FORMER teacher and Antrim hurler Brendan Quinn has swapped his sliotar for the stage as he embarks on a new music career with the launch of his latest single.
The Gort na Móna man has taken the local music scene by storm having recently supported Aslan at Féile an Earraigh and now he has Las Vegas in his sights with the possibility of a gig at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News after the launch of the music video for his latest release, ‘Nothing At All’, Brendan talked of how he always had an interest in music having attended the McPeake School of Traditional Music alongside his siblings.
“From there I started playing trad music, around the age of 18 I bought my first guitar and started teaching myself and I learned a bit of Oasis, a bit of Paul Brady and a bit of Van Morrison," he said.
“I was mostly playing sessions in the likes of Maddens and Kelly’s Cellars. Then I went off to college and studied Irish before becoming a teacher.
“I always loved playing music but at the time I was playing hurling at county level and I was flat out with sport which meant the music took a back seat.
“I took a job in Dublin for one year and ended up staying there for ten years. When I was there, I reconnected with a friend called Allan Doherty who was out gigging around Dublin. I started back at it and it started to grow legs from there.”
Brendan added that while he had always been playing music, it has really taken off for him over this last couple of years and now he has left his teaching post to pursue his dream full-time.
“Growing up I loved Paul Brady, I loved Van Morrison, The Bothy Band and such. I also loved Oasis and the Beatles so there has been a lot of different styles influencing my own music,” he said.
“In the past I have mainly been a trad guitarist, playing in the background for other musicians. I have done wee bits of recording as a session musician.
“During lockdown I had these songs all written and decided to record them. Because of the restrictions I couldn’t get into the studio but I managed to record Homeless which was about a homeless man that I had met while I was gigging.
“That sort of affected me because he seemed very happy to be on the streets. It was funny because my brother was living in Baltimore at the time. I recorded my part here and had Johnny McCullough to put down some piano tracks on it. We sent it off to America to my brother in Baltimore who recorded his parts. He sent it on to Shane and Colin Farrell in Florida who recorded on it.
“The track then came back and we sent it off to Seán Óg Graham who plays with Beoga and has his own studio. He mastered it and we released it. Straight away it was picked up by the BBC and played by the likes of Lynette Fay and Caoimhe Ní Chathail.”
Brendan used the single to raise money for The Welcome Organisation. He believes that the success of this song spurred him on to write more with four singles having been released. He is due back in the studio next week to record his latest track and finish off his EP.
When asked his dream venue to play, Brendan joked that he always wanted to play Croke Park as a county hurler but now he might end up playing the venue as a musician.
“You hear people saying it would be their ambition to play the likes of Red Rock but for me it would be Croke Park. I might get the chance to play Casement when it is eventually built, but at this rate I might just ring them up and ask if I can play in the bar,” he laughed.
“My music has taken off without me really realising. I don’t really know what I am doing myself. I have left teaching but I am really enjoying doing things at my own pace and not taking it too seriously.
“Once you start taking it seriously you can be under a lot of pressure and you hear people saying that they get a writer’s block but at the moment, I am enjoying doing things at my own pace.”
Brendan Quinn’s music is available to stream on Spotify or to download from iTunes and Amazon Music.
