Mundy has youth on side for new album

The Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell

Singer-songwriter Mundy will play Róisín Dubh on Friday, May 22, to celebrate the release of his self-titled new album.

This release sees the Birr songwriter reunite with the English producer, Youth, who produced Mundy’s 1996 debut Jelly Legs. Why did the Offaly man feel the time was right for them to work together again?

“A few years ago you would have seen people doing these anniversary gigs around, if they’d had an album out 15 or 20 years ago,” Mundy says. “I just realised that Jelly Legs was nearly 20 years old and Killing Joke, Youth’s band, were playing in town. I just thought it was a funny coincidence. I hadn’t seen him in the time since Jelly Legs.”

Given that it had been a while since the Irishman had seen Youth, he introduced himself by saying ‘I’m Mundy!’ The pair then went for a beer and caught up.

“I said I’d just become a dad, was still in the music business and things had gone well,” Mundy recalls. “I [also] said I was a bit uninspired at that time and he said ‘I know the feeling’. He’d had two kids and it takes getting used to. So he basically invited me over to London to his studio to write a few songs together. He said ‘I have a few ways to open up your mind – everything doesn’t have to come from the heart all the time’.  So I went over, and that’s how it began.”

Mundy sounds reinvigorated on this new album, something he credits to the man behind the desk.

“We were doing a session from 12 to 4pm and an hour before it would end Youth would say ‘have you got any lyrics yet? The muse doesn’t wait around, and he’s going to be gone at four, because I have another session coming in’.

“He’s very full-on and straight up. I like to understand what I’m trying to say and he’s like ‘no, no, you’ll get used to them. You don’t have to know what you’re trying to say. Give the songs a chance to breathe’. Just the kind of inspiration I needed.”

Mundy is in good voice too on this release, something he credits to both his lifestyle choices and his producer.

“I was minding myself, I wasn’t staying up late, smoking fags and getting drunk,” he says. “And Youth would say things like ‘sing it softer’, or ‘sing it in a higher register’. Shot In The Dark was quite a struggle to sing. But he said ‘push it to the max, don’t be afraid’. He brought out a little bit of youth in me!”

One of the songs that jumps out on the album is Glory Hole.  How did that one come about?

“Youth had been Googling me and Galway Girl came up, live at Oxegen, 12,000 or 13,000 people going nuts,” Mundy says, referring to his performance of Steve Earle’s song at Oxegen with musician Sharon Shannon. “He said ‘wow, did you write that song?’ I told him I wished I had done . He asked would I have liked to. Absolutely!

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.