DECLAN O'ROURKE in PARIS ...
Declan will bring his deep-honey brand of vocal story-telling to
The Centre Culturel Irlandais, 75005 Paris on Friday 14-March.
“I like to tell stories and a lot of my songs come naturally – Irish people are born story tellers’.
Declan O’Rourke is best described as a ‘sorcerer of songs’, a label he prefers to singer songwriter “It can be misguiding because it conjures up the image of someone strumming a guitar while singing introverted songs while looking at their shoes. Anyone who’s ever sung a song they’ve written themselves is technically a singer songwriter. So people are putting themselves in the same bracket as The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix.”
Declan’s immense talent is best defined by his songs which include the stunning ‘Galileo (Someone Like You)’, ‘Time Machine’ and Sarah’. “That’s part of the Irish thing – we’re good at telling stories. At the same time I don’t like to stick to any one particular formula - so some songs might not necessarily be actual stories. I’m constantly writing new songs and it’s mad trying to keep up recording with the amount of material that I have”.
Declan’s has been a slow steady rise to fame and this year he celebrates the 10th anniversary of his debut album ‘Since Kyabram’ (2004). It must be strange then to be labelled an overnight success “People don’t see the long journey – they only notice when you appear on their radar. But in a way I did start performing late – playing my own material when I was about 24 and I released my first album at 27 – so I was a bit of a late starter.”
His second album, ‘Big Bad Beautiful World’ (2007) consolidated his position as a meteoric talent. Support slots followed in the UK and Europe as he toured extensively in addition to supporting the likes of Paul Weller, Snow Patrol and Badly Drawn Boy.
O’Rourke’s major break came with a glowing endorsement from Paul Weller of his debut single ‘Galileo’. “That certainly helped enormously to get endorsed by a veteran like him – someone who’s been around that long and seen it all.”
The song has since been recorded by Josh Groban, Eddi Reader and Brian Kennedy and performed by Weller and Chris Rea.
Declan’s third and most recent album, the intriguingly titled ‘Mag Pai Xai’ followed in 2011, peaking at number six in the Irish charts. The album title, a play on words from a song about “two brothers in New York who hoard everything and there’s a line that says 'He saw the whole wide world through the magpie’s eye”.Since that album he’s toured extensively in Europe, particularly Germany and in the States. “In 2013 it was a choice between recording a new album and launching in the States and we then got a great review in the ‘New York Times’ so we decided to put in a concentrated effort in the States and give it a good bash”.
The Dublin song-smith recently moved to Kinvara, “It’s an inspirational place, looking across the bay at Galway City and then equally spectacular, the view across at the Burren”
This will be Declan’s’ first full show in Paris, although he has performed here before’ “I played with Bic Runga, the New Zealand artist and I’ve also been in touch recently with a lovely French singer Emily Loizeau”. A chance for the French public to ‘meet’ his legendary ‘battered’ guitar, “It’s battle-worn because the wood on the face of it is quite soft, but the type of wood gives the guitar a beautiful tone – the draw back being it’s easily worn away. I’ve been playing it now for over 15 years so it’s taken a lot of strumming”.
O’Rourke is a natural performer, “I love what I do and after each show the sun just shines out the back of your head. For Paris I just plan to come over and put on the best show I can and have a good time myself and develop a rapport with the crowd and move them and entertain them and feel the love”.
He’s also a fervent fan of French cinema, “I’ve written a song about the French film ‘Trois Couleurs’ which I plan to perform at the CCI.
Recent sell-out concerts include a stellar performance in December at the Cork Opera House with a string quartet. And in September, he performed at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall at ‘the Sea Sessions’. “The focus was on the sea between Ireland and England and its commonality and I sang a couple of Famine songs; part of a collection which I’d like to record soon.”
Michael Walsh
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