Jim McKee growing into his craft as he launches new album

The Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

Kinvara resident Jim McKee and his band play the Backstage Bar in Monroe’s on Friday, June 30.  The County Tyrone native has just released his second studio album Goodness comes from the Heart, which was recorded locally.

“I started off recording with Bruno Staehelin in Open Air Studios,” says Jim. “I put the vocals and drums down there, and a bit of bass, and a little bit of electric guitar. I took it to another studio after that, Bruno’s wife was very ill.

“We ended up going to a man called Tony Trundle, he’s got a studio called Cuckoo Studios in Kinvara. To be honest with you, he’s responsible for the overall sound. A lot of the strings, and wee bits of guitar.”

Jim wanted his latest album to have a full sound and plenty of toe-tapping moments.

“I started the rehearsal of this album with my drummer first, he moved in next door,” Jim says. “I wanted to get grooves and rhythms that were not too fast and not too slow; I was thinking festival as well as a singer/songwriter vibe.”

Jim McKee is a visual artist as well as a songwriter and two of his paintings make up the artwork for Goodness comes from the Heart. Does he have to set aside separate times for painting and songwriting?

“As somebody once said, ‘when the dog bites you just go with it’,” he replies. “When I’m painting, a lot of the time I’ll get inspired to write. I tend to paint and write every week, it’s part of my day. I’ll go for a good walk and process ideas; I’m always working on something.

“I’m doing a book at the moment, illustrations, and I’ve done a few songs for that too,” he adds. “It’s a kid’s book. I’m always writing and working, I won’t have enough life left to record all the songs or to finish all the art projects and ideas. I just take them as they come; it’s a juggling match, really.”

Last year, some of Jim’s songs featured in locally shot film Songs for Amy, which sold out at the Galway Film Fleadh. The film also featured tracks by Loughrea’s Ultan Conlon.

“That took up a couple of years, believe it or not,” Jim says about his involvement with Songs for Amy. “I worked on set – they auditioned me for a part and I got a different one. I ended up being Tom the busker, singing Galway Bay outside the Club Áras on Dominick Street. I really enjoyed it. I had four songs in it, myself and Ultan. We had to coach the actor [Sean Maguire] to sing our songs.”

Being involved in Songs for Amy brought Ultan and Jim McKee very far afield.

“We ended up going to Newport Beach, California, for 11 nights,” says Jim. “The film got an award [at the Newport film festival] there, and we were showcasing songs every night, myself and Ultan. We went to Cannes as well, sang there. Glasgow Film Festival, then there was the Galway Film Fleadh. It took us off on a lovely trip, a couple of years.”

Cannes may bring images of glitz and glamour to mind, but it’s not a world where Jim would like to spend much time.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.