Songs In The Key Of Life With Nadine O'regan

"It's a weird job, being a travelling musician. There's a lot of time with nothing happening, then there's thousands of people in front of you, then you walk off stage and there's no people again. It's a bizarre existence and, coming from a small town, we were people orientated. We talk to people. We don't box ourselves into a showbiz bubble. So I relate to musicians like the Eagles and Tom Petty, because they talk about real life and situations."    That's Kelly Jones from the Stereophonics, revealing his reasons for kicking off Songs in the Key of Life with Tom Petty's track Free Fallin', one of several classic tracks Kelly and his bandmate Richard picked out to play over their hour on the programme   The chart-topping Welsh band -- famous for tunes including Dakota, Having a Nice Day and Mr Writer -- were in Dublin to play the 3Arena, which is where I caught up with them backstage. They have a new album out, but as well as talking about their new music, they were just as happy to chat about

It's been a tumultuous few months for Niall Walton of Walton's Music.    The managing director of the iconic music shop in Dublin came into the spotlight recently when the news emerged that -- due to rising rents in the city -- Walton's Music would no longer be able to occupy its much-loved spot in Dublin on South Great George's Street. Musicians and music fans posted messages of condolence and sheet music on the shop front, lamenting the changes, which had particular resonance given the long history of the shop: Walton's Music was set up in Dublin by Niall's grandfather back in 1922.    Music has always been a major presence in the Walton family. As Niall told us on the Patrick's weekend programme, music was part and parcel of his early childhood. "We played hide and seek behind the pianos," he recalled. "It's part of your blood."   When Niall took over as managing director, he quickly discovered that -- for all the glitter and glamour attached to the music industry -- owning a music

Where do you begin with MayKay?  She's the former front woman of Fight Like Apes, one of the co-hosts of the Other Voices television show and -- as of last year -- the new recruit in Le Galaxie, joining Michael Pope on lead vocalist duties.  In December in Dingle for Other Voices, she sat down with us to pick her favourite tunes for the show, roaming far and wide with her choices, and picking songs that reminded her both of good times and tough times.  Listen back to the show by clicking the play button on the right and let us know what you think of her songs by tweeting @songsinthekey or @nadineoregan.      MayKay's Playlist:   1. Fight Like Apes 'Crouching Bees' 2. The Waterboys 'Fisherman's Blues' 3. Jenny Lewis 'One of the Guys'  4. Simon and Garfunkel 'The Boxer'  5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs 'Y Control'  6. Le Galaxie 'Day of the Child'  7. Bitch Falcon 'Of Heart'  8. Little Simz 'Dead Body'  9. At the Drive In 'One Armed Scissors' 10 McClusky 'She

Tara Flynn isn't the quiet type.  The Irish actress may have made her name primarily in acting and voiceover work -- you may know her from her work on stage (she'll be back on the Abbey's Peacock stage in 2018 with her own show, Not a Funny Word), or -- rather more surreally -- as the voice of Molly Morbeg in the long-running 1990s RTE kids' drama The Morbegs.  But Tara has also become known in recent years for her campaigning nature; she has campaigned on issues of equality, bodily autonomy and women's rights for many years now, all topics which have sometimes made her a target on social media.  On Songs in the Key of Life, though, Tara took time out just to chat primarily about the music that has inspired her and made her happy. Listen back to her podcast by clicking the play button and have a look at her excellent song list below.    Tara's Playlist: Blondie 'Hangin' on the Telephone'  Flight of the Conchords 'Prince of Parties' NERD 'She Wants to Move' Stevie Wonder 'Signed,

A new year, a new set of Irish stars?  Most definitely. And although we're always a little hesitant to pick out the names that will definitively make the grade in any given year, there's no doubt that the four artists we've picked to feature on this week's Songs in the Key of Life have quality in spades.  Since their emergence, Irish electronica act Le Boom have been lighting up dance floors all around the country, while Aine Cahill has been a permanent fixture on Today FM playlists with her haunting track Blood Diamonds. Katie Laffan, meanwhile, is showing her fans what Jamiroquai might sound like, if Jay Kay just happened to be a young female making music at home in Dublin in 2018, and then there's Cinema, aka Kildare's Peter Fleming, whose dreamy soundscapes call to mind the Drive soundtrack, a brilliant thing in our books.  Listen to their songs on this show -- and then listen to them picking out the music that inspires them.  The Playlist  Le Boom 'We Don’t Need it Now' Ca

Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen still can't quite believe their good fortune.   The Irish writers didn't know what to expect when they signed a deal to publish a debut novel -- a book based on their popular Facebook page about a fictional creation called Aisling, a quintessentially Irish girl -- but they definitely didn't think their book would become the Christmas No.1 novel, overtaking David Walliams in the charts and being heaped with praise on social media by bestselling author Marian Keyes.   Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling! is a joy to read; it's funny, engaging and -- in its closing stages -- surprisingly poignant too. Lead character Aisling may be a mixed-up girl in an increasingly complicated world, but she's easy to identify with -- and even easier to like.  Is she an Irish Bridget Jones? Sarah doesn't mind if anyone thinks so. "We're thrilled with that comparison," Sarah said on the show. "We're both big fans of Bridget Jones. When I hear the phrase 'Irish Bridget Jones',

Make no mistake: it was both an honour and a privilege to have Clem Burke, drummer with the iconic US band Blondie, on the show to pick his favourite tunes. Not only are Blondie bone fide legends in their field -- with hits including Call Me, Maria, Hangin' on the Telephone and Heart of Glass -- they are also one of the bands who are most regularly picked by other guests to play on the show, so in that light it was particularly cool to have Clem arrive into studio. Clem joined Blondie in 1975, a few months after Debbie Harry and Chris Stein had founded the band -- and he's been with the band through the decades ever since. "My quest when I was an 18-year-old lad was that I wanted someone to take me where I wanted to go," he said of his working relationship and friendship with Debbie Harry, the famous frontwoman of Blondie. "I wanted my Bowie, my Marc Bolan, my Jim Morrison. It just so happened that it was a woman who fulfilled that need. She's a gorgeous woman, but she's a toughie. She can deal with stuff." B

Haven't heard of Jacob Banks yet? You soon will. For our final show of January, 2018 we wanted to dedicate it to a fresh young talent, and the 26-year-old UK soul singer has been causing a stir of late, with a track on the new Fifty Shades soundtrack, a place on the Longitude 2018 line-up, and a recently inked deal with Interscope, the label that's home to Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga. Jacob is set to release his debut album in June, but in the meantime his singles, including Unknown (to you) and Chainsmoking, have been grabbing serious attention, and no wonder; he's got a voice like velvet. When Jacob arrived in to do the show, he had a brilliant playlist lined up, including tracks from artists including Al Green, Frank Ocean and James Blake. "I was in university when the James Blake album came out," he said. "From finding James Blake, I found people like Bon Iver, Imogen Heap. My friend sent me Limit to Your Love on Facebook. It blew my mind." Born in Nigeria, Jacob moved to Birmingham at 13, but no

If you haven't checked out the Irish film Cardboard Gangsters yet, you should make a point of downloading it.   The story of a group of friends and drug dealers in Darndale in Dublin, the film has been nominated for five awards in the upcoming Irish Film and Television Awards, taking place on February 15th, and it deserves the success: it's a gritty, heartfelt and absorbingly tense drama, with excellent turns from all the lead players.    On Sunday, two of the lead actors from the film -- John Connors and Paul Alwright -- came into studio to pick out the music for Songs in the Key of Life. While John is well known in the industry -- he co-wrote the screenplay for Cardboard Gangsters as well as starring in it, and was also in Love/Hate -- Paul is a relative newcomer. He's better known for his work in music -- he has performed as Lethal Dialect for several years and has a new album on the way in 2018.   Both say that the arts have helped them thro

