A Career In Three Acts

By Joe Kavanagh

Most musicians are more than happy with securing one career in the music business but there are those restless souls whose muse proves too strong, or too large, to be captured in a single musical incarnation. In the past, people like Neil Young and Paul McCartney enjoyed success in bands, before reinventing themselves in other successful guises, while recent times provide other examples, such as Damon Albarn, who has already been associated with three bands and a Chinese opera at last count. Dave Geraghty has already been associated with two of the most storied bands to emerge in Ireland over the past decade, but now steps out from behind the relative safety in numbers provided by the band, to the singular glare that typifies life as a solo artist. If early returns on his recently released solo debut are anything to go by, there is every reason to believe that his latest musical manifestation will be an equally successful endeavor.

David Geraghty grew up in County Kildare, where his father taught him how to play guitar from about the moment his hands were able to grasp the instrument. In contrast to most musicians who quote über cool early influences, Geraghty lists the scantly remembered acapella group Flying Pickets, as his original musical inspiration, and points to the moment he met them backstage at an Irish gig in the 80s, as being the most influential motivating factor in his decision to pursue a career in music. And pursue he did. By the time he was in his late teens, he had already taught himself to play guitar, drums and piano, and had been involved in a slew of local bands.

Although he enjoyed the group format, he had always viewed himself as a solo artist and, upon leaving school, recorded four of his own compositions in a primitive, homemade studio setup that one of his uncles had assembled. The resulting demo would ultimately change the direction of his life. Impressed with what she heard on the tape, a former girlfriend of Geraghty's passed the recordings on to a classmate of hers, who had just formed his own band. The classmate turned out to be Damien Rice, who was so taken with what he heard that he asked Geraghty to join himself, and fellow teenagers, Paul Noonan, Brian Crosby and Dominic Phillips, in their new band: Juniper. As a multi-instrumentalist, Geraghty marked a welcome addition to the group and his inclusion paid immediate dividends for the band as it allowed them to expand their sound, and often saw them swapping around instruments onstage during live performances. Taking their act on the road, the band toured the country in a relentless manner, crisscrossing the nation dozens of times and building up a devoted grassroots following. Their work soon came to the attention of the major labels and Polygram Ireland was the first to bite, penning the predominantly teenaged group to a six-album deal, that created a wave of publicity in the Irish music media, who were quick to anoint the band with the dreaded, "future of Irish rock music", label. By 1999 the band had already had achieved top twenty success in Ireland with an EP and a pair of singles, and was about to enter a London studio to record their debut album, under the guidance of Manic Street Preachers producer, Mike Hodges, when Damien Rice suddenly walked out and fled to Italy. It would later be claimed that he was sick of constantly acquiescing to label demands that often flew in the face of his own deeply-held opinions. Although the remaining members were aware of Rice's unhappiness, they were nonetheless stunned at his abrupt departure and - facing a label that saw Rice as the band's centerpiece - they decided to take three months away from music.

Even as all of these events took place around him, Dave Geraghty took time away from the band at the height of it's popularity, to work with a side-project called The Rotators. He also continued to churn out songs but their failure to fit into the sonic parameters provided by Bell X1, encouraged him to first think about the notion of a solo career. With Bell X1 currently taking time out before deciding upon their next move, Geraghty felt that there was no time like the present and entered the studio earlier this year. In June, Irish music fans were given their first glimpse of his work with the release of feisty single, Fear The Hitcher, which featured Geraghty on all of the instruments. Three weeks ago, fans were treated to the full article with the release of Kill Your Darlings; a title inspired by a quote from Hemmingway, which encourages us to sacrifice the things we love in order to improve the bigger picture. It is a fitting title as the ten tracks see Geraghty tread a distinctly different musical path than Bell X1, with a rootsy album that exhibits a Celtic soul, and yet enough grit and innovation to remain entirely contemporary. It is an album of moods and nuance, armed with enough immediately catchy melodies to grasp the ear of any discerning music fan.

Although decisions to embark on solo careers can often herald the demise of a band, fans of Bell X1 should fear not; Geraghty is at pains to state that this is simply a side-project and Bell X1 will resume service as usual in the near future. In the meantime, he has produced an album that will more than compensate for the band's recent inactivity and a collection of songs that may indeed prove more enduring than any of his earlier work.