Donnacha heads to Lahinch for The White Horse Sessions

By John Rainsford

LIMERICK-born songster, Donnacha Toomey, who took the Electric Picnic by storm last year, will play ‘The White Horse’ sessions in Kenny’s, Lahinch on July 19.
The Kerry-based troubadour, who wrote his first song when he was only nine years old, graduated from the University of Limerick in 2003. He has spent most of the intervening period honing his craft in Italy.
“Italy had a significant influence on my song writing and in particular, my guitar-playing style. The live performances were mainly with a five-piece band. During this period, I became very interested in the rhythms of Latin American music playing in bands with a strong blues, jazz, and folk influence.
“Back then, I toured with a guitarist who was impeccable in his approach to the instrument. His playing and practice regime was incredible, he was extremely versatile and worked really hard at getting the right electric guitar sound on stage.”
In recent years, he has taken a solo approach to performing relying on a much more “stripped down” acoustic sound in his work. Today, guitar accompaniment plays an important part in his song delivery, anchoring everything and creating a definitive mood utilising traditional music, early blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, folk and world music.
Carnival of Colours (2009) was his first full-length solo album. Prior to this he released Reasons (2005), which was an introductory EP. The Carnival of Colours album was very much related to his experiences in Italy, the people, the culture and the times spent there. The song Emilia is a direct reference to a town called Reggio Emilia, just north of Bologna, where he spent most of that time. The title, Carnival of Colours, represents the times spent in Venice at the carnival every February. Collectively, the songs from the album deal with various themes and colours from the period.
“For me, there are no styles that are ‘banned’, so to speak,” he says, “or ones that I will not let in, everything is welcome in the mix really. Wherever the song takes me, I will go with it, if it requires a particular instrument, I am prepared to track it down and teach myself to play it. Otherwise, I will get a session player in to do the job in the studio for me.”
He has just completed his second album entitled Level Crossing, which will be released in early 2012. It is an 11-track studio recording and the songs are very much acoustic guitar driven. He has two singles which will be released before the album launch. Duty Free for release this coming August and Head in the Clouds, which will be released in November.
He has just returned to Ireland from a concert in London where he played tracks from his new material at the 12 Bar Club venue in Soho. He will be playing acoustic versions of tracks from Level Crossing at The White Horse Sessions in Lahinch. After that, he plans further single/album releases.
“Music can be created out of anything.  It may be because you feel that the best way to express something is in a musical context. If you can capture a mood and translate it into to a rhythm, phrase or melody, or even all three at the same time, then you have lift off. You can certainly derive a lot of pleasure from writing songs; some days work out better than others though.
“Sometimes you just need to take a break from it and give your thoughts a chance to breathe. Defining the more challenging moments in your life is certainly song writing gold. There is, quite simply, nothing better than writing and playing music in my opinion. If I could not do that, I would probably be recording/producing other musicians. While I have recorded with session musicians and collaborated with others on Level Crossing, I am currently working as a solo performer for my live shows.”
There were many musical influences in his family background and his father continues to play traditional Irish music with his mother singing in a local choir. He remembers the radio was always on at home and people were singing along, humming tunes or passing albums around the house.
The early Sun recording sessions first got him into music and he was immediately hooked on ’50s’ rock ‘n’ roll. In terms of songwriters, he is at pains to explain that there is a long list of influential people, rather than being just one.
Amazingly, he admits to being self-taught but owes a lot to the many musicians he has played with and swapped albums with, over the years. It is difficult to categorise the type of music he plays and he prefers to leave it to the listener to be the judge. He has, however, played many different types of music largely because of the myriad of styles he listens to. One important factor that has shaped his music is the quality of the musicians played with at home and abroad.
“Writing a song is a very rewarding experience. It can be a way to gather your thoughts or to simply let them run completely free. It is remarkable to think that what started off as a blank page and some loose ideas for a melody can end up as a structured song. The process should not be taken for granted, however. It is extremely satisfying to take that song to a recording studio in order to finalise the arrangements and produce the finished piece. Song writing is a very engaging process at many levels, always challenging and no matter how many songs you have written, you are always learning and discovering new approaches.
“There are days when it is quite easy to write music.  A tune or a phrase simply comes into your head and it more or less writes itself. If this starts happening, I think it is really important to get to your instrument as soon as possible before the song is lost or at least record it into a portable recording device, phone or whatever. There are also times when you can spend hours experimenting with something random until you are happy with it, or think that it is worth holding onto. Sometimes, you begin critiquing your own song structures, melodies or lyrics and I suppose that is what keeps the whole process so interesting in the first place. For me, the ones that come quickest are usually the best.”
For more information on Donnacha and his music see www.donnachatoomey.com and also   www.facebook.com/donnachatoomey. Information on his gig in Lahinch can be found at  www.facebook.com/thewhiteh​orsesessions.