"I need to do some promo yoga," David Kitt laughs. "I need to limber up."  The Irish singer-songwriter may be famous for having released an array of beautiful albums over the past two decades  -- including The Big Romance and Small Moments -- but he's a naturally pretty shy type -- so the act of being interviewed doesn't necessarily come that easy to him. That said, David -- or Kittser, as he's better known -- was in good spirits when he arrived into studio for Songs in the Key of Life, and no wonder: he has a new EP out, and a new album on the way in March, as well as live dates coming up -- he's launching the new album at the Button Factory in Dublin on April 6th. Plus his side-project New Jackson is also doing extremely well, having been nominated for the 2017 Choice Music Prize award.  Then there's the fact that this show is all about the tunes -- and Kittser is an obsessive music fan, who regularly hits the decks in Ireland and abroad. As you'll hear, he was happy to roam between genres, p

If you want a song with a story attached, there's no better man than Podge McNamee of chart-topping Irish band HamsandwicH to offer one up. When Niamh Farrell and Podge arrived in to offer up their take on Songs in the Key of Life, it seemed like every song belonging to Podge's selection had a tale attached.  Take the reason he chose Modest Mouse's Float On: "We had a house party in Drimnagh a few years ago and played Modest Mouse's 'Float On' eight times in a row. Our neighbour ran into the house and smashed the hi-fi. But. . . there were two hi-fis. The music still played." Or there's his nostalgic reasoning for picking the Pixies. "I used to go to this pub in Kells called The Chaser and sing to the Pixies' Debaser: 'I want to grow/Up to drink/In The Chaser'".   Niamh, meanwhile, picked songs of a very different variety, veering towards female artists with beautiful - sometimes doomily beautiful -- vocals, and often a tragic life, such as Karen Carpenter and Whitney H

Willy Vlautin writes stories for dark, lonely nights of the soul -- and his taste in music reflects that. When the US author and Richmond Fontaine frontman arrived in to pick the songs for the show, he admitted, with a grin, that he did try to think of cheerier numbers, but ultimately his tastes are minor-key in tone, reflecting the mood of his riveting novels, which include Northline, The Free, Don't Skip Out on Me, and the wonderful Lean on Pete, which has just been made into a movie starring Chloe Sevigny and Steve Buscemi.  Nick Cave, Bat for Lashes and The Unthanks all featured on the playlist, and Vlautin spoke about why he got into music and writing in the first place.  “John Steinbeck was like a best friend to me as a kid,” he said. “I wanted to live inside his books and I didn’t know how. I didn’t have much talent, so I never thought I could be a writer. I wasn’t from some important family and I wasn’t ever going to go to a fancy college. But I was

Not many musicians can get away with having just one name as their stage monicker. Seal is one of those musicians. The Grammy Award-winning singer is world famous for tracks including Killer, Crazy and A Kiss from a Rose, which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1995 film Batman Forever. He has sold more than 20 million albums -- and his most recent record is Standards, a graceful collection of classic songs reinterpreted by him for the modern age. I caught up with Seal backstage after his performance to a packed audience at Dublin's Olympia theatre recently. He was in flying form, ready to pick his favourite tunes and even sing a little unaccompanied -- which was a treat. For his song picks, he mixed and matched classic choices with more obscure tracks. A number of the songs he picked were from iconic artists such as Stevie Wonder and the late David Bowie. "I was lucky enough to be friends with David Bowie," Seal reflected, selecting the track Where Are We Now. "That song is so beautiful. It is everything tha

That's Andy Bell recollecting his early days working with Vince Clarke, after he found out that he had won the audition to join a new band formed by Vince, a founding member of Depeche Mode and member of Yazoo. The year was 1985 and the band was Erasure. Andy felt like he'd won the lottery in those early months, and -- when he came into studio for Songs in the Key of Life -- he gave us the impression that to a large extent, he still does.    Erasure have sold over 25 million albums in their long career, and released hits including A Little Respect, Love to Hate You and Sometimes. They're back with a new album -- a classical reinterpretation of their record World Be Gone which is called World Beyond -- and they recently played the Olympia theatre in Dublin, having had to postpone their gigs there in January when Andy fell ill. Thankfully all better now, Andy arrived into Songs in the Key of Life in excellent form -- and picked some amazing tunes to play on the show, from artists such as Blondie, Mado

