SHANNON’S David Hope will launch his new album ‘…And The Sea’ at the Swive stage in Shannon Town Centre on Friday at 6pm.
Admission is free for the launch of what is his fifth album, which both lyrically and musically is the deepest dive Hope has taken into his songwriting and recording.
Through capturing a mix of raw emotional acoustic tracks and full band epics, this makes for his most complete album to date.
David said much of the album relates to a bereavement.
“This album is largely my attempt to find the words to deal with the loss of my father, a man I loved to the moon and back and respected deeply. He was every bit as much my Dad as he was my best friend; so letting go and saying goodbye was and is terribly hard.
“While in the effort to find the words to express my grief and love for him, I also found the words to finally write a song about my home county of Clare.
“The song ‘Lovers Leap’ is the type of song which he was always encouraging me to write. I also found words which I’d long tucked away of: “I hope you find your way back home” – a farewell refrain to my grandmother, Maggie King.
“While this album is deeply personal, and inevitably sad at points, I do hope it is equally universal in the sense that if we are lucky, we’ll get to live long enough to say goodbye to those we love. This is the ultimate beauty and tragedy of life.“
It was recorded and produced by Christian Best at Monique Studios, Midleton, Cork.
The approach taken by Hope and Best to the album’s production was to try and capture the performance of each song in as much of a ‘live’ way as possible.
This was in an effort to be as true to each song, but ultimately to have an overall ‘Album’ sound, rather than a collection of individual recordings.
“There are different styles and different inflections to the songs on this album, but there is definitely a thread that connects them from how we approached the recording process.
“I wanted a late night, close feel to the sound and I think between Christian’s recording style, the players who were part of the project and the songs themselves, we achieved that,” he said.
Hope was joined for the recording sessions which took place in July – October 2019 and February 2020 by Steffi Hess from Switzerland on double bass and vocals.
Session musician, Kealan Kenny from Cork, features on electric guitar; alongside Darragh Keary from Limerick on piano and keys.
Additionally, Chris McCarthy from Cork also makes an appearance on E bass. Christian Best lends his talents on drums and percussion, just as he did on Hope’s previous album ‘Tough Love’ (2017).
“I have been extremely lucky to work with many great musicians over the years, both live and in the studio.
“While the recording sessions for this album were some of the most personally draining and hard to deal with, from a musical perspective, they were some of my favourite times spent in the studio.
“The excellence of the musicians involved along with the mix of personalities and energies made for incredibly productive and genuinely fun recording sessions. I owe them a great deal.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.