Rising star David ready to come home
‘I’m ready to come home,’ says David Keenan.
After six weeks touring across Europe with Hozier, the Dundalk singer/songwriter is looking forward to stepping back on Irish soil.
Not that he’s complaining for one moment. On the contrary, he has been loving every moment of it. Lapping up the adulation of his growing number of fans and learning the ropes from other musicians who have graced the stages before him.
‘It’s been an emotional assault course which has gifted me so many insights and planted the seeds for a new album which comes out in January,’ he says. ‘It’s been an incredible experience.’
While David’s songs are crafted in the quiet spaces of his creativity, he clearly thrives on connecting with his audiences.
‘It’s tiring but it’s also exhilarating as he ‘I’m full of gratitude for the people who have found resonsance in what I’m saying. To be given the opportunity to share the stage with the likes of Hozier is such a gift and I’m very grateful for it.’
The tour brought him to the London Palladium as well as Islington, and he was delighted that his family were able to travel over and see him on stage.
Having been on the road since last December, David is looking forward to being back in Ireland, catching up with his family and friends and playing to audiences around the country.
He will, however, have barely touched down, when he’s off again, this time to the United States, for a gig in The Bowry and a short residency in the Irish Arts Centre, in New York.
Then, it’s back home to his native Co Louth, where he plays The Crescent Concert Hall in Drogheda on Friday November for the new threeday Puca Halloween festival.
‘ That’s the closest to home I’ll be for a while and I’m looking forward to doing that gig with the band,’ he says.
Fans will get the chance to hear material from his debut album ‘A Beginners Guide to Bravery’ which is set for release in January.
He is pleased with the response to his latest video for ‘Altar Wine’, the second single from the album, which was released at the beginning of the month.
It sees him facing head-on what he calls ‘ the ancestral trauma’ from his past and the difficulties of being a young man growing up in rural Ireland.
‘I want to use as a platform for me to heal and to inspire and to find meaning in what trauma has happened in the past,’ he says.
‘It took a lot for me to do that but that’s what art is for, to heal and to grace us with understanding. I had to be fearless with it.’
He says that the support for the video, which was made with Collection Dublin, ‘ has been amazing.’
December sees him embarking on an Irish tour ahead of the album launch, including two nights in The Spirit Store on December 22 and 23.
He is looking forward to these gigs as The Spirit Store was one of the first venues he played. ‘It’s almost like a full circle, coming back to the Spirit Store. Derek Turner was one of the first people who gave me a start. I love going back there .’
His has something of a love/hate relationship with Dundalk.
‘Dundalk hardened me, galvanised me growing up. You have to your wits about you. You have to stand up and put your chest out and get up on stage and not be worried about what people are going to think about you.’
The town has provided the inspiration for songs like ‘El Paso’, which saw him become an internet hit when he played it in Maxi’s taxi as a young lad, and The Friary. He enjoys meeting with fellow Dunalk folk when he’s touring. ‘ They do get the sense of what my songs are about. Everyone has a reference point from their early days growing up here.’
Tickets for David’s concert at the Puca festival can be bought through www. eventbrite.ie while those for the Spirit Store can be bought at the venue or online at www. spiritstore.ie