Review Fix chats with El Misti’s Paddy Bleakley, who discusses the band’s new album, “All is Lost†and so much more.
Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?
Paddy Bleakley: I’ve always been in to music, of all kinds for as long as I can remember. My childhood home was always filled with the sounds of Ireland as well as Van, Bob, Bruce and the like. My parents were always singing together whilst my Dad played the guitar. My Sister played, and still plays many instruments. Very inspiring place to grow.
I started DJing at first, playing hip hop and house music in local nightclubs. I still have a lot of love for those days. However, I hung the headphones up as soon as I picked up a guitar. I’d found an outlet for my writing and I never looked back!
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Bleakley: Pretty lonely at the start. Lyrics can come first, or melody can. Theres no set structure. A song can sometimes come from just a line, or even a word. Songs just happen, I rarely try to write. It’s about being ready when inspiration strikes, so I’m never far from a guitar or piano. I need quiet so a lot of writing is done when the rest of the world sleeps.
Once I have something I believe in, I’ll show it to Kieran, and or the others, and we’ll work out the arrangement and the feel together.
Review Fix: What inspires you?
Bleakley: Anything and everything. Conversation is good. Reading, listening to music, walking…basically, living and existing. For my sins, I also find major inspiration in chaos, which can detrimental.
Review Fix: What does music mean to you?
Bleakley: Almost everything. Along with human connection and love, It’s the most important thing to me.
Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?
Bleakley: I’ve heard us described as Indie before, but I always had us pegged as more Americana, Country, Rock. I suppose that belongs to the listener. We sound like us, but I think you can hear all of our influences too, which is cool by me.
Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?
Bleakley: Obviously there hasn’t really been a chance to perform live over the last year or so. Think of that what you will. With this second record though, we tried to keep it as raw and live sounding as possible. So hopefully there won’t be too much difference when we are finally allowed to gather and live freely.
Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?
Bleakley: A lot of time passes between the initial inspiration and the finished product. My memory is hazy when it comes to that. It was probably a moment I was in or a feeling I felt.
Review Fix: What are your goals for 2021?
Bleakley: Probably the same as everyone else in the world. To get back to the beautiful normality we so often took for granted.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Bleakley: More music, hopefully. There should be an EP towards the end of the year. I’m also hoping to be involved in other peoples projects too. My girl is nearly ready to get into the studio, so hopefully I’ll be lending a hand and an ear to her. That’s going to be special.
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
Bleakley: Thank you for the support. Our new album ‘All is Lost’ will be out on July 26th.
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