"It's a weird job, being a travelling musician. There's a lot of time with nothing happening, then there's thousands of people in front of you, then you walk off stage and there's no people again. It's a bizarre existence and, coming from a small town, we were people orientated. We talk to people. We don't box ourselves into a showbiz bubble. So I relate to musicians like the Eagles and Tom Petty, because they talk about real life and situations."    That's Kelly Jones from the Stereophonics, revealing his reasons for kicking off Songs in the Key of Life with Tom Petty's track Free Fallin', one of several classic tracks Kelly and his bandmate Richard picked out to play over their hour on the programme   The chart-topping Welsh band -- famous for tunes including Dakota, Having a Nice Day and Mr Writer -- were in Dublin to play the 3Arena, which is where I caught up with them backstage. They have a new album out, but as well as talking about their new music, they were just as happy to chat about

"I've always thought sexuality is an important part of pop music. Anodyne pop music doesn't appeal to me. I like something that grabs you."  Brett Anderson doesn't mince his words when it comes to the art of making pop music. When the Suede frontman arrived onto Songs in the Key of Life recently, he was more than happy to talk about what he loves in music, as well as reflect on Suede's illustrious legacy -- the band are celebrating 25 years since the release of their debut eponymous album, and he has also just published his first memoir, the beautifully written Coal Black Mornings, which tracks back over his early days.  "In the early days, your ideas outstrip your ability," Breff said on the show. "But then we met [Suede guitarist] Bernard Butler and he really could play. He was leaping around the fretboard." Suede have gone through line-up changes and break-ups over the years, but the band have been back together since 2010 and are currently mixing a new album for release. Until the new music make

It was a pleasure to welcome Nialler9 -- aka Niall Byrne -- to the programme recently.    The Irish blogger, promoter, band manager and music supervisor is one of the most influential people in Irish music -- there are many Irish bands who have got their start through being featured on his website.    Nialler is also a well-known DJ -- he's cofounder of Lumo, the club night which takes place regularly in Dublin -- and he'll be playing most of the Irish festivals this summer. Ahead of the festival season, we asked him to pick out some of his favourite tracks for us, but also to select some artists who will feature as part of the festivals line-up.    We didn't get a chance to play all of his songs on the show -- and more's the pity -- but here's the full playlist that he dreamed up for below, and you can check out the podcast by clicking the play button on the top right of the screen. Let us know what you think of his choices by tweeting @nadineoregan or @songsinthekey.  

"The only time I ever feel totally alive is when I'm on stage. I love singing. Singing is my saviour."   When Christy Dignam of chart-topping Irish band Aslan came in to the show on Sunday, he was extremely candid about the troubles he's had in life: he talked about his cancer diagnosis, his battles with drug addiction, and the hard process of facing up to his own mortality. Through it all, he said, singing has been his release: his way to feel happiness.    It was no surprise, then, to discover that Christy had curated such a brilliant playlist for the show on Sunday, with classics from Tom Waits, Phil Lynott and Jeff Buckley all on the playlist. "Jeff Buckley is a master," he said. "Any young singer that wants to get into singing should listen to Jeff Buckley."   Aslan are celebrating 30 years since the release of their debut album Feel No Shame -- and they play two gigs in Dublin's Iveagh Gardens in July. Listen back to the show by clicking the play button on the top right of the screen

"Ireland takes its literary culture for granted sometimes. Compared to other places, it's still a good place."   The author Kevin Barry -- who was our guest on Sunday's show -- has contributed enormously to Irish culture over the past few years, with novels including Beatlebone and City of Bohane, and now his play Autumn Royal, which begins a nationwide run in Ireland this week.    Listen back to the show by clicking the play button on the right hand side of the screen and tell us what you think of his song choices by tweeting @nadineoregan or @songsinthekey.    Kevin Barry's Playlist    1. Portishead 'Sour Times'  2. Nick Drake 'River Man'  3. Donna Summer 'State of Independence'  4. Young Fathers 'In My View'  5. Tempations 'Just My Imagination' 6. The Breeders 'Oh!'  7. Max Romeo 'I Chase the Devil'  8. Fat Larry's Band 'Zoom'  9. Rusangano Family 'Soul Food'  10. Velvet Underground 'All Tomorrow's Parties' 11. Nick Cave 'Rings of S