No Cobwebs on David Keenan
THERE’S certainly no cobwebs on local singer/songwriter David Keenan. Having shot to international fame after a video of him singing his own ode to his native town, ‘El Paso’ in Maxi’s Taxi, took the internet by storm, the 23 year realised that he had his work cut out if he wasn’t just to be ‘yesterday’s viral wonder’.
Now, on the back of a sell out gig in Whelan’s, he is touring with The Strypes, and last week performed on the RTE radio show ‘Arena’. He performed two songs live in the RTE 1 studios, ‘James Dean’ and ‘Cobwebs’.
After the show, he got chatting to presenter Sean Rocks and discovered that he had taught in The Friary for a number of years - giving him the opportunity to mention the video of his song about the school.
David had just released his new track ‘Cobwebs’ and is delighted that it has reached No 1 in the iTunes singer/songwriter charts.
Looking back on the hype surrounding the ‘El Paso’ video, he says that it now seems surreal. ‘I find it hard to relate to that young lad, who had no direction and was stuck in a rut.’
He used the impetus which his ‘15 minutes of fame’ gave him to
‘It gave me the mechanism to really develop my craft and hone my skills as a musician.’
Having started writing songs as when he was just twelve years old, David is very much in the tradition of Ireland’s top singer/songwriters such as Glen Hansard, Damien Dempsey, and Mick Flannery.
Literary figures including Behan, Yeats and Wilde inspired his early works, as did the story-telling of his grandfather.
His passion for words and music is gaining him recognition around the country and his headline gig at Whelan’s came after he had played one of their ‘Ones to Watch’ gigs earlier in the year.
‘It was brilliant - sold out. It was just an incredible experience,’ he says of the headline gig.
Currently touring with The Styrpes on their ‘Never Mind The Mocks’ tour, he is enjoying ‘ the pure energy’ of opening for such a young and talented band.
‘ They play to a different demographic, a younger audience, so it’s great to see how my songs are going down with them. Every one of the gigs has been brilliant.’
And he is grateful to the Cavan band to re-introducing him to the music of Dr Feelgood , Costello and Billy Bragg ‘whose genius I had forgotten’.
His own songs are very much inspired by his sense of identity, of living in Dundalk and Ireland at a time when the world is rapidly changing but also with an eye on the past, of the stories he heard from his grandparents.
‘Cobwebs’, recorded ‘on a sweltering day in Kilburn, in a room full of old ghosts (in a good way)’,
has been released on his own label Barrack Street Records.
‘My grandmother was from Barrack Street and used to tell great stories, so it’s sentimental for me.’
The recording features the playing of guitarist Graham Kearns and Claire Kenny on bass. It was produced by John Reynolds, who has worked with the likes of Brian Eno, Robert Plant, Morrissey, U2, Damien Dempsey, Sinead O’Connor, Damien Rice, Glen Hansard, Shane MacGowan, The Chieftans, David Byrne, Donal Lunny, Paul Brady, among others.
‘It is doing really well and shot to No 1 in the iTunes singer/songwriter charts,’ says David, who is very grateful for all the support he has received from his native town.
David is on the line up of at Cruinnu na Casca at Mellifont Abbey on Easter Monday.