.
Bleeding Heart Pigeons launch their debut album in Dolan’s this Friday March 11. The album ‘Is’ is available through Virgin EMI to download and stream and on limited edition double vinyl.
Tickets: www.dolans.ie Music www.bleedingheartpigeons.com
