Brendan Graham: "At the age of 48, I got made redundant... I decided then, I would have a go at this songwriting full time"

Before speaking with Brendan Graham, I knew a good deal about him. He’s a wizard songwriter who penned not one, but two Eurovision-winning songs – ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids’ in 1994 and ‘The Voice’ in 1996 – along with ‘You Raise Me Up’. The latter has been covered many hundreds – if not thousands – of times, most famously by Josh Groban, Brian Kennedy and Westlife – who claimed a UK No.1 with it. What I didn’t know, was that he was a fellow Mullingar man. Well, sort of…

But more of that anon. Brendan Graham, at the ripe age of 80, has just released The Arrow Of Time, his debut album. It was described by the mighty Jackie Hayden for this publication as giving “a startling, raw intimacy to these fresh recordings right from the off, with the celebratory Eurovision sheen of ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids’ replaced by a stark wistfulness that evokes memories of early Tom Waits or latterday Nick Cave...” It’s an assessment that’s spot on.

Born in Nenagh, Brendan was a banker’s son, so the family moved every four years – Portarlington, Castleisland, Ballinasloe and… Mullingar. So, we can almost claim you, Brendan?

“Sometimes you do,” he laughs. “But actually, my first song came about through a connection in Mullingar with Tommy Swarbrigg, who was in Joe Dolan’s showband The Drifters, who were huge at the time. I had gone off to London, like most young fellows did at the time. I took the mail boat. At that time The Beatles were huge – I remember ‘Eleanor Rigby’ was the big song.

“And I was thinking about the other character in the song, Father McKenzie. And I thought, he’s a real interesting character, and maybe Paul McCartney should have given him a song of his own. So in a Chinese restaurant, I scribbled out a lyric called Father Dickens, and I sent it to Tommy Swarbrigg. Then I went out to Australia.

“The following Christmas, I got Johnny McEvoy’s brilliant album, With An Eye To Your Ear. That wasn’t the folk stuff that Johnny was renowned for, but it had songs by The Beatles and Leonard Cohen. And there in the middle of the lot was, ‘Father Dickens’! My first royalty check in 1968 from Shaftesbury Music went to Ginnell Terrace in Mullingar, Tommy Swarbrigg’s address.”

Were you always penning songs?

“No, I wasn’t,” he replies. “I was like most young fellas at that time. You know, we wanted to be Elvis, so I had a guitar. I had the DA haircut and all that. But I was always interested in who wrote songs. So, if there was a jukebox anywhere, I was playing something, and I’d always be looking to see who wrote each song. But I didn’t start really writing until we came back from Australia in’ 72 or ‘73.

“Eurovision had escaped me in Australia, but I was walking up Ballinasloe town one night, and there was a crowd gathered outside this electrical store looking in at a telly. And I heard Red Hurley singing. I thought he has a fantastic voice, maybe if I wrote a song that might suit him, I could go into the Eurovision. So, I boldly found out where he lived and knocked at his door one day.”

Red Hurley sang Brendan’s ‘When’ at the 1976 Eurovision, while Maria Christian performed another of his songs at the ’85 edition. Brendan takes up the story.

“I was an industrial engineer,” he recalls, “and then at the age of 48, I got made redundant. So I had no job with five daughters, all at various levels of college. My wife had a job, so that kind of kept us going. So, I decided then, I would have a go at this songwriting full time, and see if I could make a job of it, or else forget about it.

“I wrote a number of songs, one of which was ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids’. Back then, to submit a song to Eurovision, you sent a cassette to RTE. Which I did, but it was rejected twice. However, I put it in a third year, because I believed in the song and it won.”

Noy only in Ireland! At the Point Theatre, on a seminal night for Irish music, to a live TV audience of 300 million, ‘Rock n Roll Kids’, performed by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan, won Ireland’s third straight Eurovision, while Riverdance performed for the very first time.

“I sat out the front,” Brendan reflects. “I wanted to see the song performed. I also wanted to see Riverdance, because Bill Whelan is a long-time friend of mine. He was about five or six rows in front of me. I remember after ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids’, he turned around and gave me the thumbs up. And when Riverdance came on, he turned around and I gave him the thumbs up.”

Two years later, in Oslo, Brendan achieved the double, when Eimear Quinn won again with ‘The Voice’, the last time Ireland won the Eurovision. However, the old Euro crew – Graham, Harrington, McGettigan and Quinn – are back together for one more job on The Arrow Of Time. Also onboard are Rolf Lovland, co-creator of ‘You Raise Me Up’, along with Feargal Murray and David McCune in the production chairs.

“I thought it might be interesting to revisit the songs,” Brendan explains. “So I asked Paul and Charlie would they come back and revisit ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids’ with me? They said yes immediately, and we had a great day in the studio, just reconnecting. So that was special.

“I asked Rolf, would he be up for just doing the piano part on ‘You Raise Me Up’, while I speak the song. And he was, again, totally up for that. For ‘The Voice’, Eimear suggested, ‘Why don’t you speak it and I’ll sing around you?’ And that was very special.”

It’s genuinely intriguing to hear the songwriter behind the songs voice them on this record. When I ask about his creative process, he hilariously jests, “You often get asked, ‘Which comes first, the words or the melody?’ Neither. It’s the phone call!”

When I mention the subtle power within the sonic fraternal pair of ‘I Want To Go To Venice’ and ‘The Songman’, Brendan elaborates, “The song man is often taught about art and what it contributes or doesn’t contribute to life. We can’t change anything. We might think we’re writing something that possibly could have an effect, but all we do is observe. And I say in ‘The Songman, ‘I’m just the song.’”

Brendan is a man of fine detail. I noted that Camille O’Sullivan was on the album’s final track, so I was waiting for her to come in – and then it’s just a final breath, which I thought was pretty fantastic.

“Well, that was an idea,” Brendan laughs. “Camille is just amazing. I have the height of respect and admiration for her. We had written two songs together with Feargal Murray. I’ve never been in a songwriting situation as intense and exciting as those two days.

“I don’t think I could do it for a week, but we got two great songs. Because I was singing the songs, I just thought, wouldn’t it be fantastic if Camille would agree to do a final breath on ‘What If There’s No Tomorrow?’ So she did – and it is fantastic.”

• The Arrow Of Time is out now.