released March 12, 2021

Songs for The Cuisle Cancer Support Centre

The Cuisle Centre is a cancer support facility for families and friends of people who are undergoing cancer treatment, a place where they can receive emotional and practical support, from the time of a diagnosis throughout treatment and afterwards. It is a cause that has an annual cost of around €200,000 to keep them afloat and they don’t receive any financial support from the Department of Health or the HSE. They are primarily funded by community fundraising.
Throughout my time here I've watched so many having to face this crippling disease. Both my grandmothers passed from cancer, an aunt and uncles including my godfather, friends and neighbours. As I write this today there are people close to me who continue to battle with it. 
A cruel illness that I am pretty sure has affected most people in some way shape or form.
While we can't do much to stop or cure this disease at the moment, we can spread awareness and gather some well-needed funds which allow patients to receive support during their most difficult times. That brings us to the aim of this GoFundMe and the goal that's set.

If three songs in exchange for a donation to this fantastic cause sounds good to you then, please head over to gofund.me/f0e34c98 and you will find all the details there on how to make a donation and how you can go about downloading the music.
Along with the music, you will get the joy of knowing you made a difference in someone's life or many people’s lives this year. I know there are a lot of fundraisers circling at this time but please know any donation big or small will be graciously appreciated and you can be happy to know that 100% of the donation will go to The Cuisle Centre.

Lots of love to you all for reading and for your support. Brian
 
P.s The sleeve art you see has a picture of a beautiful stone I'd stumbled upon on one of our 5k confines walk up in the hills of Cullenagh over lockdown number one - If you were the person who left this stone, thank you for the colour along the walkway and for the useful message. Sláinte


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About the music... 

The EP has three songs on it. The first is an original song I'd written called 'Hey Doc' and it's a song that's very close to the cause at hand. I was trying to put across that moment where a doctor has to give somebody bad news, sitting in a chair at the surgery. The character in the lyric is leaning against his Irish humorous side and is basically asking the doctor for a dose of the placebo effect, so as he can get on back to his work and keep going. Drive on with it kind of thing. Unfortunately for him, it's not quite as simple as that.
The second song is a cover song from an excellent group from county Antrim, a band called Malojian. They write gorgeous songs and I highly recommend anyone to check them out. This particular song 'The Singularity' happens to be about the pandemic and was written by Malojian just as lockdown number one hit. They were prompt on hand to pen a song so quickly and squeeze it on to their latest album 'Humm' that was coming out that month. Malojian generously allowed me to use the song for this release (Please do consider going and showing them some love if you can.) malojian.bandcamp.com
The last song is a live take and is a cover of an old classic 'What a Wonderful World' which was all over the TV and radio back in May 2020. I believe a lot of people were gaining some comfort from the song at that time, as was I.  

The songs were all recorded in and around May/June 2020, at the home place in Laois and all instruments and production by myself. Stevie from Malojian is playing the piano on his own track, The Singularity. And my mother's dog Pepsi makes a guest appearance at one stage too. To help pass the lockdown I did a lot of experimenting with recordings around the house and these are some of the results from then.  

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