News
Tuesday 4th, October, 2011
Meet Suburban Sounds tutor and professional musician Carol Keogh
Carol started working with Suburban Sounds in a voluntary capacity during the first course in 2010/2011, taking on vocal tuition and songwriting, and also producing the group’s end of term performance. Carol also works with participants on lyric writing, melody, performance techniques and vocal harmonising. Since 2011, she has prepared vocal arrangements of modern songs for performance by Suburban Sounds participants at the annual Christmas tree lighting event in Tallaght, “Unwrapped”.
After many years writing, recording and performing with bands such as The Plague Monkeys, The Tycho Brahe and Autamata, Carol is forging a solo career, backed by her band The City Fathers. In 2008, Keogh began recording and performing as a solo artist, with band members Colin Morris (guitars/keys), Martin Moran (guitars), Elton Mullally (bass) and Dave Hingerty (drums). Carol recently launched a FundIt Campaign for her debut solo album Mongrel City.
She is also half of experimental electro-acoustic collaboration The Natural History Museum with composer Dunk Murphy (AKA Sunken Foal). They will release their debut album Attenborough early in 2012.
She has also recently completed a soundtrack for soon-to-be-released Irish short film, Vampire Stories, in collaboration with electro-pop composer The Wazp.
Previous releases include two albums with The Plague Monkeys (1997′s ‘Surface Tension’ and ‘The Sunburn Index’ in 1999), two albums with The Tycho Brahe (‘This Is’ in 2002 followed by double album ‘Love Life’ in 2003). Keogh also collaborated with Ken McHugh on his Autamata project, co-writing more than 15 tracks over the course of three albums (2003′s ‘My Sanctuary’, ‘Short Stories’ in 2005 and ‘Colours of Sound’ in 2008).
Past live performances have included New York’s CMJ in 1997 with The Plague Monkeys, Oxegen in 2003 with The Tycho Brahe, Oxegen in 2004 and Electric Picnic in 2007 with Autamata, the Austin City Limits Festival, Texas, again with Autamata, in 2007, and, more recently, Electric Picnic in 2009 with The Natural History Museum.
While with The Tycho Brahe, Carol Keogh was nominated Best Female Singer at the 2002 Meteor Awards. The band was also nominated that year in the Best Irish Band category. Keogh/McHugh compositions from the Autamata project have been widely used: The Dublin Gospel Choir recorded a version of ‘Liberty Bell’ from ‘Short Stories’; ‘Postscript’ from ‘My Sanctuary’ was used as the trailer music for Woody Allen’s ‘Matchpoint’; ‘Out of This’, also from ‘My Sanctuary’, featured in the film adaptation of Maeve Binchy’s ‘Tara Road’ (starring Andie McDowell).
Additional co-writes include ‘Shifting Summer Sands’ with Sharon Shannon, which appeared on her ‘Saints and Scoundrels’ album (2010), ‘Step Out’ with The Dudley Corporation from their ‘Year of the Husbands’ album (2008). Keogh also duetted with Jerry Fish on ‘Back to Before’ and ‘Rogue Melody’ from his 2009 album ‘The Beautiful Untrue’. ‘Back to Before’ was a hugely successful radio single and was selected for use in a 2010 TV advertisement for the Spanish supermarket chain, El Corte Ingles.
Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/carolkeogh
Facebook: www.facebook.com/carolkeoghmusic and www.facebook.com/vampirestorymovie