Bronagh Gallagher set for Ulster gigs
Bronagh Gallagher sings, writes lyrics and is producing her second album
IT’S been clear, since she played Bernie in The Commitments back in 1991, that Londonderry-born actress Bronagh Gallagher can really sing.
After years starring in films with serious credentials - Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Star Wars: Episode I and the Most Fertile Man in Ireland, to name but three - she turned her attention to melody, releasing debut album Sweet Soul in 2004.
She wrote every song and played the drums on the album. And reviewers trilled over her beautiful, husky-yet-angelic singing voice.
Her friends John Reynolds and Brian Eno (a “dear old friend”) produced it.
“Music has always been my greatest passion and greatest love,” says Bronagh.
“For this new album I’m taking the wheel after years of trying to pluck up the courage and I’m going to produce it myself.”
Bronagh describes the musical diet that has fed into her own sound: “It’s doo wop and early blues and soul and great reggae production. I think my sound is a hyrbid of classic Memphis soul and dark, Chicano-Mexicana storytelling.
“A lot of the songs are based on characters I met when I was travelling in California last year. It’s about telling a story. The artists I most admire have always had great characters in their songs and they let you into their world - Bob Dylan and Van Morrison have both down that.”
Her powerful voice is accompanied by her excellent band which has Conor Brady on guitar, Graham Hopkinson on drums, Clare Kenny playing bass, Justin Carroll on hammond organ and wurlitzer, backing singers Shelly and Jordan Bukspan and Paul Byrne, with Michael Buckley and Ronan Dooney on horns.
Bronagh describes the process of writing, which sometimes moves instantaneously and other times is slow and laboured - depending on when inspiration strikes.
“Once I was standing in my mum and dad’s house in Derry and I was waiting on my driving lesson, looking for a pen on the hall table, and then bang - this tune came into my head and I had the hook or lick for a new song.”
Sometimes the theme is love, sometimes it’s negativity, alcohol, the stuff of dreams, situations Bronagh has found herself in.
Even though she has graced the most prestigious stages in London and Dublin, stared in TV programmes alongside Kenneth Branagh and is about to appear in the new Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Guy Ritchie, Bronagh says she will be extremely nervous before her forthcoming gigs at Sandinos in Londonderry and the Oh Yeah Centre in Belfast.
“I’ll have a dry throat and a nervous rash - I’ll be beside myself!
“I have acting experience under my belt but with singing on stage you just feel so exposed. You’re singing about things you’ve experienced in your life and it’s a very vulnerable place to be in.
“Once you get those first couple of songs over you get that rush though and then you never want it to end.”
Bronagh Gallagher’s second album is expected to be released in spring 2012. Bronagh Gallagher and her band will play at Sandinos Cafe Bar, Londonderry, November 2 and the Oh Yeah Centre, Belfast, November 3. Visit www.bronaghgallagher.com for more information.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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