Croí-8 making a mark with One Step Closer

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@gmail.com

The Galway based band Croí-8 are currently getting the word out about their debut album, One Step Closer, a record that blends folk and trad sounds.  Croí-8 are David O’Keefe (guitar), Barry Hurley (vocals/guitar), Maria Keogh (vocals) and flautist Sinéad Bracken.

Barry and David first started playing music together in 2004, when they were students at NUIG.

Barry had heard that David played guitar and invited him around to his house to jam.

“We’d never played anything before that and I thought ‘sure why not jump in’,” David says. “Barry collected me in his car and his front seat was missing because it went on fire. I ended up sitting in the back seat and off we went to Cherry Park.  The rest is history, as they say!”

“He had some interesting stuff on the guitar,” Barry says of David. “I think he nearly broke the strings off because he was putting them in different tunings! That was where the sound of the band comes from.”

Maria and Sinéad joined in later, and the Croí-8 project began in earnest.

“It was Maria we met first, she’s a friend of mine,” Barry says. “We needed some backing vocals and she has a great voice. She just fitted in.  We were looking around for a flute player and Maria suggested Sinéad. She really got involved.”

Sinéad has brought her own energy to the group.

“She’s very passionate about music, that’s one thing I’ll say about Sinéad,” David adds. “I wouldn’t have known her, but I think, like a lot engineers, music comes very naturally to her. If you play something on guitar, she’ll find a piece that suits it very quickly.”

The band had recorded an EP, and in the past couple of years Croí-8 decided the time was right to make a full album.

“We didn’t think too seriously about it for a while,” David says. “But then we thought it would be good to take an image of this music, because it’s a moment in time. It’s very easy to forget about it.”

One Step Closer was recorded in The Forge, Galway City, and Barry’s home studio.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.