Music from the Heart

Mark Wilkins is an Irish composer, songwriter and musician. A multi-instrumentalist based in Cork City, he has composed original music for live theatre (Gare Saint Lazare Players, Macnas, Theatre Lovett, Intersections), radio productions (UCC Campus Radion/RTE Lyric FM) and documentary films. A recently completed album of original songs recorded with acclaimed vocalist Vickie Keating (Christy Moore/Declan Sinnott) and drummer Trevor Kiely will be released in the form of a series of four EPs over the next six months. It was recorded on an archaic portable desk at various locations around Cork, including the basement of the much missed Crowleys Music Centre. This is the second EP.

Klara McDonnell is a Dublin-born singer/songwriter and actress. She's a regular at Dublin open mic scene, performing her brand of jazzy, folky, nostalgic pop. She had been a frontwoman of Irish alt-rock band Hypno Puppet for five years. She released her solo EP "Trapped within" in 2017. Klara also presents The Songwriter Club show on Dublin's Together FM.

Noel O'Brien is 24 years old songwriter/guitarist from Tipperary. His influences include songwriters like John Martyn, Elliot Smith, finger style guitarists Alan Gogoll and Thomas Leeb as well as psychedelic/experiemental music. He released a debut EP " Yet to Come" in 2015. Since then, he has been developing his craft at songwriter nights and gigs in Dublin.

The Lost Gecko are a band hailing from Cork, Ireland, formed in 2006 by Scottish-born singer-songwriter Malcolm Urquhart. Having recorded 9 EPs, with cellist Elaine McCarthy and percussionist John O'Connor, The Lost Gecko have released a new album, 'Solasta', meaning 'Luminous' in Scots-Gael. They are currently recording their next album 'The Ghost That Minds the Crows', to be released in spring 2019 at Claycastle Studios in Youghal with John Burke.

An artist is an artist because he feels he couldn't be doing anything else. He puts his heart and soul into the work. That's exactly what Belfast singer/songwriter Andrew Patterson is doing. Honesty is the key in his songs. He recently captured the listeners with his Christmas single, Something in December,  and now he comes with his latest offering, an EP called Out Of Babylon.

County Down songwriter Brendan Monaghan performs his material at home and in many different countries around the world. He shared the same bill as many top international artists and has written material for several recording artists. He has released eight albums to date. The themes on his latest release, Unbroken, cover feelings like love, faith, belief one's self and nostalgia. These songs were mainly written while travelling to shows between city to city, country to country.

3 piece Alt-Pop/Soul band from Dublin City have been performing live together since late 2016 when they burst onto the scene with a packed out single/video launch for their debut track 'Light of My Life in Dublin's Whelans. This was followed by a string of several acclaimed festival performances and shows including Castlepalooza, Sunflower Fest and Sea Sessions among others, even performing in Spain for an intimate Sofar Sounds show in Madrid. The band finished up last year with a private live recorded performance for a limited number of fans in Dublin's renowned 'Windmill Lane Studios', making for a great closing show for the year, and ensuring that the band are a musical force to be reckoned with moving into 2018.

Andrew Patterson is a singer/songwriter from Belfast. Influenced by the likes of Glen Hansard, Foy Vance or Bruce Springsteen, he writes honest songs about hope, love and loss built upon everyday experiences and dreams. He has made appearances at the Belfast Nashville and Portstewart songwriter's festivals and in March 2016 released his debut EP  "Pave The Road".

It's always amazing to see how productive some artists are. Jamie McDonald is one of them. He released the album "Maladies of country and soul" not that long ago ( you can read the review here and the interview about the album)  but now he comes with another one. This time a bit different. Raw sound but still honest and with the unmistakable vocal.