‘There’s moreto Donegal thanWee Daniel’
Folk duo Little Hours are breaking new ground
The simple motto used by tourism authorities to promote Co. Donegal is ‘Up here it’s different’. Little Hours, who hail from Killybegs, agree with the assertion and are trying to bring a little of that otherness to their music. The duo, Ryan McCloskey and John Doherty say that the wild, rugged expanses of the county and their upbringing on its south coast informs the songs they write.
Their latest single Water, is a case in point. The evocative video has been viewed 500,000 times on YouTube alone. It works as a love song but also speaks to the sense of isolation while growing up in the island’s most northerly county. Not for nothing, they say is Donegal also considered ‘the Forgotten County’.
‘Water and other songs of ours that appear to be about relationships have as much to do with breaking out of a rut,’ John, 22, says. ‘We spend a lot of time in Dublin. It can be terrifying to go home and see the people, young people particularly, who are left behind and have left themselves behind.’
‘If I’m being honest, there is a dark elepeople ment to growing up in Donegal,’ 26-year-old Ryan says. ‘We are lucky. We know what we want to do, we always did. If you are in Donegal and you don’t know what you want to do, or are stuck doing something that isn’t fulfilling then it can be a place that makes you melancholy.’
The two met as teenagers and played in the various covers bands that proliferate in the county. An original music scene is almost non-existent and they knew they would have to bypass the live scene there to generate interest in their sensitive singer-songwriter fare. ‘Very few people want to hear original songs,’ Ryan says.
‘There would be the odd place that would put on a night where bands would play original material but you might get only 10 showing up.’
‘As everybody knows, Donegal is saturated with country music. No one wants to hear us whining about our feelings and stuff,’ John laughs. ‘The closest we have to an original band that did quite well was The Revs and on the other hand there’s Daniel O’Donnell and we’re stuck in the middle geographically. Maybe we’re a cross between The Revs and Daniel O’Donnell...’
With due respect to both, they owe nothing to either. Sony Music saw potential in their material and signed them to a deal that should see the debut album released in August. ‘We recorded the album in Leeds and finished it in the Attica studios in Donegal,’ Ryan says. ‘We have two small studio set-ups in Donegal where we can work on songs. The very fact that the county is isolated is great for creativity but you need the city to meet like-minded people, to network and do the business side.’
They confess they are couchsurfing in the capital when they come down for the ‘business side’.
But the pair say they have brought the best of both worlds to bear in making Little Hours work. ‘Being isolated in Donegal leaves you to come up with your own kind of style,’ Ryan says.
‘You aren’t being influenced by a scene, or bands around you because there are no other bands around you.’
The two alternate on vocal duties and it’s noticeable and refreshing that part of their appeal is that they sing in their own accents. It is something that has been remarked upon, but not an approach they have been asked to alter. ‘We’ve supported Walking On Cars a few times and Patrick [Sheehy] from the band was the first to say to us that he thought it was great that we sang in our own accents,’ John says.
‘We never really thought about that before he said it. 80 or 90% of pop music is sung in American accents. If you are in a covers band, people want you to sound as much as possible as the singer who first sang the song. When I was playing in covers bands I just played bass. The first time I really sang was on my own songs, so it was natural to sing in my own accent.’
Ryan agrees. ‘If you are from Cork or somewhere and you are singing in an American accent that just doesn’t make sense. If you are not singing in your own accent, you are missing something and you aren’t being honest.’ ÷Little Hours’s single Water is out now. Their tour begins in Dolan’s Warehouse, Limerick on March 25. See Ticketmaster.ie for more details.
‘If you are not singing in your own accent, you aren’t being honest’