O’Rourke On The Wild Side

Very rarely to the words ‘breath of fresh air’ and ‘singer-songwriter’ belong in the same sentence, but a certain Dubliner is about to change all that.

His name is Declan O’Rourke – you may recognise him from appearances on Other Voices: Songs From A Room, or perhaps Onstage With Paddy Casey.
“We were mates beforehand,” recalls O’Rourke of his erstwhile collaborator. “He let me carry on with my solo stuff while I was playing guitar for him, so it worked out well. He can be a cranky bastard sometimes though, and you can quote me on that! He slept the whole time while we were on tour, and farted a lot in the van…”
As one of Casey’s entourage, O’Rourke was immediately welcomed into Dublin’s tightly-knit singer-songwriter community.
“It’s very healthy,” he says of the comradeship within Dublin’s singer-songwriter clan. “We pick up ideas off each other. Put it this way, if there were fewer of us, it would be harder. There wouldn’t be as many places to play. There were a lot more places for up and comers a few years ago.”
Having put in an impressive 140 gigs in his first year, Declan earned his stripes on the live circuit, performing as often as people would have him.
“It’s not hard work if you love what you do.” he reflects. “You just have to be very patient. You have to accept that things don’t go as fast as you’d like them to.”
Though he was fast earning a dedicated fanbase, it wasn’t until his appearance on the RTE show Other Voices: Songs From A Room that Declan really sealed his reputation as one to watch.
“I think Other Voices came at a good time,” he muses. “Things had been going slowly for a year, so it was great to get my name in amongst the other established acts. It was kind of like a Whelan’s session out of town! I was off the drink at the time, to give myself a break, but it was still great.”
Additionally, having the likes of Paul Brady and Eddi Reader shower plaudits on his music hasn’t harmed his career any.
“Yeah, that feels fantastic,” he concedes. “I met Paul Brady about four years ago, and we’ve been in contact as time has gone by. So it’s become a nice friendship, for me especially. I met Eddi a year ago and we’ve kept in touch ever since. Believe me, I don’t pay them money to say those things!”
Like many of his musical colleagues, he remains pragmatic about his successes.
“It kind of goes over your head sometimes,” he notes. “You can’t dwell on it when people are saying it’s amazing. It happens and you’re not really aware of the impact. But because I’ve been at it for so long, it feels kind of natural at this stage.”
Indeed, O’Rourke is one of the least fazed musicians around (during the interview, he makes no apology of the fact that he’s making his breakfast, 20 minutes before he leaves to complete his first Galway Bay FM session). Does he feel at all apprehensive releasing one of the most anticipated debut albums of recent times?
“I’m not nervous at all, no,” he says. “I had no expectations. I didn’t expect it to fly into the charts or anything. Since Kyabam is not a radio friendly kind of album.”
More than anything, Since Kyabram sounds like a labour of love. It’s made even more so by the fact that his father made a contribution to the album.
“My dad sang backing vocals on one song, called ‘Love Is The Way’,” he explains. “When I was in the studio in Galway, I got some friends and family to come down and get them to do a ‘Yellow Submarine’ job. Anyway, then there was a disaster – my dad was drinking out of a can of beer and stung him on the tongue. He nearly died! So we didn’t sing anything that night, and he had to stay for the weekend because of all the drugs he was on. When everyone else had left for home, we were doing the backing vocals on some of the songs, so he sang on that one.”
More than anything, O’Rourke hopes that his newfound success will effectively launch his career both as a singer-songwriter, and as a film music composer.
“I’d love to get my music into films,” he enthuses. “I’ve written quite a few pieces of music. I think my music would sound good in a nice love story…one to make the girls soppy!”
As it happens, the album debuted at a rather impressive Number 5 in the Irish album charts.
“I was only told about 5 minutes before this interview started,” he deadpans. “Yeah, it feels great. One step closer to world domination and all that! I don’t really feel any different to be honest, because I just want what everyone else wants when they put out a record. Put it this way, I’m still making my own breakfast!”