Irish singer/songwriter

SOFTLY spoken Paddy Casey is hard at work in a Dublin recording studio when I catch up with him.

"I'm just going through some songs for my next album," he tells me in his lilting Irish burr. "I've got around 20 songs which I'm doing acoustically, a mix of old and new numbers."
The acoustic recording period will last just two days. Paddy will return to the studios at a later date to fill out the sound and begin whittling the songs down to the ten or so needed for the album.
"It will be released some time next year (2000)," reveals the 24-year-old.
For the music connoisseur the new album is anxiously anticipated. Paddy's debut 'Amen (So Be It)' reached the Irish top 20 and earned him nominations for Best Irish Songwriter and Best Male Singer in the Hot Press Awards.
There have also been high profile tours with the likes of REM, Ian Brown, Reef and The Pretenders.

"The Prentenders' shows were memorable because it was my first tour of Europe," says Paddy. "Working with Reef was also good because they're such a great bunch of lads."

Paddy will soon be touring in his own right with a brief visit to the UK, including a date at Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham on November 23.

"I played at Ronnie's during the Songwriters' Festival and it was great fun, there was such a good buzz," he recalls. "Mind you, playing big gigs is easier because you can't see the audience and you just pretend you're singing to yourself."

Performing comes naturally to Paddy, however. He began busking at an early age on the streets of his home town of Dublin, then moved to Galway for two years before returning to the Irish capital.

"I progressed from busking to playing small gigs. I was too scared to perform my own songs so I did Prince and Waterboys covers.

"I'd look for possible venues like restaurants and offer to play there. It went from there, really, playing bigger and bigger gigs, sometimes as many as ten shows a week.

"At the back of mind was always the thought I'd be talent spotted and sure enough Sony rep Hugh Murray saw me and alerted the company in England. They asked for a demo and then signed me.

"U2's management heard about it and they signed me up as one of the artists they represent." Paddy's debut album was completed in just ten days - because, amazingly, the finished product consists of the original demos.

"The company said they were so pleased with the results of my eight days in the studios they would release the record as it was," Paddy says. "I was glad to have done it on my own and not gone with a big name producer. People can judge the songs on their own merits - if they love them or hate them it will be down to me."
Amen to that!
Andy Coleman, Go2Birmingham, November 1999