Incoming: A Quick Chat with Badhands

Badhands is the musical project of Dublin songwriter and musician Dan Fitzpatrick.

Badhands began as a collaborative project with producer and bass player Tom Cosgrave (The Minutes), then quickly evolved and expanded with the enlistment of multi-instrumentalist Aoife Ruth, drummer Ken Mooney, and engineer Chris Barry.

Following a couple of beautiful singles – ‘Waves’ & ‘Let Me In’ – Badhands released stunning debut album Predictable Boy earlier this month. A captivating collection of vivid, textured songs that range in tone between dark and brooding to frantic and energetic, with moments of stirring euphoria weaved in to the mix. With a strong focus on lyrics and vocals the album echoes at times the likes of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Leonard Cohen, and Villagers. A beautifully intimate record that captures the imagination and enthralls the listener.

As part of the album’s tour, Badhands will be playing a Broken Home show on Saturday, November 25 in Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow. Tickets are €5 and limited so please secure in advance (A return bus will be organised from Newbridge to Dunlavin for anyone interested). Details / Tickets are here.

Ahead of the weekend’s show I caught up with Dan, to chat about the project, touring and all things music.

Tell us a little bit about ‘Badhands’. How did it come about? And what is the inspiration/focus of the new project?

The project began a couple of years ago when I started doing some recording with Tom Cosgrave, who produced this record and plays bass in the band. I had plenty of songs but no real plan. So It started out fairly aimlessly at the beginning, recording a few solo tracks sporadically with just me and a guitar. But after a while we began to feel like we were hitting on something interesting. We gradually started working towards an album, building up the sound more and more with the involvement of Aoife Ruth, Ken Mooney and Chris Barry and the operation sort of took off fairly organically from there. We wanted to make something really textured, atmospheric and interesting sounding, but still trying to incorporate the energy of a rock n roll band.

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Introducing: A. S. Fanning

A.S. Fanning was the front-man of the criminally underrated Dublin band The Last Tycoons, now based in Berlin, he’s returned with his own solo project.

With this news comes new music, and he’s debuted a first single in the shape of ‘Carmelita’. Opening with a rich organ hum and scratchy acoustic strum, he regales dark tales from his native Dublin, perfectly complimented by Fanning’s world-weary and distinctive Dublin-accented, vocal. The organ seeps into every fibre of this four-and-a-half minutes of melodic, further accentuating Fanning’s finest attribute; namely his profoundly brilliant songwriting and storytelling abilities, which enables him to depict a vivid, yet dark vision. It is a strong and extremely promising start Fanning’s latest musical venture, of which, hopefully there is more sooner rather than later.

You can listen to ‘Carmelita’ below and it is out now via iTunes.

(Video) The Last Tycoons – Carmelita | Barrygruff Presents #3

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It may have taken time to get this video done and dusted but it was worth the wait. Here is a quick video of The Last Tycoons playing ‘Carmelita’ from BarryGruff Presents #3, live in Flanagan’s, Newbridge, 14th December 2011. It was a great night with super performances from The Last Tycoons, Sive & Ciaran Dwyer. The video was shot by Joe Dunne and edited by Stephen Connelly.

Don’t forget about BarryGruff Presents #4: Ghost Estates w/ Neon Wolf on Easter Sunday, April 8th in Flanagan’s, Newbridge.

BarryGruff Presents #3: The Last Tycoons, Sive & Ciaran Dwyer :: Flanagan’s :: Newbridge :: Dec 14th

So, it’s gig #3 for ‘BarryGruff’ Presents’ in Flanagan’s, Newbridge on Wednesday, December 14^th.Entry is FREE as always and judging by the gigs #1 and #2, this is going to be immense!

Now based between their native Dublin and Berlin, The Last Tycoons have taken time out of their busy schedule for a headline show in Newbridge. The Tycoons’ debut album was one of last years top albums, armed with this, their southern roots Americana tinged alternative rock sounds and some new songs (hopefully), it is going to be a fantastic show.

On the bill too are Kildare musicians Sive and Ciaran Dwyer. Sive are fronted by songwriter and musician Sadhbh O’Sullivan, who along with her band, has been busy gigging around Ireland this year. Meanwhile Ciaran Dwyer of Band on an Island will be showcasing material from his debut solo album, which is due out in March of next year.

Entry is FREE as always and starts at 9pm, Wednesday, December 14^th. More info & Facebook event here.

The Last Tycoons – Speed