A NORTH Belfast duo has sought the help of Prince's guitarist in their quest to release new music.
Guitarist Daniel Lynch (30) and singer Sonja Sleator (31), both from the Antrim Road recently formed their own group Embarcadero.
The duo have spent the last year in lockdown working on new music with the help of a number of famous names in the music industry.
Speaking to the North Belfast News, Daniel said Sonja has been releasing music under her own name for about five or six years now.
“I was the guitarist and we were doing fairly well before lockdown with gigs across the UK, Ireland and in the USA," he said.
“At the start of last year, we had some songs that we knew were different to Sonja’s solo stuff so we just needed to decide what road it would take. We started auditioning people and were in the middle of putting a band together but when lockdown hit we had to stop everything."
But the pair had to tread cautiously during the pandemic.
“Sonja is diabetic and I have asthma so we had to play it very safe in not interacting with people," added Daniel.
“We had these songs and wanted to do something with them. We got in touch with a charity called Help Musicians who provided us with some support to keep working on our music.
“Last year when lockdown hit, we had a bunch of new music but couldn't get a band together because of restrictions. Instead we started firing emails out all directions, asking different musicians and producers if they'd be up for working remotely with us. Among those to come back were Scott Halliday, who was Prince's touring guitarist and tech Alex Loring who produced albums for Irish bands Rews and Fangclub and Nigel Powell who was until recently Frank Turner's drummer."
Daniel said they were "blown away" with their new 'band members'.
“It was an amazing experience to work with someone like Scott and we probably would not have had the chance to if it wasn’t for lockdown. With the funding, we were able to work entirely remotely at home. We have never been in a room with anyone involved in any of the songs. We recorded a demo at home, sent it to a drummer and then to a producer who would put it all together."
The new songs have been released under the Embarcadero name.
Explained Daniel: “We have both spent time in San Francisco and Embarcadero is the name of the last stop on the tram system that runs around the city. It is a quay so there is that feeling of setting out on the start of a new journey with our music.”
Daniel and Sonja plan to keep busy for the rest of the year working on their music and are hopeful that gigging can return in 2022.
“I am really excited about gigs coming back but at the same time, it is something we all have to be careful around and won’t be rushing back to. It will be more smaller scale events or outside events which would be ideal. Proper gigs in the way we knew it will probably wait until next year.”
