Q: “BOOMSHOT” is such a catchy track! Where and when did this song originate?
DAVID: It was written over quite a long period of time but regarding the chords and lyrics it would have been Dublin. However, there is a lot musically going on in this track and a lot of the writing for that happened in Rome.
Q: You released your debut EP, “Different Shades of Nothing,” about eight years ago. How has your artistic voice evolved since then?
DAVID: I think at that stage I was writing songs with guitars, bass and drums in mind. Essentially, it all came from me playing on an acoustic guitar and then adding in all the other parts later. However, there are a lot more electronic elements, though many of them subtle, that now add a lot more layers to how I write. For me the breakthrough was getting a keyboard and then learning how to write for all the different instruments on the track. For example, Boomshot has a lot of brass which I can’t play but I knew the melody line for it that I was hearing in my head. Instead of verbally explaining to other musicians what I wanted, which often has mixed results, I was able to get everything exactly how I wanted it and then ask them to simply play it. I now feel I have the space and time to find exactly the sounds I want and I think that’s now the biggest difference between my writing then and now.
Q: Was there a specific point in your life where you realized you wanted to have a career in music?
DAVID: A career is hard to say, but I certainly wanted to write songs from a very early age. I heard ‘Automatic for the People’ by REM when I was 11 and instantly wanted to write. Then I was completely blessed because I was exposed to a golden era of guitar music that was actually in the charts. Oasis, Blur, U2, Nirvana, Counting Crows, Pearl Jam and Radiohead all did their best work in that period.
Q: You’ve released a few singles this year. How did you remain artistically motivated throughout the pandemic?
DAVID: I’m not sure I did! These songs were largely written before the pandemic. I put a lot of emphasis on lyric writing generally and I felt that anything I wrote about the pandemic would be too specific to this period of time and would struggle to stand the test of time. It also felt out of place to write about anything else when there was such a dominating context surrounding me.
Q: Is there anything specific you hope audiences get from your music?
DAVID: It depends on the song. My previous single ‘Lift Me’ was about the psychological suffocation of cyberbullying and the drastic consequences it can lead to. For something like that, you hope that the impact is strong enough for people to take something powerful away from it. This single, ‘Boomshot,’ certainly has lyrical depth to it, but I’m happy enough that people just enjoy the catchiness of the melodies and energy of the music. Of course, as a writer, you want everyone to appreciate all that is going on. On the other hand, sometimes it’s just cool to have a dance and a singalong and ‘boomshot’ will probably be appreciated on that level more than any other.
Interviewed by Sarah Scott
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