A Musical Play In Three Acts... So Far

By Joe Kavanagh

Most musicians are quite content with plying their trade under one musical guise, whether it is as part of a band or as a solo act, but there are those rare souls whose muse proves so strong and diverse that one act is simply incapable of containing their creativity. In such cases, most operate in a given act, until they find its artistic constraints too much to bear, leading them to abscond in order to pursue a new sonic horizon. Musicians like Paul Weller and Johnny Marr are prime examples of individuals that have shaken of the considerable shackles of their musical pasts in order to take on new and often wildly different paths. There are even more notable cases, such as Damon Albarn, who has managed to forge successful careers in a plethora of genres, including hip hop, indie rock and even Chinese opera, often juggling several of these manifestations simultaneously. Now Ireland has its own version of this chameleon-like phenomena in the form of a man known as "the Irish Beck", whose résumé already boasts membership of two of the most successful acts that Ireland has produced in the past decade. Now, many in the media are predicting that his third solo album will see him personally eclipse the combined commercial achievements of his other musical guises.

Richie Egan was raised in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin and became obsessed with music at an early age. By the time he was a teenager, he was already proficient on several instruments, taking his musical lead from such sundry acts as Simon & Garfunkel, Blues Brothers and REM, as well as punk bands like Black Flag and Dead Kennedys. It was from the latter that he found his ethos, once recalling that punk music thought him to "do whatever the f**k you want and don't answer to anybody except yourself", a creed that is the very foundation stone of his career. By the late 90s, he had become a fixture on the Dublin music scene as part of the hardcore punk act, Parasite, who built a loyal following by virtue of their incendiary shows throughout the capital. True recognition, however, did not come until he became a founding member, and bassist, with the Redneck Manifesto, a Fugazi/Mogwai-inspired outfit who worked strictly as an instrumental band. In 2000, they released their debut single, TRM:1 on their own Greyscale Records label, following it up a year later with the album Thirtysixstrings, which is regarded as one of the seminal Irish melodic punk albums of all time. Over the next three years, the band released another pair of highly charged albums in the form of Cut Off Your Heart From Your Head and I Am Brazil, which saw them become darlings of the underground music media and owners of one of the most passionate fan bases that Ireland has ever seen.

Their songs are intricate without ever being overdone and their melodies infectious enough to easily overcome the fact that there is no singer to drive proceedings. Each member is a virtual virtuoso on their instrument, exuding energy, confidence and pure balls as they throw themselves around the stage with near-contemptuous abandon. Their explosive shows are the stuff of legend in Ireland and their ability to sell out some of the biggest venues in the country, purely on a word of mouth basis, has seen the band attain iconic status amongst the nation's music lovers. Nor has their appeal been confined strictly to Ireland, as the band has a solid European following, particularly in France, that has seen them tour the continent twice, playing to packed houses and rapturous critical reviews. They even managed one DIY tour of the US, existing on a shoestring budget eked from album sales on the road and the goodwill of fans.

Running concurrently with his work with Redneck Manifesto, Egan also hooked up with singer/songwriter David Kitt, and the two became close friends as well as musical co-conspirators, with Egan providing bass duties in Kitt's band during those moments he was not on the road with the Redneck Manifesto. The pair also became important musical influences on each other with both men appearing on each others records as they shared ideas and production responsibilities, a factor that would eventually create a defining moment in the Egan's solo career.

Throughout all of these events, he had continued to work on his own material, specifically those ideas that he felt did not fit into the parameters of either act. An admirer of the singer/songwriter genre, he would often rise at 9am to work on his own material, due to his belief that his most creative moments come during daylight hours. An enormously dedicated songwriter of prolific proportions, his approach to writing music borders on the businesslike, as he once revealed saying: "For me the only place I can create music is in my house, because that is where all my equipment is set up. I usually write electronic stuff downstairs at my desk, and guitar songs upstairs, staring out of my window. I live in a small house, with a bedroom upstairs and a kitchen/sitting room/studio/angry girlfriend downstairs."

Under the guise of Jape, Egan's debut solo album, Cosmosphere, appeared in 2003, an eight-track affair, of which only 500 copies were ever printed. A mixture of lo-fi singer/songwriter elements and what Egan terms "really f**ked up, weird Gameboy electronica", critics found the album slightly disjointed but most were in agreement that it announced the arrival of an important and innovative talent on the Irish music scene. Those few that remained skeptical had their doubts assuaged with the arrival of the wonderfully titled, Even The Monkeys In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me, which offered a far more accomplished collection of songs, including the track, Floating, which was co-produced by David Kitt.

In 2006, singer Brendan Benson of The Raconteurs was drinking in a Dublin watering house when he heard a track playing over the speakers and was so taken by it that he asked the person behind the bar for its name and the name of the artist behind it. Upon finding out that it was Jape's Floating, Benson immediately asked permission to cover it and within days, Benson and the White Stripes' Jack White were belting out their own version of it, on each and every night of their world tour, giving full credit to Richie Egan every time they played it. Within weeks, a steady parade of labels, managers and assorted music industry types began beating a path to his door, culminating in the moment last year when he signed a multi-album deal with V2 Records and a publishing deal with Universal Records. An acclaimed turn at Texas's South By Southwest Festival and a series of tour dates throughout Europe later in the year were all designed to build momentum towards an album release in 2008 In November the label released the Jape Is Grape EP, which featured a clutch of new tracks in addition to Floating, as well as a superb - if painful - video to the latter track that created something of a stir on the internet and introduced him to the overseas music media. Sadly, however, the fickle world of music cruelly intervened when V2 Records imploded, leaving a frustrated Egan without a label once again and pondering if he would ever release an album that had been over three years in the making.

Thankfully, his obvious talent has seen him through and he was snapped up by Co-Operative Records, which is an amalgam of a host of influential indie labels including Moshi Moshi, Bella Union and Memphis Industries. It now appears certain that the album - which has had three working titles - will appear some time this summer, with those in the know claiming that it compares favorably to the likes of New Order, Klaxons and Hot Chip, which is good company indeed. Egan himself says that it is "upbeat and electronic" featuring a host of "abstract themes that people can read what they want into". Given the unquestionable talent of its creator and the increasing amount of people willing to worship at the altar of Jape, there is only really one sad fact becoming apparent in all of this. Richie Egan will be hard pressed to spend time on anything but his own project once this album does hit shop shelves but you get the feeling that the monkeys are no longer having more fun than him.