Features
MUNDY
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Say the words “Irish singer songwriter” and your own preconceptions are liable to run wild. It could be something steeped in traditional Irish folk music all fiddles and pipes, or it could be wigged out glammed up pop trash a’ la GAVIN FRIDAY or then again perhaps it's more a case of the out to lunch save the world pretension of the CRANBERRIES, with MUNDY it's perhaps all of this and more. Advised by some, we are told to use such highbrow signpost as NEIL YOUNG, MIKE SCOTT and KURTCOBAIN when discussing MUNDY's own raw unleashed songwriting talent. But that would be looking at things just a little too simply. |
"Its not like I sit down and plan what I'm going to do, the songs fall out, I can't bottle them up. I do what I do for me not for anybody else".
A good starting point and an admirable attitude for any committed artist to uphold and Whether MUNDY's sound has anything at all to do with the musical influences of a dog eared record collection is both a mute point and a blind alley. " It's pretty trippy, visually laid back, it's poppy too though if you can get through to it, sort of Celtic Hindu". Celtic, Hindu. There's definite elements of tradition then? "Oh yeah, big time I listened to a lot of traditional Irish music as a kid, but in the last few years I've been listening to eastern music, so it clashes I guess". Having been holed up the studio with musical witchdoctor general YOUTH as producer, a fellow well noted for his own unique approach to making music, how did MUNDY find the process? "He's amazing man, mad! mad as opposed to creative but he's totally creative. He added a lot of the magic to it, magic that was already there obviously". So when can we expect the album, and what can we expect from it? "It will be out in August/September. There's six really good singles on the album, there's more than six but there's six definite, fucking amazing singles, It's a long term thing, I wanna make 10 albums maybe more, it's not about getting a buzz from one song". So longevity is definitely part of your game plan then? "Big time, I think the record company see that too, they know that there's more than one album. They gave me a two-album deal, so they can't drop me after one album, which is usually what happens with other bands if there's no money being made, so I have that security there". So how does somebody like MUNDY arrive at this point, you’re growing up in a small town in Ireland and you want to be a rock n' roll star, you want to make music that makes people feel like all the best stuff you've ever heard makes you feel.. What do you do?. Route one you arm yourself with an attitude and all the right reference points and then make sure you've got something worth saying.
"Going back I really listened to songwriters, NEIL YOUNG, LEONARD COHEN, BOB DYLAN
What’s most Important to me are the words to the songs. If I hear a song and there's not a not a good story in it, it's worth shite to me. Though still something of a fledgling talent, the hype may in this case prove to be well observed, as opposed to the one hit wonder, flavour of the month scenarios that more often than not we are spoon-fed by those men in grey suits. "I know that when I get it right I can write great songs, l don't want to do anything that's just throwaway I know how good I can be". Armed with such self confidence and what appears to be a keen eye for self criticism and a musical maturity way beyond his years. It should only be a matter of time before MUNDY becomes a feature of our own dog-eared record collections.
GRAHAM TILER |