2011-03-16 Gavin Friday – catholic
Summary
16 years since his last album Shag Tobacco Gavin Friday returns fittingly, at a time of upheaval, of political chaos, and of spiritual, financial and moral bankruptcy. The new album, 'catholic', is produced by Ken Thomas (Throbbing Gristle, Cocteau Twins, Sigur Ros). All songs were penned by Friday and his new musical partner Herbie Macken.
The album: 'catholic'
“The night he fell in the Mouth of the Flowers… a dark medal of blood slowly forming near the general’s unmoving head. He was dressed in green. In his fading iris, the moon — and the future of the indefeasible Republic. The Angelus bell pealed and the sky flared as the British guns fired a salute in his honour.”
- Requiem for the Fallen, Pat McCabe16 years since his last album, it’s time to salute anti-hero Gavin Friday, who returns fittingly, at a time of upheaval, of political chaos, and of spiritual, financial and moral bankruptcy. Ireland is a very different place to the country Shag Tobacco was recorded in, and the intervening decade and a half coincided with a prolific work period for the singer. From soundtracks for In America , The Boxer and Get Rich Die Tryin' with Quincy Jones to collaborating on Nothing like the Sun with Gavin Bryars and the Royal Shakespeare Company, he moved away from the conventional parameters of the album. There was his acting debut (in Neil Jordan’s Breakfast on Pluto), Scott Walker collaborations and a Kurt Weill show at Dublin Theatre Festival. In personal terms, he endured illness, the end of his marriage and his father’s death. To some, the personal is political; but Gavin Friday is clear that this is “an emotional, not a political, album”. The singer likens catholic to “waking from a deep sleep, of letting go and coming to terms with loss”. And somewhere in the middle of all that, there are slivers of love, contentment and romance.
“Sometimes when you’re building songs, they tell you ‘look after me’ or ‘fuck off, and leave me alone’”
In opener Able, there is the kind of declaration that comes with age and experience, “I want you to love me… don’t want you to lie”. Friday turned 50 prior to recording catholic and the songs testify to a life lived, but one that’s far from over - physically or creatively. Lord I’m Coming might sound like an incantation to death, but is counter-acted by the titular positivity of It’s All Ahead of You. “Did you know that best is yet to come”, he asks rhetorically. The album oscillates musically and thematically between songs like Blame, dedicated to and about his father to Perfume, about our moments of promiscuity and lack of communication in The Only One.
Produced by Ken Thomas (Throbbing Gristle, Cocteau Twins, Sigur Ros), Thomas’ influence is most obvious on Cocteau-Twins shimmer of The Sun & The Moon and & The Stars. The album was birthed in a pool of 38 songs, which were whittled down. All songs were penned by Friday and his new musical partner Herbie Macken. Cocooned in Friday’s Killiney home, recording took just six weeks and involved musicians Gavin had worked with before: Multi instrumentalist Herbie Macken, Cellist Kate Ellis, Guitarist Jolyon Vaughan Thomas, Bassist Gareth Hughes, Guitarist Anto Drennan, Drummer André Antunes , and Moya Brennan [who guests on Lord I'm Coming ] and journalist John Kelly on harmonica. After spotting the Castleford Salvation Army outside a local shop, while mixing the album in Yorkshire Gavin invited them to contribute and Ken Thomas’ daughter Amy Odell also provides vocals on Land on the Moon. Everything builds toward Lord I’m Coming, an existential, orchestral psalm, an anti-pop composition of profundity.
In recent years, Gavin Friday’s has been dominated by cinema, soundtrack and theatre, and its no surprise that their collective, lush shadow looms over catholic. Friday takes conventional song structures and scores them, adding Bowie-synths, sci-fi swirls, epic strings and Germanic rhythms.
Artist. Germanophile. Singer. Non-conformist. catholic. All are intrinsically Gavin Friday, but the latter is definitely spelt with a small ‘c’.
Track listing:
- Able
- Land On The Moon
- A Song that Hurts
- The Only One
- Blame
- The Sun & The Moon & The Stars
- It’s All Ahead of You
- Perfume
- Epilogue
- Where’d Ya Go? Gone
- Lord I’m coming
catholic is released on Rubyworks on Good Friday, 22nd April 2011
Requiem for the Fallen by Patrick Mc Cabe written and inspired by the words, music and world of 'catholic'
Biography
Gavin Friday’s career spans four decades, and he still puts the same energy and passion into his work that he did with the Virgin Prunes in 1977. The 1980s were dominated by other artistic endeavours – painting, (his 1988 exhibition I Didn’t Dome up the Liffey in a Bubble), writing and MCing his own weekly cabaret The Blue Jaysus.. 1987 saw the start of a 15 year long collaboration with pianist Maurice Seezer.
Gavin’s first solo album with Seezer was Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves, released in 1989. It was followed in 1992 by Adam ‘n’ Eve, and three years later by Shag Tobacco (which the singer called “a very sexual album’). The decade was also the beginning of his career in film as both a vocalist and composer. He wrote the soundtrack to Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father, which including Sinéad O’Connor’s hit, ‘You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart’. In 1996 Friday and Seezer contributed the song ‘Angel’ to the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack and wrote their first score for the Australian film Angel Baby. Subsequent film scores have included The Boxer (1998), Disco Pigs (2001) and In America (2002) and the 50 Cent biopic Get Rich or Die Trying with Quincy Jones.
His 2001 show Ich Liebe Dich, juxtaposed 1920s/30s Berlin and 1940s Broadway and had a sell-out run at the Dublin Theatre Festival. It was only a matter of time before Gavin made his film debut, in 2005. Director Neil Jordan cast him as sexually ambiguous rocker Billy Hatchet inBreakfast on Pluto, which won him much acclaim. He returned to the stage in Germanophile mode in Tomorrow Belongs To Me. Since 2007, he has been playing live with the Gavin Bryars Ensemble, on performances such as This Shakespeare Sonnet Project and The Sinking of the Titanic.
More theatrical and collaborative work followed in 2007, including music for The Revenant, a play by Patrick McCabe’s and Ian Wilson's The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World. In Summer 2008, Scott Walker invited Gavin to perform in Drifting and Tilting – The Songs of Scott Walker and in 2009 Gavin turned 50 and celebrated with a gig at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Guests included Antony, Rufus Wainwright, Courtney Love, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and U2.
Last year he covered Suicide’s ‘Ghostrider’ with Dave Ball. Gavin also performed a full-length show with traditional musicians Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill at the National Library’s Summer Wreath. As part of the show, they performed a selection of WB Yeats’ poetry, which they plan to record at a later date. catholic is Friday’s fourth studio album and his first solo project in 16 years. The singer likens catholic to “waking from a deep sleep, of letting go and coming to terms with loss”. It’s also about mortality, promiscuity, romance, art and hope. Legendary producer Ken Thomas helmed a broad cast of musicians who helped shape the songs, but Friday’s own experience with film scores and composition looms large over the tracks, creating a complex, layered work that veers between minimalist and reflective to epic and lush.
Video: 'Able'
Links
Official Website
http://www.gavinfriday.comOfficial Facebook page
http://facebook.com/gavinfridaynews/Official Blog
http://blog.gavinfriday.com