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| Image compliments of GC Photohgraphics |
released his self-titled EP but is already planning the new album. Declan is no stranger to the City’s
music scene as he’s been playing locally for over 20 years. Declan explains that even though he’d
been surrounded by music at home the social aspect drew him to playing.
“My mother was a singer, my father was a bass player, and I grew up in a house full of music. My
sister Tina also plays. I was always around music, my dad played in bands and stuff. I didn’t really
start playing myself until I was around 17 or 18.
"Started playing Irish traditional stuff but I was mad about punk music and heavy metal when I was growing up. Upstairs at the Dungloe, if you played at the Irish traditional session you used to get free drink so that was the start of my guitar playing days. I was listening to people like Christy Moore and Planxty and then fell in love with The Pogues. I started playing in trad bands and folk groups. Then in the mid 80’s there was me and a couple of friends that kind of set up what’s now the Nerve Centre, then it was the Musicians Collective.”
Declan found himself involved with several musical set-ups including The Screaming Bin Lids
alongside Paddy Nash in the early 90’s and later The Whole Tribe Sings in which Declan spent the
majority of three years in America recording and touring. After this he found himself taking a break
from music for a long period of time and only started playing again in the last couple of years.
Declan describes how the last album came about after his return to music. “What happened was, I
recorded a full album over a year about a year ago, recorded it all in the house along with a fella I
work along with Dougal McPartland, guy who’s always played in bands with me. Just recorded it all
in the house and by the time we were finished it I think the two of us were kind of sick listening to
it so we shelved it. We just kind of put it away, I got it mastered and stuff like that but when I got it
back I didn’t really have the energy and didn’t have the vision to know what I was going to do with
it. I got 300 copies printed up and then just because of the interest I got back from that, the kind of
feedback of different magazines and people in the music industry, I put it up for download. You can
download it from declanmclaughlin.bandcamp.com and there’s two EP’s and a free single on there
too.”
And if things become a little difficult on the scene, he’s not going to be put off. “I’m going to keep
doing what I do, going out and playing, getting gigs, make records, I record in the house, I do my
artwork on my computer, I tried to become self reliant because the music industry doesn’t really
exist anymore or if it does it’s only for a small percentage who have talent and get signed, I don’t
really want to be in a position where I have to give up my whole life. It’s a big part of my life, I do
it because I enjoy it more than anything, I have done it for a number of years, ten years ago I was
doing this as a full time job, that took a lot of the fun out of it, when the food that goes on the table
is produced by you going out playing, it becomes a bit more manufactured. I won’t stop doing it no
matter how bad things get or I’m never out playing again, I’ll always play music at some level. I’ll
always continue to write and record I hope as long as I’m healthy and able enough to do it.”
Finances are on the minds of many musicians, and even though Declan is sure that he’ll never stop
playing he raises the point that local musicians are losing out in the pocket. “People are getting paid
worse money now than they were getting twenty years ago. If you wanted to be a full time musician
in this town, it’s impossible. For all the talent and all the venues that there are, it would be very hard
if you where trying to make your living at it. What used to happen was up until about twenty years
ago, people would have paid to go in and see a band , may have been fifty pence or a pound but that
was the way it always kind of was. Then a certain bar owner began buying all the bars and putting
bars on for free so what happened was people kind of lost any sense of worth for music because you
could go anywhere and see a fairly good band for nothing. If you go to Belfast to go and see a band
you have to pay to get in through the door, which here, stopped a long time ago.”
Declan is currently in the process of recording scratch tracks as the basis for the new album and will
be getting more musicians on side to contribute. He will be playing the tracks that will feature on
the album live at gigs before the album launch early next year. His next appearance is Boxing Day at
St Columb’s Hall and the line up includes Thundering Down, Best Boy Grip, Little Bear, Intermission, WYLDLING, Jo and the Distortions, Wood Burning Savages, Teknopeasant, Amo and Denver Haze, all for only £12!
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