Cork singer-songwriter Cormac O Caoimh has released five albums to date: his debut, Start A Spark was out in 2007, followed five years later by A New Season For Love. The Moon Loses Its Memory came out in 2014 and Shiny Silvery Things in 2017. His latest album, Swim Crawl Walk Run was out in 2020 and was his first out on vinyl as well as in cd. It was number 8 in the top 10 selling albums in Ireland for that year and entered the Official Irish IRMA charts and topped the Official Irish Indie charts. In Ireland he is on the Irish airwaves a lot. In the UK, although he has been played on BBC Ulster, BBC Wales, BBC Merseyside, BBC Scotland, BBC Radio 6 and countless regional, local, and digital stations is still very much an ‘unknown’. A indie-pop unknown. A legendary indie-pop unknown. A veteran legendary indie-pop unknown. His intimate vocals, magical melodies and exquisite guitar playing has always attracted very favourable appeal to critics always quick to point to his unique style as well as comparisons to acts varying from the dreamy pop of Badly Drawn Boy, Elliott Smith and Prefab Sprout to the introspective and more folk-oriented Nick Drake and Paul Simon. In 2022 O Caoimh released two singles and another one (Didn’t We, written in collaboration with Lindy Morrison of legendary band The Go-Betweens) will be out tomorrow.

What Cormac Says: “I was delighted with the last single There Must Be A Catch released in May. Feedback and support was incredible. It is still getting plays 4 months later and reached 2 million listeners on Irish radio (and reached the top 10 for all radio weekly charts, and no.2 in RTE Radio 1’s monthly charts). To be honest I wasn’t sure where to go after 2020’s ‘Swim Crawl Walk Run’ album. That one had 6 singles, entered the official IRMA charts on its release, got to no.1 in the IRMA Independent charts and ended up in the top 20 selling Irish albums for that year and I feel lucky and honoured it was  Album of the the week on RTE Radio 1, BBC Ulster, Lyric FM, KCRL FM, Play Irish, 8 Radio, Le Village Pop and 8 Radio. After that I started a few ridiculous plans (an album of one chords songs to name but a few) but I found my way back from that musical nervous breakdown and have a plan. Most of these singles and the new songs that have been written (but not recorded yet) will fit together in a (probable) concept album.“

“This was my first standalone single. Normally I record an album first and release singles later. This time I just recorded one song (and probably will only release singles for the forseeable future until I am closer to having an album worth of songs) and the song choice and the recording itself all happened quickly so it feels like Im starting out again.“

His Mixtape:

Something old

The Go Betweens : Bachelor Kisses

My favourite band! From back then and still now. And I am thrilled to say I recently co-wrote a song with Lindy Morrison from the band and it will be released as a single end of Oct or early November.

Revelino – Don’t Lead Me Down

Just as I started this Revelino retweeted my latest single with a lovely comment. A magic feeling ..one of your favourite bands liking your stuff. I loved this song on its release. And bought the vinyl of the album it came from that was released last year. Magic.

Something new

Sean Millar – Look What She Threw Away

The newest thing for me. Only recently released (last week) and only arrived with me a few days ago and I love it. The day it arrived was a particularly long and stressful one and I put it on late it in the evening and it was a wonderful tonic. This tune reminds me of a strange mixture of Planxty and The Byrds. But unmistakeably Sean.

The Dagenham Yanks – I Don’t Know Who You Are

One of my favourite new bands. From Cork…The Dagenham Yanks. Taking the mantle from my previous favourite band (also from Cork) Fred!

Something I Said

The Fat Lady Sings – Arclight

I am just back from giving a songwriting workshop and I mentioned this song and how Nick Kelly (the writer) saw and liked the word ‘arclight’ in a book he was reading. And how it inspired him to write a classic.

Something we did

Greenshine – The Girl In the Lavender Dress

At the same workshop I spoke a little bit about co-writes. Recently I have been lucky enough to have done some great co-writes (with Mary Greene from Greenshine, Martin Leahy, Sean Millar and Lindy Morrison). Greenshine released one of the songs we did together (Brother). The song Martin and I did together was on my Swim Crawl Walk Run album (which Martin also recorded, produced and mixed and did a magic job). And the song I did with Sean will be a b-side to the next single (which is the co-write with Lindy). So here are 2 songs from Mary and Martin (not the co-writes. Their own songs. Which are better than our co-writes anyways).

Martin Leahy – Everybody Should Have A Home

Cormac O Caoimh‘s new single Didn’t We will be out tomorrow, October 21st. Look HERE for more information on Cormac O Caoimh.