The Human side of Connor 4/2/13

Image compliments of GC Photographics

Connor Kelly is now launching his second album Tell Me That We’re Human. The album features not only songs but something a little bit different with poetry and spoken word in the mix as well. Connor explains how he’s come to the point of realising a second album from where his music first took root.

“I’ve been playing the piano since I was about 11. I did the classical lessons for a few years and got very very bored with it very quickly so I started with Jazz. Then I moved on to just doing whatever I wanted to play. I really starting writing my own music and poetry and performing it when I was about 16. I formed my first band, Ground of Pilgrims, which was good fun, completely different from what I do now but it was good craic."

"The first sort of major work that I did was in 2009 when I recorded my album Damien, which was only for limited release with my band The Red Medicine. We did quite a bit of performing around that and sold quite a few copies. The songs on that I still think are good but I was still waiting for the songs that would be a single, that people would really like and I sort of came up with two songs, the first one is Mad as Hell, which I released in 2010 as a single. That’s a crazy song, sort of a punk rap song; it did very well on radio and on the internet, on YouTube and all that. People were actually singing it at marches in Dublin and stuff too. The second single was Tell Me That We’re Human, I recorded it last year and it’s now for release on this album also called Tell Me That We’re Human which is sort of different from a lot of stuff I’ve done. It’s more mellow, quieter and it’s just me and the piano on it but people seem to like it.”

Having heard the title track it’s no surprise that it’s a crowd pleaser, flowing melodic lines, uncomplicated lyrics and what a delivery! Although this is the main pitch of the album Connor is still keeping things mixed up. “I think, when I wrote it, the original title was Prayer for a Friend, it’s kind of like a wee hymn. When I was in Dublin, I was playing there a few months ago and played Tell Me That We’re Human and I didn’t realise people were listening to it on YouTube and that and people were singing along there too which was great. It’s always odd when people know your song. On the rest of the album, some of the songs are recorded with band and there’s some sort of spoken word, strange stuff on it as well. Most of them are songs, hyper arranged according to my sort of mad way of working, whatever’s going on in my head. There’s 7 tracks altogether and you do get a bit of everything. I mentioned Mad as Hell, there’s mad punk to Tell Me That We’re Human and then songs that would be, even cabaret inspired, there’s a whole lot of different genres in there all mixed up but I hope that there’s still a definite sound to the whole thing.”

Anyone that has seen Connor solo performances, or those with The Red Medicine, will surely have seen the amazing energy and panache he exuberates on stage. Not one to get nervous, or so you’d think. “I love performing, I didn’t used to get nervous but I’ve started to get nervous now because I’ve started to take it a lot more seriously. When I perform, I think you have to just sort of, even if there’s a chance you might get heckled or whatever and I’ve been heckled before, you have to just sort of open yourself up completely. You leave yourself quite vulnerable on the stage, to a certain extent obviously but when you reach that sort of level of vulnerable I think that the distance between you and the audience just breaks down. I love performing songs like Mad as Hell on stage because I get the audience clapping and there’s a whole mad feel about the thing. I think people seem to enjoy the performances anyway so that’s a good sign.”

With the City of Culture celebrations now in full swing Connor welcomes it into the City but is also involved in the Counter Culture group who are aiming to promote an alternative programme of events. “The City of Culture, I think that people should welcome it but place demands on it, when you’re talking about something as broad and political as well, especially in this part of the world, as culture, it’s incumbent upon ordinary artists and the people of Derry to make demands because we experience our culture on a day to day basis. I think a lot of people feel that there are lots of sections of culture in Derry that are being left out. The excluding of the experiences of everyday working class people in Derry, their culture isn’t given any great avenue to explore it in the programme of events. There’s a whole other culture here that’s being missed out on. There seems to be a stumbling from one big event to the next without actually putting any lasting stuff on the ground for the people going to be living in this culture for the next 10, 15 or 20 years. We’ve set up a group, myself and quite a few others called The City of Counter Culture because there’s being a lot left out we’re going to put on a Counter Culture festival as an alternative to the official programme of events. It’s not in opposition to the City of Culture just an alternative. We have little or no budget but we want to start the ball rolling with arts collectives, putting on regular nights, poetry nights, performance poetry and comedy.”

For those looking forward to the launch, it will take place in Sandinos Bar but details are yet to be confirmed. You should also keep your eye out for some strange posters around town. After the launch there will be a few plans in Connor’s diary. “I have a few more songs in the pipeline, hopefully if the album’s a wee bit moderately successful I’ll record and release a few more singles this year. It is available locally but you can also order a physical copy or a digital copy online from connorkelly.bandcamp.com, you can download individual tracks too, some of the tracks are available on itunes too, Spotify and places like that. I’m hoping to organise a small Irish tour and get over to at least the North of England in the next few months. Taking the album and promoting it.”