The Origin of the species

Michael O’Brien is a man with a plan. When the young musician established Origins – the club night he runs with his brother Lee, also a musician – their goal was to provide a platform for fellow artists from the Cavan area to ply their wares in a live context. Two years on, he’s as determined as ever to develop the regular Friday night event into a bigger and more successful venture.

“We were already familiar with a lot of very talented and original musicians in the area,” he states. “There’s always been a strong amount of talent in Cavan. It’s just that there’s been very little support for us in the local area – we’ve usually had to go to Dublin or to other places to get some sort of platform. The first couple of months it was a hard job keeping it going. It’s only the fact that it’s a non-profit night that we actually survived. But it kept building and building, and now we’ve a huge pool of people who come to watch it. We rarely have quiet nights anymore.”
Origins began in July 2007 at McGinnity’s pub in Cavan town; O’Brien invited several local musicians to perform some of their own songs, and that group quickly developed into a collective over the succeeding months.
These days, the night has expanded to The Widows Bar in nearby Belturbet, and both venues regularly host sets by renowned international artists as well as homegrown performers. American folk/blues musicians Felix Sonnyboy Wilson and Robert Sarazin Blake, as well as English folk band Jukebox Gypsy, have all passed through the Origins door at some stage or another, although O’Brien claims that it’s the indigenous crowd – “an amazing pool of talent” – that keeps the flag flying. And it’s not just folkies with a guitar and a broken heart who are invited to play – there’s a mixed bag of talent at the ready on any given Friday.
He says: “Originally it was only going to be an acoustic venue, but bands began playing from the very early stages, so it caters for everyone. We’ve had six and seven-piece bands playing, then you could have singer-songwriters on the same night. What makes it special is that you can have seven or eight acts playing the one gig; it’s a very long night of music. It appeals to everybody, in that sense, because the music is so diverse. We get a real mix of people and ages coming in.”
With Origins now Cavan’s main focus for original live music, Michael is resolute in his desire to build on the night’s reputation.
“There’s plenty of venues for cover bands to play in Cavan, so we always wanted to keep the focus on original music, and to make it a comfortable place for people who maybe haven’t played before to do their stuff.”
Perhaps ironically, one of the biggest successes of the Origins scene has been a covers band. A one-off tribute night to Neil Young during Origin’s early days led to the formation of Rust Never Sleeps, and they’re now planning to take their Night of Neil Young Music act on the road. And if O’Brien has his way, Shakey might even make his maiden trip to Cavan some day in the not-too-distant future. “The plan, over the next year especially, is to turn Origins into a major Irish venue, where all the large acts, when they’re touring Ireland, will stop-off,” he states. “Cavan has been ignored for way too long in that sense.”

www.myspace.com/originscavan