The quietly powerful songs of Joe Monaghan’s Train Room seem otherworldly at times, but as Monaghan himself explains, his music was born right here in Ireland, with local musicians. His first EP, Delicate Bones, features friends from his school days.
“Yeah, I really wanted to have local musicians on the EP, so I called up some old friends,” he recalls. “I studied at BIMM for two years, and then I went to Berlin, and by the time I came back I had these four songs. I said, well, that’s gonna be the first EP. I self-produced it and asked some friends if they’d like to work on it.”
After the EP, Monaghan took Train Room to premiere at the Hard Working Class Heroes Festival last October, after which everything has been on an upward curve. Train Room will be at Whelan’s on February 26 to officially launch Delicate Bones, but there’s gonna be a whole new set of songs you won’t find on the EP. “I’ve just finished writing an album,” says Monaghan excitedly. “I’ve got loads of new material for the Whelan’s gig.”
According to the singer, these new tunes new are really bringing out the true sound of Train Room. “As I’ve been writing over the last six or seven years,” he says, “I’ve always wanted my sound to have its own identity. I like bands like Wilco, or going back to the sound Radiohead had in the ’90s, but I’m really trying to find my own style. That part of it really happens organically – you do the work and whatever comes out, comes out. It’s sort of like a mystery.”
Train Room plays Whelans this Sunday, February 26. The EP, Delicate Bones, is available now.